Council Leader Looks to Libraries for Islington's Liberal History

5.28.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 24th Apr 2008

Liberal Democrat Council leader James Kempton is encouraging people to visit their local library and enjoy the benefits of library membership during 2008, the National Year of Reading. The 26th of April is national 'Join a Library' day.

Cllr James Kempton used the library to look up newspaper reports of the 1892 election in Finsbury.

To celebrate, Islington Reference Library is offering all visitors the opportunity to get a free copy of a page from The Times Newspaper for any date between 1785 to 1985.

Library visitors can search for JFK's assassination, England's World Cup victory, Queen Elizabeth II's coronation or the outbreak of the Second World War, or simply find out what happened the day they were born. The copies could make great presents for friends and family or useful research for a school history project. Library Staff will be on hand at Islington Reference Library to assist visitors.

Residents in Islington are joining libraries at a higher rate than for many years since Islington Council relaxed membership requirements (no ID is now required) and listened to customers' views on books and facilities. There were more than a million visits to Islington's libraries last year, with 1,178,801 items being borrowed.

Council leader James looked up a copy of the Times newspaper from 1892, when the people of Finsbury elected Dadabhai Naoroji as their member of Parliament. Naoroji , a member of the Liberal Party, was the UK's first Asian MP.