Library collections and services
More than one million items are available for you to borrow from Brisbane City Council's libraries. The collection includes a wide range of current and popular reading material for all ages, in a range of formats. Formats now include print and audio-visual as well as eBooks and online downloads.
Brisbane Images
Council's online library catalogue has a database with over 12,000 images and documents from the City Archives. The database includes images of Queensland homes, maps and guides and resources for researching your family’s home. To access these, go to the online library catalogue, eLibCat, and select the ‘Search Brisbane Images' link in the blue section near the top of your screen.
Community languages
Council's libraries offer a range of books, magazines, DVDs and CDs in several languages. The library catalogue, eLibCat, is also available in Spanish and Chinese.
You can find community languages collections at:
| Language | Library locations |
|---|---|
| Arabic | Garden City, Holland Park, Sunnybank Hills |
| Chinese | Brisbane Square, Chermside, Carindale, Garden City, Indooroopilly, Mt Ommaney, New Farm, Sunnybank Hills |
| French | Brisbane Square |
| German | Brisbane Square, Indooroopilly |
| Greek | Carindale, West End |
| Hindi | Garden City |
| Italian | Brisbane Square, Chermside, New Farm |
| Japanese | Brisbane Square |
| Korean | Brisbane Square, Garden City, Sunnybank Hills |
| Persian | Brisbane Square |
| Punjabi | Garden City |
| Sinhalese | Garden City |
| Spanish | Brisbane Square, Inala, Toowong |
| Tagalog | Brisbane Square |
| Vietnamese | Inala, Mt Ommaney, West End |
The following additional community language collections are available at Brisbane Square - Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Indonesian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Tamil and Thai.
If you can't find the language you want on our library shelves, ask one of our library staff for help. They may be able to order it in for you.
Our libraries also have resources to help you learn English, including interactive CD-ROMs, books, DVDs with subtitles in a variety of languages and language kits.
FastBack books
A FastBack book loan is for seven days and the loan item cannot be renewed. The shorter loan period allows a high turnover of popular materials. If you don't think you can return a FastBack book within seven days, you can borrow or place a hold on the book as a standard 28 day loan.
FastBack books need to be returned to the same library they were borrowed from.
MagRack magazines
The MagRack collection provides the latest copies of magazines to browse while you are at the library. Available at every branch, these copies are not available for loan, but if you'd like to continue reading the magazine at home, you can place a hold (reserve) on it using the online library catalogue (eLibcat). If you don't know how to place a hold, ask a library staff member for help.
Mt Coot-tha Library
The Mt Coo-tha Library specialises in providing books, magazines, videos and CD-ROMs on a variety of horticultural and astronomical topics.
The Library holds a comprehensive reference collection with a focus on:
- botany
- horticulture
- gardening
- landscape design
Other subject areas available include aromatherapy, astronomy, botanic illustration, bush foods, conservation, floral art, herbal medicine and natural history.
Online resources
Free access to eBooks, eAudiobooks, magazines, newspapers and music is available via the online library catalogue (eLibcat). A wide range of eBook titles, including bestsellers, classics and Australian books for adults and children, are available. A selection of popular magazines, as well as local and international newspapers, are available to read online. An extensive music database, including recent chart-toppers, rock 'n' roll favourites and classical music, can be downloaded by library members to keep.