Millbrae Library — Attraction in Millbrae

First, I must say that I love public libraries. They are a fantastic community resource.

This is actually a very nice library. It’s relatively new and has free wifi, public computers, two small meeting rooms (not the larger community room in the same building that can be used even when the library is closed but in the library for the public to use on a first-come, first-served basis for one hour at a time) and parking. It’s also in a convenient location if you’re out and about running errands in the area.

However… Minus two to three stars for switching to a new, COMPLETELY INANE “browsing” cataloging system. The standard Dewey Decimal System makes it really easy to find books you’re actually searching for and I’ve never found it difficult to browse through books that were cataloged on the shelves this way. The new system can make it harder to find specific books because you’re searching through larger sections (especially if books are returned to incorrect places on the shelves) and does actually make it HARDER to browse through some books. For example, with the Dewey Decimal System and Asian cookery books, all of the Thai cookbooks were grouped together. With this horrible “browsing” system, all “Asian cookery” books are grouped together in a “Cooking Intl Asian” category, so Thai cookbooks are mixed in with Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Indonesian, etc. cookbooks. This DOES NOT make it easier to casually browse through those books. Shame on the Millbrae Library for dumbing down the library and making it more difficult to find...

The best people work here, helpful to the maximum, this is why the frase "above and beyond " was created, just to describe the people behind their desk... However, I wish they would be more firm with the public's noise, I've been in San Bruno, Burlingame, San Mateo and Millbrae is the noisiest by far to any library, if you plan to do any studying, you better get a private room, otherwise good luck since teenagers are alow to speak at normal voices, kids running around screaming or crying (mothers think is cute) other than the noice, great place, always...

Horrible selection for kids. 20% is good stuff, but 80% are politically-correct junk. Prepare to spend hours looking for the good ones, as you slog through liberal tripe for kids: left-wing politics, picture books about slavery, gay tales with two daddies/two-mommies, holiday favorites (Kwanzaa and Ramadan), and global warming horror stories. Regardless of your politics, this stuff is poorly written, badly illustrated, and just...