What You Can Borrow

You don't have to be a library member to visit our libraries but if you'd like to borrow books or other resources you will need to join the library.

If you love your library and would like to show support, please consider a donation.

MAKE A DONATION

When you become a member of Milton Keynes Libraries you can borrow items from any of the 9 libraries and items can be renewed at or returned to any library (including the Mobile Library). Full members can borrow up to 15 items plus digital books.

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Books and Reading

Whether you are looking for fiction or non-fiction we will have the right book for you. Milton Keynes Libraries hold books in a variety of formats.

  • Large Print - All Milton Keynes Libraries stock a range of large print books.  Whilst not all books published are produced in large print, most of the popular novels and some factual books, such as biographies or travel stories, are published in this format.  Reservations can be made for Large Print Books and Library members who are visually impaired can make a reservation free of charge.
  • Graphic Novels - from Batman to Manga.
  • Children's Books - from Board Books for your Babies to Early Readers and Homework help.
  • Teenage Books
  • Community Language Books - for adults and children.
  • Reading Group Box Sets
  • Quick Reads - Basic Skills Collection

Milton Keynes Libraries also participates in many events like the Summer Reading Challenge and information is available as the schemes become active.

We have a collection of Mood Boosting Books available for library members to borrow. These books have been recommended by readers as being upbeat and having lifted their spirits.

Recommendations

You can always recommend an item for adding to lending stock by using the online form.  If you would prefer, you can also make suggestions for new purchases by filling in a recommendation form at one of our libraries.

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Banned Books

Banned Books Week was initiated by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1982 in response to an increasing number of challenges in the US to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week UK is a week long celebration of the freedom to read, coordinated by partner organisations in association with the ALA.

What do we mean by ‘Banned’?
By ‘banned’, we mean any book that has been censored, banned or where its removal or restriction has been called for from libraries, schools, bookshops or public circulation. A book might be challenged by individuals, private pressure groups or governments who disagree with its content or message and therefore wish to censor or silence the author’s voice.

Banned Books Week in 2018 runs from 23-29 September.

Here's a list of Banned Books from Milton Keynes Libraries - how many have you read?

JUNIOR AND YOUNG ADULT

  • Sherman Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
  • Anonymous - Go Ask Alice
  • Jay Asher –Thirteen Reasons Why
  • Judy Blume - Forever 
  • Judy Blume – Blubber
  • Melvin Burgess – Junk  
  • Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • Robert Cormier – The Chocolate War
  • Linda De Haan – King and King
  • Emily Danforth – The Miseducation of Cameron Post
  • John Green – The Fault in our Stars
  • Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
  • James Howe – Totally Joe
  • Robie Harris – Let’s Talk about Sex
  • Robie Harris – Where Babies Come From
  • David Levithan – Two Boys Kissing
  • Lois Lowry – The Giver
  • Caroline Mackler – The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
  • Stephanie Meyer – Twilight
  • Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - Alice (series)
  • Dav Pilkey - Captain Underpants (series)
  • Dav Pilkey – The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (Series)
  • Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials (series)
  • Louise Rennison – Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging
  • Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell - And Tango Makes Three
  • J K Rowling – Harry Potter (series)
  • Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer
  • Mark Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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ADULT

  • Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  • Margaret Atwood – The Handmaids Tale
  • Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and the Margarita
  • Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
  • Robert Guterson – Snow Falling on Cedars
  • Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
  • Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
  • Ken Kesey – One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • D H Lawrence – Lady Chatterley’s Lover
  • Harper lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye
  • Toni Morrison – Beloved
  • Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita
  • Boris Pasternak – Doctor Zhivago
  • Salman Rushdie – The Satanic Verses
  • J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
  • Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis
  • John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men
  • Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five
  • Alice Walker – The Color Purple

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Recently Added Titles

Here are some of the new adult titles recently added to the shelves at Milton Keynes Libraries. To see more titles added over the past few months visit the Added to the Shelves web page

