Library Service Update

Our current status remains as on the 17th May. As we slowly move out of lockdown the 16 Staffordshire County Managed Libraries:

Biddulph, Burntwood, Burton, Cannock, Codsall, Kidsgrove, Leek, Lichfield, Newcastle, Perton, Rugeley, Stafford, Stone, Tamworth, Uttoxeter, and Wombourne added to their current service.

• You are able to choose items via managed browsing. We are currently limiting the number of people who can access our libraries at any one time in order to keep you safe.
• You are able to return and request books and order books for pick up via ‘order & collect’ and ‘grab & go’
• We will continue to offer our Home Reader service.
• There are currently no overdue charges for the late return of items.
• Bookable study space is available.
• Some of our libraries have access to meeting space for more information contact your local library.
• Public computers and printing are available for essential use within our open libraries if booked in advance. For more information about bookings or printing contact your local library.
• Staff assisted photocopying is available within our libraries.

The mobile library service is also offering managed browsing as well as an ‘order & collect’ service at a limited number of stops.

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 operating NHS Test and Trace within all our buildings.

Books will continue to be quarantined/ and or cleaned after handling.

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.

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to enjoy online activity, information, news and updates about or services 

Our eLibrary is open 24 hours a day for FREE eBooks, eAudio, eMagazines, eComics and eNewspapers and we have a range of FREE online resources including the ever popular Ancestry, still available at home!

For opening times visit or more information about our current service visit www.staffordshire.gov.uk/libraries

Are you ready for The Summer of Reading?

The Summer of Reading launched on 14 June, and we want to invite you all to take part! Over 20
organisations have teamed up to collaborate on a shared programme of activity for the summer,
as together we aim to reach as many families and young people as possible. Please head to www.readingagency.org.uk/SummerofReading to see some of the
activity that is planned throughout the summer and also includes resources and events to keep children reading over the summer.

We’d love you to share what you are reading this summer or what reading activities you have planned – let us know online using the hashtag #SummerOfReading

Creative Explorers ‘Go Wild’ Arts Award!

Achieve your Discover Arts Award at home over the Summer Holidays! Get Creative with our weekly online activities & Wild Wednesday Zoom Workshops

Have fun finding out about different art & artists Complete your own Explorers logbook and get a FREE Arts Award certificate!

You can sign up now! - all details of how to take part are on our website:

Creative Explorers

Discover at Home with Creative Explorers is aimed at children aged 5-12

*All abilities are welcome, if you have any additional needs, please contact us through the website*

Limited places are available, please register by 24 July.

We have a fantastic Summer for you over on our Facebook Book Chat group with a host of great author events for members to enjoy.

On 7th July at 7.30pm, we’ll be chatting to CWA Dagger in the Library 2019 award winning author Kate Ellis, author of many historical thrillers, about her writing and her latest novel, ‘The Stone Chamber’, her twenty-fifth book in the Wesley Peterson series.

On 19th July at 7.30pm we’ll be talking to Martin Edwards. He’s a prolific author of crime and mysteries, as well as poetry and anthologies within the Crime Classics series. His latest novel, ‘The Crooked Shore’, is the eighth book in the Lake District Cold Case Mysteries series. Martin is a member of the Murder Squad collective of crime writers and is chairman of the nominations sub-committee for the CWA Diamond Dagger - crime writing's most prestigious award. 

And for a teaser for August, look out on the 4th August, for our chat with Emma Haughton, author of ‘The Dark’, her  chilling new thriller for adults, due to be published in August 2021.

Plus, authors Nicola Cornick and Jane Wenham-Jones will be joining us on 18th August, to discuss their latest books, ‘The Last Daughter’ and ‘Old Enough to Know Better’, great reads for the summer!

To take part in any of these FREE chats just join our Facebook page group at https://facebook.com/groups/StaffsLibrariesBookChat

Donate I.T. to help local people get connected

Staffordshire County Council is working with the Community Foundation for Staffordshire to provide recycled I.T. equipment to local people.

There are still people in our communities who don’t have the I.T. equipment they need to learn, apply for jobs, access health services, and reduce loneliness.

To help we’ve set up eight drop off points within libraries, where people can donate I.T. equipment they’re no longer using.

What do we need?   

• laptop (with charger)
• tablet
• keyboard
• mouse

Find out more - ask about the scheme at your local library or visit the web page www.staffordshire.gov.uk/DonateIT.

During these COVID times, digital health has never been more important to support our residents with their mental wellbeing, healthy living and even condition management.

We have a partnership with the world’s leading, independent digital health evaluation and distribution organisation, ORCHA, and using their technology you can easily recommend the best health and care apps to residents and service users in Staffordshire via our digital health app library at staffordshire.orcha.co.uk.

The health app finder tool can help you to find top rated apps across different areas, such as stopping smoking, improving your mental wellbeing, keeping active and managing health conditions.

Working in partnership with us, ORCHA help indicate whether an app appears to be safe and of value across a number of rated areas. Any score below 65% indicates that an app has some issues that users should investigate further prior to using this app. To help you decide if the app is for you, there's a list of the functions, and screenshots to show you how each of the feature works.

