BUY NONE - GET 30 FREE!!!  There are not many places you can go and use without spending a penny, but for over twenty five years the Chandler’s Ford Library has been offering just this!

Did you know the Chandler’s Ford Library is located at the Mall, opposite the Fryern Arcade?

We are open six days a week.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday – 9.00am to 5.00pm
Tuesday and Thursday – 9.00am to 7.00pm
Saturday – 9.00am to 4.00pm

It’s free to join the library, and anyone can have a card even if they are one day old or one hundred years old! Once you have received your card you can take home up to 30 items at a time.

As well as all the books you would expect to see at a library, which are free to borrow, we also offer a great range of spoken word CDs, cassettes, DVDs, music CDs, Playstation 2 games and CD ROMs. These are available for a small hire charge, but if you have trouble reading print you can also borrow them for free.

We have also just launched Playaways. These are pre-loaded MP3 players with audio versions of popular novels and biographies. You can borrow the pack as if it’s a Spoken Word Cassette or CD, pop in your own battery, plug in your headphones and press play. They are highly recommended when working out at the gym or doing boring tasks like dusting!

Having problems with your computer? Why not come and use ours.

We have seventeen internet-enabled personal computers that are free to use for up to 2 hours a day. All you need to login is your library card, and a PIN number (please ask our staff to provide this to you). We can also arrange to do full colour prints for you for just 20p a page.

Shhh – do you want to know a secret? Libraries can be noisy places. Silence is definitely not required! We welcome families and are child-friendly.

As well as a great choice of books for children, we run a weekly story time (every Monday 2.15-2.45) and a monthly Baby Rhymetime on the first Tuesday of every month from 10.00am to 10.30am. These sessions are free to come to and are a great place to meet other parents and encourage a love of books in your infant child.

Our Chatterbooks group meets every other month, for children aged eight to twelve years old. It is all about books, chat, quizzes and games including lots of fun together!

The Summer Reading Challenge is our popular annual event for school age children, with well over seven hundred starting the challenge at Chandler’s Ford each summer. The aim is to read six books during the long summer holiday, collecting stickers along the way. Once you have got all six, you will get a certificate and a medal. The theme for 2009 is “Quest Seekers” and will start on Monday 13th July.


We also have a calendar of events so that adults do not feel left out, with visiting authors, speakers and workshops running throughout the year. Not to mention the reading groups, writer’s group, Knit and Natter group, Spanish Café and Scrabble Club!

Check out the what’s on at our website – Chandlersford Library

*Stop Press* - Between the Lines. An evening with Andrew Martin on 27th May 2009 at 7.30pm.

As part of the Eastleigh Railway Works Centenary Celebrations, Andrew Martin the author of the popular detective novels set in the Edwardian era featuring the railway sleuth Jim Stringer, will be at the Chandlers Ford library to talk about his novels, writing and railways.

Some other things you might not know about the library: -

• Libraries are there for everyone, whatever your needs and abilities. Ask about computer training and reading groups for visually impaired people. Borrow a Quick Read if you want something in plain, simple English.

• If you need to know something, we will try and find the answer for you.

• You can request any item not stocked at your local library. If it is not available through Hampshire libraries we will try other libraries for you.

• You can borrow books in a whole range of different languages.

• If you can not get to the library, we will bring it to you – ask about the Good Neighbour Scheme and the Home Library Service.

• People who work in libraries are friendly and keen to help you.

• And did we mention – it is free!

Chandler’s Ford Library has something for everyone so why not come and check us out?