The refurbished Burnley Central Library offers the best service to borrowers.
Library users in Burnley will be able to enjoy some of the best library facilities in the country now that the new look Burnley Central Library has opened its doors. The Grimshaw Street library, originally opened in 1930, has been refurbished by Lancashire County Council at a cost of £1.6m. The priority has been to bring the library up to date but retain as much of the original building as possible. The maximum amount of space has been provided for each department and a meeting room also kept for local organisations. The Lancashire County Library Service commissioned artists to enhance the major refurbishment which include a sculptural relief on the stone entrance ramp, railings and the decoration scheme for the children's library. Fiona Bowley from Earby, Pendle worked on the wall of the ramp which features a narrative history of Burnley. Sheila and Ron Carter of Trapp Forge, Simonstone designed and produced a series of railing panels based on the rich textile history of Burnley. The artist David Swift, nationally known for his quality craft work, designed an overall decoration scheme for the children's library. The scheme includes a series of mobiles modelled on real and mythical animals and figures, a series of murals for the walls depicting vegetation and architecture from around the world and kinderboxes in the forms of animals in which children can sit. The library's key improvements include in addition to redecoration, new counters and shelving in the children's and music departments. In the children's area there will be a wet play area, new stock and an exciting atmosphere created by one of the commissioned artists. Special care has been taken to provide access for disabled users with a ramp erected at the front of the building and a lift to all floors and toilets on the lower ground floor. There is also a chair lift in the children's department. The Sensory Impaired Unit is based on the ground floor where there is a Kurtzweil reading machine for the blind which converts printed text into synthesized speech and reads out loud most types of printed material. An attached computer edits and converts this matter into Braille or on to audio cassette. This service has helped many individuals, including a blind student with his law degree and a woodturner who lost his sight but who keeps up to date with his craft, thanks to the available technology. County Coun. Tom Sharratt chairman of the Library, Museum and Arts Committee said, "The lending department on the ground floor offers exciting improvements for the majority of customers. In an effort to blend the old and new much of the original panelling and shelving has been retained and restored. "
In the reference and local studies section, library staff have entered the huge card census index, over 100,000 entries, on to computer enabling researchers to locate families living in Burnley between 1841 and 1891. This has already benefited people, locally, nationally and internationally who have either written to, or visited the library in search of their family history. Another part of the investment in information technology is the installation of public terminals in each department at the library which will give customers access to the huge database of books and recorded sound currently listed on the Lancashire Information Network (Linnet) in more than 100 of Lancashire's libraries. Members of the public will be able to check for themselves where a book is located and whether it is available in any library from Burnley to Blackpool.