MALVERN Library's £1.5 million extension is on course for completion early next year.

It will include more space for books, along with a cafe and shop, new local history section, internet area, better access to the art gallery, a new entrance and a lift.

The library is advertising for someone to run the cafe and shop, which will be on the lower ground floor.

Malvern Library is already the busiest in Worcestershire and it is expected the improvements will increase its use still further.

"The new library will be bigger and offer vastly improved services. It will be worth all the disruption," said Nigel Preedy, strategic library manager for south Worcestershire.

He said any closures during the work will be kept to a minimum.

The new two-storey extension at the rear should be completed by September. Current library services will be housed there temporarily while the old building is refurbished.

The library may have to close for a short period but the Malvern Hills Customer Service Centre will remain open throughout.

The library on Graham Road opened in 1906, was extended in the 1930s and remodelled in the 1960s. It was funded by local benefactor C W Dyson Perrins and the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.