FICTION

  • Edoardo Albinati – The Catholic School
  • Ace Atkins – The Shameless
  • Dale Bailey – In the Night Wood
  • Nicola Barker – I Am Sovereign
  • Haylen Beck – Lost You
  • Oliver Bottini – The Dance of Death
  • Pierce Brown – Dark Age
  • Rown Hisayo Buchanan – Starling Days
  • Louise Candlish – Those People
  • Ted Chiang - Exhalation
  • Karen Cleveland – Keep You Close
  • Robert Crais – A Dangerous Man
  • Luca D’Andrea – Sanctuary
  • Paul Doherty – Death’s Dark Valley
  • Gavin Extence – The End of Time
  • Ann Granger – A Murderer’s Apprentice
  • Anne Holt – A Grave for Two
  • Anna Hope - Expectation
  • Arlene Hughes – The Girl from the Corner Shop
  • Graham Hurley – Sight Unseen
  • Howard Jacobson – Live a Little
  • M R C Kasasian – The Room of the Dead
  • Joanna Kavenna – Zed
  • Christobel Kent – A Secret Life
  • Angie Kim – Miracle Creek
  • Joseph Knox – The Sleepwalker
  • Dorothy Koomson – Tell Me Your Secret
  • Dean Koontz – The Night Window
  • Shari Lapena – Someone We Know
  • Stephen Leather – Short Range
  • Laura Lippman – Lady in the Lake
  • Phoebe Locke – The July Girls
  • Claire Lombardo – The Most Fun We Ever Had
  • Peter Lovesey – Killing with Confetti
  • Alexander McCall Smith – The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
  • Adrian McKinty – The Chain
  • Gilly MacMillan – The Nanny
  • Deborah Moggach – The Carer
  • Santa Montefiore – The Secret Hours
  • Fiona Neill – Beneath the Surface
  • Jo Nesbo – The Knife
  • David Nicholls – Sweet Sorrow
  • Barney Norris – The Vanishing Hours
  • James Patterson – Hush Hush
  • Lesley Pearse – You’ll Never See Me Again
  • Louise Pentland – Wilde Women
  • Heidi Perks – Come Back for Me
  • Henry Porter – White Hot Silence
  • Christopher Priest - Episodes
  • Nora Roberts – Under Currents
  • Richard Roper – Something to Live For
  • Anthony Ryan – The Wolf’s Call
  • Riley Sager – Lock Every Door
  • Simon Scarrow - Pirata
  • Nicholas Searle – A Fatal Game
  • Daniel Silva – The New Girl
  • Neal Stephenson – Fall, or Dodge in Hell
  • Peter Tremayne – Blood in Eden
  • Lynne Truss – The Man That Got Away
  • L C Tyler – The Maltese Herring
  • Andrew Wilson – Death in a Desert Land

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NON-FICTION

  • Nimko Ali – What We’re Told Not to Talk About
  • Daniel Altschuler – The Women of the Moon
  • Jimmy Anderson – Bowl. Sleep. Repeat.
  • Steve Backshall - Expedition
  • Catherine Bailey – The Lost Boys: A Family Ripped Apart by War
  • Ross Barnett – The Missing Lynx
  • Owen Bennett – Michael Gove: A Man in a Hurry
  • Michael Bisping – Quitters Never Win
  • Andrew Blum – The Weather Machine
  • Alex Boese – Psychedelic Apes
  • Celia Brayfield – Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists
  • Cash Carraway – Skint Estate
  • Mark Cocker – A Caxton Diary
  • Peter Cossins – The Yellow Jersey
  • Caroline Criado Perez – Invisible Women
  • Laura Cumming – On Chapel Sands
  • Peter Doggett – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
  • Jack Fairweather – The Volunteer
  • Lisa Faulkner – Meant to be: My Journey to Motherhood
  • Alys Fowler – A Modern Herbal
  • Tara Fraser – Total Yoga for You
  • Dave Goulson – The Garden Jungle, or Gardening to Save the Planet
  • Bear Grylls – Soul Fuel
  • Ainsley Harriott – Caribbean Kitchen
  • Julian Hoffman – Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Wild Places
  • Mick Houghton – Fried & Justified
  • Alastair Humphreys – My Midsummer Morning
  • Nadiya Hussain – Time to Eat
  • Lewis Hyde – A Primer for Forgetting
  • Atsuko Ikeda – Atsuko’s Japanese Kitchen
  • Annie Jacobsen – Surprise, Kill, Vanish
  • Dr Rahul Jandial – Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon
  • Amy Jones – The To-do List and Other Debacles
  • Sam Kean – The Bastard Brigade
  • Kim-Joy – Baking with Kim-Joy
  • Chelsea Kwakye – Taking Up Space
  • Sarah Langford – In Your Defence: Stories of Life and Law
  • Ben Lebus – Mob Veggie
  • Ben Lewis – The Last Leonardo
  • James Lovelock – Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence
  • Monty Lyman – The Remarkable Life of the Skin
  • Geva Mentor – Leap
  • B J Miller – A Beginner’s Guide to the End
  • Tom O’Neill – Chaos: Charles Manson, The C.I.A. and The Secret History of the Sixties
  • James Polchin – Indecent Advances
  • Lara Prior-Palmer – Rough Magic
  • Jo Scarratt-Jones – Eat Well for Less: Every Day
  • Francesa Segal – Mother Ship
  • Mark B Smith – The Russia Anxiety
  • Lisa Taddeo – Three Women
  • Zeba Talkhani – My Past is a Foreign Country
  • Alice Tapper – Go Fund Yourself
  • Michelle Thomas – My Sh*t Therapist & Other Mental Health Stories
  • Simon Thomas – Love, Interrupted
  • Clive Thompson – Coders
  • Mike Thomson – Syria’s Secret Library
  • Barry Turner – Waiting for War: Britain 1939-1940
  • Niko Vorobyov - Dopeworld
  • David Wallace-Wells – The Uninhabitable Earth
  • Peter Wohlleben – Walks in the Wild
  • Michael Wolff – Siege: Trump Under Fire

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Community Language Resources

Available from Libraries:

  • Children's and Adult books
  • Newspapers and Magazines in other languages - if our collection doesn't have the particular newspaper or magazine you are looking for, try the digital newspaper reader called PressDisplay
  • Music

Languages Available (by Library):

Resources can be requested at any branch including the Mobile Library.

