National Library to be expanded and improved

The National Library is set to get a face-lift.

The Dominion Post reported that Prime Minister Helen Clark is to announce a $70 million plan to extend and upgrade the six-storey building on Molesworth St near Parliament.

The library has been earmarked for redevelopment since 2006, but just $18 million was set aside for the project at the time.

The redevelopment was labelled necessary because the library was expected to run out of room within six years.

Budget documents issued last week said the project would provide "a transformed 21st century National Library".

The costs included better protection for heritage collections, more storage space and an "environmentally sustainable building".

The library was opened in 1987 after decades of wrangling and delays. There were warnings as the first sod was turned that it would run out of space before the turn of the last century.

In last week's budget Miss Clark announced $46.6 million in capital and $800,000 in operating funding over the next four years to do up Government House in Wellington.

- NZPA