 Several gifts of books had been made including the 4,000 volume library of William Ashworth and the Mechanics' Institution Library of 5,000 volumes.A souvenir brochure was produced to commemorate the opening of the library, which explained that the 'Safe guarded open access' system used in the previous library premises was to be maintained and that there were 11,000 volumes available to the public in the lending library as well as 2,000 volumes in the children's library.The library also worked with the Blind Society to provide volumes, presumably in Braille.