Queen's to unveil plans for £40m library

Queen's University are to unveil plans for a new £40 million library at a major conference in Belfast later this week.

The University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir George Bain, will tell more than 130 delegates at the spring conference of the Society of College, National and University Libraries that the new library will be the focal point of the campus.

The Society, which represents all the leading academic libraries in the UK and Ireland as well as the British Library and the National Libraries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, is holding its conference in Belfast for the first time in more than 30 years. The event, which takes place between 31 March and 2 April, has been jointly organised by the Society, Queen's and the University of Ulster.

One of the organisers, Norman Russell, Director of Information Services at Queen's, said: "It is entirely fitting that the conference should come to Belfast at such an exciting time for the city and for Queen's. We anticipate a great deal of interest in our plans for a new library which will symbolise the importance and potential of information skills and underpin the two key functions of teaching and learning and research and development."

The conference, which will focus on human resource management and service development, features speakers from the public and private sectors as well as the two local universities.

A wide-ranging programme of visits has been arranged, including a civic reception in Belfast's City Hall. The conference dinner will be held in the Great Hall at Queen's.

(MB)