Public Libraries in the East Midlands
Public library services in the East Midlands are delivered by the nine local authorities of Derby, Derbyshire, Leicester, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Rutland.
All public library services offer a wide range of books for adults and children, have reference collections and information services that deal with enquiries from the straightforward to the highly complex, and enable access to a range of digital resources including e-books and e-magazines. Some offer CDs, talking books and DVDs for loan at a small charge.
There are 282 public libraries in the East Midlands which are open for more than 10 hours each week, and 37 mobile libraries serving a regional resident population of 4.48 million.
Public libraries are open for over 10,000 hours every week across the region and the East Midlands has some of the busiest libraries in the UK including Chesterfield Library in Derbyshire which recorded 683,784 visits in 2011/12. Nottingham Central Library issued over 348,370 items in 2011/12 and Leicester Central Library recorded 346,362 visitors in the year.
The region's public libraries stock over 6.5 million books, as well as more than 368,000 music sound recordings, talking books, videos and DVDs.
Almost 695,000 new books and 63,000 audio visual and electronic items were added to library stocks in 2011/12. East Midlands' public libraries lend around 20 million books and 1.2 million audio visual items every year. Over 4,400 items were supplied to other library services from the region's libraries and over 6,270 items were received on inter-library loan.
There are over 19 million visits to public libraries in the East Midlands every year and there were an estimated 2.8 million visits to the region’s library websites.
Library staff answer over 2.4 million enquiries every year and every library service offers access to the Internet - the majority free of charge. There are more than 2,700 computers for public use, offering access to the library catalogue and internet.
A wide range of on-line resources are available for reference, information and study purposes, many of them are accessible 24 hours a day through library service websites. More than 70 libraries across the region offer wi-fi access.
Almost 1,300 FTE staff work in public libraries in the East Midlands and more than 1,200 volunteers help libraries engage with their local communities.
For more information: Please see the reports below; the figures are for the year 2011/12 and they are taken from the CIPFA statistical returns completed by each local authority.
Books and audio visual issues and interlibrary loans 2011-12 
Bookstock and audio visual stock 2011-12
Population, borrowers, visits and enquiries 2011-12
Service points and mobiles, opening hours, electronic workstations and wi-fi access 2011
The region's busiest libraries 2011-12
Meeting rooms for hire in East Midlands public libraries
A number of libraries across the region have meeting rooms or learning and training centres which are available to hire. The best way to find out what authorities can offer is to email them using links on the LIEM website
Some East Midlands libraries have pages on their websites providing information about the services they can offer. The links below may be of assistance.
Derbyshire also see the list of Derbyshire libraries
Lincolnshire - Lincoln Central Library; also see list of Lincs libraries
Northamptonshire - see list of Northants libraries and Meeting room charges (in pdf document)
Rutland - see list of libraries and charges
