Berkeley Public Library — Attraction in Berkeley

What I don't like is the old marble on the floor makes me feel queasy when I look at it. The 2nd floor bathrooms any gender get oddly stinky as it freaky viruses are lurking there.

The 3rd floor has a computer lab that goes unused, the screens just blink in a giant Google Chrome logo.

Some of the high school kids get rowdy after school and they tend to get away with being noisy on the lower level. I wonder why they want to be in Central library after school dealing with smelly homeless people. Some of the high school kids walked past a guy and kept mentioning that guy smelling bad. Which I didn't notice. I think they just wanted to be mean. Wouldn't it be better if the shower trailer would show up conveniently in front of the Dorothy Day center kitty corner to City Hall rather than making the homeless go all the way to 4th Street. Some homeless people don't have money for the bus. [Isn't the high school library open after school. At my boarding school/voucher school back in Vermont the library was open until 5pm.]

The library is not offering enough for the teenagers and should stop buying them those expensive comic books to read. The library should at least allow the high school kids to study for SATs and Pre SATs in the 3rd floor computer lab. The desktop computers are in more demand this month I noticed.

I don't like that the library will not respond to suggestions and comments. Boston Public Library responds to comments.

I like a lot of the book collection. The lunches for people up to age 18 wasn't exactly what that age group wants to eat. I think they should have offered a vegetarian lasagne or something tasty. A librarian had extra lunches was kind enough to give me one it tasted worse than jail food. And I think there should be a book club for kids and teenagers so they can express their feelings early rather than taking cues from grownups...

Update: Well, have to drop my 5 star rating. They've started refusing to allow me to bring in my scooter to charge after nearly 4 months of no problems at all. It's been a real problem where I had to walk the last couple miles home in the dark pushing my scooter a few times in Oakland. Hopefully I can find a new place to charge for free. Feels so unfair. I suddenly can't bring in my scooter, but that guy with two large suitcases and a duffle bag? Sure, come on in. Hopefully you won't start screaming in people's faces! 🙄

Previously: Love this library! It's fairly clean and they're pretty great from what I've seen. I commute a good distance by electric scooter, so I often come in here to recharge for an hour or two for free since I don't have any spare money to pay for coffee at cafes every day or to round trip on the BART. I'll sit next to my scooter and study while it charges. The only complaint really is that a large number of homeless are here during opening hours to sleep or get shelter. I don't mind them really, but they sometimes start yelling at people like how some do in...

Aside from the psychotic, violent homeless people who take refuge in the library and verbally assault, threaten or otherwise try and pick up chair to bludgeon people to death, the services and resources of Berkeley's library is nothing short of endless. As a millenial it's hard to see the point of the Library at times when literally anything could be digitally distributed and access from the comfort of your own home but to be honest once you've exhausted all sources online about something its pretty fantastic to be able to find more material at the library and also the ability to use link plus(LINK +) expands your library into a state library where you can find almost anything. The additional online services like Kanopy and Hoopla add the the resources at the library even if their checkout system limits are pretty silly. I've also been able to find retro music in my library which has its own listening section with tons of records and CD's. Overall the library at Berkeley is one of the best if...