Little Library set to make a big impression in Stirling

The City of Stirling has teamed up with Westfield Innaloo Shopping Centre to bring you its first pop up library and community history service.

The Little Library has taken up residence just near the entrance of Coles for the next five months and will be open for business from Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm.

The free pop-up service has something for everyone and offers a variety of services and activities throughout the week. These include a boutique library service, free book exchange, pre-school story time sessions, parents and bubs sessions, Lego Club, technology labs and Community History Corner with Mount Flora Regional Museum staff.

City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin said the Little Library was an innovative way to encourage the community to engage with City libraries.

“Shopping centres and libraries actually play very similar roles in our communities, by acting as community hubs,” he said.

“However the two often attract different customer bases, so this is a great way to promote our libraries and their services to a broader audience,”

“It’s also widely recognised that libraries co-located in shopping centres attract extra visitors to the shopping centre, so a partnership with Westfield made perfect sense.”

The City’s Manager Library Services, Viv Barton said the City was thrilled to be able to work with Westfield to bring the pop up library to life.

“The context of public libraries has been shifting for a while now and we’ve seen a big change in the way the community interacts with them,” she said.

“The same shift has been happening with shopping centres, as they start to extend beyond retail and become a place for people to socialise and connect,”

“It’s this synergy that inspired us to approach Westfield and we are very excited that they were able to come on board and very generously provide us with this space.”

Scentre Group WA Regional Manager Chris Barton said the launch of the Little Library Space offered Westfield Innaloo shoppers an opportunity to be part of a unique community experience.

“Our customers and local Stirling residents will not only be able to access convenient pop-up library facilities, but have a space to gather, learn and share,” Mr Barton said.

“We’ve had incredible feedback since opening the space and it is great seeing so many people from the community using the facility.”

The Little Library is open now and will be operating until the end of September 2018.