Lets Read Together!
The Dungog Street Library is full and ready to share in the Garden of the Community Centre
DSCC Development officer Karyn Marsh. Many thanks to the Dungog Chronicle for use of the image.
What is a Street Library?
Street Libraries are a beautiful home for books, planted in your community. They are accessible from the street, and are an invitation to share the joys of reading with your neighbours and community.
Books come and go; no one needs to check them in or out. People can simply reach in and take what interests them; when they are done, they can return them to the Street Library network, or pass them on to friends.
If anyone has a book or two that they think others would enjoy, they can just pop it into any Street Library they happen to be walking past.
Where is the Dungog Street Library?
The first Dungog Street Library is in the Community Centre Garden at;
- 103 Dowling Street, Dungog
The popular resource is accessible all day every day with people encouraged to take a book, return the same book or keep it and perhaps donate another book in its place.
“The concept is all part of the reduce, reuse and recycle idea where if you enjoy a story book, you love it and then share it along by donating it to the book box for someone else to read and love,’” said the centre’s manager Sarah U’Brien.
“We hope this is just the first of many Street Libraries across the shire. We chose to put it in the community garden as we are planting the seed and hope to see it grow”
The centre’s community Development officer Karyn Marsh said local libraries donated the books and the turnover has been steady since the box was installed with children keen to visit after school.
Karyn said the book box ties in well with the children’s early literacy program currently running with Books for Babies initiative and Doug the Reading Bug..
“If we read to a child at a very young age it encourages their imagination, develops their language and makes them interested in reading themselves,” she said.
Read more about the Street Library movement at https://streetlibrary.org.au/
Who is Doug, The Reading Bug?
Doug the Reading Bug at Dungog Show
Doug the Reading Bug is the mascot of the Born to Read project which encourages parents to read to children from birth.
He runs Children’s Story Time at libraries and schools across the shire: often as pyjama parties.
The early years brain research shows that a person’s learning pathways are established in the brain by the age of three.
The power of reading to children should never be underestimated. Reading and sharing stories with young children is vitally important in helping children develop life long skills for learning.
Doug's message is simple 10 minutes a day, talk, sing, play - share a book today.
Doug is available to visit your school, group or event, including Children’s Story Time. Contact the Dungog Shire Community Centre on 4992 1133.
