Our lovely little library in the old Blue Building on the old CSIRO site at Samford Commons is closed. We have had the enormous pleasure of sharing this quirky little hut with the most delightful people who have bent over backwards to be of help and who have come to share our amazing collection. I guess this funny little place is/was the forerunner of the community hub. It became a centre where people gathered to share skills, read, have a cuppa, talk, learn, do craft, help those in need. Our hard working library crew were/are very privileged to be part of that. Very shortly work will begin on site preparation for the much-needed new Samford Community Hub which will provide a home for many of our service organisations. The building site will not be publicly accessible. Many of the buildings on site will be demolished. The Blue Building and our storage hut (the secret library) are two of those. There are those who will protest but it would cost three arms and two legs to refurbish them to current building requirements, according to the engineering reports. The iconic glasshouses, though they need squillions to do up, will stay.
Moving a library and trying to keep things sorted is no easy task. The enormity of the job and the paucity of our time to achieve it hit home this week as we faced the massive problem of storage of all the wonderful books, jigsaws, CDs, DVDs and furniture you have so kindly donated. We have to be completely out of the Blue Building and our storage space by May 31. Of course, as is the general way of things when pushed to the limit, things go awry. Two of our fabulous crew have to have serious surgery, one has a fractured leg (we wish them speedy recovery), and three have family holidays overseas booked. It seems we will have to close until the Community Hub is built as, in spite of a desperate search for an affordable space to operate, there is nothing we can find in Samford Valley. We were given a glorious ray of hope when kindly Nettie Carroll of Samford Support Network offered us her shed to store our resources and generous Jenny of Cedar Creek offered space to store furniture. These offers came when we were at our lowest and most desperate so we haven’t given up hope of a miracle space suddenly being offered so we can continue providing a safe, friendly place where folk can do what they want, have a cuppa and a chat, as well as borrow books. Whatever the outcome, the fantastic groups who have met in our funky little library will continue to operate. Watch our Facebook page and our website for details as well as the next hopefully exciting development in our library saga.
