Home Library Direct
If you cannot visit a library because of age, illness, disability, mobility problems or caring responsibilities, a volunteer can bring you books and audiobooks free of charge.
You can also access our online services such as reserving books and accessing our eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines.
Service for care homes and sheltered housing schemes
Our Select and Collect Service allows care homes and sheltered housing schemes to choose and borrow up to 100 books at a time for their residents. Books can be kept for up to 10 weeks and there is no charge for this service.
Please ask your local library for more information.
Services for visually impaired people
If you have a problem with your sight we offer:
- large print books in all libraries, available on request free of charge
- audiobooks in cassette, CD and MP3 format, available on request free of charge
- giant print and braille books for parents or children with visual impairment
- a selection of DVDs with audio description, for which there is a weekly hire charge
- books in braille through our inter-library loan service - the RNIB National Library Service also provides braille books free of charge to visually impaired people.
You can also obtain audiobooks from:
Services for deaf and hearing-impaired people
If you have a problem with your hearing we offer:
- books, DVDs and information on sign language and lip-reading
- hearing loops at most libraries
- DVDs in all libraries and Blu-rays in several, most of which have subtitles - these can be requested free of charge but there is a small weekly hire charge.
Other organisations that can also help are: