Libraries - special collections
Rochdale Library Service has nearly a hundred collections in its
catalogue. Some special collections, mostly held at the Wheatsheaf
Library, are listed here. All these items are available for loan
from the library. If you cannot get to the Wheatsheaf Library,
please ask about these collections at your local library. All the
titles in these collections can be found on the Library
Catalogue.
The Around the World Collection
This is a collection of popular titles in a range of European
and Asian languages, including Arabic, Farsi, French, Kurdish,
Portuguese, Russian and Urdu.
This collection, together with our existing Bengali, Polish and
Urdu collections, can be found at the Wheatsheaf Library.
Audio collections
All of our main libraries have collections of cassettes and CDs
available for three-week hire. The collections include a wide range
of music, from pop and rock through easy listening, jazz, folk and
world music to various forms of classical music and the spoken word
- poetry, drama and comedy. Items in these collections are
available for hire by anybody aged fourteen and over.
The current Top Ten is not available for hire. As a condition of
the lending licence issued by the British Phonographic Industry we
have to hold these items back for three months before making them
available to the public. Any of these items will be found in
our Catalogue; the column headed 'Status' will tell you when they
should be available for loan. You can place a reservation on any of
these items free of charge.
We also have audio collections for children including songs,
stories and nursery rhymes.
The Bengali Collection
There is a small collection of Bengali books, mostly adult
fiction, in the Wheatsheaf Lending Library.
Best Sellers
Some of our libraries have "Best Sellers" collections
including titles in the current top ten best-selling fiction lists.
We also include titles in the top ten best-selling paperback list
that have not already appeared in the collection. Books in these
collections are available for two-week loans, rather than the usual
three weeks.
The Co-operative Collection
Rochdale was the birthplace of the Co-operative Movement, and
home of the Rochdale pioneers. The Wheatsheaf Library has a
collection of material on the subject of co-operation.
The collection holds nearly 1,500 items, published from 1829 to
date, relating to co-operation both in the UK and internationally.
There are books; pamphlets; yearbooks; bound volumes of news
cuttings; and also the weekly paper "Co-operative News." Material
charts the birth of the Co-operative Movement in Rochdale and the
history and development of co-operative societies around the world
to the present day
A small number of the books may be available for loan for a
short period, if there are duplicate copies. Otherwise, the
material is available for use in the reference library only.
"Featured authors"
These are small "rotating" collections which are available at a
library for a period before moving on to another library. The aims
of these collections are:
- To give customers at branch libraries the opportunity to see
titles and authors that would normally only be available at main
libraries
- To provide access to titles and subjects that probably wouldn't
be popular enough to justify our buying for any single library but
which would "earn their keep" on a Borough-wide basis (up to now
titles like this have been bought for the Wheatsheaf Library and
made available via the Library Catalogue; we are hoping that
physically circulating copies between libraries will generate more
use)
- To give us an opportunity to experiment and test the market in
our libraries, particularly to promote new writers and genre
fiction
Music sets and play sets
We have collections of sets for use by choral societies and
drama groups. There is a charge for these loans
The Polish Collection
There is a small collection of books in Polish, a mixture of
fiction and non-fiction, at the Wheatsheaf Library.
The Reminiscence Pack Collection
Reminiscence packs are collections of photographs and
memorabilia to help jog your memory of the past - recent and not so
recent - from tram cars to donkey stones; from top and whips to
liberty bodices. Topics include:
- Childhood
- Holidays
- Shopping
- Fashion
- Wartime
Reminiscence packs are available to be used with groups of
elderly people, including people living in their own homes as well
as people in residential accommodation.
For more details please contact Special Services.
Urdu Collections
There are over a thousand books in the Urdu Collection for
adults and nearly as many again in the Junior Urdu Collection.
These collections include fiction and non-fiction. Most of the
fiction is by Urdu authors but there are also examples of popular
western titles translated for Urdu readers.