Madison Public Library - Hawthorne — Attraction in Madison

I used to love this library, until they fined me for damaging a book, which I didn’t damage. It was a super old children’s book, and they fined me for water damage. I turned the book in EXACTLY as it was when I checked it out. The book was technically from the DeForest library, and the Hawthorne Library is saying DeForest initiated the charges, but I called them, and they said Hawthorne initiated them. They blamed me for not inspecting the books when I checked them out. I honestly thought that the library inspected them… didn’t realize it was my responsibility… seems completely backwards. I am stuck paying for a book that I didn’t damage. I would have kept it if I had known that I had to buy a new copy for the library. Very stressful.

(Used to) Love this library! The people who work here are always very friendly. I have one issue, and it’s not really with the library itself, but with the area in front of it. It’s like walking through a smoking area, there are usually multiple people smoking in front of it. There are multiple “Smoker’s Poles” in front of the library also. Kind of a catch-22. It’s good that all those cigarette butts are not all over the ground, but it seems like they give off a “Smokers Welcome Here” signal. I really didn’t realize it was legal to smoke in front of the library… yikes and gross!!! I have had to turn around and come back later to avoid it when it’s...

This branch is extremely loud. There are not only an abundance of disrespectful patrons that frequent this branch, but the employees seem to wait until just about every patron is irritated with whatever is irritating before taking action. For example, a male next to me was watching stand up comedy on his computer... which is fine. What's not fine is how loud and often he was laughing. It prompted me to wear my noise-cancelling headphones, which weren't enough. Finally, an employee came over and told him to quiet down. On another occasion, I witnessed a patron watching pornography on a computer. I'm not sure how this is allowed. Only reason I'm providing 3* is because I can typically get in and out with ease and complete what I need to when utilizing their computers and one is usually immediately available.

But trust me,...

Used this branch for a few years. I think it's like this; after reading a few of the reviews here, about it being loud and people talking on their cell phones. They are correct, this is not your oh so quiet west side mpl. This library is heavily used by customers that the only time they may be able to use their cell phone is when they have the use of the free WiFi here. You get a fair amount of displaced people that use the computers. But they, for the most part, are very well behaved. The staff does a great job with what they've got to work with. I sometimes think of this library as "the orphaned child" of the madison libraries. I would have given it 5 stars, other than the fact they just don't seem to get the resources that other libraries get. And no, those fund drives just won't work here, I don't think. Good...