left behind by the US Navy.

"We're just in the process of going through the collection and seeing what's there and what we can use,'' head librarian Ms Grace Rawlins told The Royal Gazette .

And to make space, the library has been going through its existing collection and finding books to discard, Ms Rawlins said.

Ms Rawlins said she did not yet know how many books the Navy had left Bermuda, but she thought it was fewer than 1,000. Until room was made for them, they were still located at the US Naval Air Station in St. David's which closed on September 1.

"There are some quite nice ones out there,'' Ms Rawlins said. "There didn't seem to be a preponderance of military books. It's more like a public library collection.'' Ms Rawlins said the collection of reference books was not as good as Bermuda's existing collection, but there were a few atlases and other reference volumes which would be valued additions.

The Navy also left behind shelving which is better than the shelving at the library in Hamilton, she said. So library workers have been clearing books off the existing shelves so they can be replaced.

Some discarded books will be sold through the Friends of the Library Association, she said. Others will go in the trash.

An expansion to the main library has "been talked about off and on for years, but so far nothing has happened,'' Ms Rawlins said.

There are no longer library branches at either end of the Island. Instead, there is a mobile library which serves all areas away from the headquarters on Church Street in Hamilton.