Liverpool Library Looks to the Future

A plan unveiled in March by Liverpool’s Central Library may be England’s answer to the United States’ Family History Library. The Central Library will spend 40 million pounds (about $64 million) to digitize millions of archive files and to create a 21st-century heritage center. The digital archives, projected to cost 10 million pounds ($16 million), will include Liverpool’s charter, birth certificates, school registers, emigration information and much more. The new heritage center will allow people all over the world to access their family histories online. Both projects should be complete by 2007, Liverpool’s 700th anniversary. For more information on the Liverpool Central Library, go to <www.liverpool.gov.uk>. Click on A to Z of Council Services, then Libraries. Under How to Find Us, click on Central Library.