Lancaster library due to reopen on Wednesday, August 19

It will be a very limited capacity with a maximum of 20 browsing customers, 4 PNet slots and five staff in the lending library.

Anyone wanting to enter the building will need to book an appointment (30 minutes to browse books, one hour to access a 45 minute PC booking) via the library website, although on-loan items can be returned at the front door without an appointment.

The interior has been re-organised by LCC's Facilities Management to make it 'Covid-safe' – there is less shelving on display, no DVDs or CDs, no furniture other than a sofa in junior for breastfeeding mothers and no access to the rear of the building (corridor, toilets, mezzanine, community heritage, back door, etc.).

The café area and the meeting pod are being used to store the unused equipment so are out of use for the time being.

There are still no plans to resume events, activities or meeting room hire and the amount of staff time for general enquiries will be extremely limited.

The only events pencilled in at the moment are Fun Palace and Get it Loud in Libraries - who have pushed all gigs back to next year.

There is no access for Friends of the Library members other than as library users with an appointment and access is restricted to the lending area.

There's obviously no timeframe yet for a return to the pre-lockdown library service but hopefully this is the first in a series of steps towards getting the rest of the library back up and running.

To book a Lancaster library appointment visit https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/coronavirus-updates/libraries/ .