| AIL Directory |
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| 1: Institution | The Leeds Library |
| 2: Founded | 1768 |
| 3: Postal address | 18 Commercial Street, Leeds LS1 6AL |
| 4: Tel. Fax. Email Web |
Tel: 0113 2453071 Fax: 0113 2451191 The Leeds Library website enquiries@theleedslibrary.co.uk |
| 5: AIL contact | Geoffrey Forster, Librarian |
| 6: Hours | Monday-Friday, 09.00-17.00, first Saturday of each month, 09.30-13.00 |
| 7: Membership details | Annual subscription: individual £60.00 (partners and children under 18 are also allowed to use the Library). |
| 8: Activities, publications etc. | Social events (Saturday morning and midweek talks, town walks and visits); annual Joseph Priestley lecture organized with Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society and Mill Hill Chapel; regular newsletter, The Dial (please email the library if you wish to receive an electronic copy). |
| 9: Refreshments | Coffee and tea making facilities. |
| 10: Visitors / Researchers | Individual researchers by prior appointment (please bring a letter of introduction from an appropriate institution or a professional person); group visits by arrangement; participation in Heritage Open Days in September. |
| 11: Background information | The Leeds Library is a wonderful mix of the old and the new located at the very heart of a busy shopping centre. It was founded in 1768 as a proprietary subscription library and is now the oldest surviving example of this sort of library in the British Isles. It became a charity on 1 July 2008. See the Leeds Library here! |
| 12: Collections | There is a wide-ranging modern lending collection of books, magazines, dvds and cd books and music to which about 1500 additions are made each year. A historic collection of over 140,000 books is particularly strong in travel, biography, history and literature. There are also long runs of periodicals, popular novels and children's books and special collections of Civil War pamphlets and Reformation Tracts. A collection of books on science is currently being added to the library's online catalogue. |
| 13: Building | Grade II* listed 1808 Greek Revival building by Thomas Johnson with major 1880-81 extension to the rear by Thomas Ambler. |
| 14: Status | Charitable company (charity no 1114386; company registration no 5577905) |