Central Library Temporary Closure

We have worked hard to establish a city centre library while Central is closed, and City Library (Map and location details) opened its doors on 28 June. We can't offer a replacement on the same scale as Central, so we've focused on key services.

The library has modern, stylish interior with books, DVDs, papers and magazines in comfortable reading areas, There are computers, reference materials, business information, services for visually impaired people and a reduced Henry Watson Music Library and Chinese collection. There are areas for children, teenagers and the latest self-issue and return technology, mean that no-one has to queue. A new wi-fi service is also now available.

The Local Studies Service is there too, with an extensive collection of books and non-original (microfilm and computer) local and family history sources. Original (paper-based) archive sources have been moved to join collections at Greater Manchester County Record Office, in Marshall Street where they are accessible (by appointment). Rare books and special collections are being kept in secure, environmentally protected storage for the duration of Central Library's closure.

We will continue to host visits by writers and poets, in different partner venues around the city.

While Central Library is closed, we have embarked upon the UK's biggest ever retrospective cataloguing project - over a million card-indexed books will be added to our digital catalogue, making access to the city's collections better than it has ever been before.

The Library Theatre Company will continue to produce an exciting new programme from a range of venues before it moves into a new city centre home in 2014.

An exciting new-look Central Library, beautifully and sensitively restored, will re-open in 2013. Its new archive centre will bring together a detailed and fascinating picture of our region's past, housing materials from a range of partners, including the North West Film Archive, Greater Manchester County Record Office, Manchester Register Office, Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, under one roof.  Access, storage, interpretation and display will all be hugely improved, providing a fitting showcase for Manchester's treasures. There will also be extensive book collections, a cinema, learning area, performance space, cafe and places for quiet study

A state-of-the-art lending library, City Library, will be created in the neighbouring Town Hall Extension. This will be a community library for the city centre and a key part of the City Council's new Customer Service Centre.