With all of Kent’s 99 libraries reopened after adapting their services to cope with the impact of the pandemic, KCC is now looking to the future. It has launched a public engagement exercise which will help inform its next strategy and is encouraging as many people as possible to take part. The county’s residents are…
The new opening hours for Kent’s libraries have been decided and will take effect from 30 September. The pattern of opening hours at each library has recently been subject to a local engagement with library customers. During a three-week public engagement, customers were asked for their comments and invited to vote for their first and…
The library at Maidstone prison has been awarded silver for a challenge to get offenders reading. Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives provides a library service in all five prisons in the county. HMP Maidstone, on County Road in the town, is designated as a Foreign National prison and houses around 600 offenders, many of whom…
Kent’s libraries are calling for children to sign up to read six books this summer as part of The Big Friendly Read, Summer Reading Challenge 2016. The Summer Reading Challenge asks 4-11 year olds to borrow and read any six library books over the summer. It has a new theme each year and in 2016…
The redesign of Kent’s mobile library service is to go ahead, following a public consultation. KCC’s proposals are intended to provide a more efficient and effective service at a lower cost to the county council. They were endorsed by the council’s Growth and Economic Development Committee and the six-week consultation was launched on 22 January.…
Dartford’s much-loved Central Library is to have its centenary year marked in grand style with a £650,000 restoration, celebrating its heritage and historic roots. Kent County Council agreed a refurbishment proposal for the 100-year-old library after a six-week public consultation showed huge support for it to reflect the heritage and past glories of the building.…
Visitors to any of Kent’s 99 libraries can now get online with free Wi-Fi. It has been made possible after Kent County Council secured full funding from Arts Council England to complete the roll-out of free Wi-Fi across all library buildings in the county. Of the 99 libraries in Kent, 33 already provide free Wi-Fi.…
Businesses are being offered the chance to sell their wares in a new scheme by Kent County Council. Sellers of Kentish products are being given the opportunity to run their own pop-up shops at Ramsgate Library. The trial will run on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays on March 17, 18, 19; March 31 and April 1,…
Kent’s mobile library service is proposed to be redesigned with the aim of providing a more efficient service at a lower cost to the county council. The proposals were discussed at a meeting of KCC’s Growth and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday (12 January), and are in the context of the significant financial pressure that…
An extensive 12-week public consultation on KCC’s plans to modernise its Libraries, Registration and Archives service by the creation of a charitable trust closes next week (Wednesday, 8 April). Since the consultation’s launch on 12 January, KCC’s Libraries, Registration and Archives service has organised a series of 27 roadshows across the county to give Kent…
KCC library staff united a woman with her long lost cousin after she read a story about the WW1 heroics of her great uncle in the local paper. The story revealed the bravery of Sapper Druce Cheal, who left his job as Tonbridge Librarian in 1914 to join the Royal Engineers and was awarded the…