Houston Public Library - Central Library — Attraction in Houston

I have found the employees at this library to be extremely unprofessional and lacking in basic customer service skills.

I made an appointment to use a study room for two consecutive hours. When I arrived, two staff members confirmed that my reservations were in place. However, when it was time for me to use the room, one of the reservations had mysteriously disappeared. Naturally, I was frustrated, as I had scheduled that time intentionally. Instead of receiving understanding or assistance, I was rudely told by an employee to “keep my opinion to myself.” No one offered an apology or showed any empathy about the situation—it was as if they simply expected me to “get over it.”

A few days later, I had another appointment. The study room was empty when I arrived, so I asked if I could enter early. I was told I had to wait until my scheduled time. When my session was nearly over, the same staff member came in and reminded me that my time was almost up. I explained that no one had reserved the room after me and asked if I could have a few extra minutes to finish. She refused and said she could call a supervisor. I told her to do so, but when the supervisor arrived, she was equally dismissive and unprofessional. This kind of behavior reflects a poor workplace culture and a lack of proper leadership. I mention this incident to the manager, he told me to write a review...go figure!!!

Today, I returned to use the study room again, only to discover that I had been blocked from accessing the library’s internet. It appears that staff have taken retaliatory action, which is completely inappropriate and uncalled for. I plan to escalate this issue to the person in charge, as this level of incompetence and unprofessional conduct should not be tolerated in a public facility.

Thankfully, I don’t rely solely on the library’s Wi-Fi—but this entire experience has been unacceptable and...

I came here for the first time last week to get a library card, as I only have a Fort Bend library card and wanted something for close to where I work downtown. The woman who helped me wasyoung, around my age, and was very sweet and helpful and gave me all the info I needed and got me a library card right away. I was excited to browse! Not 10 minutes into browsing the 2nd floor, a homeless man started following me, jeering at me, making noises at me like I was a dog. He followed me literally the entire time I was in the library, whispering and cat calling at me, and did not stop until I flipped him off. I left soon after, I dont think I was in the library for even 15 or 20 minutes. I will not be going back by myself ever, I felt so uncomfortable and upset to have been harrassed at the library while on my lunch break in the middle of the day in front of other people at the library. It made me nervous to even leave and walk back to my office. I will say that the library card itself is awesome and I now have access to their online services and ebooks which is fantastic. Again, thank you to the employees and staff who were nothing but kind and helpful, I'm sorry I was just so shocked and angry and embarrassed about being harassed that I dont plan to come back to this location. I shouldn't be too surprised since the area is infested with homeless and mentally unstable individuals. There needs to be a better system for helping...

I went there to print something out. Know that if you do this, the payment is cashless, so you can't pay in cash. They will tell you that each page costs $0.15, but they will charge you $1.00 minimum on your card and initially put a $5 hold. And they don't tell you this system until it's time to pay, so you have no choice.

The library itself was big and nice, but their Internet didn't work so I had to reserve one of their computers and it took a long time to accomplish the task of printing a few pages. It's a pretty big hassle to print something there so I think I would think twice before doing that again. I think working Wi-Fi is pretty much a requirement at a library.

Some reviewers complained about homeless people in the library. Yes, they are in the library. But they are all quiet and minding their own business, I didn't see any problems going on with that while I was there. And if the heat index is 100 outside they need a place to be for survival so don't begrudge them that. In case you didn't know, it's extremely difficult if not impossible to get into a homeless shelter in this town. Anybody who's in the library doesn't really have a choice so please be kind and cut them some slack.

My review score here is because of the difficult and time-consuming experience of trying to print, and getting overcharged without advance warning, not about the...