Guildford Library

05/10/2026

Looking for some Halloween fun for the kids? Why not challenge them to some scary creative writing using our spooky story packs!

Only 50p and now available at Guildford Library.

Each exciting pack contains a planning booklet: create and draw your protagonist, brew and construct a terrifying monster and map out your unique adventure...
All while learning the fundamentals of storytelling!

Then build on this using our creepy word catalogue - filled with spooky vocab to help push their writing and reading comprehension.

And finally, a writing book, where they can unleash their creative ideas and write their final story!

17/09/2026

Missing Pebble’s Rhymetime? Or our awesome Storytimes? Well good news!

Both events are now being hosted every Wednesday by the brilliant folks at The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Join us in the River room for an exciting story before we jump into our classic rhymes and songs with Pebble the Penguin. And why not catch up over a cheeky coffee after Rhymetime in the Theatre’s wonderful café?

Come join in the musical fun every Wednesday at 10.30am! Completely free, no booking required.

15/09/2026

Ready Reads is back!

Miss being able to browse and find new books at the Library? Sign up for ready reads - We select, you collect!

Fill in a quick survey about your favourite authors, titles and genres. From there we'll select five new random books based of your preferences and package them ready for you to collect.

Applications opened earlier this week - just search Surrey Libraries Ready reads to find our online form or use the Linktree in our bio! Discover your next literary adventure with Ready Reads!

If you have a specific book in mind please reserve using our catalogue as per usual.
If you believe a particular book is on the shelves at Guildford Library, note this on the Ready Reads form and we will do our best to find it for you. We cannot guarantee that all such requests can be fulfilled. To facilitate the refurbishment works, a proportion of Guildford Library's stock has been packed into large storage crates which are not accessible to staff, meaning some items may not be available even if they appear on the catalogue.

Some areas of stock will be inaccessible for Ready Reads due to the refurbishment, these include: children's stock (we will have some available where we hold click and collect for customers to look through), Biography, Food, Health, Homes and Gardens and Mind, body and Spirit.

14/09/2026

As we're closed for a short while, we wanted to take a look back at some of our Green Library Hub events we've hosted lately!

Guildford Seed Bank visited to give away over 120 Seeds to users of the library while handing out free advice on which seed was best for them and how to take care of their soon to be flowers and plants!

Author Esme Finch had an audience of parents and children as she read her book "Through The Eyes of A Tree" while teaching children about the fish down in the River Wey and showing the children how they swim.

Peter Smith came over to talk about his experiences as a beekeeper, what to do if you see an Asian Hornet, how to identify different bumblebees.

Keep an eye on this page as a little bumblebee told us he'll be back soon for another talk - something mushroom themed... 🍄

All of these events have been funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.


Surrey Libraries UK, CILIP, The National Lottery Community Fund

10/09/2026

🍄 Magical Mushrooms & Fabulous Fungi 🍄
Join us at ZERO CARBON GUILDFORD while we're closed for a fascinating evening with Peter Smith as part of the Green Hubs Project. Explore the hidden world of fungi and the incredible role they play in our environment.

📅 Wednesday 30 September
🕖 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
📍 ZERO CARBON GUILDFORD
💰 FREE
🎟️ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/magical-mushrooms-fabulous-fungi-a-talk-by-peter-smith-at-zero-carbon-tickets-1998873650898

Discover the science, beauty, and mystery of mushrooms in this engaging talk.



Surrey Libraries UK CILIP The National Lottery Community Fund Zero Carbon Guildford

01/09/2026

Fantastic to be featured and help create this wonderful list.

One of our free resources for Week this year is a list of suggested green reads from the Hubs. Read what Surrey Libraries UK has to say.

Have you got this book in stock?

The two lists are adult and children based, split into fiction and non-fiction titles.

Check your library stock to see which titles you already have and plan whether you want to add any for your green collection this year. https://www.cilip.org.uk/advocacy/research-and-development/green-libraries-campaign/green-libraries-week/

Add any suggestions of books that your service recommends in comments 👇

14/08/2026

Last week we had an absolutely enchanting Storytime here at Guildford Library - all thanks to the amazing Esme Finch!

Thank you to everyone who attended this interactive event filled with inspiring stories all about our beautiful natural world and Guildford's River Weys!
We hope you had as much of a fun time learning about the River Wey fish and their natural habitat as we did.

For more brilliant events and stories highlighting our local environment and how we can engage with it, check out Esme's Instagram: .fay.finch

This event was funded by The National Lottery Fund.


Surrey Libraries UK The National Lottery Community Fund Zero Carbon Guildford CILIP

13/08/2026

Guildford library will be closed from Thursday 20 August to Monday 21 September while improvement works take place.

From Monday 21 September, the library will reopen with a click and collect service. During the click and collect period, customers will still be able to borrow books in two ways:

Ready Reads (free of charge) – our libraries team will select a collection of books based on your reading preferences for you to collect from Guildford Library. Please note that some restrictions will apply to the range of titles available. The online form will be available from Monday 14 September. Find out more: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/libraries/borrow-or-renew/request-items/ready-reads

Library reservations: you can continue to reserve specific items through our usual reservations service. Standard reservation charges will apply.

Customers will also be able to return items and collect reservations during the click and collect period.

Unfortunately, public computers, photocopying facilities, bus pass services and all other library services will be unavailable until the library fully reopens. We expect the library to be fully reopened by the end of October and will keep customers updated on progress.

Throughout the closure, events and activities will be unable to take place at the library. A number of our events including rhymetime will be held at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, outlined below:

Rhymetime and storytime: Wednesdays at 10.30am in the River Room

Poetry Hub: Thursdays at 10am in the Meeting Room
Warhammer club: last Saturday of the month at 3pm in the River Room

Dungeons and Dragons club: second Saturday of the month at 2.30pm in the River or Vanbrugh Room.

Throughout this closure, customers can use any one of our other Surrey libraries including the nearest libraries which are Ash, Godalming and Horsley libraries.

All loans will be extended until Monday 10 November, so no fines will be incurred.

For more information about the upcoming improvements, please visit our dedicated Guildford Library hub webpage: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/community/hubs/guildford-library-hub

12/08/2026

Its international Youth Day! Time to celebrate and encourage the new generation - their impact on the globe and their potential is incredible!
Come to your local library today to borrow some amazing teen and children's nonfiction: inspire your kid's to learn and chase aspirations, help complete homework or college assignments and tackle those hard to explain subjects.

Can't find anything on your subject? Not to worry all children and teen books are free to reserve using a kid's/youth library card!
Not only that but you can help us expand our teenage section today - fill in this quick survey and have your teen's voice heard:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=RbVh2UwQ0E6Fgh9XDwWVzXpYULxGckpLjYWd2QQArepURjQzNjhKTlBKQUNFM1FaSVpMT09KTTk5Qy4u

11/08/2026

We started this month strong with a brilliant author event featuring the amazing Lucy Lyons!

It was a pleasure to host Lucy and hear about her exciting new book: The Stone Tape House! Time travel, mystery and romance, what's not to love! Sounds interesting? Pick up any of her books today from any of our libraries!

And don't worry if you missed her - Lucy is planning several more author events at various other libraries. So keep an eye on her social media or on Surrey Library's EventBrite page.