Home: Community full menu: Libraries

Resources, information and advice

Kathryn Harrison - November 2010
frontline.services@kirklees.gov.uk

General resources

  • Books
  • Free access to the internet and word processing applications. Printing available
  • Faxing and Photocopying facilities
  • Yellow Pages, Telephone and Postcode directories

Business resources

Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Holmfirth and Mirfield hold core business directories including Kelly's, Kompass, and Key British Enterprises.
  • Specialist trade directories and business and professional journals
  • Access to online business and market research databases
  • Company listings and detailed financial reports

Careers and education

All libraries and information centres have some information to help with career and educational choices. Several work with partner agencies to deliver workshops on these topics.
  • UK university prospectus and UCAS directory
  • Careers guides and educational directories
  • Specialist publications such as Times Education Supplement, Jobs North West and regional vacancy bulletins

European government information

Kirklees Library Service is a member of the European Public Information Centres (EPIC) Network.
  • Basic information on the European Union through a range of books and leaflets, supported by their website:

Local government information

Most of the information you might want from Kirklees Council is readily available on this website. This may be viewed for free at all Kirklees libraries and information centres. Larger libraries have print copies of the council vacancies bulletin and local versions of the edited Electoral Roll. Several venues also provide:
  • a bill payment service for council tax and housing
  • advice and guidance on a variety of other council services
  • a free phone with direct access to other council departments.
  • Paper copies of council minutes for 3 months which are then archived in Huddersfield Local Studies Library.
  • Edited version of the Electoral Register for Kirklees. You need to visit the library in person to carry out electoral roll checks, we cannot make these by telephone.
  • Previous editions of the electoral roll may be viewed in the Local Studies Library.

Maps

All larger libraries have Ordnance Survey Landranger (1:50,000) and Outdoor Leisure (1:25,000) maps giving full coverage of England, Scotland and Wales. They also hold larger scale maps of their local area.
  • 1:10,000 full Kirklees coverage
  • 1:2,500 partial Kirklees coverage - smaller towns, villages and rural areas
  • 1:1,250 partial Kirklees coverage - mostly urban areas
  • Specialist geological, land utilisation, soil survey, footpath and inland waterway maps.

National government information

  • Printed versions of parliamentary legislation, most notably Acts of Parliament (Statutes), Statutory Instruments, and Hansard.
  • Printed copies of Parliamentary White Papers and official reports of topical interests supplemented with a variety of national official online sources including the national legislation website:
  • Printed statistical publications from the Office for National Statistics supported with material available on its website:

Newspapers and journals

All larger libraries take a range of national and local daily newspapers whilst the smaller branches take one or two daily nationals and a weekly local newspaper.

Kirklees libraries subscribe to Newsbank online offering access to 18 daily national newspapers. Coverage goes back ten years for most national newspapers and back to 1985 for the Times and Sunday Times.
  • Times Digital Archive - articles from as far back as the Times first issue in 1785.
  • A range of popular and specialist journals and periodicals.

Audio-visual stock

Kirklees libraries provide a wide range of audio-visual materials in both fiction and non-fiction subject areas.

Formats include:
  • DVD films
  • music CDs
  • talking books on cassette, CD and MP3
  • and to a lesser extent educational courses on CD-ROM.
The breadth of the collection depends on the size of the library with Huddersfield and Dewsbury holding the core of the Kirklees stock. Although a small charge is made to borrow these items concessions are available.

Inter-library loans

As part of the national inter-library loan network Kirklees libraries have access to the lending stocks of most public and university libraries.

In addition, the British Library Document Supply Centre can provide copies of:
  • university theses
  • academic titles
  • photocopies of periodical articles from Britain and abroad.
A small charge is made for this service and applications can be made through any Kirklees library.

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