I am very much taken with Oswestry Library and have been for years, moreso when it underwent the cool  transformation which made it into the fantastic community focal point it is today.  We have moved many miles from just being books and research.  For those of you who haven’t set foot in it for years, here are a few things I bet you didn’t know.

Yes they lend books out, and as well as the written word, there are talking books and kindle books.  Shropshire Libraries have also recently set up a magazine and newspaper download, which is free, and lets you download all sorts of magazines, from Marie Claire, National Geographic  to ‘Hello’ and many others. 

Coming soon will be an opportunity to download talking books, which I think is fantastic.  I love to read, but sometimes its nice to be read to while you do something else, in my case knitting.

Talking of listening and knitting, the library runs plenty of workshops and sessions for adults and children where you can discover our great local history, trace your family tree,  learn to knit, and much more.  There are after school clubs, homework clubs, a huge array of computers to use, regular art and photographic exhibitions and – if you need space to study with your own kit, power points and wi-fi.

Oswestry Library also hosts the Community Hub in the foyer, where you can get questions answered about council services.

If you want to know what courses and workshops are coming up in and around Oswestry, then head down to the Library on Saturday 6^th September – they have a day with information about pretty much everything that moves and shakes – from Zumba to cooking!

Oswestry Makes is a creativity festival that centres around the library and which includes events and workshops around town.  The festival starts on September 27^th with a Family Day in the library, and there is another exciting  Taster Evening on Thursday 2^nd October  where you can see, or try new crafts and skills, from making shadow puppets, applying theatre makeup, making costumes and more.  On Saturday October 4^th, a whole day devoted is devoted to Superheros – whether comic, manga or just coming dressed up as your inner superhero. AND the fab KinoKulture Independent Cinema, across the lane, will be showing “The Amazing Spiderman” Film.

So a few things to whet your appetite – who knew there was more to a library than book?