Access the Library’s world-class collections and services through our modern and comfortable reading rooms.
Within the reading rooms you can:
- request and access collection items
- speak to expert staff
- search and access electronic resources including journals, ebooks, indexes and databases
- use our computers and internet for free
- browse our reference collection
- photocopy, scan and print
As we are a reference library you can use collection items in our reading rooms but not take them home. We are also a closed stack library, meaning our collection storage areas cannot be visited by the public except on our behind the scenes tour.
Instead, you can conveniently request items through our online catalogue, and we will deliver them to one of our three reading rooms for you to use:
- Main Reading Room – including Newspapers and Family History
- Special Collections Reading Room – including the Petherick Reading Room
- Asian Collections Reading Room
The time it takes for items to be delivered varies between rooms, so be sure to check our collection delivery times and login to your account with your Library card before you visit. Don't have a Library card? Apply for one online.