OUR VISION
The Community Library Samford will operate a community library and social hub offering an open, safe, welcoming and stimulating environment to all the people of Samford and the surrounding districts.
The Community Library Samford aims to:
- Provide a collection of materials that meets or exceeds the expectations of the community, based wholly on donations.
- Offer a dynamic and responsive library and information service embracing the unique cultures, recreational needs and heritage of the region.
- Provide volunteer staff who are knowledgeable and courteous, offering friendly service to users of all ages.
- Provide a welcoming, safe, supportive, stimulating environment for all users and volunteers.
- Develop enrichment activities for all ages promoting the arts and the sciences.
- Promote the library and its services to the community through print and media platforms.
- Facilitate active partnerships between community groups and community members and the library.
- Enrich lives through volunteer involvement and participation.
- Support charitable groups through donations to promote literacy.
This year our library has:
- Packed all our resources and moved from our temporary premises at the old CSIRO site at 2204 Mt Samson Road, Samford Valley to make way for the demolition of the buildings before the erection of a new community hub. Started moving out of the Blue Building and our cream storage building on May 16, 2019. It took about a fortnight.
- Negotiated to find another home for the library started in late April. 17 places were approached and investigated. Despite ads in every media source locally available, for over a month it appeared we would be homeless.
- Stored our resources in the sheds of Jeanette Carroll and Jenny Harris who kindly allowed us usage until premises were found for us to relocate to. Without their kindness we may have had to disband.
- Applied for and received grant from Samford and District Progress and Protection Association for the purchase of double-wall book boxes.
- Received notification on May 28 from Kay Speer from MBRC that the library could be safely relocated to the old Samford Rangers clubhouse in Harold Brown Park, Wights Mountain after agreement by the management committee of the Samford Rangers Football Club. Apart from Kay, Cr Darren Grimwade, Bob Millar, Alma Wallace (mother of the current Rangers president, Nick Wallace), and Nick himself, advocated strongly for us to have the space.
- Finalised arrangements for our new partnership with Samford Rangers over the next month and took about seven weeks to move and re-establish our library. Thanks to the massive effort of moving approximately 200 book boxes and the shelves by Linda Murray, and the dedication of our amazing library crew, the library is beautifully set up.
- Changed our by-laws so adults who join the library are members with full voting rights. Each family membership is entitled to a single vote. All voters must be over 18.
- Established a functioning library staffed wholly by volunteers at Samford Rangers, opening from 1.00 pm to 4.30pm on Wednesdays and from 9.00 am to 3.00pm on Saturdays. The library opened officially at its new location at Samford Rangers’ Football Field, Harold Brown Park, 23 Richards Road, Wights Mountain on August 31, 2019.
- Gained status as an organization registered for approval to have volunteer workers on Newstart from Centrelink.
- Continued collecting books, CDs, DVDs, games, and furniture, including shelves, from the community and supportive organisations all over Brisbane.
- Sorted and labelled thousands of resources – thanks to Chris Chmiel, Ray Vuillermin, Evelyn Williames, Breagh Gregory, Richard Carroll, Glenys Watson-Alexander and Linda Murray in particular, who with other library volunteers have worked hard to bring our resources into order.
- Redirected or sold double copies and multiple copies of books to other charities, while out of date or damaged books and those not relevant to reader’s needs are repurposed or mulched for erosion control.
- Re-established and expanded a range of activities and programs to promote the arts and a sense of community. These activities include The Yarn Crowd organised by Fiona Taylor and Helen Hughes, Samford and Surrounds Boomerang Bags with Fiona Taylor, Lucie’s Repair Café with Lucie Verhelst, Samford Writers’ Group chaired by Pam Cranny, and Helen’s Basic Sewing with Helen Hughes.
- Participated in the planning of the Samford Community Hub with MBRC, Samford Support Network, Meals on Wheels, and Samford RSL.
- The membership register shows 22 financial members. We have 17 volunteers on the register.
- Had 672 visitors/borrowers since the last AGM in 2018 until moving day on May 16. Many were return borrowers. These included children and spouses of family members who borrow from the library, in our card register of library users. Our yearly fees are $15 family, $10 individual and $5 Concession / Student.
- Continued developing a vibrant website thanks to Tony Cole and Richard Carroll. The website contains information about the library: essays, stories, poetry and drabbles from local writers of all ages; and events notifications.
