People hunting for their ancestors and long-lost friends can benefit from new facilities at Dunstable Library.

Many visitors to the library are eager to locate family members or friends, and in response to the demand for information staff have attended a special training course, on Finding People.

New technology has aided people's quest to research their family tree, find relatives or old acquaintances.

Friends Re-United-style websites, internet genealogy databases and easily searchable CD versions of the electoral register have provided a boost to those probing into the present or past.

Library staff can help the public search the UK-info disc, containing the public versions of the electoral register, and demonstrate the helpful websites on the Finding People section of the Bedfordshire Libraries Gateway to the Internet.

History buffs can also visit new local studies centre the Bedfordshire Heritage Library, at Bedford Central Library. The resource plays host to an invaluable set of local material, including two collections of works by John Bunyan and a series of letters by Victorian novelist Mark Rutherford.

Old local Bedfordshire directories, poll books, topographical works, early journals and magazines, bound volumes of newspapers and maps are also available.

Much of the material is helpful for people doing local family history research, and the Heritage Library is open from 9.30am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm on Tuesdays only, and at other times by appointment.