A good book is never far from your reach at Brimbank Libraries! Our collections account for all tastes and abilities.

Book Reviews

Browse book reviews and recommendations by staff and contribute your own on The Brimbank Book Shelf. Join us in book discussions about new releases, old favourites, and recommendations.

Book Groups

Meet new people and share your love of reading with a book group.

Find a Good Read

Discover your new favourite book. If you're looking for an author who writes similar to another one, or if you're looking to explore a new genre, click here.

Book Awards

Browse our list of notable awards and borrow award winning books from our libraries.

eAudiobooks

Browse, download and listen today to a range of over 400 children's, teen and adult eAudiobooks.
Borrow or reserve up to 4 books at a time -  to get started you need your email address and library card number.

	Books In Print The latest in book searching and publishing
	Fiction Connection  Looking for a good book? For people who love to read… Find books by genre, location, themes, styles, and more.
	Non Fiction Connection  For people who love to read non-fiction… biography, history, travel, sport, sciences and more.

Why doesn’t Brimbank Libraries have downloadable e-books yet?

The introduction of downloadable e-books is under investigation. Some of the issues are:
Licensing restrictions: Even though there are a wide range of titles available for individual sale to the general public, there are issues to be resolved between the publishing industry and public libraries over the licensing of e-books for loan. Licensing is more restricted in Australia than it is in the US or UK. Australian libraries can only purchase titles that are licensed for release in Australia, whereas the general public can buy from anywhere.  
 
Availability of titles: Currently there is no one supplier of e-books that can offer all titles. Individuals can buy from a range of suppliers and have access to titles from all over the world. Libraries are restricted to a limited number of expensive licensed agreements and can only offer the titles that are available through those suppliers.

Compatibility with e-reading devices: Currently there is no one source of e-books that is compatible for all devices (for example the main e-book supplier for libraries, Overdrive, is not compatible with a Kindle). A library would need to cater to customers with a range of different e-readers. The format of e-books has not yet been standardized (some are pdf, some are epub).
 
Ease of use: When we offer e-books we will need to use a range of different supplier platforms to offer the broad range of titles required, which means a range of different instructions, lending rights and rules.  

The range of titles available for download through public libraries is limited but developing. We hope that the choice of available titles will have evolved sufficiently over the next 12-18 months to enable us to offer a broad e-book collection for library members to download. Watch this space!

You can read more about issues relating to eBooks in libraries in the background paper released by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
 

In the meantime, you might like to try:

The world's largest single collection of free eBooks.  All titles are in the public domain (out of copyright) and include classic books by authors such as Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and many more.