NEWCASTLE could open its first library in more than a decade if a council vote next Tuesday proceeds.
The council estimates a $2.8 million digital library in the entry to its new premises in Newcastle West would attract 50,000 people in its first year.
If it proceeds, the digital library would be twice the size of Stockton, Lambton, Beresfield, Adamstown and Mayfield libraries.
It would also be the first library opened by the council since 2006, and Cr Nelmes said it would be designed to quickly fold into on-site storage to allow the area to work as a council chamber for meetings.
Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the library could offer a podcasting studio, virtual reality equipment, a 3D printer anda programmable robot.
"The 510-square-metre digital library will be the largest ever after only the City and Wallsend libraries," Cr Nelmes said.
"It will create unique digital experiences that will be a first for the city and region, while still meeting the core principles of connecting communities through sharing knowledge and information.
"Earlier this year, councillors were presented data showing that the recent boom in population in Newcastle West, Wickham and Honeysuckle had created a critical need in the area for a new library service."
The project stems from a library strategy devised earlier this year after a consultation process that drew 1300 responses.
That strategy lays out a push to 2023 that would make Newcastle's libraries available "anywhere, anytime, open and accessible 24/7".
Cr Nelmes said $2 million of the cost would be covered by the proceeds from the 2015 sale of the School of Arts building on Hunter Street.
That building was transferred to the council in 1964, less than 20 years after Roland Pope's 1944 bequest of his collection to the city that led to the first library service beginning at Waratah and Wallsend in 1948.
A condition of that sale was that the money go towards library infrastructure.
-
Benjamin Batterham found not guilty of murder over death of Richard Slater, intruder who broke into his Hamilton home
- Last drinks: Newcastle Diggers latest business to shut in city centre
- Cracks in the system as Hunter family faces bankruptcy due to crippling dispute
- Jarrod Mullen's lawyer says he will plead guilty to supplying cocaine
- AGL puts plans for Newcastle gas-fired power station at Tomago on exhibition
