Children and young people's library services

All of our libraries host weekly story and song sessions for children aged under fives and their carers. For session times at your local library visit: 

The sessions are free, drop in and open to all children under 5s and their carers.

Every summer we invite you to join us on a different reading adventure, with fabulous collections, puzzles to solve, prizes to collect, and a special, free, events programme across all of our libraries. Look out for more information next summer and join the challenge.

This programme is delivered with The Reading Agency. 

Look out for free events and activities including Family Learning, theatre, arts and crafts, visiting authors to support literacy, learning and cultural development for children aged 5 – 11.

For more information visit our events pages – (link to follow)

Enjoyable learning after school clubs for children aged 8 -11, focusing on science, technology, engineering and maths.  This includes STEM, Coderdojo and Maths on Toast.

Explore Learning Willesden provides a unique and personalised approach to maths and English tuition. Mapped to the National Curriculum, all work is tailored to every child’s individual strengths and areas of development, which means that tutors are able to support them closely, both to support and to stretch them.

But this is not just maths and English. The team of tutors at Willesden encourage classroom skills such as asking for help and concentration, and also promote enthusiasm and a love of learning.

Find out more on the explore learning website

SPINE Festival is an arts and literature festival for children, young people and families that takes place annually across libraries situated at the heart of London’s communities.

Coordinated by Apples and Snakes arts organisation, this free programme of spoken word and arts activities, focuses on cultural diversity and also features Artists in Residence specially commissioned to develop work, a Discover Arts Award Telling Tales creative writing workshops programmes, innovative theatre shows, and an ESOL Open House programme in two boroughs where participants from refugee communities creatively explore language through culture. 

We offer dedicated sessions for schools, nurseries and groups from other educational settings to visit the library.

• Class visits programme
• Single visit: library introduction
• Regular visits include:
  • Information skills and curriculum study support
  • Reading for pleasure: story and book loan (includes Children’s Book awards focus)
• Cultural events and author visits in libraries
• Reading Friends outreach book bulk loans
• Digital Library card membership programme
• Summer Reading Challenge assembly visits
• Information and advice 
  

The e-library offers a wonderful range of fiction, non-fiction and audio as well as learning resources for children and young people. Twilight training sessions are also available for teachers so their pupils can gain digital library membership for book borrowing.

We stock an exciting range of books and resources just for young people along with services that help their learning, including:

• teen books, including talking books and e-books
• access to "Britannica Student for ages 12 to 18" online
• comics and graphic novels and magazines
• DVDs (some age restrictions may apply)
• Access to Driving Theory practice tests

Some libraries have free to use computers in their children's sections that you can book up to one hour. All libraries have IT facilities that children can use. Children can also use the internet, but they must have signed permission from a parent or carer.

Computer sessions can be booked by asking at the library or by phone. You can also book a computer online. To do this you need to have your library card number (which you will find under the barcode) and your PIN.