Ramsey Commissioners is carrying out a review on its town library.

The library, which is situated on the ground floor of the town hall in Parliament Square, will have a review to see if it is providing services that are ’relevant and suitable for a modern library’, says town clerk, Peter Whiteway.

’There are currently no proposals to close the library,’ he told the Manx Independent. ’The outcome is an unknown quantity.’

He explained that this is an internal review carried out by the commissioners.

It follows the announcement of a comprehensive review of library services across the island, which is being carried out by a Tynwald select committee. The committee was set up in 2017 to investigate the adequacy, structure and funding of library services in the island.

This came after a £100,000 one-off emergency payment from the government was made to Family Library Limited for its Mobile, Home Library and Schools services.

In 2012 these library services received financial aid from the Scheinberg Family Office, which helped to prevent closures. The team behind them, however, discovered it wasn’t able to raise sufficient money to release all of the matched funding.

The committee concluded in June 2018 that ’Family Library Limited is a much valued part of the island’s library provision’.

It added: ’The Mobile, Home Library and Schools services in particular are absolutely fundamental as they provide something which is not available elsewhere.’

CoMin said £250,000 would be provided overall for two years for these services. It agreed that a working party to investigate the provision and purpose of public library services should be established with the review being completed no later than December this year.