BLETCHLEY LIBRARY

Bengali Chinese French
German Gujarati Hindi
Marathi Panjabi Polish
Spanish Urdu  

CENTRAL LIBRARY

Arabic Bengali Chinese
French German Gujarati
Hindi Italian Japanese
Marathi Panjabi Polish
Russian Spanish Tamil
Telegu Urdu Dutch

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KINGSTON LIBRARY - None

NEWPORT PAGNELL LIBRARY

Chinese French German
Italian Polish  

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OLNEY LIBRARY - None

STONY STRATFORD LIBRARY - None

WESTCROFT LIBRARY

Bengali German Marathi
Spanish Telegu Urdu

WOBURN SANDS LIBRARY - None

WOLVERTON LIBRARY

Polish Urdu
Other Resources
Digital Newspapers/ PressReader Here you can find links to newspapers and publications from almost every country and territory in the world in 60 languages. You can also listen to articles in the language of your choice using the PressReader App.
Community Language Service A professional interpreting and translation service available to all public and commercial organisations.
ESOL English as a Second Language - Help learning to speak and read English.
IELTS International English Language Testing System - Revise Online with access through your Library membership.

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Music Library

We provide a variety of Music services, ranging from books on Music and Musicians to the Naxos Online Music Library.

Books and Resources:

  • Books and Reference Books on all aspects of Music, music-making and Musicians.  You can search the Library Catalogue for titles.
  • Music Tuition - find tutors in the local area.
  • Online Library Services - Naxos Music Library - the world's largest classical music listening service.

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Music/Orchestral Scores:

Here are some organisations that hire out music scores:

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Naxos Music Library:

Milton Keynes Libraries users can access Naxos, the world's largest classical music listening service, with a collection of over 130,000 tracks of music.

Naxos Music Library not only provides music but also includes text resources such as opera synopses and libretti and study guides.

If you are using a computer in one of the libraries in Milton Keynes, you will be able to access Naxos straightaway.

If you are using a computer outside the libraries, you will need to type the number on your library card (the letter B followed by nine digits) in the login box to access the database.

Please note that this is a popular and busy service. If you cannot gain access immediately, please try again later.

If you are not a Milton Keynes Libraries member you can still access the Naxos Music Library on any of the computers in the libraries in Milton Keynes or you can join the library so that you can start using the music library on your own computer.

Music Magazines:

BBC Music can be read in the Reference Library at Milton Keynes Central Library.

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Audiobooks

A variety of Spoken Word audiobooks are available at all the Milton Keynes Libraries in various formats. Audiobooks are loaned as part of the 15 items available for full library members.

We stock the following:

  • Books: Fiction - the majority of titles produced on CD and cassette are popular fiction in both abridged and unabridged versions.
  • Books: Non-Fiction - including biographies and travel.
  • Comedy - ranging from The Goon Show to Mitchell and Webb.
  • Language Courses - including Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish and English as a Foreign Language.
  • Radio Plays - including works by Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare.
  • Self-Help - covering subjects such as fear of flying and relaxation.
  • eAudiobook Downloads
  • eMagazine Downloads
  • eBook Downloads

Visually impaired library members can borrow audiobooks free of charge.

Fines are charged on overdue items.

Reservations can be taken for Audiobooks that are already in library stock or on order.  There is a charge for making a reservation although visually impaired library members can make reservations free of charge.

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Magazines

Each library has a selection of popular magazines available for loan - ranging from women's interest to music and film to gardening to fitness and sport.

Magazines are bought on a regular basis but we cannot guarantee that we will buy the same titles every month.

There is no charge for borrowing magazines. They are loaned for one week and can be returned to any library. Magazines can be renewed at any library, by phone or online.

We have a variety of resources available:

Please note that we do not accept reservations for magazines.

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New Stock Coming Soon to Milton Keynes Libraries

You can view lists of new stock coming soon to Milton Keynes Libraries through the Library Catalogue.  Select the New Titles Coming Soon option from the list on the screen.

You can then choose to view

  • Adult Books
  • Children's Books
  • Teen Books
  • Large Print
  • Audiobooks

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Recommendations

We are always happy to receive recommendations for items to add to library stock. Please fill in this form and we will consider your suggestion. If you prefer, you can make suggestions in person at any of our libraries.

Recommend an Item for Adding to Library Stock

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(Reservation fee is 85p)

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(Only required if you want to reserve this item)

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(Only required if you want to reserve this item)

 

Thank you for your recommendation. While all suggested items will be considered we cannot guarantee that they will be added to stock.

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Last Updated: 20 August 2019
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