At the recent Policy Committee meeting, councillor Jess Jennings raised the idea of introducing the Street Library concept to the city for the benefit of all community members. 

A street library is a large box located in a public space that contains books, with people encouraged to take a book and leave a different title in its place. 

Street libraries can be found in numerous countries and have been introduced in some parts of Australia already.

“There is 35,000 of them on the streets in the United States, there’s 151 of them in Sydney, there is one at Cowra, one at Mudgee, one just west of Dunedoo and there is four in the Blue Mountains,” Cr Jennings said. 

“There is obviously some viability attached to that and some community good will and I’d like to see something like that trialed if possible and initiated by Bathurst council.”

He said the provision of a Street Library would make books more accessible to people who may otherwise not be able to get them.

Cr Jennings said council didn’t necessarily have to run the program permanently, as normally residents volunteer to have one out the front of their house, but it could trial it to see if there was community interest in a Street Library for Bathurst. 

People can visit the Street Library website to find out more about the concept or see where the nearest libraries are.