Hobsons Bay City Council is a proud supporter of life long learning and is committed to providing learning opportunities to residents of all ages. A shining example of this is the $4.2 million Altona Meadows Library and Learning Centre, which was officially opened in February 2006.
Functioning as an integrated education, learning and community hub, the centre offers a range of activities for the whole community beyond the traditional library programs, such as multilingual story times for children, multilingual web and online genealogy classes, craft classes, pilates, yoga and meditation classes.
At 1,397 square metres in size, built over two floors on 1,100 square metres of land, the centre provides a larger collection of electronic and print resources, an Internet lounge, an up to date Information Technology training centre, several meeting rooms, the traditional quiet study areas associated with a place of learning, and dedicated areas for children and young adults’ activities.
Council has also established a Memorandum of Understanding with Victoria University to provide education and training programs to residents from the new centre, and staff members are working closely with local community centres and neighbourhood houses to develop specific programs and activities for the community.
Since opening, the centre has loaned and renewed more than 263,500 items, attracted more than 2,500 new members, clocked up almost 15,000 hours of internet time for the community and attracted over 175,000 visitors.
