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Wednesday 8 May 2013

Forthcoming Wembley Library

We have been waiting ages for the new library in Wembley to open, which it is due to do on 17 June. I believe this will be the first purpose built library in Brent since the 1980s.  The new library is designed to vastly exceed the Town Hall library it replaces.  According to present plans, it will have:

* Greater floor space
* A capacity for 35,000 books on shelves and a "rolling stock" of about 60,000.
* Access to the London lending Consortium I.e about 6 million volumes.
* Eight fixed iPads in the children's area, and the possible loans of iPads within the Civic Centre.
* A much better physical layout.
* Co-location with many other Council services (as well as a cafe)
* Plenty of performance space
* 48 internet access points and almost 80 study spaces (a key concern during the 2011 consultation)
* Wifi connection and IT flexibility to meet new technological demands
* Wide access to all sorts of online resources including periodicals, reference and family history
* Brent's established RFID technology.

As well as all this, we may be able to get an enterprise zone in there (modelled I suspect on the successful Library Lab pilot), a number of social and educational activities including the existing homework clubs but also other things that people want to do, training courses and informal learning, as well as lots of activities for kiddies.  We are also aiming for a literature festival in the first two weeks, although I don't have details on that yet.

We really are doing our damnedest to turn Brent Library Service around after the decline of the past several years, and I often feel frustrated that message does not seem to get across.

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