Christmas in July for Albury book lovers

An incredible 18,000 new books are now stacked on Albury library shelves, ready for borrowing and another 6000 items will be added to the collection by September.

The total of 24,000 books, which will fill 390m of shelving, have been purchased following AlburyCity's decision in March to formally withdraw from the Upper Murray Regional Library network.

There's something for everyone. Adults have 8000 non-fiction books and 5500 fiction books to choose from. There's 1000 books for young adults, 4000 books for kids, 100 DVDs, 500 reference books and 1500 picture books.

Shirley Dobson, 60, is a Friend of the LibraryMuseum, who has delivered books to house-bound clients for the past seven years. She is impressed that there are 2,500 new large print books and 400 books on CD.

"It's going to be great to have a whole heap of new books to choose from," she says.

"Some people I deliver to go through a book every couple of days, so it can be challenging to find titles they haven't read."

She is excited that the new collection will include more than 1000 large-print books and books on CD. Given that hard-back books can be heavy and difficult to read, Shirley is also pleased so many paperbacks have been purchased.

Catherine Little and her five children visit the LibraryMuseum once or twice every week and have already explored the great range of new children's books.

"We have enjoyed new book days in the past, but to have 18,000 new books is very exciting," says the Albury mum, who home-schools her children.

About 12,000 of the new books are at the LibraryMuseum, and 6,000 at Lavington Library.

In other good news for library users, book fines for overdue library books will be waived during a two-month amnesty throughout July and August.

And a mobile library service will continue to be provided through the Upper Murray Regional Library to retirement villages and outlying communities.