If you're wanting to improve your health, or the health of someone around you, make your first search on the health app finder to start improving your daily life.

Visit the App Finder Website

Could you or someone you know be the next Young Poet Laureate for Staffordshire?

Young people with a love of poetry are being invited to put themselves forward for the role of Staffordshire Young Poet Laureate.

The role is open to teens aged 14 to 18 and is a one year position. Applicants must either live or study in Staffordshire, share a love of poetry and a desire to promote it. 

Applications close at 5pm on 16th July.

To find out more or to download an application form please visit our Poet Laureate website

Why not discover your Family Tree this Summer?

Staffordshire Library members can still access Ancestry Library Edition at home, thanks to Proquest and Ancestry UK, until the end of September 2021 so you can really get stuck into your family history now!

To access the site you need to log in to your Library account here 

You then need to make sure you are in the ‘Account’ section and scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the link where it says ‘Access Ancestry Online’.

Here's a handy Ancestry Guide to help get you started.

Health Information Week - Public Information

Ever start looking at health information online and think “Oh I don’t know what to believe …” ?

High quality health information can have a huge impact on your ability to stay healthy and manage illnesses effectively, giving you a better quality of life.

Below is some information to help you make sure you can trust the health information you are reading or viewing.

What to ask

There are a few simple questions you can ask yourself when looking at health information:

1. Where did the information come from? Who produced it? Was it the NHS or a trusted charity or health organisation? Is the information relevant to the UK?
2. How current is the information? When was it published or last updated? Health information changes over time – make sure it is up to date.
3. Is it easy to use and understand?
4. Is it based on multiple evidence reviews or case studies? Look for clear references.
5. Why has it been produced? Is it to inform or is there an agenda? Is the website profit driven?

It is also a good idea to cross-check information. This means looking to see if it is repeated by more than one reliable source.​

Find out more and browse the list of trusted sources at the Health Information Week website

Reading Well for Children

Almost two thirds of children aged 8-11 say they feel stressed, sad or worried at least once a month. Reading Well books for children helps children understand feelings & cope with tough times.

Every Staffordshire Library has a collection of Reading Well books for children and another for young people and many are also available to loan from the BorrowBox App.

The Reading Well collections 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.

Enhancing the safety of girls and women in public places survey

The Government has launched a new fund to improve and address the safety of girls and women in public/urban spaces. 

This fund is called the Safer Street Fund 3 and is led by the Home Office. 

It is important that we understand the views and experiences of women and girls over the age of 12 so that if successful we are able to work with existing services and partners to enhance services for young girls and women who live, work, and socialise within our community.

It is important we gain an insight into the experiences, those not reported as well as those reported, of girls and women to improve the safety of public spaces.

If you are aware of anyone who might have been a victim of harassment, intimidation or violence in a public place please share this consultation with them.

Please complete the survey

Have you switched to NewsBank yet?

Get the newspapers you love direct to your phone, laptop or device!

NewsBank is our electronic newspaper resource that you can read on your laptop, tablet or other device at home, available with your library card.

The is a wide range of searchable local, regional and national newspapers, including 4 ‘image editions’ of The Telegraph, Guardian/Observer, Times and Daily Mail.

If you haven’t tried NewsBank yet, it is time you did! Click here and start reading.

Please note: When logging into NewsBank from the first login screen please select ‘No Username and Password. Click here for additional login options’ and enter name of Library authority (Staffordshire) and your Library Card number.

Novel Perceptions Research Project

As part of the Novels That Changed Our World programme the BBC are working with the University if Wolverhampton on some research into reading and they are keen to get everyone involved through an online survey.

Who decides what’s part of the canon of English literature? Why are women novelists considered less ‘literary’ than their male counterparts? Can computers help us understand literary quality? These are some of the questions being explored by the Novel Perceptions project based at the University of Wolverhampton.

Bringing together a team of literary scholars, computational linguists, sociologists and psychologists, the project aims to map the public's reading preferences and explore the role of novels in British culture: what do we really think makes a good book?

In order to do this, they need your help - they're conducting what aims to be the largest ever survey of attitudes towards contemporary fiction. This invites you to give your opinions of novels published in the last 6 years (including ones you haven't read yet). You can review as many as you like: each one will take just a couple of minutes to rate.

How many of these 400 novels have you read? Take the survey and have your say!

Calling all Local History writers!

The Staffordshire History Festival is coming this September and October and we're looking for local history authors to work with us.

We are looking to showcase local history writers around the county as part of the festival. This will be in the form of short, written cameos which will appear on Staffordshire Libraries’ Facebook pages during the period of the Festival. If you would like the opportunity to promote your book and your particular interest in your locality, please get in touch with Hilary Riley at hilary.riley@staffordshire.gov.uk.

What's on in the Night Sky in July

Our Perton Library Astronomy Group volunteer, Doug, has produced another of his excellent guides to the night sky, for July. Just click here

Happy viewing!

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.

Where would we be this Health Information Week without Joseph Lister, surgeon and founder of a system of antiseptic surgery?

Find more biographies via our Online Resources page.