Books and multimedia items
Our library catalogue tells you what we have in stock and gives reading lists of suggested books on a wide variety of topics and themes.
Members can reserve books and multimedia items from any library in Cheshire East or Cheshire West and Chester and order books from libraries all over the UK.
Find out how to borrow, renew, and reserve books and multimedia items
Books to borrow
Our libraries offer a wide range of fiction and non fiction for all ages for library members to borrow.
The range includes:
- large print books
- fiction in languages other than English (search our catalogue for 'French fiction', for example, or by language in the advanced search)
- health and wellbeing books
- English as an additional language books
- Quick Read books - books by well-known authors written for people who find reading hard
- Braille books and talking books on CD
- British Sign Language learning material
- ebooks and online audio books
Multimedia items to borrow
Some libraries have collections of DVDs, talking books on CD, and language courses. Most DVDs have audio description and captions available. You can also reserve items from other libraries.
There is a small charge for most multimedia loans. If you are visually impaired or find it hard to handle books you do not have to pay for talking books or language courses.
Sheet music for orchestras and choirs
Library members can borrow sheet music for an orchestra or choir. We have our own collection of our own vocal scores (MS Excel, 39KB) and can borrow scores not in our collection and orchestral sets from other counties.
You should send your request to borrow music scores at least 6 weeks before you need the music. You can send the form up to 6 months in advance.
To find out whether a piece of music is available within Cheshire libraries without ordering, you can email interlending.requests@cheshiresharedservices.gov.uk. We need a completed online form to find out if the music is available from other county libraries.
Choose your return date carefully and leave enough time to collect, clean and return copies to the library. We can only extend loans if the music is not needed by other groups.
We will let you know within 3 weeks whether the music you have asked for is available. You can choose which library you want to collect the music from. You will need to return the music to the same library.
There is a standard charge for borrowing music scores, payable on collection.
The standard charges are:
£1 per vocal score
£30 per orchestral set
Charges will sometimes be higher (for example, for loans exceeding 4 months, or where necessary to cover additional costs) but only by prior agreement
This form will take you 5 minutes to complete.
Request music scores from the library