By Tanya Steele
The Yarra Ranges ‘Flexi’ Vehicle service operating out of Upper Yarra is back on its regular route after disruptions due to Covid.
The mobile library service runs fortnightly to both Millgrove and Woori Yallock and allows residents to borrow from the library service without travelling too far from home.
Russell Forden is the service officer taking the library on the road and has been doing flexi deliveries to the people of Millgrove and Woori Yallock since the beginning of the year.
“They love it and joke that I am their personal librarian,” he said.
“We set up first stop with Second Bite program and then to Woori Yallock, I load up the van with trays of books and AV materials like audiobooks, DVDs and CDs.”
Mr Forden switched careers into library service from high school teaching and also delivered bread as a driver during Covid and said the van driving experience has been put to good use.
“Instead of delivering bread, I’m delivering books,” he said.
The delivery service is a great asset to the residents in the area and Mr Forden said he looks forward to the drive every fortnight.
“It’s really, really nice meeting the people and we always have great conversation, they all meet each other,” he said.
There are a few film buffs among the regular attendees and Mr Forden said the community that visits for his drive-by delivery sessions have amazing reserves of information.
“Everyone has amazing backstories and lives,” he said.
“We’ve [the library] got some obscure and hard to find films that they appreciate.”
Corporate Manager of Customer Experience Eastern Regional Libraries (ERL) Sarah Hopkins said the flexi service visits locations that aren’t near libraries throughout the region and enable the library to access people in different settings.
“It is there for anyone who wants to borrow and place requests, there are no libraries in these areas so this service offers a little taste,” she said.
Ms Hopkins said the library’s flexi service was solidly up and running before Covid but has only just begun again this year.
“The Flexi has been off road for nearly three years with Covid and it feels like we’re starting again from scratch,” she said.
“The service is great – it’s flexi by name and nature.”
Father Ray McDonald of Millgrove Baptist Church said the library service has been knocked about by Covid and had perhaps people had forgotten about it.
“The Flexi Library service operates next to our Second Bite food program so people can come and borrow books and have a meal or a cuppa,” he said.
“It has a real community feel to it, with people chatting to the librarian about the books.”
Ms Hopkins wants to encourage people to the library and said services are constantly evolving, one major difference being that patrons of the library will no longer receive fines for late returns.
“One thing that changed is the library is fine-free, so the people don’t need to worry about that, all those fines are gone,” she said.
Every second Friday the service at Millgrove Baptist Church from 10am to 11am where the Second Bite Program is running, then stops at the community house in Woori Yallock from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
