Oswestry Library visitor numbers on course to set record
Oswestry Library is on course to set a new record for visitors in a calendar year, according to new figures.
About 102,000 people have visited the library in the first six months of this year. It means the venue on Arthur Street looks set to improve on the 190,000 people who visited in 2009.
Staff have put the rise in interest down to a number of new activities and services which have been set up since the library in Arthur Street was extended five years ago.
Teresa Eccleston, manager of Oswestry Library, said visitor figures for 2009 – the first full year in the new library – represented a 20 per cent increase over the figures for the library before its revamp.
Among the services that the library has introduced during the past five years are the books on prescription service, WiFi internet access, a health zone with information and advice, and a community hub offering help with council services.
The library has also extended its children's facilities, with regular story and rhyme times and holiday activities, a homework club and a knitting club.
And it has created partnerships with other organisations to hold drop-in advice sessions with Age UK and Just Credit Union, Heritage Open Day special events, Arts Alive events and regular exhibitions by Borderland Visual Artists and other arts groups.
Library staff have been getting involved in activities for the whole town as well, as being founder members of Oswestry Lit Fest.