City Libraries

The Holbrooks library is inside the shopping complex at the Ricoh, which is the site of the former gas works. Access is by car, bus or walking. The wooden structure at Radford is still there and is a well used library. My picture of the old Holbrooks library shows it in Briscoe Rd, now used as a youth centre.

Tricia, the Library in Jubilee Crescent was 3 or 4 premises from where the Petrol Station stands.

Thanks Artful, he remembers it now - just needed a little nudge in the right direction.

Hi all, I want to ask a question that is serious, will require some thought & I do not pretend to know the answer. Where are our libraries going now? They often feature in cost cutting agendas at town hall meetings, almost like political footballs. I am not interested in the politics of it, that is for debate elsewhere, but, who uses our libraries nowadays & what for? I have visited a couple of Coventry branch libraries recently & when I asked this question of a member of staff, they said that it was people with little or no internet access. I just wonder what is happening to what was a pillar of our learning society. What do you think?

In my opinion they're just internet cafes now (without the coffee). The final straw for me was when the the local history section of the central library was moved to the Herbert making it totally inaccessible to me.

I think the same argument applies to the high street shops as well Strange one, this - if I remember correctly, in the "Locarno" it was upstairs, now in the "Herbert" it's on ground level - makes access much easier for me

You have to able to get to it first. The Locarno is within walking distance for me, the Herbert isn't. The Locarno was also somewhere I could pop into when visiting shops in the Precinct whereas I would have to make a special journey to visit the Herbert with no guarantee they would have something of interest when I got there.

Hello Philip, I'm sorry to say the new learning age is upon us and with computers at school in the junior classes there is no need to visit the library and I should imagine as the students get older and as their curriculum changes they find what they need on the net - or - G****e it ! It's a sad story, my two loved going to the local library and as soon as they could had their own library card, and they were chuffed when they were allowed more than one book out. Those days have gone I think. My daughter says quite a few of the parents at her school do not listen to their children read and signed to say that they had. Shame on you Mums and Dads.

My wife is a regular user of Coventry Libraries mainly to look for new authors or ones she has not come across before. Until the past year or so she could go to the Central Library and come back with maybe half a dozen books. The past few visits she has come back with virtually nothing although she varies her times and the libraries she goes to. Unfortunately with library cuts the amount spend on new stocks has decreased drastically and much of this appears to be spent on DVDs. We both read a great deal, we prefer the feel of a book to kindle etc and have got a collection of several thousand that we have bought, reread and continue to add to but if it had not been for the library we would probably never have got the interest. As a final thought my sister left school unable to read, taught herself to read at the local library and then became a librarian .

Here in Allesley Park we have recently had a new library built. The same building also contains the doctors surgery and a branch of Lloyds pharmacy. Great? The building is like so many other Coventry buildings, ugly comes nowhere near describing it. Anyone who could draw a couple of Kelloggs cornflake boxes could have designed this building. Inside things are no better, from the doctors office to the waiting room is about 20 yards along a grim passageway, not too good for the disabled. The library is a delight because once inside one cannot see the building that houses it. The first libraries that I used were Windmill Rd and Broad St, both within easy cycling distance. I think the first books I had out were The Wind in the Willows and the Just William books. On the advice of the librarian I discovered the writings of Dornford Yates and I think I read everything he wrote. By accident I came across a book on motorcycling written by Stanley Woods that started me off with a lifelong passion for motorcycles....Les

My 'local' library as a kid was Broad Street, a haven of peace and calm but a fair walk from Proffitt Avenue. I think that children were allowed only one book in the fifties. My favourites were the Emil series and Jennings. I also took the Wizard and Adventure on Tuesdays and Hotspur and Rover on Thursdays, if I could earn enough errand money. I would make a jug of Shieldhall coffee, the Co-op's version of Camp, and sit by the kitchen fire reading all day, pure escapism.

Hello Stoke Library will be 100 years old on 20th October 2013! To celebrate its birthday we are planning to hold a series of events for adults and children on Saturday 19th October (tbc at a later date). We have been asking 'borrowers' and local people for any stories or memories of visiting the library over the years and hope to display a Memory Wall of old photographs and reminiscences. Stoke Library (along with Earlsdon and Foleshill Libraries) was funded by Andrew Carnegie; the king of industry and once the richest man in the world. If anybody has anything they would like to contribute, either post your replies on this site or/and email them for the attention of the Library Manager-Birthday Celebrations at: stoke.library@coventry.gov.uk or post to Stoke Library, Kingsway, Coventry, CV2 4EA Any material that you send will be credited to you unless you prefer to remain anonymous.

Hi Jed & welcome We have added this event to our event diary. Please update us of any changes. Thank you.

.............. and the first public library funded by Carnegie was in Keighley, Yorkshire opened in 1904!

I cannot understand why that building was demolished and replaced with a cheap, characterless shopping mall - one that has never been full and not even fulfilled its original 'remit'. It's bewildering. What did the council have against Coventry? That building fits in so much better. If anything, they should have restored it to its pre-war state.