Bankstown’s residents now have the City’s five libraries at their fingertips thanks to Council’s new virtual library recently launched by Bankstown Mayor, Clr Khal Asfour.

“This service represents the ultimate convenience by allowing users to browse library catalogues and make book reservations, download music and talking books and access important community information 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said the Mayor of Bankstown Clr Khal Asfour.

" Amongst other things, users will also be able to search encyclopaedias, reference books and articles and receive online homework help on school term weekdays between 4pm and 8pm.

"Council has employed the best that technology has to offer in order to promote education in our community, and I urge residents to make good use of the service. 2012 is the National Year of Reading and so the recent launch was timely," Mayor Asfour said.

Further features include RSS feeds, an email option, a shopping basket function, eBooks for light reading and a single search point allowing for simultaneous searches across the entire library network.

Mayor Asfour said that the virtual library was also designed to network the community and provide an avenue for feedback.

“One of my main priorities as Mayor is to ensure that residents are given every opportunity to have their say and so we added a Purchase Suggestion service to allow users to suggest books for Council to buy.

We have also built in a social media capacity to allow for the sharing of knowledge amongst members of our community”, Mayor Asfour said.