KIDLINGTON Library is celebrating 10 years of keeping villagers entertained and informed at its current home.

The Oxford Road branch opened in August 2003 in a purpose built £1.6m building, replacing the existing library on the site.

The building – called Ron Groves House after the much loved local councillor – is also home to Oxfordshire County Council staff.

Last year 129,300 titles were loaned, including 51,300 adult and 45,400 children’sfiction titles and 2,500 DVDs.

The library, which has a stock of 19,000 items, has this year undergone a major change.

Manager Lynda Sullivan retired at Easter – a post she had held since 1994 – after 38 years of service at the branch.

Replacing her in May was Nicola Hobson, who joined the service in 2002 and previously worked at Abingdon, Wantage and Didcot libraries.

She said: “Kidlington Library is a very busy village library which has a real buzz about it. I am proud to be the manager there.

“We have a lot of regular visitors and we pride ourselves on being a community library.”

She said the eight full and part-time staff “really do have a great rapport with our customers, taking the time to talk to them when they visit”.

Displays are constantly changing to bring new works to members and this has proved very popular she said.

Current popular titles include The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton and Oresama Teacher by Izumi Tsubaki.

Along with e-books and audio books, it offers eight computers for courses by providers like Age UK and drop-in sessions for police.

To celebrate, the library will hold a special rhymetime session for under fives on Tuesday, August 13 from 2.15 to 2.45pm.

Visitors praised the service. Mother-to-be Kesensa Houghton, 26, of Yarnton, visits about every three weeks.

She said: “I only recently joined. They have a nice selection and it is very modern. There are lots of new releases.

“I will be definitely be bringing my little daughter to teach her to read.”

Wootton resident Nina Fry said she visits while taking children Callum, 11 and Bailee, five, to Kidlington & Gosford Leisure Centre.

She said: “We come here quite a lot, every couple of weeks. They are always really friendly, they are always helpful.”

Foxdown Close, Kidlington, resident Judy Blake, 51, said: “I’m a very, very regular library user.

“I’ve lived here for 35 years and my children grew up in the library.

“I begrudge spending money on something that I am only going to read once and I do read two or three books a week so the library is indispensable to me.

The fiction fan said: “I like the personal touch. They know me by name and quite often recommend things.”