- Continued developing our Facebook page which had 355 subscribers on September 6. Many others follow us through postings on other community Facebook pages. Library posts now qualify as “Conversation Starters” on Facebook.
None of this would have been possible without a wonderful, resilient, persistent, motivated team of members and volunteers. Thank you to all the dedicated, very talented workers who pulled the second stage of library together:
Linda Murray, Wendy Sonnenburg, Tony Cole, Chris Chmiel, Deon Cloete, Richard Carroll, Evelyn Williames, Linda Harvey, Angela Galvin, Fiona Taylor, Kristina Challand, Helen Hughes, Julie Roy, Ray Vuillermin, Carleton Chinner, Barbara Kienast, Janelle Byrne, Colin Chapman, Jay Williams, The Marist 180 Crew and Megan Smith-Roberts, Lions’ Alice Cunningham, John Atkinson, Alan Sonnenburg, Cecilia Sonnenburg, Carol Neal, Frankie Catt, Josephine Theos, Glenys Watson-Alexander, Marion Fulcher, Mary Anne Morgan, Susanne Pearson and here son, Bruce the jazz man and the ladies of The Yarn Crowd. I apologise to anyone I missed.
Special thanks go to Jenny Harris and Jeanette Carroll who saved us from extinction by letting us use their sheds for storage and to Samford Rangers Football Club and Kay Speer who made it possible for us to share the Rangers old clubhouse.
Patrick Vuillermin used his incredible talents to produce a fantastic author-focused video of local sci-fi writer Carelton Chinner to complement a writer’s workshop.
Behind the workers was an extraordinary management team who worked very hard to make sure the library survived. Thank you for your dedication.
- Secretary Wendy Sonnenburg, who was challenged by major, incapacitating surgery this year, used her extraordinary knowledge of the minutiae of not-for-profit group administration to continue to make our organisation more efficient.
- Treasurer Chris Chmiel guided our association through many financial and book swamp challenges. When Chris resigned, Deon Cloete, man of financial wizardry and handyman skills, ably took over.
- Webmasters Tony Cole and Richard Carroll created a vibrant, informative website which supports readers and writers, as well as keeping information on library developments and activities up to date.
To become a social hub of the community we have established and participated in a wide range of programs and activities. These include:
- The Yarn Crowd, organised by our dynamic philosopher Fiona Taylor, is an independent group operating every Wednesday afternoon at 2pm where folk knit, sew, crochet, weave, draw, talk, laugh and solve the problems of the world. This group has contributed to the Lions drive for warm beanies to send to women’s refuges and for drought relief in western Queensland.
- Helen’s Basic Sewing run by Helen Hughes is a free teaching workshop on the first Saturday of the month to teach folk of all ages basic skills. It makes “boomer” bags for wildlife carers out of donated, recycled materials.
- Lucie’s Repair Café run by talented Lucie Verhelst teaches people to mend, repurpose or restyle pre-loved clothes. It is a free session open to everybody that runs from 10 to noon on the first Saturday of the month.
- Digital Drop-in with Dr Elizabeth Heck helps folk to use their phones and devices effectively. On the third Saturday of every month folk are invited to bring their social media problems to Elizabeth.
- Samford and Surrounds Boomerang Bags, organised by Fiona Taylor, makes beautiful shopping bags out of recycled or donated materials to replace plastic bags. This project started on September 17, 2018. The group is independent, formed to promote sustainability through recycling material scraps, and to encourage community spirit.
- Samford Writers’ Group, an independent group operating under the auspices of the library, helps hone the skills of local writers. It is chaired by Pam Cranny.
- Teen Writers Unite— a program to encourage young writers—is on the third Saturday of each month. Tied to this is a dedicated section of the Community Library’s web site, which offers young writers opportunities to publish their work. Tony Cole and Richard Carroll, webmasters extraordinaire, organise
- Story and Rhyme Time with talented early childhood educator, Marion Fulcher, and occasionally with retired teacher-librarian, Julie Martin, happened weekly at 10.30am. Sometimes Marion worked with the children under a huge old tree at the old site, sometimes the story time is in the library. The stories were aimed at toddlers to preschoolers. In the new temporary home, Story time will happen at 3.30pm on Wednesday and 11.00 am on Saturday.
