At a council meeting on Tuesday, all seven councillors voted in favour of pop-up libraries, deposit stations and little libraries in towns affected by the stop to the Riverina Regional Library.

A trial to see the benefit of pop-up libraries will begin next Thursday in Tangambalanga at the Lions Club and Cr Peter Croucher said computers would also be part of the library for people to use.

“We need some sort of a service,” he said.

The council also plans to extend the hours of Chiltern library from nine hours a week to 19 so there is more opportunity for people to visit from surrounding towns like Barnawartha and Middle Indigo.

Cr Croucher said after the Riverina Regional Library was decommissioned last month there were towns in the shire “left in the cold”.

“There’s a lot of people who still use those services,” he said.

“It devastated our area when the mobile library stopped going but I’m confident now once people see the new set up they’ll be quite happy.

“The Lions Club in Tangambalanga is a nice little community place where we can pop the kettle on and have something a bit extra.”

Council said the end of the mobile library service was a great opportunity to change the way outreach library services were delivered in Indigo Shire.

A pop-up library and deposit station will also be trialled at JoyBus Cafe in Barnawartha during the times the mobile service would have visited the town.

Indigo Shire mayor Bernard Gaffney said the council was aware of the need for libraries and the new services were expected to cost $36,500, and save the shire up to $15,000 a year.

“Libraries are very important to rural communities and the shire will be endeavouring to give the community the best possible library service that we can,” he said.

Community surveys influenced the new library plans.