Manchester's new city centre library opens on Monday.

The Elliot House site, on the corner of Deansgate and Lloyd Street, will serve the city for the next three years, while Central Library undergoes a multi-million pound refurbishment and restoration project.

The landmark St Peter's Square building will be closed until 2013. The general readers' library, local studies service, research material, DVDs, newspapers and magazines will be available in the Elliot House building, which is called City Library.

Coun Mike Amesbury said: “We’re heading into an exciting time for Manchester’s library service and the improvements being made to Central Library will secure it for future generations.

“In the meantime we’ve got an excellent new library, City Library, on Deansgate, providing all the services that our visitors have come to expect. There are, of course, a number of other libraries around the city, and a Manchester library card will enable members to use any of these as well.”

Nearly one million books from the Central Library – including valuable volumes dating back to the 15th century – have been put into temporarily storage with many going deep underground in Cheshire salt mines.

When Central Library reopens, it will have a state-of-the-art lending library and an electronic catalogue and archive centre, to bring historic local collections under one roof.

A one-stop customer services centre will also be created on the ground floor of the town hall extension.

City Library is open Monday to Thursday, 9am to 8pm, and Friday and Saturday, 9am to 5pm.

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