A world of books, music and film at your fingertips 
Getting your hands on the latest bestseller or chart-topper has never been easier thanks to Gloucestershire County Council’s new virtual library.
The online library will help people to delve into thousands of books, DVDs and CDs at the click of a mouse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s now much easier to search and order your favourites and you have access to the whole of the county’s stock.
It’s free to reserve online and you don’t have to go far from home to collect your chosen item, with delivery free to your local library. To take a look at the virtual library, go to www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/onlinelibrary 
Cllr Antonia Noble, Gloucestershire County Council Cabinet Member for libraries, said: “The online library gives customers a whole world of books, films and music to explore. People can choose and order books from any library in the county, not just their local library, from the comfort of their own home. 
“We know people want to be able to access more of our services online and this is just the start. We will be introducing electronic books and audio later this year and the virtual library will continue to develop. 
“By making the most of new technology, we can make library services more accessible to everyone in Gloucestershire and increase customer choice. It is also helping us to attract younger customers, who tend to be more confident using online technology.”
A feedback section on the website allows customers to tell us what they think, and this will help us to develop the site in future. One customer said: “I’m loving the new website for reservations, and your account. It is fantastic – well done. Perhaps one improvement you might look at is adding a wish list feature. Otherwise – superb. Congrats to all concerned.”
We now plan on adding this feature for customers to create a wishlist of items they wish to borrow. We also hope that customers will soon be able to view the catalogue and order items on their mobile phone, and possibly develop an app in the longer term.
The new virtual library is easy to use. It currently features:
· A single search box, as well as ways to refine your search, by subject and publication date
· The items that most closely match your search are listed first, helping you find what you need quickly 
· Display of actual book covers and book descriptions, helping you to browse and select books to reserve
· Easy to use features allowing to you to change text size, colour and work with screen reader technology to make it accessible to all.
· A ‘Did you mean?’ function to help with misspelling
Virtual website visitors are also invited to register an email address with us. This will allow us to e-mail them when their reserved books are available for collection.