You can follow us on Facebook for a range of activities and events including Story Time, Baby Bounce & Rhyme and Craft Time. You can also join one of our Adult Book Chat, Creative Writing or Wellness groups. Simply visit Facebook/Staffordshire Libraries to take part.

Follow us on Twitter for updates and engaging posts.

Our online library is open 24 hours a day for FREE eBooks, eAudio, eMagazines, eComics and eNewspapers.

For more information about our services visit www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Libraries

Place a Reservation

Use our Order and Collect Service

Access our eLibrary

Access a range for FREE online resources

Services are available from library buildings

We are providing a limited service from the following libraries only:

Burton, Cannock, Leek, Lichfield, Perton, Newcastle, Stafford and Tamworth.

Opening times will be:

Monday to Friday 10:00 am until 4:00 pm

Saturday 9:00 am until 1:00 pm

Libraries will not open on Sundays.

Rugeley, Burntwood, Stone, Wombourne, Codsall, Kidsgrove, Biddulph, Uttoxeter and our mobile libraries will remain closed temporarily

You will be able to return books, order books for pick up via ‘order and collect’ and request books from an open library.

We will also continue to offer our Home Reader service.

There are currently no overdue charges for the late return of items.

Browsing of book stock is currently unavailable.

Public computers and printing are available to use within our 8 open libraries if booked in advance. For more information about bookings or printing contact your local library.

For more information about services at our 27 Community Managed Libraries please contact your Community Managed Library directly.

Telephone numbers for all Staffordshire Libraries can be found on the Staffordshire Libraries webpage.

When visiting a Staffordshire Library, you will be required to wear a mask or face covering. We are using contact tracing within all our buildings.

Childrens Mental Health Week 1-7th February

From 1-7 February 2021, we’re taking part in Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Express Yourself. Place2Be has created activities and resources to help children (and adults) to explore the different ways that they can share their thoughts, feelings and ideas.

There are lots of resources on the Children’s Mental Health Week website that you can use with your child at home; including activity ideas, tips for parents and carers, and an online assembly which will be available from Monday 1 February.

Visit www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk  to find out more.

In addition, our libraries stock copies of The Reading Agency’s Reading Well Books on Prescription for children and young people. These books are all recommended and endorsed by health experts, as well as by people living with the conditions covered and their relatives and carers and so provide accredited and helpful reading to support health and wellbeing.

Many are available to borrow from Borrowbox, either via the App on your smart phone or tablet, or at our eLibrary. You can also borrow physical copies by requesting online or through the ‘Order and Collect’ Service.

National Storytelling Week

National Storytelling Week runs from 30^th January to 6^th February and is a celebration of storytelling!

Sharing a story with a child is fun! It's a time for closeness, laughing and talking together – and it can also give children a flying start in life and help them become lifelong readers which is great for mental health and wellbeing.

We will be sharing a special story time each day on our Facebook and Twitter pages that you can watch together.

What better time than Childrens Mental Health Week to read with and share stories with your children?!

Jigsaw Time!

Have you tried one of our great online jigsaws yet? Some people are getting very good at these with record times of under 3 minutes coming in!

We're sharing a jigsaw every Saturday and Sunday on our Facebook Page, but here are two to get you started.

Train Jigsaw

Mouse Jigsaw

The Paris Library

Join us for a fantastic live author event on 3^rd February at 7:30pm.

Janet Skeslien Charles will be joining us from Paris to talk about her stunning novel The Paris Library. In 1983, Lily is a lonely teenager desperate to escape small-town Montana. She grows close to her neighbour Odile, discovering they share the same love of language, the same longings. But as Lily uncovers more about Odile's mysterious past, she discovers a dark secret, closely guarded and long hidden. Based on the true Second World War story of the librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable novel of heroism found in the quietest of places and the power of books as a source of hope and light in the darkest of times.

Paris and libraries – what’s not to love?!

As usual, to take part in either of these author events, just ask to join our free Book Chat group via Staffordshire Libraries’ Facebook page and look out for the links to the events being posted in the group.

All our Book Chat events are run on MSTeams which can be accessed by downloading the free app to your device from Google Play for Android or the App Store for IOS. You can also access the events by clicking on the provided link and choosing the option to take part through your internet browser.

LGBT+ History Month 2021

LGBT+ History Month has taken place every February since 2005.

