Coleraine Library

A brilliant and fundamental resource in a community. Many young people have not yet discovered the delight of reading and stories, and the library is a modern undiscovered secret!

Called in to use the computers which I've never done in a library before. Wasn't sure how to go about it but staff really helpful going above and beyond to get my document saved. Seemed a nice peaceful space to read so will probably return at some stage for that.

An excellent place to go and relax. Very good selection inside and comfortable seats to enjoy your book, magazines or surf the net

My review is rather specific to my current task which is researching my family tree. I already have a substantial tree, and am over on holiday for a while to gather source information to substantiate and validate much of the information in it.

Last time I did that I spent a day at PRONI in Belfast where they have a substantial collection of church records stored on microfiche. However they have really strict restrictions which mean that you have to leave any means of photography in lockers before you enter, and therefore the only way to get a copy of records is to print them out on A4 or A3. I can bear the cost of that, but the problem for me is that I then have to scan those in, edit them and them link those scans into my tree. Coleraine has no such restrictions (though I'll be honest and say that I haven't asked, I'm just doing things the best way for my entry methods, and no one has stopped me yet!).

First of all, the library has a lot of church records - not nearly as many as PRONI, but fine for me based on me mainly researching Co. Derry and Co. Antrim, so I have gone through 1st Broughshane, Glenwherry, Dungiven and others.

In Coleraine, when I find a relevant record, I simply photograph it with my iPhone 5 (flash turned off). Because there's no cost, I take A LOT of photos as I can analyse them in my own time at home. Then I copy them over to my laptop, open them in Paint (I'm not very sophisticated), invert the colours (press select, then right-click on the image and invert is at the bottom), then I select and crop the bit I want and link it into my tree.

The staff are really friendly and helpful. I seem to be saying that a lot on this trip to NI, but I suppose that's the way we are over here :)

Lovely building! Great new seating and plenty of table tops for study. Quiet. A good place to study.

A water dispenser and coffee machine would make it heaven!!

Great facilities and an excellent location. Was a lovely surprise to access this very modern library when only walking through the town.

An utter and absolute disgrace!! (and the planners should be exposed as imbeciles!!!!)
So they close the library for a year and spend £2.3 million on the renovation/refit; even have Princess Anne over to open the damn thing bet she could hardly contain herself!!
Well, get this!!!! NO NEW COMPUTERS; same old out dated computers; I mean seriously, WTF?!! They ran out of funding apparently!! Wouldn’t you have thought that Computers would have been higher up the priority list in an age of technology and progression, than a new meeting room or new toilets??!! Oh no, not here; here is where ridiculous amounts of money are spent on a big fat nothing; no improvement to service or facilities to members of the public whatsoever!! Also, NO ADDITIONAL PRINTERS!! Just one photocopier/printer in the whole place; so if someone is photocopying, anyone printing has to wait; what if several people are printing forget it; utter mayhem with pages getting all mixed in with other people’s print jobs - you want confidentiality; not here!! Oh and they charge 30 pence for double sided printing despite it only being one sheet of paper; the librarian I got even tried to charge me double that because she couldn’t count/comprehend that double sided was already classed as two print offs yet was attempting to charge me 60 pence per sheet!! (you wonder how people get jobs, let alone stay in them!!) So yeh, no new computers and one photocopier/printer; well done planners and council for wasting £2.3 million pounds of public money on nothing (the place isn’t even that nice inside anyway; you wonder just where all that money actually went; meetings about meetings, and expenses, no doubt swallowed a sizeable chunk!!); total waste of money that would have been better spent elsewhere than on an unimproved library!!!! New library with outdated equipment and insufficient technology; a new library with resources stuck in last decade you should be very proud of yourselves, NOT!!

I found that when taking my young children the staff were friendly and helpful, also at times let the children use toilets too which was much appreciated. Always found it clean and tidy.

I am relatively new to the area and have started to visit the library at least once a week to use the free WIFI on offer. The library itself is an absolutely beautiful and unique building and the resources available are fantastic. The staff are also amazing and most are very helpful with any queries I may have. There does however seem to be a small group of 3-4 staff members (two of which are extremely loud) who regularly group together to talk about customers and other staff members. It's so disappointing that a few bad apples can ruin an otherwise fantastic service.

This is actually the best place in town. If you don't know why, I can't be talking to you. It may be a bit low down to admit it, but I usually bring a thermos flask in my laptop bag. And from that viewpoint I can tell you right now, it's absolutely the best coffee for the best price in town!