Clearwater Main Library — Attraction in Clearwater

The new library building is very attractive. Functionally, it seems to be better than the previous incarnation. The view of Clearwater harbor from the upper level is breathtaking.

They have an excellent collection of books on the state of Florida and it's history in general though I was not able to locate three recently published books on early Florida history that are from well known and respected authors. Ironically, I found all three of these books for sale in local book stores and at a small public library in New England.

Unfortunately there are some negatives.

Keep in mind I am comparing the current library with the previous incarnation and with main branch libraries of similar size cities.

I was extremely disappointed with the periodical collection. If you want to read a paper you have to go up to the reference desk and request the paper you want by title. You can't browse. Not much in the way of out of town papers except for a few of the major titles. They only have one copy of each so you have to wait in line if there is a crowd. There are about a tenth of the periodical selection they had 30 years ago.

They used to have a genealogy and local history collection. I could not find it.

I have to say that the biggest disappointment is the computer lab. Their internet connection is excruciatingly slow. I did an online speed test and the five tests I did from three different websites showed a range of 0.65 mbps to 1.10 mbps. They claim to offer Ancestry dot com library edition but it is useless since their connection is far too slow to connect with that website. I used up my allotted time with multiple attempts to download documents from Ancestry and I was unable to down load a single document. Most of the time I got a pop up message informing me that the webpage download had timed out. The times this did not happen the attempt crashed the work station. They spent millions for the new library building but didn't have enough left over to pay for anything other than a dial up connection shared by 20 people at a time. In this day and age that is unacceptable.

This is an update since I originally posted this review. Not much has changed other than the usual COVID 19 adjustments such as now alternating computer work stations are unavailable. Also they no longer offer access to ancestry dot com or any of a number of other popular websites.

Mostly I want to point out that this branch will be shutting down for major renovations and will not be open for some time though there is absolutely no information about re-opening on their website and none of the three librarians I asked had any information other than this branch will be closing on September 26. I am shocked that this brand new (decade old) building requires an extensive renovation. This is an extreme inconvenience to library patrons who rely on a close public library for a number of services. Worse yet, how many millions of dollars were spent on this new library building only to need a complete overhaul in only a decade. Lets hope they get it right this time and hopefully the city attorney has grounds to sue the builder/architect for a building they didn't get right the first time around. The previous building had been around for over 50 years. I know, I visited...

The library, the grounds and the scenery are just beautiful. However the entire downtown area of Clearwater is infested with Scientologist who do nothing but dole out their propaganda for their cause, they infest the library and the grounds passing out their literature and in the meantime occupy the entire downtown area of Clearwater Florida it's quite depressing (much like the library itself) it is the least active downtown of a major city I have ever been in. The library itself is quite beautiful and quite complete however the staff is disgruntled, unpleasant and hard to work with. The library is oppressive in overall feeling, with armed security guards roaming the grounds. They have a wonderful second floor that caters to children's interests, they also have a cafeteria and a book store with great prices. They entertain a small art gallery and frequently have public movie viewings. Yes they are accommodating in that fashion however their personal leaves a lot to be desired, I attributed their staff to the second worst staffed facility next to the Department of Motor Vehicles and the tax office. They have a third floor that accommodates public computer usage, however its occupied on a daily basis mostly by the local homeless community, filled with bad smelling shifty individuals, the entire third floor smells of a shoe locker that had never been cleaned. The entire experience leaves one wanting a better first impression. As for accommodating the needs of a patron of the written word, they are sufficient in that respect and can acquire most literature requested by most people, with a little added emphasis on helping you further to obtain something, they will quickly point you in the direction of the reference computer terminal before they actually do help you personally. Expect the unexpected when you visit, both in the library and the surrounding city, like I said, you expect more from a first impression based just on the size of the highly secure and highly guarded edifice that stands in the middle of...

The grounds here are great & you have a wonderful view of the water from the 3rd floor however some of the staff at the front desk makes this place a horrible place to visit. It seems very, very unorganized even when there are events they are hosting nor do they seem to care about the service they give. There was a flyer for a coding class that was being offered which you had to sign up for. Now these flyers have been around for months before the sign up day. So there was plenty of time to hold a staff meeting and make signs so people would know where to go. We came the day of sign up and asked where/what did we need to do for the class. Well the lady at the front desk said she didn’t know nor did she attempt to try and find out anything. We walked around a bit and decided to try the third floor only to be directed back down the main floor to one of the meeting rooms full of people. We had to stand in a few lines at each table before finally finding out what table was in charge of the sign up of the class. So on the way out I thought I would share these simple improvements to customer service. I stood at the front desk while this particular staff member looked at me and went to do something else. A lady came from outside and let the same lady know I needed to be helped. She comes out and helps me or the lack there of. She didn’t know where the class was going to be held and made very little attempt again to help me. Please get people in here who LOVE what they do because some of them must hate working here...