Needham Free Public Library — Attraction in Needham

I give the Needham Free Public Library 3 stars not for their amazingly knowledgable and helpful staff, not for their inconveniently early closing times on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, not for the spaciousness of the library, but for the teenagers who were sitting at a table not far from where my friend and I were sitting. They were not in the teen area, a place whose sole purpose is for teens to go so they aren't distracting the people who are just trying to work (unsuccessfully due to the childishness of these adolescent nuisances). Libraries have traditionally been places where people read, write or work individually, and others come explicitly to libraries to isolate themselves from external distractions. These distractions are things that people who try to use this library in the way it was designed for, as a place where people can get books, check out resources, and work with minimal distractions, are unable to receive due to the lack of "quiet" policy. A quiet policy would be relatively easy to enforce and would make this library so much better. If library dwellers are talking but either keeping it to a minimum or not distracting others, that would be fine, but this library is so loud that it sometimes prevents me from doing the thing in which I...

I have been a needham resident for over 10 years and i have never had such discrimination and racism hurled towards me. i came here with 3 of my friends who were all people of color and we got yelled 4 times by the employees saying that we were “too loud” meanwhile on the upper floor i heard dozens of people screaming at the top of their lungs. i even heard a few of them saying racial slurs like the n word and the f slur. i was appalled at what i was hearing yet we got yelled at. For example the first time we were told to quiet down we understood even though we’re not even loud. The second time we got yelled at by this creepy janitor who was extremely rude and made a rude comment under his breath after he told us to be quiet. The final time we got yelled at was when this lady came out of nowhere and yelled “you guys need to be quiet” meanwhile i heard multiple people upstairs screaming and we all told her that it was the people upstairs and she yelled back saying “I DON’T CARE” she tried to cut herself off when saying it but she wasn’t able to. We were all in shock and couldn’t believe what was happening. We were not screaming at all yet we got targeted...

Decent sized library near center of town. It was updated years ago but still feel dated. Lots of study desks on second floor but it can get crowded by students or people. Library is part of Minuteman Network so you can borrow stuff from other towns libraries but it'll take awhile to arrive. Service by staff is good but mixed at times as there's sometimes not enough staffers.

The library has NOT enforced the QUIET treatment as many child students talk too much in the library as well as some adults!! NO good manners by people who talk inside especially those using cell phones 😡

Good longer hours from Sept-May but hours are cut shorter during the summer months.

There's a parking lot on the lower level which can be packed or on the upper street level which is shared with a local church across the street especially on...