- A monthly Box Library Service for the elderly, the isolated and the incapacitated with Dayboro Conversation Club, the social equivalent of Samford Support Network. The amazing Di Moes organised this, though it changed organisers when Di got other work.
- A monthly Box Library for Jabiru After School Hours Care at Mt Samson to encourage children to read…also in the process of changing hands.
The Community Library Samford has helped charities such as:
- The Samford Lions who sought children’s books, activity books and toys from the library and 6 knitted beanies from the Yarn Crowd to help those affected by domestic homelessness and drought and to provide support packs to place in local police stations for victims of domestic violence. This is on-going, though this year production was hampered by our move.
- The Vanuatu Project through the Community Church Samford, ongoing, provides texts and children’s books for disadvantaged schools in Vanuatu. During our move the boxes we had packed for them were plundered by scavengers.
- The Keperra Baptist Church books for sale to provide funding for youth services.
- Books for schools in Papua New Guinea through Marist 180.
Fundraising has become a necessary part of the library’s functioning to cover operating costs such as insurances and to enhance our Building and Establishment Fund for our future permanent library space in a community building
- Held a successful Book Sale of double copies and excess stock on March 9 and 10. Over two days , the team slaved. Our thanks go to Evelyn Williames, Fiona Taylor, Janelle Byrne, Chris Chmiel, Wendy Sonnenburg, Julie Martin, Linda Harvey, Linda Murray, Tony Cole, and Dorothy Penning.
- The Bunnings Sausage Sizzle at Keperra would never have happened without the amazing support from our community. Thanks to Alan Sonnenburg, Wendy Sonnenburg, Chris Chmiel,Gail Harvey, Evelyn Williames, Julie Martin, Angela Galvin, Richard Carroll, we made a substantial amount of money.
- The Poo Pile, run by Linda Murray, donated funds to benefit the Community Library Samford. Linda’s huge contribution to our library’s future home is much appreciated.
- Samford and Surrounds Boomerang Bags give their “excess” money to the library after they have paid for machine maintenance and new equipment. Our thanks go to Fiona Taylor, Helen Hughes and their team.
- Subscriptions to become Friends/Members of the library
Raising public awareness is an on-going challenge for our library. We are slowly developing a reasonable platform.
- binderskeepers.com.au is administered by our fantastic webmasters Tony Cole and Richard Caroll. It not only provides information on the library’s operation, but also keeps an up to date inventory of library activities and events, encourages public discussion of books, and provides opportunities for writers young and old to publish their works on a public forum.
- Each fortnight the president submits articles to The Village Pump.
- The Community Library Samford Facebook page now has 355 members. Its eagle-eyed administrators are Linda Murray and the admin team.
- Regular postings of library news and events are made on Dayboro, The Gap, Albany Creek, the two Samford community Facebook pages, and two Buy and Sell pages
- The Samford Little Libraries Literary Trail has not developed markedly but is still encouraged by a library display and on the website.
Promotion of local and other Australian writers is a prime objective of Community Library Samford.
- Vicki Bennett, writer of self-help, children’s and YA books. ran a workshop on creative journaling on 22 September.
- Liz Harfull, CWA judge, food historian journalist and writer presented a talk on the history of Australian fundraising cookbooks on 26 October. This was accompanied by a morning tea made historical recipes like the Hinkler Cake from her cookbook, Tried, Tested And True.
- Janet Reid, local children’s author, ran a workshop and activity morning for children on January 24.
- Carleton Chinner, local sci-fi author, ran a very successful workshop on plot structure on 29 November.
The Community Library Samford has reduced waste through:
- Recycling suitable damaged or out-dated books and magazines into mulch to control erosion. Linda Murray works hard on this aspect and has had positive results.
- Repurposing out-dated books, copied CDs, spare CD and DVD cases through art and craft activities and workshops. Wendy Sonnenburg, fibre artist, has taught many to fold out-dated books into creative shapes as well as producing journals, jewellery and stunning papercraft from books and magazines unable to be included in the collection.
Our heartfelt thanks go to these wonderful people and organisations who have given generously to help our library grow:
- Samford Rangers Football Club for partnering with us and allowing us to use their old clubhouse at Richards Road.
