Manchester Library & Information Service

There are 23 public libraries in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England, including the famous Central Library

Manchester Central Library

Manchester Central Library is a circular library south of the extended Town Hall in Manchester, England. It acts as the headquarters of the Manchester Library & Information Service, which also consists of 22 other community libraries.Designed by E...

in St Peter’s Square, as well as a fleet of mobile libraries.

The oldest community library still in use is Levenshulme

Levenshulme

Levenshulme is an urban area of the City of Manchester, in North West England. It borders Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish, and is approximately halfway between Stockport and Manchester City Centre on the A6 road. The A6 bisects Levenshulme. The Manchester to London railway...

Library in South Manchester, built in 1903. Levenshulme Library is also a Carnegie Library

Carnegie Library

Carnegie Library, Carnegie Public Library, Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie Free Public Library, Andrew Carnegie Library, Andrew Carnegie Free Library or Carnegie Library Building may refer to any of the following Carnegie libraries:- California :*Carnegie Library , listed on the National Register...

, having been built with money donated by the famous Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...

, who funded the building of over 2,500 libraries across the world. Two new multi-million pound libraries have recently opened in North and East Manchester as part of a major regeneration scheme, including the eco-designed North City Library in Harpurhey

Harpurhey

-Landmarks:Harpurhey Edwardian Swimming Baths, situated on Rochdale Road was built between 1909-10 by Henry Price, Manchester's first City Architect. Listed grade II in, the baths were closed to the public in 2001 after serious defects were discovered and the entrance building is currently being...

History

There has been a public library service in Manchester since 1852, when the Manchester Free Library

Manchester Free Library

The Manchester Free Library opened on 2 September 1852 in Manchester, England. It was the first to be set up up under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act 1850, which allowed local authorities to impose a local tax of one penny to pay for the service...

opened in the Hall of Science, Campfield, on the site of what is now the Museum of Science and Industry

Museum of Science and Industry

MOSI may refer to:* MoSi — molybdenum silicide, an important material in the semiconductor industry* MOSI - Master Out Slave In, a signal on the Serial Peripheral Interface Bus* MOSI protocol, an extension of the basic MSI cache coherency protocol...

. Famous figures such as Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

and William Thackeray attended and spoke at its inauguration. Manchester had taken advantage of powers granted by the Public Libraries and Museums Act of 1850 to become the first local authority to establish a rate-supported public lending and reference library. Andrea Crestadoro

Andrea Crestadoro

Dr. Andrea Crestadoro was a bibliographer who became Chief Librarian of Manchester Free Library, 1864–1879. He is credited with being the first person to propose that books could be catalogued by using keywords that did not occur in the title of the book...

, Chief Librarian of the city 1864–1879, is credited with being the first person to propose that books could be catalogued by using keywords that did not occur in the title of the book.

In 1915 the libraries consisted of a reference library, 24 lending libraries, a foreign library, the Henry Watson Music Library and the Thomas Greenwood Library for Librarians. The number of volumes altogether exceeded half a million and the stock of the lending libraries was arranged acccording to the Dewey Decimal Classification. The library was housed in temporary buildings in Piccadilly on the site of the former Manchester Royal Infirmary

Manchester Royal Infirmary

The Manchester Royal Infirmary is a hospital in Manchester, England which was founded by Charles White in 1752 as a cottage hospital capable of caring for twelve patients. Manchester Royal Infirmary is part of a larger NHS Trust incorporating several hospitals called Central Manchester University...

. The Moss Side

Moss Side

Moss Side is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 17,537...

library contained special collections on Thomas de Quincey

Thomas de Quincey

Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...

, Mrs. Gaskell and the Brontës and the foreign library was temporarily housed at the Cheetham branch. The Henry Watson Music Library contained 30,000 volumes and hundreds of thousands of pieces of music; the Thomas Greenwood Library for Librarians contained about 15,000 volumes. After the vacation of the first town hall in King Street the building was reused for the public lending library.

Branch libraries

These include libraries in Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....

, Hulme

Hulme

Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....

, Withington

Withington

Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...

and Didsbury

Didsbury

Didsbury is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre, in the southern half of the Greater Manchester Urban Area...

. The Withington Library (1927), on Wilmslow Road, was designed by Henry Price

Henry Price (architect)

John Henry Price – more commonly referred to as Henry Price – was the first person to hold the office of 'City Architect' in Manchester Corporation's newly created City Architect's Department of 1902...

Central Library building project, 2010–13

The Central Library is closed from 2010 to 2013 for major refurbishment and expansion. During the closure its books are stored in a disused part of the Winsford salt mine. Some of its services will be available at a temporary location nearby. A new community library for the city centre on Deansgate

Deansgate

Deansgate is a main road through the city centre of Manchester, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile long....

has been provided. The community library occupies Elliott House (between Lloyd Street and Jackson's Row).

Librarians

Edward Edwards
Edward Edwards (librarian)
Edward Edwards was a British librarian, library historian, and biographer. He was an important figure in the establishment of free libraries in the U.K. He died and is buried in Niton on the Isle of Wight.-Early life and work:...

, 1850–1858 (resigned)
Andrea Crestadoro, 1864–1879
W. R. Credland
C. W. Sutton
Ernest Axon
L. Stanley Jast
D. I. Colley
George Lovell
K. W. King

External links

Manchester Library & Information Service on the Manchester City Council website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Branch libraries

Central Library building project, 2010–13

Librarians

Further reading

External links