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I do not like my local library. At all. They recently moved from their old building to a brand new, built just for them one that sits directly across from my old high school. I was pretty excited about this, figuring they'd have room to expand some of their smaller sections and in general have more books and have them better displayed. When I actually visited the new place I was so incredibly let down. The majority of the library is taken up by DVDs, CDs, and video games. They're displayed at the very front and have nice displays with plenty of space to expand. The books... are in the back, in a section that looks vastly smaller than the old library had, with poorly lit and narrow stacks that have little room for more books. In addition everything now seems to be "self-serve". You look up your own books in the computer and you check your own books out. If you ask the librarians a question, they direct you to the computer. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly it is they do. Oh, and they made space for what was advertised originally as a "cafe" in the library. In actuality they just have three vending machines tucked into a corner with two or three tables. The only thing I actually like about the new library is the fact that the kid's and teen's area is in a completely separate room, so no more toddlers screaming their lungs out in the next aisle over.

Anyways, funding wise they can't be doing terrible since they had the money to build an entirely new building. Now if only they would actually use it well. I rarely (pretty much never) use the library anymore, but my mom has gotten some crazy weird fines from them. I can say pretty certainly that the fine they slapped on her for a Berenstein Bears book was not hers. They also like to charge her for one book out of a group... that she returned all at once, not to mention on time.

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I only know of one by me and it's not very good. One redeeming factor is they have some Deadpool and Shadowpact comics and the Suikoden III manga series. Other than that they don't have a very nice selection of books.

My local library is full of shiny new YAs, and not much else. If you're looking for a specific title, more often than not they don't carry it, let alone haven't heard of it. If they do have it, it's been transferred to a town 30 miles away, or is on a mythical bookmobile that is never where I'm told it is. Parking is like a puzzle, and more expensive than a daypass at the local university, and I've given up on borrowing books from there.

I either rent ebooks through the university or buy them online.

I miss city libraries. crying

My local libraries are rather good. We have 5 or 6 close enough to us. There's one HUGE main building downtown and at least one smaller library in each section of the city. It really is great. I love it there!

Well, I've been away at school all year and I just found out they built a new public library where I live. Where in the world did they get the funds for that? lol

It's a really nice building, but the book selection is still pretty small, considering that the library has only been up and running for a few months.

One thing that I really like is that there is a story silo. Attached to the building is a silo (like, from a barn) and when you enter that part through the library, it's a place for little kids to have story hour. It's nice that they have a place to encourage young readers. (:

i like my library. its own selection of books is kind of small, but there's a really efficient system of mailing books from other libraries. ...there're pretty much no problems.