This is a very modern and well laid out library over two floors. There is wheelchair access to all floors, downstairs is all books and reception area, there are toilets on all floors and including disabled toilets, upstairs there are plenty of work stations with power sockets and 15 public computer's, to use the computer's you will need to be a member, and there is free WiFi to everyone who uses the library.

– Andrew Bergström

It's undoubtedly one of the best libraries in the country! Spread across 4 floors. The 2 top floors are for the College and University.
A huge range of services:
Internet access to PC, free Wi-Fi, Books, eAudio, eBooks, Magazines, Newspapers…
A great place to study or to research.
Several printers available.
The prices are student friendly…
The staff is very professional, friendly and ever so helpful.
There's an Art Gallery on the ground floor with very interesting exhibitions.

– Anthony Martin

Visited this place many times, I think my first time coming here was back in 2014/15.

This library (or part of the building, I'll explain in a bit) is, let's say, split into various areas: Ground floor has Adult Fiction, a Gift Shop, Lecture Theatre, Reception Desk and Children's Fiction. First floor has Young Adult Fiction, Reference/Non-Fiction and a Computer Area. Further upstairs are rooms accessible only by staff/students of the Forum's nearby colleges, so is therefore not part of the Library.

Anyways, the positives: This library is generally very clean (even the toilets are well maintained) and tidy. The gift shop, though pretty small, has a nice charm to it, from soft toys to Southend souvenirs, bags to bookmarks (see photo). And of course being a library, it's so easy being 'lost' in those bookshelves, skimming over each book spine and blurb and finding your next perfect read.

Slight cons (though it can't really be helped): The periodicals (newspapers/magazines) section on the first floor is no longer existent, likely due to the recent pandemic. Also, around midday is when you'll see more college students in the library, which can get noisy at times. So if you want a quiet place to read during then, there's plenty of seating next to the Adult/Gift Shop section where students don't normally frequent, at least from my experience.

Overall, this place is pretty much everything you'd expect from a library. We all need a perfect distraction from our busy lives, and this place pretty much provides that. So why not move away from that TV, phone or whatever and find a book to read for a while?

– Shadeon Koopa