​Gotta Love Librarians

The rockpools by Daisy Miles

By Laura Brearley
 
TWO months ago, we installed the Coastal Connections Exhibition at the Wonthaggi Library. It features creative writing, images and messages from community members about the importance of our special blue and green places.

​Last week, the Exhibition was split into three parts, which are now on display at the West Gippsland Library Branches of Inverloch, Phillip Island and Wonthaggi.
 
Visitors to the Coastal Connections Exhibition are being invited to participate and share their own special places in the natural world. Their creative contributions are revealing the joy that we experience when we spend time in the natural world.  Here are some special places described by library visitors.
 
Daisy loves swimming in rockpools and Ipshita loves having adventures at Kilcunda Beach. ​

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​Ruby’s special place is the Wetlands. ‘There is nature and life there’, she writes.

Isabella loves the Big Tree at Townsends Bluff. 

​Who doesn’t? It’s a wonderful tree. We were up there over the Summer with our Mallacoota grandchildren. They were helping Terry with the Coastal Connections film about Inverloch, which includes local artist Jackie Moss talking about her special place. Like Isabella, she loves The Big Tree. The Inverloch film also features two other community members, Karen Bateman, whose special place is Screw Creek in Winter, and Dan Rosen, who loves the Inverloch Inlet.

​Karen and Dan are both librarians at the Wonthaggi Library. I have been spending a bit of time at our local libraries over the last two months, installing the Exhibition and then visiting regularly to check on the community’s creative contributions. I have seen the librarians in action. I have heard them welcoming visitors to the library by name, asking them about their families. I’ve watched as library visitors linger at the checkout desk, keen to share their stories and being listened to with warmth and respect. Sometimes the talk is of books and sometimes the conversation encompasses the whole of life. The level of care I have witnessed has been generous and genuine. I’ve come to see how vital these human interactions are for our community, particularly in COVID times.
 
The Coastal Connections Exhibition is almost finished now. It will come down in a couple of weeks, after the Coastal Connections Concert is over. And while I’m on that, I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of interest in the Concert and there are only a few tickets left. If you do want to come and be part of it, it would be good to book soon, so you don’t miss out.
 
What’s more, I know there will be some librarians there.
 
The Coastal Connections Concert is happening at 2pm on Saturday February 20 at the Wonthaggi Arts Centre. You can read more about it at
The Bass Coast Sound
and book tickets at Trybooking. 

Phillip Island Library branch manager
Jessica Berry

Inverloch Library branch manager Jo Bowles

Setting up at Wonthaggi Library, from left, branch manager Jon Dixon, Geoff Ellis,
Laura Brearley and Terry Malvin