Ealing Central Library is set to move to a smaller location and will lose 70% of its books in a bid to cut costs and improve its technology.

Ealing Council will on Tuesday (July 12) discuss plans to move the library from its current two-floor site in Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre to a one-floor facility above the nearby Primark.

It will be used as a temporary home, for an expected five years from mid-2017, before the library moves permanently to Perceval House - which is being redveloped.

Stock reduced from 124,000 to 37,000 books

The shopping centre's owners, British Land, will build the new library - fit with new digital facilities - which the council says will reduce its running costs from £116,445 to £28,600.

But as part of the move the council is set to reduce the current total of around 124,000 books to 37,000.

Some of these will be sold to two companies - one of which supports a number of literacy charities - while many others will be redistributed between the borough's other 12 libraries or its mobile library service for people who are housebound.

Any money made from the sale will be used to reinvest in new books for the library.

If stacked on top of one another, the 87,000 books would be approximately seven times the height of the Shard skyscraper.

According to the council, only 40% of the current two-floor library is used by the pubic and only 30% of its stock on shelves is regularly borrowed.

A spokesman said it was a 'normal part of library stock management' to remove old stock in this way, some of which was reference books that were out of date.

'Changing habits'

Cabinet member for safety, culture and community services, Cllr Ranjit Dheer, said: "The way people use libraries in the 21st century is changing with an increasing number of residents borrowing electronic books and using our online services.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to create a brand new, modern library in central Ealing which reflects changing habits.

"We also want to design a space which makes it easier to browse shelves and choose from a selection of popular, relevant books.

"I am proud that despite financial challenges, Ealing has not closed any of its libraries and we welcome the opportunity to create a modern library at no cost to the council."

Under the changes, the council said the latest technology will be offering subscriptions to a wide range of magazines, newspapers, graphic novel and audio books.

It reminded library users that if a book is not available at one library it can be ordered from another within Ealing borough or elsewhere.

There will also be meeting rooms, a reading lounge area, new PCs, fixed tablets and plug in stations with free wifi internet access.

A large amount of local history materials in the library's archive will move to West Ealing Library, and remaining materials put into storage and available upon request.

The existing library space will instead be turned into more retail by British Land.