BOROUGH library staff dished out free books to visitors in a Stourbridge park as part of World Book Night.

Members of staff from Dudley libraries were in Mary Stevens Park in Norton for three hours last Thursday (April 23) as part of the nationwide book event, which follows World Book Day in March and aims to inspire more people to become enthusiastic about reading.

Deborah Harkins, chief officer responsible for libraries, said: “World Book Night is a great way of helping to inspire more people to read and for people to share their love of reading with others.

“Reading for pleasure has been shown to positively influence our well-being and health professionals endorse self-help reading as a way of dealing with common conditions such as anxiety and depression."

As well as handing out books to passers-by at the Norton Road beauty spot, courtesy of national charity The Reading Agency, library staff were there to promote the services on offer at libraries across the borough and remind people they can borrow an array of up-to-date titles from their local library free of charge.

A host of events were also held at other libraries across the borough, as part of the initiative, including a coffee morning at Lye Library and a quiz night at Dudley Library.