Broome promotes ‘library without walls’

About 800 books could be given away at Cable Beach until September as part of the Broome Public Library’s Library and Information Week “Beach Books” event.

BPL celebrated the launch of Broome Beach Books by giving away a selection of books just perfect for reading by the ocean at Cable Beach starting on Wednesday, May 25 and continuing each Wednesday until September 28.

BPL clerk Xavier Dhalluin, who manned the beach stall for the first week, said there would always be a good selection to choose from and the project represented an opportunity for Broome’s travellers.

“It’s a good way of making sure these books get read, we expect them to travel and disseminate through the State — the whole point is for people to read the books, pass them on and they then get a full life,” he said.

“We try to have a random selection, it’s all good quality stock that has been donated — we don’t want to send them off to Perth or bin them so we come down once a week and hand out some of the more popular books to make sure they keep getting read.”

Shire of Broome library co-ordinator Sally Eaton said the information week and Beach Books project would help raise the profile of libraries and information service professionals in Australia.

“There are no due dates or fines — it’s like a library without walls, so if you were hesitant to take our regular library books to the beach, why not grab one of our special beach books and enjoy them anywhere?,” she said.