Cape Town's Central Library is once again open to the public after moving to new premises. The library, which used to be located in the City Hall, closed in May 2008.

The new, refurbished library, located in the Old Drill Hall on the corner of Parade and Darling Streets, now offers an improved range of books and periodicials, as well as computers and study spaces in a more spacious venue.

Central Library is open daily (except on Sundays) between 9:00 and 18:00. It closes at 20:00 on Monday and 14:00 on Saturday. General enquiries can be directed to central.library@capetown.gov.za, or 021 467 1500.

The library's move has been on the cards for quite some time. The City Hall was unsuitable as books had to be located on separate floors.

The Old Drill Hall was investigated as an alternative location, and funding by the Carnegie Corporation facilitated the move.

The City has spent +/- R34 million on renovating the building's interior, creating a new basement area to enlarge the library's capacity, a bookshop (run by Friends of the Library), two seminar rooms, a conference venue and new study spaces for students.

Plans for a coffee shop are afoot. Funding from the Carnegie Corporation and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape has been used to add an additional 75 000 titles to the old library's collection of 125 000 titles.

There are new additions to the South African and African collections (literature, history and politics) as well as the science, technology, business and children's sections. The most popular section of the library, the arts section, has been considerably enhanced. There are also an additional 35 new computers, bringing the total number of available computers to 40.

Patrons can use these to connect to the internet, use the word processing feature and access the library's databases.