Lakewood Branch Library — Attraction in Dallas

It’s unfortunate when poor customer service couples with a chronically under-funded and under-resourced institution such as what happened at the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library today and the J Erik Jonsson Downtown Location, but extends beyond its borders to the entirety of the library system. After speaking with with the Lakewood Branch manager, Leslie Lake, I spoke with Melissa Dease, Interim Assistant Director, who on LinkedIn describes themselves an “innovator” and “problem-solver” –neither qualities of which have shown them to be true in this interaction I’m laying out or in the 2 years where I was a former colleague. She’s stand-offish and cold, unfriendly, and appears to be “towing the line” on inflexible, illogical policies that plague this institution. I hope the city or the library can find someone with more empathy and people skills and perhaps less bureaucratically-jaded, throw-hands-up-in-the-air-and-say-”nothing-we-can-do-here-but-discuss”-like to fill this position once it’s permanent. The issues are ENDEMIC. As a taxpayer who subsidizes not only the salaries of poor customer service of these employees but the photocopy paper that I’m afforded as a service, I’m annoyed at the flaw in the logic in how the library applies their rules. As such, on a daily basis, a patron is allowed: 25 photo copies + 3 computer sessions with a limit of 25 pages per session. So, If one has a 75 page application to print, one has to print 25 @ session 1, log out, log back in, print 25, and do once more. So, ostensibly, this means that a patron can walk out of the library with 100 pieces of paper a day. My request to Leslie was asking if she’d understand the grey area in the rule and be willing to work with me so I may print 25 more copies, so I’d be walking out with 50 photocopies –only half my allotment for the day. She said no, and then started to placate me by saying how Richardson Library charges for prints, etc, so … really I should be grateful they’re free here. Again, I pay my taxes, and again, I know the budget for the library division is dreadfully underfunded. I tried to appeal to Leslie again, and she said “well, we’re really under-resourced” and tried to square that circle by saying the resources aren’t there. They may not be there...Dallas Public Library always seemed to be participating in a budgetary shell game, but don’t tell me the resources ARE there for me as a computer user, using 3 sessions @ 25 printouts (75 total) but NOT there as a patron just needing to use the photocopier. Leslie asks me: “What is it that you’re printing out?” That’s really none of her business what I’m printing out; I’m not misusing the taxpayer resources or equipment. Paper is paper. Toner is toner. Electricity is electricity. You could feel her shut down on me emotionally and my reasoning and to be told, by her, that I was coming in there to be difficult and challenge her on the answer I didn’t like. I’m trying my best to be patient and wholly understanding, and what this is an example of is the difficulty of “the last mile”. Google it. In logistics, such as deliveries, the “last mile” is the hardest component to master. It’s the fulcrum with which all other components rest. I imagine Leslie is great at 99% of her job, but the 1% where she NEEDS to meet the patron, the customer, to bridge the divide between a knot in an illogical policy and that policy’s implementation is missing, so the relationship is tarnished. The customer is left disenchanted by what appears to them as unfairness. The customer loses faith in public institutions and the mandates we place on the library system. This is how relationships are cultured and destroyed, and interactions like this are a big reason citizens of the city don’t want to fight for more resources allocated to the institution. The propagation and implementation of logic dismissal is a red flag. This is gaslighting by a governmental institution towards its...

Located in the historic neighborhood of Lakewood, famous for its theatre. The library grounds are a sort of mini park, with a couple of abstract sculptures by the late John Brough Miller. Two long, low benches sit just in front of the recessed entryway. The library exudes a peaceful vibe from the outside and this increases inside.

The front doors are solid wood, not glass. Stepping inside you find a small vestibule with a warm, cozy feel accentuated by low ceilings and dim lighting.

Books: the library is relatively light in Adult Fiction but makes up for it, quantity-wise, with a large Nonfiction selection.

The cheerful, colorful Children's section attracted my eye with not only books galore stuffed into the shelves but two loveseats for lounging and reading. Almost makes me wish I had a youngin to play with there. Almost.

All the other offerings - Young Adult, Teen, Spanish-language, CDs, DVDs and computers - are here but the library's great appeal, for me, is the comfortable ambience. The comfy...

I have been coming here for few weeks and everything was fine up until this week. I had a very scary and uncomfortable experience. My friend and I were studying at a table and a man kept coming towards us asking us questions but his demeanor seemed off. He didn’t seem like he was mentally stable at the time and his eyes were extremely red. He came up to our table more than five times and we would try to tell him if he needed assistance to ask a librarian but he kept coming to us. At this point I felt my safety was threatened. I was super anxious and scared about the whole situation I just wanted to get out of there immediately. I wish I would have told a librarian but I was super anxious and I honestly couldn’t think straight. There are always kids at this library, and I feel like there should be more safety measures done to prevent these kinds of situations for...