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Libraries aren’t what they used to be. They’re even better.

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Goulburn Valley Libraries chief executive Felicity Macchion has introduced major changes during her 18 months in charge and has plans for many more. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Fitness fanatics aren’t the only ones getting access to their unstaffed paradises outside normal business hours with a security fob.

Those who prefer to spend their time in libraries can now exercise their brains after hours with the Open Library initiative Felicity Macchion has implemented in the Goulburn Valley.

In the same way lifting weights helps your body get stronger, scientists have been able to show how the brain also grows and gets stronger when you learn.

But libraries aren’t just about books and learning any more.

They’re about community and connection, refuge and practical solutions, among other things.

Ms Macchion is Goulburn Valley Libraries’ chief executive.

She lives and breathes libraries, having been in the industry for 30 years and with no plan to leave.

But she wouldn’t call herself a bookworm.

“I’m more of a people person,” Ms Macchion said.

“I love what we offer. It’s not just about books; it’s about everything else as well.”

The “everything else” she refers to is quite rightly bundled in that phrase, given the benefits of a library membership can’t be explained in one mouthful.

Yes, there are still books. Many, many books.

There is also story time, programs such as the one planned for next month’s Seniors Festival, craft and coffee days, movie afternoons, Lego club, free wi-fi, computers to use, a printing and copying service, whole book club sets to borrow and digital literacy education.

Members can even access some of Australia’s most popular magazines and movies for free.

“Our online magazine service called Libby gives you access to your Woman’s Day, Women’s Weekly, Men’s Health magazine, all the magazines that people pay eight, nine dollars a week for, you get them for free,” Mrs Macchion said.

“All our online audio books, ebooks, Kanopy for streaming movies, we pay a subscription each year and people pay on Amazon without realising they can get so much for free. We pay the subscription for that, so we want our community to use it.”

Many more initiatives, including a virtual reality experience, will be implemented in the near future and a little further down the track, too.

“Imagine you are in your 70s and you know you’ll never go back to your home town in, say, Germany. We can take you there, and you can walk down the street,” Mrs Macchion said.

“It (the VR) is so realistic.

“We had a staff day a couple of weeks ago and we had a play and went walking through the Colosseum; it’s just amazing.”

Ms Macchion has been chief executive of GV Libraries for 18 months.

She oversees around 50 staff and 11 libraries funded by three different councils (Greater Shepparton, Moira Shire and Strathbogie Shire), including Yarrawonga, Cobram, Nathalia, Numurkah, Violet Town, Euroa, Avenel, Nagambie, Mooroopna, Tatura and Shepparton.

There’s also a new van on the way to resume the now-retired library truck’s job of visiting schools and all the little towns around the Goulburn Valley that don’t have libraries.

Volunteers also run books to housebound members, stopping for a cuppa and a bit of social connection while they’re there.

Before moving with her husband to Shepparton, where her mum and sister were already living, Ms Macchion worked at Yarra Libraries for nine years, which covered libraries in Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy and Richmond.

Though she grew up in South Gippsland’s Yarram, she wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the Goulburn Valley, having spent time on her parents’ dairy farms in Waaia and Berrigan later on, before they retired in Yarrawonga.

While Ms Macchion was a manager with Yarra Libraries, she was selected to participate in a 30-month library leadership program sponsored by Bill Gates. She was one of only 26 managers selected worldwide, one of only two from Australia.

Over the following three years, she travelled to The Netherlands, Chile and South Africa to convene with other library managers from across the globe, take library tours, network with industry peers and discuss best practices.

Since she graduated from the program in 2016, she’s been to Denmark to present at an event and Dublin to accept an international marketing award, among other large-scale library feats.

“We did tours of libraries while we were on location and every library is so different,” Mrs Macchion said.

“The money that they have is so different, but they still do so much for their community no matter what the circumstances.

“Australia does great things with our libraries. It’s a hard one just getting people to realise what we do.”

Two and a half years ago, in Richmond, Ms Macchion launched Open Library.

This saw the library become accessible to members from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week, regardless of whether it was staffed during those times or not.

“You use your library card, you put your pin number in and you can use the library with no staff there, like a 24-hour gym really,” she said.

Now that she’s at the helm of GV Libraries, she’s rolling the initiative out here too.

Tatura and Numurkah libraries have already been converted and are accessible from 8am to 8pm, every day of the week. Violet Town and Mooroopna are next on the list. Following those, Shepparton and Avenel will be adapted, while a grant has already been secured to convert Cobram and Nathalia to open libraries after those.

With family life only getting busier, the windows of precious time to meet homework and work assignment deadlines are closing.

However, access to research resources isn’t the only saving grace of having libraries open outside regular hours.

“Some great stories have come out of it,” Mrs Macchion said.

“One of them was in Richmond, a mother experiencing family violence.

“On January 26, a public holiday, she saw that our libraries were open with no staff, so she rang up. We got her in and she was able to use the library with her kids in a safe space.

“When it’s really cold or stormy or really hot, it’s a refuge for some people, they can come in and use the library.

“People who can’t afford electricity and are working from home can come in and use our resources.

“We’re so much more than books.”

To access libraries outside staffed hours, members must complete an induction covering safety, exits and phone numbers to call.

“We have lanyards that you can wear if you feel unsafe in the library, and you can press that, and it alerts security immediately,” Mrs Macchion said.

She said there would be no reduction in staff or staff hours once all libraries were converted to the Open Library format.

Mrs Macchion revealed that a ‘library of things’ would soon be introduced to the offerings to help with sustainability and combat the costs to individuals by avoiding the need to purchase substantial items for single or minimal use.

The ‘things’ she has gathered include a telescope, engraving kits, a fairy floss machine and a popcorn maker.

“In coastal towns, they even hire out surfboards,” Mrs Macchion said.

She is now looking for ideas that would appeal to teenagers, such as offering board game nights on a Friday or something else for which there is demand.

“Not every kid loves sport,” she said.

Interestingly, GV Libraries will soon have a personal connection to one of the world’s most-loved board games.

If all the other things happening at its locations aren’t cause for enough excitement, prepare to see it featured on real estate in the forthcoming Shepparton edition of Monopoly early next year.

With such a smorgasbord of services inside its own community chest, it seems only fitting this Goulburn Valley institution is included.

To join or learn more about GV Libraries, visit the website: www.gvlibraries.com.au

To stay updated on programs and events at your local library, follow GV Libraries on social media.