Virtual Prestatyn: Library

General Information

Opening hours:
Monday	9.30am - 7.00pm
Tuesday	9.30am - 5.00pm
Wednesday	10.30am - 5.00pm
Thursday	9.30am - 7.00pm
Friday	9.30am - 5.00pm
Saturday	9.30am - 12.30pm

Community Librarian:
John Beagan, FCLIP

Books in English and Welsh
Audiobooks
Music Cassettes and CDs
Factual and Children's Videos
Newspapers and Periodicals
Local Information, including planning applications
Computing Facilities
Internet Access
Publications for Sale
Photocopier and Fax
Theatre Bookings (Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Rhyl Pavilion and NW Theatre)
Meeting Room
Exhibitions
Poster Advertising
Activities for Children

Library Events

Art exhibitions - changed monthly. Programme includes Prestatyn 57 Art Group, Prestatyn Youth Arts Festival art competition, Rhyl Art Club, and Rhyl Photographic Society. See calendar below.

Reading Schemes - The theme for Summer 2003 is the Reading Maze. Previous themes were Reading Relay in 2000, Reading Planet in 2001 and Reading Carnival in 2002. Libraries throughout Britain take part to encourage children to read and use their local library. Children collect cards for every book they read. Every child who completes the scheme by collecting six cards receives a certificate, and the children who make a special effort receive special medals. The themes for 2002 were astronomy, geography and the environment. Reading Carnival finished on 30th September, and 66 children from Prestatyn and Dyserth have received medals and certificates.

Readers Group for Adults - First Thursday of each month from 2.00pm to 3.00pm (except August) in the Meeting Room by the front entrance. Sets of books are obtained from "New books.mag" for all the readers groups in Denbighshire. The programme for 2003 also includes Kate Roberts in March, Lilian Beckwith in May, Melvyn Bragg in June and Margaret Drabble in July.

Art Workshops for Children - These are held on Monday evenings from 4.30pm to 6.30pm during term time, plus one week in August. Different artists teach with different techniques and different media to create a varied programme. There is a small charge payable.

Summer Activities for Children - These are based on the Reading theme. All start at 10.30am.

Membership is free to everyone resident, working or studying in Denbighshire or Flintshire, on production of proof of address and signature on official documents.

Membership entitles adults and children to borrow up to 10 items at any one time, whether books, videos, CDs or cassettes. New members may borrow up to 5 such items during the first six months. The loan period is now three weeks as standard, but can be extended if the item is not required by another library member. Renewal of items on loan by telephone is easy - just quote your membership number (printed on the card above the barcode) and we do the rest.

Denbighshire cooperates with Flintshire in providing library services, via a system known as the North East Wales Network (NEWNet). We can borrow materials from other library authorities in Wales via Interlending Wales. If a book or periodical article is not available in Wales, it is borrowed from the British Library at Boston Spa in Yorkshire, which is the national lending library.

The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Post and The Chester Chronicle are available, and are kept for for three months. The Times, The Independent and The Western Mail are available on CD-ROM at Rhyl Library, as part of the county's Business Information Service (a resource for jobseekers, the self-employed, and companies in Denbighshire). These electronic newspapers, while not available in Prestatyn Library, can be supplied in part by fax or photocopy. The Rhyl & Prestatyn Visitor and The Rhyl, Prestatyn & Abergele Journal are filed for the current calendar year at Prestatyn Library, and subsequently The Rhyl & Prestatyn Visitor is microfilmed for Rhyl Library.

Downstairs, five computers are available free of charge for internet access and for the use of Microsoft and Lotus applications, to those who book a session (one hour or half-hour) beforehand. A sixth computer is available unbooked for e-mails and other urgent use. CD burner software and a scanner are now available. Floppy disks, CD-Rs and colour or black and white printouts, are available for a small charge (see below).

There are now additionally three PCs for tutorial use, and it is hoped that this will shortly expand to six.

There are two computers in the children's library. The first allows the use of CD-ROMs and word processing, whilst the second is for supervised access to the internet. CD-ROMs available include reference books for children, an artist's package, "Learning to use the computer", and the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

A touchscreen PC - which belongs to the Careers Company - allows access to databases on careers and training courses. This computer complements a Learn Direct freephone service for education and training courses.

The local collection includes books by local authors (John Davies, Einion Evans, T. Wilson Evans, Emyr Humphreys, etc.), and press cuttings. We try to collect everything on Prestatyn, Meliden, Dyserth and the Point of Ayr, with some information (not a lot unfortunately) on Mostyn and Trelawnyd. Rhyl Library also has a local history collection, including completer runs of Dyserth Field Club Proceedings and Flintshire Historical Society Transactions. As part of a county network, materials in other libraries, such as Rhyl, can be made available in Prestatyn. All local collection material is strictly reference only, except for duplicate copies of books bought for loan.

Loan of books (printed and on tape) belonging to Prestatyn Library	Free
Access to Newspapers and Local Information	Free
Book/Cassette/Video Request within Flintshire and Denbighshire NEWNet	Free
Book Request via Interlending Wales	50p + Ł1.50
Fast Track British Library Book Request Service	Ł12.00
Loan of music cassettes	50p per fortnight
Loan of music CDs	75p per fortnight
Loan of factual and children's videos	Ł1 per fortnight
Use of computer	Free
Floppy disks	50p
CD-Recordables	Ł1
Computer printouts	5p greyscale per page; 25p colour per page
Sending or receiving of faxes	50p per page within UK; Ł1.00 per page rest of world
Photocopies	5p per A4 page; 10p per A3 page
Sale of exhibition items	30% commission
Poster advertising	Ł1 per week
Room hire	Ł8 per session

We also take bookings for The Pavilion Theatre (Rhyl), Clwyd Theatr Cymru (Mold), and The North Wales Theatre (Llandudno).

All work displayed needs to be mirror-plated and is subject to 30% commission on sales. The Craft cabinet (with thanks to Prestatyn Town Council for grant) is available every month for craftwork and other small artefacts.

January 2003	FOYER - Joan Elizabeth Jones, paintings and craftwork
February 2003	FOYER - Rhyl Photographic Society
March 2003	FOYER - Mr. G. Jones, watercolour paintings CRAFT CABINET - China painting, G.S. Moore
April 2003	FOYER - Prestatyn 57 Art group
May 2003	FOYER - Rhyl Art Club
June 2003	FOYER - Sue Hinde and students, Goldwork CRAFT CABINET - Gwen Raven paintings
July 2003	FOYER - PYAF art competition entries
August 2003	FOYER - Ysgol Melyd children's art CRAFT CABINET - Katy Howard craftwork
September 2003	CRAFT CABINET - Ruth Williams, Woodturning and Celtic art
October 2003	FOYER - Future Sutures "Rough with the smooth" craftwork
November 2003	FOYER - Carol Crankshaw paintings
December 2003	FOYER - Bill Lockitt, modern art

The library moved from the High Street to Nant Hall Road in March 1967, as the first library to be purpose-built by the former Flintshire County Council following the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (which is still in force). It became a branch of Clwyd on April 1st 1974, and of Denbighshire when local government reorganisation took place on April 1st 1996.