Glen Park Branch Library — Attraction in San Francisco

This place is great if you have a loud child to entertain, but awful if you want a quiet place to read or study. I tried to come here to study, but after weeks of trying I couldn’t use the space without ear plugs. The kids area is great, but very noisy at times and there is almost no attempt to keep it manageable. Today I asked an employee to deal with a group of teens who came in and were playing music loudly on their phone speakers and being rowdy as is typical, but inappropriate for the setting, and was suggested to move to a quieter place (which is impossible in such a small library). I watched as three others around me left having given up in frustration. This is a common occurrence I’ve found. Bottom line is that there seems to be almost no expectation to be quiet and respectful of others who are trying to quietly read or study. So if that’s what you’re expecting then this is probably not a reliable place. It seems like more of a place for parents and nannies to take children and for people to gather and socialize, which is fine, but not what I expected. The lack of respect seems to be from an apathetic attitude toward maintaining the type of environment I’ve depended on at more...

Wow, this library branch really is unpleasant. The staff are rude and cold, matching its atmosphere.

15 minutes before closing they start turning off machines, flashing the lights to the whole building on and off repeatedly (to a level of pitch black darkness with guests still present), and verbally harassing and shouting at individual guests repeatedly, indicating they must leave before closing. That is, people are not allowed to stay until closing time, they must leave prior, implying this location’s staff has its own schedule different from the posted hours.

I made the mistake of performing an online exam there today (with more than adequate time to finish and leave before the library closed). But the dramatic, rude, and aggressive scene the staff puts on before they close is insulting and distracting.

They seem to have some sort of contempt for the people who visit the library (as in “how dare you disrupt my quiet time as a paid civil servant”?).

I’ve been to a lot of excellent public libraries in the Bay Area, but every staff member at this branch has no business being a librarian or being in a...

Neat library above a grocery store with clean restrooms, ample selection, plenty of seating.

This library is a short walk from Glen Park BART station and a bevy of bus stops, restaurants, and small businesses. It doesn't look like there would be a sizable library from the outside, but when you take the elevator or stairway lined with art up, you realize that it's above the grocery store.

Seating is placed along the two walls facing the street. A selection of newspapers, magazines, foreign language books and media, and books of various topics are all nested between the seating and the librarian desks. A restroom is conveniently right next to the single entrance/exit so you and/or your children can use it on...