Branch libraries have small collections of basic reference books and community information.
Brighton Library has the largest collection of reference and information materials and there is also a substantial selection at Hove. Brighton's public library was established when the Royal Literary and Scientific Institution closed in 1869 and presented its large collection of books to the town. Together with some other collections which had been bequeathed to the corporation, the institution's books formed the basis of a reference library which opened in some of the upper rooms of the Pavilion in 1869. There has been a library in Hove since the late nineteenth century. The present library opened in 1908, and was built with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie.