WORCESTER’S much-anticipated £60 million super library will soon start to take shape.

Demolition diggers are busy clearing the site of the development in The Butts to make way for a state-of-the-art library and history centre.

The library, believed to be Europe’s first fully-integrated public and university library, will have a dramatic impact on the Worcester skyline when it is complete.

The site will eventually include a 120-bed hotel, public square, shops, restaurants and modern historical archive, all linked to the city centre by a new footbridge over The Butts.

Peter Parkes, Worcestershire County Council’s head of strategic projects, said: “We have now started works at the site in readiness for the start of construction of the main library and history centre building, which we anticipate will get underway by the middle of December.

“The site has been carefully excavated and this preparatory work is being planned and carried out to protect the long-term archaeological heritage of the area.”

The £60 million project is due to open in January 2012.