"There's very limited space for any form of event, activity, or studying and no ability to host meetings with more than four participants," council's manager of libraries, Chris Jones said.

"When events are held, numbers are limited and the noise impacts on other patrons. The collection is also crowded, with high and low shelves and narrow aisle widths."

The $500,000 grant from the NSW Government will help transform the way the community can utilise the space, Mr Jones said.

"At present, Wingham Library is housed in a beautiful building which the community loves, although perhaps the space is not well suited for modern library activities.

"The funding will provide an extension of the ground floor of the library, allowing for expansion of the collection, upgrading of toilet facilities and installation of shelving at more suitable heights and with greater aisle widths."

A commercially rated lift will be installed to provide access to the second storey of the building and the existing staircase will be modified to meet current DA and Building Code of Australia requirements.

"These improvements will allow us to create two distinct spaces for community use, such as meetings and hosted events," Mr Jones said.

Through the purchase of 40 chairs and six foldable tables the library will be able to hold large meetings, host events for significantly larger audiences and provide children's programs that will cater for more children and remove the impact of noise.

Part of the grant will also be used to install projection capabilities and block-out blinds, enabling a wide range of programs and events to be held.

There will also be much greater scope to cater for students and to provide a quiet study space.

"At this stage, we are planning the project timelines and we will keep the Wingham community informed once we have established dates for the works and made plans to minimise disruption to ibrary services."

The $500,000 grant was announced this week by Member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead and was made available under the 2019/20 Public Library Infrastructure Grant program.

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