The Kansas City Public Library: Central Library — Attraction in Kansas City

This library is overall quite wonderful, save for one fairly significant concern. The building is magnificent, the selection is great, the additional facilities are top-notch, and staff seem generally enthused to help and accommodate every patron. Unfortunately, all of these positives are hampered by a fairly important contributing factor for any library: unchecked noise.

I frequently visit here to work and study in quiet, but lately that has become very difficult due to an array of substantial distractions. It has become all too common to hear children screaming, or an hour-long conversation on speakerphone, or - and I promise I'm not making this up - someone using the perimeter as a walking track and blasting Spotify from their phone rather than putting in headphones.

Of course, the real solution is for patrons to find some self-awareness and step outside if they need to make a lot of noise. Maybe new policies need to be created, or a pointed effort led by those in the position to enforce those policies that already exist, but the environment is often far, far from study-friendly.

To my point, as I write this on the 4th Floor (a floor labeled specifically as a "Quiet Study" area), there's a lively conversation about fifteen feet away, a couple playing 50 Cent’s “Lollipop" over their iPhone speaker, and a young child screaming bloody murder around the corner. Of course, plenty of parents need to bring their children along to the library, and I have no more right to be here as any other person, but it’d be nice if there was at least an attempt being made to keep the noise to what is traditionally expected at a library.

In short: bring a pair of noise-canceling headphones.

As a sidenote, to the reviewers who think the homeless are "dirtying up their library", please go look up the definition of "public". That means everyone deserves equal access. Yes, I'll agree that everyone has to abide by the rules as well - that's the crux of my point - but the complaints on here are simply phobic and ostracizing of the homeless.

In fact, counter to those reviewers, I'd go so far as to say the homeless are some of the last patrons here that I would implicate in making it a noisy environment. If you're going to insist on blaming a specific group, it's generally students, self-aggrandizing parents, and others with no personal awareness who cause the most distractions to their fellow patrons. As an example (and because it makes me feel a little better to publicly shame them, I'll admit), I've attached a pic of the two obnoxious students (notice the backpacks, textbooks, and UMKC gear? i.e.: not homeless folks) who were playing music over their phones for 1 hour.

Have some compassion, or at least...

Unfriendly security, unfriendly staff who asked our well behaved scout group to move, stop, etc many times. Very unwelcoming and goes against everything a library should be. What a terrible way to treat polite, friendly scouts.

In town with a scout troop and needed to spend some time before our evening train. Scouts thought library would have games, puzzles, opportunities for free screen free entertainment. We came in with 6 teenage scouts and 4 adults, wearing troop shirts. We proceeded to go up to the rooftop to play chess. While the scouts were playing chess, the adults were stretching on the rooftop. At first a guard came up and asked us to move off the glass skylights bc she was afraid they would not be safe. What in the world? If people can walk on them/use an open rooftop, there should not be a concern about standing/sitting on them. We politely accommodated her request and moved to the shade. A few moments later, another guard came up and told us we could not stretch on the ground, and had to sit in chairs/benches, but could not sit in the floor. No matter that the library holds a yoga class every Saturday to promote wellness…. Later, we were in the basement near the vault. Two of our scouts were making a Zine craft while the rest of us were waiting for them to finish. The librarian came up to us, told us that we could only sit at those tables if we were making a craft and that we needed to leave. There were no other patrons anywhere close to the craft area. This behavior by guards and staff goes against everything a library stands for. Don’t you want young people to use the resources and space??? Before coming in today, I thought to myself what a great place to visit, I should come back with my family. I would never...

I have never been one to get excited about going to a library, however the Kansas City Public Library is a place I’d recommend visiting. There is something to appeal to all ages. In addition to the nice selection of books, the building is rich in history and nicely documents the building’s origins as First National Bank.

There are multiple exhibits that range from informative and historical to artistic beauty and intrigue. My favorite exhibit was the Fourth Grade Project which interviews children in the US and all over the world share and documents their stories and answers to the questions: Who do you live with? What are you afraid of? What do you wish for?

There are 5 floors with plenty of private seating and a children’s library. The rooftop deck provides a nice view, with a few outdoor seating options and greenery. If you prefer to engage in a friendly game of chess, there are life size pieces and an extra large board.

For art enthusiasts you will find multiple art pieces through the building that highlight both local and famous artists. Even the parking garage structure and stairwell have been built to resemble books. Would definitely recommend as you could easily spend a few hours here, admission is free and they validate parking as long as you park in the library’s...