Home Library Service

Wollongong City Library works with local volunteers to provide a free delivery service to those who have difficulty visiting their local libary. Items are selected to meet each customer's individual needs and delivered directly to their door.

How does it work?

After joining the Home Library Service, a library representative will contact you and discuss what you would like to borrow. The library items delivered to you will fit your preferences and needs. You can change your listed preferences at any time or phone with specific requests.

You will be matched with a volunteer. This volunteer will select items for you and deliver them to your home on a regular timetable. The same volunteers deliver to the same people each time so they can offer a friendly, personalised service.

Eligibility

The Home Library Service is available to people living in the Wollongong Local government Area who are temporarily or permanently housebound due to:

• Age
• Illness or injury
• Physical or sensory impairment
• Carer responsibilities

Applicants will be required to provide a letter from their doctor or health care workers stating they are unable to personally visit the library.

Family and friends

You may have other family members or friends who are able to collect library materials from the library on your behalf. If so, you can apply for Family and Friends membership and nominate one person to use your library card and borrow items for you.

What items can I have delivered?

You can choose to borrow any items from Wollongong City Library's extensive lending collection. Some popular choices are:

• Fiction Available in standard print, paperback, large print or audio books in a wide variety of authors and genres
• Non fiction Biographies, travel tales, true crime or information on almost any topic
• Magazines Australian and overseas issues
• DVDs, Books on CD
• Music Choose from a wide variety of styles and artists
• World Languages Books, magazines, video cassettes and DVDs are available in a variety of languages.

Our catalogue is available on the Web. If you have access to the internet you can look at our catalogue and request items.

If we do not hold a particular item you are seeking, please talk to us about it. We can try to borrow it from another library or consider purchasing the item.

Self-Select

If you are not housebound but experience difficulty carrying your library items to and from home, you can apply for Self-Select Home Delivery.

As a member of the Self-Select service, you can visit the library, choose and borrow library items, and have a staff member deliver them to your home, collecting the items you wish to return at the same time. You can borrow from Corrimal, Warrawong and Wollongong Libraries. Customer loans can be delivered fortnightly or monthly.

Nursing homes

Wollongong City Library does not deliver to those residing in nursing homes but does provide bulk loans to many centres. Please talk to nursing staff to find out whether library books are available.

Becoming a volunteer

Wollongong City Library welcomes enquiries from community members wishing to join our team of volunteers. For more information about becoming a Home Library Service volunteer, please contact Volunteering Illawarra on 4225 7812 or the Outreach Services Librarian on 4227 7432.