Kevin Brady Library — Attraction in The Woodlands

I only gave it a 2 star because we absolutely love our Librarians and all the hard work they do for our community, especially our children. I will support our Librarians, but I won't support the people who allowed this plan to happen.

This is NOT a real library. It has lost all of its charm. It's not cozy. It's bland, which I know could change with time, but it still feels cold.

When you walk in and don't see a single book until you walk 100-200 feet into the halls, you know there is a problem. The wall to the right is fake above the check-out desk, albeit they are books (the blue books are supposed to be in the shape of Woodlands Lake?), but they are not for borrowing. And that desk is very high! Why? Seriously? Am I at a hotel or office building?

All the meeting rooms should have been placed into the back of the building or into the community center. And they should all be free for use. Oh! Did they not tell you? You have to pay to use the large meeting rooms, which is $100/hr with 2 hr minimum and you cannot have more than 16 persons. Many local community outreach groups have used the meeting rooms at the previous location for years, for free. How is that fair? Here's a Memo - If you cannot charge for tutoring in the library, you also cannot charge for use of the rooms. That's what non-profit means.

They had to get rid of so many books because there was not enough room for them all. The shelves are too few and place too close together (think of one person aisles). The tall ones are ridiculously tall, who can even reach the books on the very top shelf? And the low bookshlves in the children's area are not parent friendly, while it's great for kids, remember ghe parents are the ones who look more.

It's extremely loud with the lack of separation (walls) between the children's and adult's sections. The only quiet rooms were the Teen Only room or study/meeting rooms. Due to all the glass, there is ZERO privacy in all those rooms. It's distracting to people who want to use the space, especially in today's world of various inabilities. The Teen room doesn't even have its own storage room, which means the librarians have to haul everything (tables and chairs included) into their respective rooms for events. I'm not even sure where the kitchens are, is there even one?

There are not enough tables nor chairs. The view from the adult sitting space was absolutely ugly. Some road, fencing and another building? No waterway views at all. The view for the children's area is the parking lot. There are no outdoor spaces. It's ugly. Nothing to enjoy or to encourage imagination.

There is no second floor, which is such a waste of space! There was definitely room for a second floor! There is no excuse for this oversight.

It only just opened and already one of the "family bathrooms" was out of order when I went in the other day. There is also a lack of bathrooms, two family bathrooms and the one inside the main lobby that both buildings have to share. I don't know if the community center also has family bathrooms.

There was no Wi-Fi available, and the computer lab, maker's lab or gaming stations were not even set up before opening the place up. That should have already been done. That was disappointing. There are also no vending machines.

The community center should have been its own building to allow that entire building to be the library. Such a huge oversight.

Overall, it's an extreme letdown. If this is what they consider the future of Libraries, I'll stick with older locations. I want the old location back. I want the waterway back. I want the green space back. They cheated our community for their own gain/greed....

The new Kevin Brady Library is undeniably beautiful: modern, bright, and thoughtfully split between the library on the right and the community center on the left. (I did not visit the community center side, so this review is only about the library.)

For as large a space as the library occupies, the layout and use of space didn’t feel as well-planned as they could be. There are several specialty rooms, a dedicated children’s area, a young adult section, and a general area for everyone else.

The young adult room has a few study nooks a long desk area with 4 chairs, and two small sitting sections, but it’s restricted to ages 12–17 after 2:00 p.m., which limits access for college students or adults looking for a quiet spot later in the day. The children’s area is large and bright, with big windows and plenty of open floor space, but surprisingly little comfortable seating for parents to sit and read with their kids or relax while they do.

The main area for everyone else has a mix of small study nooks (around four), four two-person tables, (which are so small you can only use a laptop but not bring any books if you are ‘sharing the desk’ with another person), one long desk that can seat about five people, and three round tables with four chairs each. There are only three small comfortable sitting areas with a few chairs and low coffee tables. The remaining space is taken up by study rooms that must be reserved in two-hour blocks, that you can only reserve them same-day, by phone or in person, which makes it inconvenient for planning ahead.

There’s also a large computer lab and some meeting rooms, which are functional but take away from the kind of relaxed, open seating many people expect in a community library. For all its beauty, the library doesn’t really invite you to sit down, read, or study for any length of time. Honestly, the local Starbucks offers better seating and ambiance for that.

Overall, it feels like the furniture and layout were chosen for appearance rather than comfort or usability. It’s a gorgeous building, but the space could have been designed much more thoughtfully for the people who actually want to use it.

I was so excited to have a new and updated library, but I’m sadly disappointed by the lack of comfort and practicality it offers.

Now onto the whole book thing, it’s like they just threw a handful of books into the space to call it a library, not much selection, but it does not even look like they have an area to sit and listen to audio books either.

I went back serval times hoping I would feel differently, but the vast space is used poorly.

Therefore I give it a ⭐️⭐️½ (2.5/5)

I really hope they hear the feedback from the community. They need more study spaces with comfortable seating.

Kevin Brady Library: Beautiful Design, But Poor...

OUR first visit here it was huge and lots of space individual rooms to work independently the children's area was large unfortunately no computer's or listening centers or tables for children to sit maybe a few if I remember a huge open area where two toddlers we're running around, not as if they were in a library the parents or librarian didn't redirect them to quiet down not even a little, where we sat was in front of a door leading to the outside I noticed a huge open space at the bottom of the door because the door was closed and you could see the outside ground where anything can crawl in, rain moisture very scary to notice it and it being left open like that even though the door was closed, I noticed there was no catalog for the listing of books if you needed any help locating books you'd have to ask the librarian, where they sat behind a desk most of our visit, the adult and young adults area had more tables and chairs although the rooms were separate the adult area had a listening centers in the open with booths along the side of the wall where individual people with their own computers sat, I noticed comfortable lounge chairs throughout the whole library. They also have different types of classes being tought I think today was photography it was in a closed room just for them. This location has 2 rooms near the front entrance where book shelves full of book's are sold one room is for children and the other is for the adults where you pay for your selections, the books are color coded with sticker's by price which was nice every book or puzzle had a circle color sticker and a list with the color coded prices. Within the building on a different side but same entrance shared was a community side, it was open but it had No sign listed for what event was taken place I noticed 2 set's of bathroom's one set in the very front when you walked in the main entrance between the community center and library the other bathroom was in the children's area, it could have been more but I didn't notice any, outside of the two rooms was the check out desk for us to check the books out and we exited out the library and then the Maintenance to the outside where we sat on benches and shared our visit...