Opening date announced for Nottingham's new city library
Nottingham City COuncil have confirmed the opening day of the new Central lirbary.
A series of delays he new and improved facility will open in its new Broadmarsh home on the 28th November.
What does the new site look like?
The new library spans a ground floor, first floor and second floor in a section of the wider Broadmarsh Car Park and Bus Station building.
Featuring striped book shelves in a nod to designer Paul Smith and an interactive cinema room that can take children on a journey below the waves, it is hoped the facility will become a “central hub” for communities across the city.
Events lead for the city's library services, Georgia Wilding said: “We are really trying to be a central hub for as much of the Nottingham creative scene as we can.”
“So we are looking at poetry evenings, looking at live bands, author readings, hopefully improv-shows, plays, we are really trying to open the doors to as many people as possible.”
While the views out of a series of large glass windows are tainted by the half-demolished Broadmarsh Centre, they allow natural light to flood into the building.
There are dozens of private booths, conference rooms and a ‘quick print’ area for those in need of a printer.
Laura Iremonger, partnerships team leader who looks after the books, says if all the volumes available were lined up spine-to-spine they would span a distance of 2km (1.25 miles)
“The location of this building is fantastic,” she said.
“We are just over the road from Nottingham College, we’ve got NTU just up the road, so we really are ideally-sited for young people to come and use the library.
Long delays to the project
Nottingham has been without a library since the old library on Angel Row permanently closed its doors amid the Covid pandemic in March 2020.
Thousands of books have been sitting in storage ever since, racking up costs of £205,000 to move the initial stock and a further £24,000 to keep them safe, while the new library was built.
Councillor Pavlos Kotsonis (Lab), who is leading the opening of the new building, says a central library is ‘key’ for any city.
Three other local libraries in the city faced closure before a campaign helped save them.
Cllr Kotsonis added: “I’m a big believer of public libraries.
“The campaign to save the libraries was a big one and we did take the decision to protect them.
“There was a lot of work done to achieve that so I am really proud of that outcome."