Library users have been promised a say in how a £190,000 injection into the county's library service should be used, writes Reg Little.

The money, announced as part of Oxfordshire County Council's £400m budget, will mean that all libraries will eventually stay open longer.

Director of cultural servicesTom Forrest said there would be consultation to find the opening times people wanted in towns and villages.

Oxfordshire's five biggest libraries will be the first to benefit from the three-year programme, which is worth £60,000 in the first year. Oxford Central Library's weekly opening times will be extended by five-and-a-half hours, Abingdon and Banbury libraries by four-and-a-half hours and Didcot by four hours.

Saturday afternoon opening is expected to be trialled at Abingdon and Banbury.

But many smaller libraries will have to wait until 2002 to have opening hours restored to levels of 1998, when they were cut by 15 per cent.

Mr Forrest paid tribute to the good sense of Oxfordshire people two years ago when The Oxford Times launched a campaign against library closures.

He said: "We asked people if they would prefer the option of closing some libraries outright, or see all of them lose opening hours. "People voted overwhelmingly for a reduction. We are now seeing the wisdom of that decision.

"If libraries had closed, they would have gone for ever."

He expected all the county's libraries to be connected to the Internet by the end of the year, with 22 of the smallest rural libraries connected at a special launch on March 14.

Libraries will also benefit from an additional book fund of £50,000 to buy an additional 7,000 books.

Story date: Saturday 19 February

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