Join Us & Get Involved

How can I use the library?

Access to the library is free and open to all.  

• Comfortable seating on sofas and at  tables. Good quality coffee, tea  and chocolate  machine - (Prices held at only £1 a cup!) , free WiFi  provided. Electrical charging sockets available ( one device per person please - use at own risk) .
  
• A4 and A3 COLOUR  Copier and Printing machine (charges apply) .
  
• There is a  Children's Library with its own team. The dedicated Children's Room is open on 4 days a week ( details on the home page) and  available on other days if not in use for events. In any case Children's Books are available to view and borrow on our usual 6 days.
  
• To  borrow books, audiobooks or DVDs or use the PCs, you will need a Keats Community Library card.   Please come to the library with a proof of address.  There is a one-off admin fee of £5 for each household to help towards the costs of issuing new cards. 
  
• Public PCs are available 6 days a week. A token is needed to access the PCs and costs £1 an hour.  KCL Card Holders have their first hour free.

KCL Library card allows you to search on line, to renew books, look up the catalogue and see when new books are added.

NB: Camden Library cards will only work in libraries connected to Camden's Library network.  Sadly we are not. The nearest libraries to return Camden Library books and to for your Camden library cards are now Swiss Cottage Library and Queen's Crescent Library. 

How can I help? 

Help with funding: we are totally dependant on donations to keep open.

To keep the current hours and services,  it  costs about £250 a day to run the library.

We need to keep reminding our community that their support needs to be continuous so that we can keep going. 

Every pound you can give will go towards our running costs.  

Click on Donate Now on the left-hand menu for ways to donate.  And please add Gift Aid if you can!

Offer your time: we are dependant on help from volunteers

We have an amazing group of local people who have  signed up to give a bit of time each month.  We offer training, if needed, with a nice social atmosphere in a beautiful building and the opportunity to help people.

We'd love to hear from you if you're interested in joining our volunteers.  

We need help not just in the library but with administration and the usual activities in running a modest charity. The Board of Trustees would welcome offers of help and is always looking for new Trustees with suitable skills or interests to help the management.

Please email [email protected] and we'll get in touch.  Please be patient as it may take a while to find a mutually acceptable slot

Donate books  to the library

Since opening we have replaced most of the books we inherited with new or better quality copies. Many come from donations from the Community which saves us buying them.

You can bring books at any time. Those we need, go on the shelves, others are kept for the next book sale and any that fail to sell are sent to an on line seller. We make the most of every book.

We also welcome children's books which get worn out from use.

Remember that we are a library and that donated books need to be of good quality to be helpful.

The guideline is whether you would borrow it! If in doubt just ask!

We do not take:

• Books without bar codes
• Books in poor condition, dirty or mouldy  - sadly we are sometimes treated as a convenient dump.
  
• Encyclopedia sets and dictionaries - There is no longer any demand as it is all on the internet
  
• Magazines, catalogues
  
• Foreign Language books
• Music scores
• CDs and DVDs and Video Cassettes

Are there particular projects I can help with?

There are lots of events and projects we'd like people to get involved with including: 

• Developing an outreach programme with local schools, nurseries and after-school clubs
• Recruiting work experience trainees
• Organising reading groups
• Helping organise our evening events - literary discussions, comedy or indeed anything for the community!
• Distributing leaflets
• Donating good condition books and dvds to the library or our book sales
• Creating your own fundraising event which could be anything from a book swap, toy stall, coffee morning, or sponsored read. 

But feel free to suggest other ideas...

Please contact us if you have ideas or can help with any of these projects or if you have other useful skills you can offer:

[email protected]