The City of Ryde has been working with the community to share books and activate spaces through the installation of Street Libraries in the public domain.
Council’s City Activation team are leading the project, which works with community groups to design and paint the libraries following a simple format.
1. A suitable location for the street library is identified. It is normally in one of our town or neighbourhood centres.
2. A suitable custodian of the street library is secured. The custodian is typically a business that is located adjacent to the library.
3. A local community group is identified and approached to design and paint a library.
4. Council provides the community group with a library and all the paints they need to make the library beautiful.
5. Council installs the library and works with the custodian to ensure it is well looked after.
6. The whole community enjoy all the benefits that street libraries offer.
Each Street Library is its own work of art!
Council’s first Street Library was installed at Boronia Park in 2016. This library was designed and painted by children at Boronia Park After Care Centre and the custodian is Boronia Park Framing. This Street Library has been highly successful at activating the once bare space, and the community love the fact that a good read is never far away.
The City of Ryde now have at least 20 registered street libraries. These libraries are a mix of Council managed Street Libraries, privately installed street libraries, as well as street libraries offered to the community via the Council Grant Program offered by Street Library Australia.
