Insider Media Limited

Plans to create a "Library of Birmingham Development Trust" are set to be revealed by the city council leader Mike Whitby today. It will coincide with a visit by culture minister Ed Vaizey to the library development site.

Vaizey, who is in Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference, will be given a tour of the site located in Centenary Square, opposite the conference venue. He will then go on to view the "Brian Griffin: Face to Face" photographic exhibition at One Snow Hill.

Due for completion in 2013, the Library of Birmingham is one of the biggest developments and cultural projects to have been undertaken both in Birmingham and the UK in the past decade.

The creation of the Library of Birmingham Development Trust - an independent charity - will raise funds to complement Birmingham City Council’s investment in the project which will be "home to some of the world’s most important archive and photographic collections". Its trustees will be drawn from leaders of the community who have a commitment to cultural services.

Whitby said: “We are close to announcing the formal creation of the Library of Birmingham Trust which will be a channel for encouraging enhanced communication between the communities served by the library on a local, national and international basis.

"Its establishment will be a forum for community input to library services, volunteering and partnership with other organisations such as universities, businesses and cultural agencies."