Ivy, 11 years old
My family is a no tech family, and because we have no tech, all my four siblings and my parents love our books.
On my ride home from school on a normal lockdown-free week I would, every afternoon, stop by the library in Evans Head. Because I cannot do that any more I am becoming tremendously depressed about the library being shut and the lack of new books in our house. I only moved here a while ago and have few friends – I use books as a distraction from school, my failed tests and more.
Where are the rates we pay going if all the libraries in NSW are shut? What are all the librarians doing in the libraries if no one is borrowing books or returning them? The library in Evans Head has been ‘being renovated’ for the past six-and-a-half months, they moved a small number of books from the real library into the tourist information centre, to serve as a small and temporary library. Then, as soon as the renovated library was open to the public, we went straight into lockdown with hardly an hour’s notice, so that meant you only had a little time to get groceries, let alone books.
I don’t think it’s very fair how people can go to the bottleo to buy alcohol, and to the shop to buy cigarettes (that are so bad for you) and even to the bait and tackle shop to buy bait, when I can’t go to the library to borrow a book that exercises my brain. I don’t want or need to read my books off a phone, iPad or any technology.
Do you even think about those people who don’t have enough room or money for a device? The public computers at the library were, and are, a vital thing for many. Every time I went to borrow a book the computers were all occupied by people doing a wide range of things: from adults playing chess, to high schoolers typing assignments. Once or twice I had a go of those computers and was surprised at the quality of the machines for the amount of people that used them.
The opening of the libraries across New South Wales requires urgent action. To the people who read this I am encouraging you to express you feelings about the shutting of the NSW libraries.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