- Samford and District Progress and Protection Association for their generous grant for purpose built boxes for moving books.
- Jenny Harris for allowing us to use her shed for storage.
- Jeanette Carroll for allowing us to store books and other paraphernalia.
- Judy Wolmsey and Bray Park High School for more shelving, trolleys and file organisers.
- Linda Murray of The Poo Pile for large library banners on recycled marque sides.
- Jake Cole for website host payment.
- Wendy Sonnenburg for our coffee percolator.
- Marion Fulcher, extraordinary storyteller, who weekly encouraged our young friends to love literature.
- Julie Martin for tea, coffee and community cake.
- Linda Harvey for tea towels and cleaning materials.
- Jill Lincoln and Fay Jennings who sold our Boomerang Bags on their stall at the Millen Farm Markets.
- Hillbrook Anglican School for books, especially the superb collection of classics.
- Tony Cole and Deon Cloete for handyman work to light our way and make us secure.
- Janelle Byrne, Wendy Sonnenburg and the lovely lady on the free FB site who gave us gorgeous rugs for our children’s section and relaxation corner.
- The people of the local community and surrounding districts for books, DVDs. CDs and a plethora of other amazing things.
- The horse property owners who donate poo for The Poo Pile, the land owners who supply empty feed bags to bag it because donations from it help us.
The Community Library Samford has been fortunate to have many strong and valuable supporters to whom we owe our thanks:
- Cr Darren Grimwade who has backed our community library/social hub space since its inception.
- Dr Elizabeth Heck who gives her time to help others come to terms with the complexities of digital devices.
- Lucie Verhelst, President of Creative Samford, for running her Repair Café so folk can learn to mend and re-design clothes.
- Helen Hughes who runs Helen’s Basic Sewing and who is our catering queen.
- Millen Farm and Arran Heideman who provided fresh produce for events and helping hands when needed.
- Marist 180 who have created furniture and helped us move furniture and books whenever we ask.
- Lions Samford through Alice Cunningham, Coral Hallinan and Brian Hallinan,who provided help with the Bunnings Sizzle, moving and craft materials for beanies.
- John Hudson and the Samford Chamber of Commerce who willingly lend us their data projector for workshops.
Objectives for next 12-24 months
- Work towards The Samford Community Hub to house the library and other local service organisations and to cater for activities, meetings and workshops as requested or needed by the community.
- Develop a financial strategy so that we can meet the costs of occupation of the new community hub.
- Initiate grant applications and seek philanthropic donations for a multi-purpose community building with dedicated library space.
- Prepare as best we can for the eventuality of moving to the Samford Community Hub’s permanent community library space.
- Strengthen ties with other service and community organisations such as The Samford Rangers Football Club, Samford Support Network, Creative Samford, The Eco Corridor Group and Samford Lions, to build community spirit.
- Instigate public debates on topical issues related to science and the arts.
- Continue to support writers, particularly local writers and young writers, through providing opportunities to develop writing skills and to launch local authors’ books.
- Continue contributions to charitable organisations to assist those in need.
- Start a collection of handy objects for the “Library of Things”.
Main challenges
- To develop a financial strategy so the library can meet the costs of moving into the hub space, and its rental and maintenance.
- To collect, arrange, preserve and provide access to a comprehensive collection of resources, including specialist reference resources and books which will never be printed again but which reflect the history of print and story.
- To operate a multi-use, multi-space community library and library of things with a minimal budget and a wholly volunteer workforce.
- To provide ongoing workshops, activities, discussions, debates and speakers to meet community needs.
- To change people’s perceptions about what a library is and can be.
- To maximize use of recycled resources to create the multi-purpose library building, appropriate furniture for the library and its satellites, the Little Libraries and the Dayboro Conversation Club Box Library, using government funding, donations in kind, and of time, and philanthropic support.
- To establish and maintain links with Moreton Bay Regional Council Library Service, the State Library of Queensland, and organizations such as Queensland Writers’ Centre, Brisbane Writers’ Festival, May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust and Children’s Book Council Australia.
- To support small local groups such as book clubs, writers’ groups, debating groups, music groups, camera clubs, and other special interest groups.
- To establish a comfortable, relaxed, welcoming environment for both users and voluntary staff.
Julie Martin (President of Community Library Samford 2018/9)
