Reading Well Books on Prescription

How to borrow a book

To borrow a book, you can either be given a prescription from a health professional, health adviser or you can choose a book for yourself.

Using a prescription

If you're given a prescription from a health professional or adviser:

  1. Take your prescription to a member of staff at any Rochdale borough library. Find your local library
  2. You'll need your library membership card to borrow the book. 
  3. You can take your book home for a period of 3-6 weeks depending on your prescription. If no one else has reserved the book, you can renew it if you'd like to keep it longer. Renew a library book

Choosing a book for yourself

If you choose a book for yourself:

  1. To borrow a book, you'll need to be a member of Rochdale libraries.
  2. View the books available on the scheme on the Reading Well website 
  3. Once you've found a book you'd like to borrow, search for it in the library catalogue. You can search for the book by title or author.
  4. Click on the title of the book you'd like to borrow from the search results. You can then select 'place reservation' at the top of the page to reserve the book and choose the library you'd like to pick it up from.

Search for and reserve a book from the Reading Well scheme

Contact Library Service

Telephone: Click to call 0300 303 8876

This phone line is open Monday–Friday 9am–5pm

Library events

There are lots of events and activities taking place in our libraries from IT training, reading and poetry groups to writing workshops, knitting groups, coffee mornings and more.​​

Events in libraries

Join the library

Become a member and get free access to thousands of books, audiobooks, eMagazines and eNewspapers. You can also access a range of online resources including Ancestry UK and BFI Replay, a film and TV archive available only in libraries.

Join the library