The Footpath Library
JA
August 28
Thanks to Zoe Dattner from SPUNC and Martin Hughes from Affirm Press for spreading the word about this – the Footpath Library is a great little project by Sarah Garnett, which, as the name suggests, operates as a kind of street library for the city’s homeless.
It began in 2003 when Garnett decided to begin volunteering after the death of a close friend: ‘I was working as a volunteer for Just Enough Faith a couple of nights a month when… I noticed a homeless man reading under a streetlight. We started chatting and I discovered that Joe read up to four books a week. I asked him where he got his books from and he said rubbish bins, bus stops, wherever people left them lying around.’ Garnett then started bringing a few books of her own for Joe, and then for others, and the Footpath Library evolved from there.
Now, not only do they have weekly libraries around the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, but also in over 18 urban hostels. Garnett hopes to have libraries in every capital city in Australia within the next few years, and expand the project’s focus to provide reading glasses and eco-friendly library bags.
This from one of the library’s regulars pretty much sums it up: ‘For those of us living in crappy little rooms, on the streets, isolated in public housing flats or in cars, it’s the fact that there’s other people around to talk and gossip with, and to be treated with a bit of dignity. They’re big things. And then at the end of the night, to go back to wherever you’re sleeping and have something to read; to forget about your worries before drifting off to sleep is wonderful.’
The Footpath Library is looking for quality second-hand or new books, as well as bookshelves and cash donations. You can find out more, or volunteer to help out, on the website.
Image courtesy of the Benjamin Andrews Footpath Library
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre
Comments
28 Aug 09 at 11:09
I really like the idea of this. Not only is it providing a service for the homeless, but it's also dispelling the myth that all homeless are uneducated. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be going through my books tonight and setting some aside.
...28 Aug 09 at 13:24
Fantastic! such a shame i brought a pile of books to my local 2nd hand store a couple of weeks ago. will definitely keep them for Footpath from now on. Where do i sign up?
...28 Aug 09 at 14:08
Exactly, this is such a great way to pass on your books. Donations can be made here (click on 'Book Donations'): http://www.footpathlibrary.org/donations.html
...