Bradford Libraries Information and Archives Service

Title: Bradford Libraries Information and Archives Service

Description: Bradford Libraries Information and Archives Service is a major public library service with extensive lending collections of fiction and non-fiction resources and important reference and business information services and stocks. Particular strengths of the collections in the region are the significant stocks of books in South Asian languages and the 'Black Focus' collections, containing material about African Caribbean culture and heritage.
The Bradford Central Library is the region's main public library. Its collections are divided into the following 5 main sections/departments:

• 1. Adult Lending - Including the following general interest sections: Fiction, Asian and Polish language books, Community Information, Council Information, Black Focus, Languages and Literature, General Biographies, Science and Technology, Social Science, Psychology, Religion, History, etc.
• 2. - Sound and Vision - Records, Cassettes, CDs, CD-ROMs, Videos and Audio books for loan.
• 3. Business and Commerce
• 4. Reference and Study - Reference material on most subjects, Newspaper backfiles, Periodicals, Law Reports, Government Publications, Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, Maps, etc.
• 5. Local Studies - Reference Books on Bradford, Family History Sources, Oral History, Local Newspapers on Microfilm, etc.

The Central Library has collections of resources in the following five South Asian languages—Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Hindi. This material covers a wide range of different subject areas and interest levels and includes both fiction and non-fiction titles. The Adab collection in particular provides an extensive range of quality literature and poetry in Urdu and Punjabi and in English translation. Smaller collections of books in Pashto, Farsi and Arabic are also available.
Each department in Bradford Central library has computer-based 'Information Stations' offering access to the Internet, Multimedia CD-ROMs, a CD-ROM guide to the Central Library and its services, and the Library catalogue. Indexes (e.g. Clover Newspaper Index) and other finding guides to the Library's resources, and to other published material and sources of information, are available in the Central Library's Reference Department

Strengths: Material on the history and culture of Pakistan and its peoples; Urdu language resources; Religious studies resources; Information on race relations in Britain.

Size: c. 10,000 titles covering the history and literature of Black and Asian peoples

Catalogue:

Catalogue URL:

Main URL: http://www.bradford.gov.uk

Access: Open access. Members of the public wishing to borrow books from the Central Library need to obtain a library ticket, available on production of two forms of identity (including full name, address and signature).
Central library opening hours: Monday - Friday 9:00am - 7:30pm / Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm.

Acquisition dates: 1896 - present (c.80% acquired post 1975)

Note:

Interest: Asian, Black

Complete: Complete

Subjects

Religions

Literature

Indic languages

Ethnic groups

Cultural relations

Personal/Corporate names

Places

South Asia