Crowthorne and Sandhurst

Bookworms young and old paid a visit to the new Crowthorne Library on Thursday morning when it was officially opened.

A morning of celebration filled the customer-friendly library in the Crowthorne High Street as staff, local dignitaries, residents and children all popped in to check out the facilities on offer.

Mayor of the Borough of Bracknell Forest, Cllr Clifton Thompson, declared the library open while Cllr Alan Ward, Executive Member for Education and Libraries thanked staff for all their hard work.

Book-lovers have been leafing their way through all the latest novels since the Crowthorne library opened in January but in keeping with the new school term, when the thirst for information is at its peak, it was decided the new building should be celebrated in September with an official opening ceremony.

Many villagers have already made the most of the 20,000 books, DVDs, CDs and PCs with free internet access and more than 1,110 people have become members since the library opened in January - several of whom joined up at the launch.

Ruth Burgess, Head of Libraries and Information, said: "It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the opening of this great new library, which really is in the heart of Crowthorne.

"We were really pleased so many people came down to look around and join us for a drink on Thursday morning.

"Crowthorne Library is already popular with many residents and I hope more people will come down and join up as members in the future.

The library is almost twice the size of the old library in Lower Broadmoor Road and includes a meeting room which is used for children's story times and community group gatherings.

Cllr Ward said: "It was great to be present on Thursday morning when the Mayor officially opened this wonderful new facility.

"Most people I spoke to agreed that externally it has added greatly to the Crowthorne street scene and internally has provided a great new facility for Crowthorne.

"Since the library moved to this new site some nine months ago several hundred new people have joined and more than 10,000 extra books have been taken out compared with the previous comparable period.

"Altogether it was a great day for Crowthorne."

Bracknell Forest Borough Council