Indianapolis Public Library - Central Library — Attraction in Indianapolis

It’s a beautiful building with an excellent selection of books. There are also quiet reading rooms and sections with tables and chairs by enormous windows overlooking the city for working or studying.

The management, however, seems to be poorly equipped at best and totally incompetent at worst. I was asked to leave the library because I had my electric scooter with me — folded and being carried. I had previously been to this library before with the scooter with no issues. This time, however, security took issue and I was told to leave as having scooters is against policy. Obviously, that’s fine; all sorts of places have policies like that. I said it had been fine before, though, and asked where I could find the policy. Instead of answering my question, he radioed for a woman to come talk to me, who repeated that it was against policy. Once again, I asked where I could find that policy, to which she responded with this gem: “I am the policy.”

The fact is, there is no policy accessible to the public at all. There is no signage, nothing on the website, and nothing at all that would indicate to someone that this wouldn’t be allowed. It’s a reasonable policy, but one that must be made available, and being kicked out with the declaration “I am the policy” being the reason is pathetic. Have a real policy in place, which I will happily respect, or admit your mistake...

I was very disappointed how I was treated at the downtown central library. I absolutely love visiting this library with my family and doing photography there as well. I am a professional photographer and I have been shooting there for Kurt Vonnegut Museum when it was there and way before then. On this instance, I had a client I was doing a couple photos for and I checked out a meeting room. I was well into my session and a security person abruptly walked in without a knock or warning and exclaimed that I needed a permit. Keep in mind that the library is doing renovations so there is no where to actually go that doesn’t look like construction and there are homeless people all over the library on computers and eating food at a lot of desk areas. I was shocked that I was even approached giving that there was no structure with anyone else doing whatever they wanted . But the security guard stayed outside of our meeting room until I told her that I would get the permit once I finished since I had no idea that this was mandatory as there were no signs posted or nothing was said since I had a dslr hanging around my neck with a 70-200mm lense attached. To put this loosely, I will never return to that library for any purposes due to how I was treated as a photographer and...

The Wayne Library branch has recently ushered in discriminatory policies which prohibit patrons from being on library property after hours even though I am not aware of any acts of criminality on this property in the few months I have been coming here. I do not know if IMCPL as a whole has started doing this with all of their branches.

Seems odd considering the library has cameras on the outside of the building so they can see what is going on from a security standpoint. And of course people are still parking in the parking lot after hours with no one policing it. It definitely seems targeted at people who are of a certain socio economic status and I think it is happening because they might expect certain individuals to not adhere to said policy and that way library staff can have them trespassed or possibly even arrested.

This is is what I am gleaning from the recent policy shift. They don't have these ridiculous policies at the libraries in Hendricks County and the police presence there is much more robust. It's even stranger when you consider the fact that this branch closes at 6 pm Wed-Fri and the staff members are literally telling people to get off the property at that time. Completely bizarre and it definitely feels very...