30 March 2007
Barbican Library celebrates 25th birthday
To celebrate 25 years of serving the public, the Barbican
Library is holding a birthday bash on Monday 16 April 2007.
Television actor Kenneth Cranham will officially open the event,
and will highlight the importance of libraries in society and what
attracts him to the Barbican Library. He will be joined by Steven
Quilter, Chairman of the City of London’s Libraries, Archives and
Guildhall Art Gallery Committee.
The reception will showcase the services on offer from the
library – including its world-class music collection, free internet
access, extensive children’s library, video and DVD library and
regular literature events and reading groups which take place at
the site in the heart of the Square Mile.
The library first opened its doors to the public on 19 April
1982 and since then has had nearly 9 million visitors. It has a
current membership of 24,534 with 1,200 people on average visiting
the library each day – 358,000 in a year.
Mr Quilter said: "The Barbican Library is one of the busiest
public libraries in London and we have thousands of regular users,
whom we would like to thank for their support.
"But we need to look to the future, and always encourage new
users – City residents or those working in the Square Mile – to
visit us and see the wide range of services we offer."
Ends
Notes to Editors:
The 25th Birthday reception will take place in the library,
situated within the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London on Monday
16 April 2007, 6.30pm – 8.30pm.
Facts and figures about Barbican Library:
- 500,292 issues a year at Barbican
- Barbican is the 2nd busiest inner-city Public Lending Library
and 6th busiest in Greater London.
- Over 204,000 books and other materials to lend (mostly for
free) plus some quick reference material
- DVD/Video service - 6,000 items. Sub-titled wherever possible.
DVDs started in 2001 – Over 2000 titles
- Art Library – over 14,000 monographs
- Collage database – digitised imaging of over 30,000 Guildhall
prints & paintings
- CD-ROMs for loan – 800 titles - copyright issues, improved
stock available
- Quick Reference – 1900 titles
- Spoken Word recordings – cassettes and now CD – Over 4,500
titles.
- Large Print books – 2,000 non-fiction and fiction titles
- Non-Fiction books – Over 108,000 - Specialisms in Finance,
Environment, Marxism (Dewey range 332 – 336). Society of Technical
Analysts
- Fiction books 40,000 (12,000 in paperback categories). Crime
Collection
- Young Adults section – 890 titles incl. graphic novels
- Children’s Library – over 25,000 items
- Music Library. Largest collection of CD’s 17,000 for loan in
public libraries in London - Music books 8,500 Music Scores 16,000.
Song Index.
- Listening facilities, practice piano
- Music Preserved formerly the Music Performance Research Centre
Archive
- Gilbert & Sullivan Society collection
About Barbican Library
Barbican Library,
run by the City of London Corporation, is situated within the
Barbican Centre in the heart of the Square Mile. It comprises a
public lending library with free internet access, free Skills for
Life advice sessions and materials, a children’s library and a
music library. Membership is free and open to anyone with proof of
name and home address, and for City workers (who are not City
residents) also proof of eligibility – eg, work pass, student card
or home library card.
Press are welcome to attend. For Press information or photos of
the event,, please contact Lesley Mair at City of London’s Press
Office –
lesley.mair@cityoflondon.gov.uk;
Tel 020 7332 1754.