Local residents are encouraging community members to build more small libraries.
A group of Healesville book lovers pulled together to establish a small shelter at the corner of Harker Street and Ryrie Street.
Healesville resident Jim Bridges said the journey started when a local cartoonist, Danny Zemp, found an abandoned bookshelf during the hard rubbish collection period, earlier this year.
“We went and picked it up, and then Alex put a roof on it, then I painted it yellow because you can see it’s on the corner but also because after van Gogh’s The Yellow House, and then we put books in it,” he said.
“People take the books out and they put other books in. Someone left a box of perfume (the other day).”
Alongside the bookshelf, they added a blue bench so that people could sit while reading a book.
“Because I’ve got a heart problem, I get out of breath, just walking up that little hill there,” Mr Bridges said.
“So I had this idea of putting a chair here, and then Alex painted the chair.
“There’s a woman who has a studio on top of the garage. She added a quote ‘A book is a passport to anywhere’ on the chair.”
The library is open for the public 24/7 to borrow, donate or take a rest.
Mr Bridges said he’d seen the small libraries at different places where he could take the idea of setting up one in Healesville.
“For instance, in Yarra Glen, a new bookshop opened up. It’s got new books and second-hand books at the back. They have one of these in the front for the books that they don’t sell and that you can get for free,” the Healesville resident said.
“There’s one outside of a chemist in Diamond Creek in the shopping centre.
“In London, because everybody’s got (a mobile phone), they decided to turn all the telephone boxes into little libraries instead of taking them away because it’s going to cost so much money, and they put little shelves in them so you can go in there and get little books.”
The Healesville resident has spotted five more small libraries across the town but he’d like to encourage community members to build more in the town.
