I personally have found my local library to be an invaluable source of all manner of reading materials. From Sci-fi fiction to biographies to history to science, from brushing up on my math skills to learning how to train my dogs effectively, a good library is in my opinion a must have for all towns and cities everywhere. My city library happens to be quite excellent, in the amount of books it has available, to the ease and efficiency of use, to the sheer size of the building and the extra features it contains (like an in-door art exhibition area, and a genealogical records area), in addition to the basic features of a good library (such as computer usage room, spacious private conference areas, community resource listings and information). So, I was wondering, if you rated your local public library, what score do you give it? 1-5, 5 being top-notch excellent, 3 being pretty okay/solid and 1 being very poor/crappy. Take all factors into consideration, including quantity and variety of books, media materials, building architecture and structure, librarian competence, and special features (or lack of them). The library I use by the way is the Fort Wayne, Indiana main library. The number of books available is vast, and there is alot of things you can do there and resources you can use that most libraries simply do not have. The librarians are helpful, but not exceptional as far as I could tell (librarians in general seem to do just enough to help you and otherwise try to avoid you, lacking the finer points of person-to-person service, but of course thats just some of them). It has well-organized sections and large, regularly updated new books areas. A great library, I give that a 5/5 overall.
I've never been to a particularly bad library, although I didn't much care for the one in my old neighborhood because it was really small, and not particularly comfortable. The Hayden Library at ASU is pretty great - it's so full of old books, you can actually smell it in the air in some places. Old book smell is the best smell ever And it has books on pretty much every subject ever, it seems. Although, when I went to look for books there, most of the ones on my list weren't on the shelves, despite what the computer said. So a 4/5, I guess. Though I haven't gotten to go out there for a while, I really like the Phoenix Public Library. Have yet to do any actual reading there, but last year I'd go every other morning before school to do my homework, because the atmosphere was really peaceful. The second floor has this enormous window that overlooks downtown Phoenix, with all these desks lined up against it that are almost always empty - the perfect spot to drink coffee and get some writing done. I don't know enough about the book selection to rate it properly, though.
I'd probably give mine a 2. It's not all that big, and it has a boring feel to it. I never liked my local library. My school library is better though.
I have a reader's card for the British Library, which is supposed to have a copy of every book published in the English language and is a rather excellent place. But it's not public, and it's not a lending library so I suppose it doesn't count. I've got three local public libraries within easy reach of me, and one of them is excellent.
