Thanks to Hobsons Bay Libraries, a little reflection of mine is part of a booklet celebrating the importance of libraries.
Turning the Page, Our Library Story quotes 70 local residents, from a six year old girl to a yoga teacher to authors and musicians to community elders.
My contribution begins:
Writing can be a solitary pursuit. Mostly I write from home, in my study, but every now and then I need the silent camaraderie of being in a library, amongst those kindred souls who appreciate words and books and ideas – and stillness…They all respect that a library is both a private place and a communal space.
The booklet is available from all Hobsons Bay Libraries and is also the basis of a touring exhibition – I never thought I’d see my words on display in a badminton centre or at golf club or in a sea scouts hall. Or in a shopping centre!
Vin Maskell 
Hi Vin, Congratulations (and welcome back). The little slice of your writing reminded me of when I was trudging through the creation of my thesis. Like you said, sometimes writing at home was fine. But sometimes I had to wander up to the VU library, in Nicholson Street, ten minutes walk from my house. It imposed a different discipline on me, one where I couldn’t be drawn to a spot of procastinatory housework or to count the (ever diminishing) numbers of Mint Slices in the freezer. The library offered a physical and temporal boundary that allowed me to lose myself in my study. There were times, however, when the VU library couldn’t cut it, for some reason. Then I go the extra miles to the majestic State Library in the CBD. It offered an atmosphere of learned history. Truly great writers have sat under the big dome and created magic. Inspiration was in the walls. I’d always get wonderfully lost in ideas. It was an excursion that never failed to add to that monster of a document. As I mentioned recently, I have some Stereo Stories for you. I’ll polish them and shoot them through as I complete them. Cheers Stephen.
>