Revealed: the hidden treasures of Wirral’s libraries

Aug 26 2009 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

Revealed: the hidden treasures of Wirral’s libraries

SHE was the doyen of romantic fiction who sold millions of copies worldwide of her estimated 723 books – but, if you want to find an out-of-print copy of a Barbara Cartland novel, you will have to look in Birkenhead Central Library.

The basement area of the main library of Wirral holds the national archive of all Barbara Cartland’s books – along with numerous other authors for the nation’s libraries – but it is also at the centre of the debate about what the future holds for libraries.

Wirral’s library service has received national attention for all the wrong reasons in recent months, with protests over the council’s plans to close 11 of the borough’s 24 sites as part of the Strategic Asset Review, which aims to cut costs and allow the council to develop what is left of the library service.

But Birkenhead library on Borough Road – which celebrated its 75th anniversary last month – is re-assessing its extraordinary stock, which also includes original books donated to the people of Birkenhead by the shipbuilder John Laird, who played such a major role in the development of Birkenhead.

Librarian Pauline Black said many of these books had recently been retrieved from storage and are being catalogued – possibly to be put into Wirral’s historical archive collection to make the books available for those who want to see them.

She said: “We believe some of these books are not even in the British Library.

"Many of them were given to the people of Birkenhead by John Laird and you feel people should be able to use them.”