Fremantle Library is back

Following the state government’s highly-anticipated announcement on Western Australia’s roadmap to easing COVID-19 restrictions, we’ve been busy working on a safe way to reopen our community’s much-loved library.

Fremantle Library will open its doors on Monday 18 May, but things will look a little different as we need to abide by the state government’s social distancing guidelines.

The library will be open from 10am–5pm Monday to Friday, 9am–1pm on Saturdays and 11am–3pm on Sundays; however a maximum of 20 customers will be allowed in the library at a time. Customer visits will be limited to one hour, and everyone must be mindful of social distancing at all times.

Access to our loans and returns services will run as normal, but to ensure the utmost levels of health and safety we will be quarantining all returned books for 24 hours before putting them back on the shelf.

Computer bookings are available for a maximum of 30 minutes per person, and our printing and photocopying services are also up and running. If customers need to make payments, we would appreciate them using ‘tap and go’ to help us operate in a contactless way.

We are also reopening the Fremantle History Centre from Monday 18 May, but the Justice of the Peace service, Wanjoo Lounge drop in space for over 55s, Freo Toy Library and The Meeting Place will remain closed at this time. Stay tuned for an update on these facilities and services reopening soon.

To ensure our elderly and vulnerable people (those still self-isolating at home due to the COVID-19 virus) are able to access library resources, we will continue operating our weekly housebound delivery service to library members residing in the City of Fremantle and Town of East Fremantle Local Government areas.

While the library was closed, we expanded the housebound service to twice-weekly deliveries and set up a contactless drive-through option at the Fremantle Recycling Centre for people to return borrowed books piling up at home.

We were delivering to around 70-80 people per week, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback for our efforts to support community wellbeing during this difficult time. Thank you to everyone who emailed us with their kind messages, we really appreciate it and look forward to welcoming you back to Fremantle Library!

For all Fremantle Library queries, email [email protected]. To join Fremantle Library, visit fremantle.wa.gov.au/fremantle-library-membership.