Chermside Library logged 373,959 visits between July 2025 and March 2026, making it the second most visited of Brisbane’s 33 libraries during that nine-month period and one of the fastest growing, with visits up by more than 21,500 compared to the same period the year before.
New figures released this week show Chermside’s strong position in a Brisbane library network that has seen total visits rise by around 100,000 in the first five months of 2026 compared to the same stretch of 2025. Of that increase, Chermside accounted for the largest share of any individual library, recording 21,566 additional visits year-on-year, ahead of Wynnum with 17,623 and Kenmore with 14,070.
The data covers the nine-month window from July 2025 to March 2026 and captures foot traffic across all 33 Brisbane libraries. Brisbane Square Library led overall with 398,678 visits, followed by Chermside, then Garden City, Sunnybank Hills and Carindale.
During that same period, Brisbane residents borrowed more than 4.4 million physical items across the network, covering books, DVDs, CDs, magazines and audiobooks, alongside more than 1.6 million digital items.
A library that grew out of a different Chermside
Chermside Library has not always sat on Hamilton Road. Its origins stretch back to 1957, when construction of an earlier library building began on Gympie Road, its distinctive roofline visible from the street while the shell was still being erected.
The old School of Arts Hall, which had previously stood on that site, was moved back from the road and remained there until the 1980s. The library later relocated to its current Hamilton Road home, where it underwent two major renovations over the years. The Gympie Road site it left behind is now home to a restaurant and a spice shop.
The Hamilton Road location has since grown into one of the most comprehensive suburban library facilities in Brisbane. The building includes undercover parking, lift access and quiet meeting rooms with after-hours booking capability.
A dedicated parents room serves families with young children, and the children’s section is widely regarded as one of the largest in the city, built around a feature bridge, a reading nook housed in a van, and an open activity play space alongside an extensive collection.
A cafe operates within the building, open during library hours. Multilingual collections across Chinese, Italian, Punjabi and Tagalog reflect the breadth of Chermside’s surrounding community.
Books borrowed
Across Brisbane’s library network, these were the most borrowed books and series of 2025 so far:
Adult fiction
- We Solve Murders by Richard Osman — borrowed 2,306 times
- In Too Deep by Lee Child
- Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
- Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
- Nightshade by Michael Connelly
Non-fiction
- The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
- Wifedom by Anna Funder
- The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
- RecipeTin Eats Tonight by Nagi Maehashi
- Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Junior readers
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Adventures Unlimited by Andy Griffiths
- Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey
- WeirDo by Anh Do
- Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland
Young adult
- Powerless by Lauren Roberts
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Beyond the books
The figures capture more than just borrowing. Across the 2025 full year, Brisbane’s library network hosted more than 8,900 free events and workshops, downloaded 2.1 million e-books and audiobooks, facilitated more than 1.1 million free Wi-Fi sessions, and distributed more than 20,000 holds through 24/7 library lockers.
The BNELibraries app was downloaded more than 240,000 times over the same period.
The Mobile Library, which carries more than 4,000 books to suburbs without a permanent branch including Aspley, Bellbowrie, Brighton and Ellen Grove, contributed to the broader borrowing figures as well.
Chermside Library is at 375 Hamilton Road, Chermside, open Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm (with extended hours until 8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays), Saturday from 9am to 4pm and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Phone (07) 3403 7200. Library membership and the BNELibraries app are free.
Published 28-May-2026
