RUSKIN College is launching a major fundraising campaign for a new library to honour former Premier Jim Callaghan.

The college, in Oxford, believes it will be the first library in the country to be named after a former British Prime Minister.

It will be one of the centrepieces of Ruskin's £20m scheme to modernise its 20-acre site in Old Headington.

The college, which has strong trade union links and is not part of Oxford University, was created to provide educational opportunities for adults with few or no qualifications.

The Callaghan Library, costing more than £1m, will commemorate a landmark speech the former Labour Party leader chose to deliver at Ruskin in 1976.

The speech, which called for a return to basic standards in the "three Rs", set out to inspire a national debate on education.

Lord Callaghan died in 2005, aged 92. Members of his family, led by his daughter Baroness Jay, are expected to attend the launch of the appeal at Ruskin today.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair will act as joint honorary presidents of the fundraising committee.

The principal of Ruskin College, Prof Audrey Mullender, said the present library at Ruskin's site in Walton Street was "no longer fit for purpose".

Lack of space meant more than a third of its books were kept in storage.

City councillors last month welcomed Ruskin's plans to turn its site in Old Headington into the college's main campus.

Under the masterplan the historic Rookery would be enlarged and restored and its landscaped setting improved.

Almost a third of the money due to be spent in Old Headington over the next three years will go on the new library and teaching area next to the Grade II listed Rookery.

Prof Mullender said: "At this important time in the college's life, Ruskin needs its friends to help it achieve a £20m vision to make our second century of offering second chances as successful as the first."