Carlisle Library will close later this month for a £3.3 million revamp.
It aims to enhance and improve the existing library, which opened in April 1986, creating a learning and community hub and delivering modern facilities and services, said Cumberland Council.
It is being paid for by the Government’s Carlisle Town Deal.
Improvements to the library, which is on the first floor of the Lanes Shopping Centre, include:
- Structural work, rewiring, and infrastructure updates to accommodate new technology and facilities.
- A new children’s zone, social space, adult learning classrooms, study spaces, and The Jackson Collection.
Work will start in later February, but the library will close from the end of Saturday January 25 until the end of February.
At the end of next month, a temporary library, with reduced services, will reopen in part of the existing library, while construction work is ongoing.
Cumberland Council said that during February:
- Service points will be available at Library Links in Carlisle at Morton Manor Community Centre, Denton Holme Community Centre, Harraby Community Centre, Carlisle West, plus Longtown Library and Brampton Library where people will have access to PCs, book borrowing and WiFi.
- Requests can still be processed, and Cumberland Council’s digital library offer will remain available via the Borrowbox app.
- The Adult Learning service have relocated to the Civic Centre in Carlisle where normal services are available.
The Jackson Collection will be stored and unavailable until the completion of the project.
During this time, library members will still have free access to family history websites, including Ancestry and FindMyPast, including as census records from 1841 to 1921, as well as digitised images from Carlisle Library’s local history collection via Cumbria Imagebank, available online on library public computers.
For those seeking local history material, a wealth of resources – including original archives, books, maps, and photographs related to Carlisle and North Cumbria – can be accessed by appointment at the Carlisle Archive Centre.
For more details, please visit the website at www.cumberland.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/archives-centres-cumberland.
