Nottingham Central Library

The largest library in Nottingham and the principal library in the East Midlands, offering a range of general and specialised library services over 4 floors. The library is located in the same building as the Nottingham City Council Contact Centre.

• Opening Times
• Regular Activities
• Ground Floor
• Floor 1
• Floor 2
• Floor 3

Opening Times

*Note - Ground floor will open at 8.30 Mon - Fri, all other floors will open at 9.00am.

Regular Activities

All these events are free

• Totstime every Thursday 10:45am to 11:15am
• Conversation class for learners of English every Thursday 2:30pm to 4:15pm
• Language Cafe every Saturday 1pm to 3pm
• Work Club - not currently running until further notice.  Please visit our Jobs and Training Information page for details of sessions in other libraries
• 'Tangled yarns' on alternate Tuesday afternoons 1:00pm to 3:00pm in the Cecil Roberts Room -  Bring along your knitting, crochet, needles and yarn as you chat, learn and share your skills. It's a great way to make new friends and be inspired from our knitting books. All skill levels welcome and a small amount of materials for beginners will be provided. For further information contact Nottingham Central Library on 0115 915 2825
• Book Group 1^st Thursday of the month 5:45pm to 7pm
• Crime Readers’ Group Last Tuesday of the month 2pm to 3:15pm
• Readers’ Group 1^st Tuesday of the month 5pm to 6pm
• Reading for Pleasure 1^st Tuesday of the month 11:30am
• Reading for Mental Health Book Group Last Saturday of the month 10:30am to 11:30am
• Listening Chain 2^nd Wednesday of the month 2pm to 3pm

Ground Floor

• Fiction - including large print and talking books 
• Drop-in PCs
• Children's Library 
• African Caribbean collection
• Parents Collection
• Adult Literacy collection, including life skills, basic maths and English
• WiFi

Floor 1 Local Studies Library

• Meeting rooms for hire 
• Exhibition space 
• Books, pamphlets and reports
• Newspapers Broadsheets and printed ephemera
• Family History 
• Historical directories
• Local council documents
• Discover Nottingham’s History app
• Maps
• Nottinghamshire information index
• Oral history recordings and transcripts, including the The Italian Connection project 
• Periodicals, news-sheets, reports from local clubs, societies and companies
• Photographs 
• Book a computer 
• WiFi
• Microfilm and Microfiche readers

Accessing the material: A small collection of materials for loan is available on Floor 1, but most of the Local Studies collection is for use in the library only. Please ask staff at the Help Desk to find the items you require.

Floor 2

• Meeting room and IT learning suite for hire 
• Book a computer
• Books and reference materials: computers, sociology, religion, law, science, medicine, engineering, animals and pets, cookery, philosophy, psychology, languages and management
• Books in a wide range of Community languages - from Amharic to Welsh. There are also some reference books. The languages provided include Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Polish, Punjabi, and Urdu
• Newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times and a selection in other languages
• InBusiness collection: company information and  product information
• UK phone directories, including Yellow Pages
• Health Information collection
• Jobs Info Point: Careers information, courses, college and university prospectuses
• Official Publications, legislation, White Papers and Hansard
• Online Reference and Information Resources  instant access to full text information, including newspapers, business information, and the humanities
• Fax and photocopier
• Clearview Spectrum Machine - allows magnification of print in books, magazines etc 
• WiFi
• One2One computer help sessions 
• Study areas
• Young People's area: with a fiction collection and other books and information on including careers, skills, relationships and music
• Vending machines for a selection of Hot Drinks, Cold Drinks and Snacks
• Toilets
• UK Online Centre - offers free or low cost computer and internet access

Floor 3

• Books and reference materials: arts, crafts, music, theatre, film and television, biographies, travel and history
• DVD collection: film, television (including box sets) and non-fiction such as documentaries and learning skills
• Music CDs collection
• Printed music - chamber, classical and popular; learning to play instruments
• Music sets - now part of NPALS at Radford-Lenton Library
• Drama and Play sets - now part of NPALS at Radford-Lenton Library
• Broadsheet newspapers - dailies, Sundays and limited back files
• Magazines covering the subjects on this floor - including limited back files
• Maps and atlases - Ordnance Survey and foreign maps and atlases, for loan and reference use
• Newspapers on microfilm - Times (1785 onwards), Guardian (1961 to 1994) and Sunday Times (1977 onwards), Times Digital Archive online
• Book a computer
• Photocopier 
• WiFi
• Study areas