Library services in Dalston will be more accessible when the County Council’s new state of the art Mobile Library rolls out in the area at the beginning of October. The van will not only carry a full range of adult and children’s books but also videos, DVDs and talking books. Present Library hours will be extended to include Saturday mornings.
The current library is in a small rented building on two floors with narrow steep stairs and this makes much of the service inaccessible to disabled people. This is in breach of recent legislation and there is insufficient room to install a lift or move all of the services downstairs. Over the past few years the County Council together with the Parish Council have been looking for alternative locations in the community but without success. Matters have recently been brought to a head by the landlord seeking to renew the lease for 5 years.
Dalston Library is currently open for 7.5 hours a week spread over Monday, Thursday and Friday. The new mobile library will increase service provision in Dalston to ten hours a week spread over Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The weekend opening, coupled with extended hours on a Thursday evening, will open up library services to many more people in Dalston.
The mobile library came into service earlier this year and serves the whole of Carlisle. It has a disabled lift and a computerised lending system and is ideally suited to develop the library service in Dalston.