Dear Volunteer,

We hope for those of you who have returned to your roles that you are enjoying being back.  We hope to welcome everyone back over the coming months, only when you are ready to do so of course.

We also hope you have caught up with all our news in the latest customer newsletter.

You may have noticed that more of our regular activities are resuming. A number of online events are happening including on Thursday 2 December, Damian Barr’s Literary Salon will be interviewing Miriam Margolyes and Mohsin Zaidi live from The London Library.

As a West Sussex library member, you can watch the discussion for free (normally £5) live on the night or as a recording after the event.

Library teams have been having lots of conversations over recent weeks and we've received feedback from customers and some staff about how library services now feel quite different to other services in the local community. We know that our group activities are operating differently to similar activities and events in schools, community centres and other venues, and our customers are telling us this. 

Throughout the different stages of the pandemic we have had to adapt and change our approach to respond to the different conditions we have found ourselves in. Sometimes there have been regulations for us to comply with, but more often we have had to make judgements based on risk assessments and guidance. 

We now have plans for taking the next steps to help us move closer to ‘business as usual’, so our services feel more like those operating around us in our communities and so we can meet the needs of our customers.  This will be a gradual process and will commence over the coming weeks.

Do get in touch with your local contact or ask the next time you are in the library to find out more.

You can search our online library catalogue and reserve books, audiobooks, DVDs, CDs and other items. Once you have found the item you are looking for you can reserve it online for collection at your local library. If it is currently out on loan, you can reserve it, for collection after it has been returned.

Search the library catalogue and reserve items

You can also manage your account and access library services 24/7 by downloading our library app, available free from the Apple Store and Google Play.

How to search the library catalogue

Open the library catalogue on our website.

Login to your account using your library card number and PIN.

Where it says ‘search the catalogue’, click in the box and put in keywords from the author’s name or from the book title.

You can also narrow your search down to a specific library, the author and the format (type) of book. If you scroll down the page, you can also select series, language, subject and publication year.

It will also tell you the status of the book, if it is on loan, available for loan, not available for loan or reference only.

If it is available for loan then you can reserve it. Just click on reserve and choose your pick-up branch. It will then appear in “my reservations”, so you can check what you have reserved.

When you have finished, log out and end session. You will be notified when the reserved items are ready to collect from your local branch.