LGBT+ people have made significant contributions to society, but there have been times where those people have been persecuted and discriminated against rather than celebrated for their achievements. The purpose of LGBT+ History Month is to shine a light on those achievements.

In this way LGBT+ History Month can raise awareness of, and combat prejudice against, the LGBT+ community while celebrating its achievements and diversity and making it more visible.

Throughout February we will share stories about the five faces chosen to represent this years LGBT+ History Month on our social media. We will also be sharing other interesting links, videos and resources.

We have also created an LGBTQ+ shelf, with a mix of non-fiction, fiction and books for young people, in Borrowbox. Find it at your App or via the eLibrary.

For more information about LGBT+ History Month please visit the LGBT+ History Month website or find them on Twitter at @LGBTHM

Safer Internet Day - 9th February

Safer Internet Day 2021 will be celebrated with the theme ‘An internet we trust – exploring reliability in the online world’.

Safer Internet Day inspires a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the celebration sees thousands of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

This downloadable guide provides lots of information and suggestions for how you can support the day and encourage colleagues, parents, carers and children to participate or have conversations. There are a series of tips for adults and children. There is even a template that you can ask children to populate with ideas around this years theme #AnInternetWeCanTrust

One way in which The Safer Internet Day team are asking all who care about a safer internet to help is by everyone tweeting at the same time at 8am on 9^th February the following message:

Today is Safer Internet Day! Join us and @UK_SIC this #SaferInternetDay to create a better internet – RT to show your support saferinternetday.org.uk #AnInternetWeTrust

We’ll be doing so from our @StaffsLibraries Twitter account and we’d like to encourage you to as well or find our tweet and retweet it.

You can find out more at: Safer Internet Day 2021 | Safer Internet Centre

Need some help with digital skills?

We have teamed up with our friends at Staffordshire Community Learning to bring you a group where you can discuss and raise questions around digital skills.

Receive help and advice from Community Learning IT tutors, read about new courses and the latest digital news.

Find out about online Library resources, activities and events.

Just request to join the group 

Who’s in the mood for love?

Join Lichfield Library Poet in Residence Emily Rose online at 11am on Saturday 13th February & share some of your favourite romantic (or unromantic) poetry.

To secure a place, send Emily a message at emilyrosepoet@gmail.com

Have you visited the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography yet? It's FREE to access from home with your Library card number. 

ODNB contains over 60,000 biographies, 72 million words, 11,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history.

Each day we share a famous person from British history on our Facebook and Twitter page, look out for them, follow the link and learn more!

As some of us will have celebrated Burns Night in the last week we thought we would share a photo of Robert Burns - you can find out more about him at ODNB.

Start searching by following the ODNB link on our Online Resources page.

Reading Friends

Staffordshire Library & Arts Service relaunched our Telephone Reading Friends programme again in November.

In libraries we appreciate what a difficult year it has been for many people but we’ve also seen the value attached to working with our communities to help people feel connected.  Telephone Reading Friends is available to support customers who are interested in books and reading but, for whatever reason, are finding it difficult to visit their local library at this moment in time.

Customers are matched with a member of library staff or a volunteer and telephone book chats take place once a week for a 4 week period.

The chats are entirely flexible in their content but will have books and reading at their core.

If you are interested in this service please visit the webpage or email: reading.friends@staffordshire.gov.uk

Please pass on the word about this offer for anyone you think might benefit!

Libraries - Information you can trust

Lockdowns are tough if you need extra support or want to find out how you can help others visit our library lockdown resources page.

We are constantly updating this page with new links, everything from health and wellbeing to things for children to do, virtual museum tours and the latest Coronavirus information from trusted sources.

Keep Watching the Skies!

Interested in what the night sky has in store for us in February?

Why not check out the latest guide from one of our Perton Library Astronomy Group members, Doug.

Library Membership update

We have been thrilled that since the first lockdown in March 2020 we have had over 5,000 new online members join Staffordshire Libraries and benefit from free access to all of our online content.

We are pleased to say that, due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, we will be extending everyone’s membership to 3 years from when they joined so that you can continue to enjoy access.

Anybody new who joins will automatically be given a 3 year membership as well.

To join the library please visit Self Registration - Staffordshire County Council

Please pass this on to anyone who might benefit from our Library offer.