The Housebound Library Service

How the service works

The service exists to provide a tailor-made service to all members of the community who are unable (whether on a temporary or permanent basis) to visit their local library.

It is available to residents of Havering who are unable to get to the library due to age, illness or disability and have no-one who can visit a branch library on their behalf.

Our volunteers will visit you in your own home once every three weeks to provide you with all the services that are available through loan in the Library Service.

Loan of all categories of fiction and non-fiction (in either spoken word CD or large print book stock) are available from the entire Havering Libraries' collection.

We compile an individual reader profile for each of our customers based on their reading preferences, which is regularly updated and allows us to provide our customers with the service they require.

Customers can borrow up to 25 items at any time and we are happy to renew items on request.

All items may be borrowed to individual customers free of charge. In addition we are happy to take and supply requests free of charge.

Spoken word (talking books)

If you prefer to listen to books rather than reading them, we have a wide range of spoken word CDs for you to choose from.

Large print books

For customers who have difficulty reading normal sized print books, all our local libraries stock books in larger print.  

If you or a friend/relative are interested in using our Housebound Service, please telephone South Hornchurch library on 01708 434921.