Sulzer Regional Library

I work from home as a web developer and I was in the area to meet a coworker near his place. It was my job to scope out some places to see what’d be best suitable for our work (fast, reliable wifi was my top criteria). Stopped here first on my list alongside some other neighborhood cafes and this was sufficient enough. Came here during normal daytime hours and considering it’s a smaller space, it can get kind of noisy with the echoes from the guests/​children who visit. Bring your headphones.

It’s a decent library. Not enough outlets for laptops and other electronics if you ask me, though. Their holding is kind of on the slim side, but it is a regional library so it is to be expected. The library is located in a nice neighborhood. The bathrooms are usually clean. Sometimes they have events here, but I haven’t went to any yet. Definitely my favorite of the CPLs so far.

Much as I hate to say it, I agree with those who’ve marked down this branch for often being disorganized and sometimes where I can’t find a book at all, plus that I dread how I’ve encountered a few staff members here that can be a little rude. In fairness, I’ve been noticing it less as of late, and the counter checkout staff almost always seems to be friendly. It also doesn’t help that I’ve sometimes on a whim found books that are listed as being currently available at Sulzer, only to not find it while looking on their shelves. Yes, sometimes I am in such a hurry, that I don’t get around to using the website feature to place an item on hold. And hence, why often if I have a choice between going to a regular branch or Sulzer, why I’ll choose EVERY time getting the book, DVD, or whatever I’m looking for through a smaller CPL branch.
OTOH, their newspaper archive room on the 3^rd floor is really awesome, despite the limited hours it has vs. the full regular hours of this library. I think it’s only open on a few days of the week too, but can’t remember as I haven’t had to use it lately. Their magazine selection on the 2^nd floor is amazing, despite that one might have to deal with an infrequent weirdo or 2. Least they less often hang out in this section, vs. say near the computers. And it (very sadly, and boo to the 2010 library hour cutbacks I still remember too well) is one of only 3 CPL libraries that are open till 9pm Monday-​Thursday (other 2 being Harold Washington and Woodson), so the later 8−9pm weekday hours have come in handy for me at times.
The bathroom isn’t the cleanest here, but that isn’t a problem that can’t be resolved via going to Julius Meinl or another nearby place instead, is it? And I do like the fact I tend to always have a great chance of finding the latest issue of Reader, New City, Illinois Entertainer, etc. here, when sometimes those newspapers are unavailable at other newspaper boxes on the street. Parking is usually available on one of the streets to the east if you can’t get a space on Leavitt east of the Library, it’s easily walkable from the Montrose (#78) bus, and not much further from the Damen (#50) and Western (#49) bus. And a Divvy station is location immediately south of the library, in the grassy plaza area between Lincoln Ave. and the parking area on Leavitt south of Sunnyside.

Everyone needs to know that libraries are no longer places for study and quiet. Manners no longer exist there. «No cell phone» and «Quiet» signs have been removed. Many times the librarians are louder than the patrons. Vacuuming is done during the day. Also someone passed spraying for bugs. What if someone is allergic to insecticides?
The Sulzer library is filled with the homeless and young thugs. I saw a van load being dropped off, and believe they are coming from nearby troubled juvenile center. The library is their sitter. They cluster outside and smoke near the doors. Isnt there a law about smoking within certain number of feet from public entrance. I saw in the lobby one delinquent punching a bulletin board in some kind of thug fit. I was not surprised to read the review of bikes being stolen outside the library. In the computer section these thugs yell back and forth to each other, play loud music, jump around in their chairs to rap music.
there is never a time when someone isn’t talking on a cell phone or one is ringing. I find it very hard to concentrate. One day I found a makeshift razor weapon under my keyboard. Sometimes the guards act but many times they are out to lunch, looking in mirror, talking on phone or to each other. Our tax dollars at work.
Screaming kids are the norm.
I have been assaulted and threatened by men bullies frequenting this library. Women’s bathroom is usually dirty.

Careful all, as of June, 2015 there have been a high number of bike thefts off the bike racks in front of Sulzer. Even those who bought the best locks, report stolen 600.00 dollar bikes Watch yourselves.

Love the late hours at this library and the librarians are very cheerful. They brought me back to being a regular.

I visited Chicago the week of 10/​18/​2014 and stayed at a home in North Center that I found through
. The wifi in the home was not working. I knew about Sulzer from having lived in the area for a long time before moving to Berkeley, CA in 2012. The Sulzer Library’s wireless access was free and worked perfectly. I didn’t need to ask anyone for help or service, so can’t comment on the Sulzer staff. Berkeley, however, has 3 amazing public libraries with staff who enjoy their jobs and a system that is easy to use and works. Maybe this is because the weather is so much more pleasant!

For me the verdict is still out on this library. The positives are that it’s only minutes away from my apartment, and it’s in a beautiful park setting with Welles Park just across the street. So today I found a book on the Chicago Public Library website that was supposed to be on the shelves at Sulzer. I carefully wrote the catalog number down and searched for my book with no success. I asked a librarian at the help desk and she said it could have just been returned and it was possibly in the basement. She said she might have trouble finding it but she’d search for me. About two seconds later she came back and said she couldn’t find it. That was quick. Can she travel though space and time? Maybe. She said I could put it on hold, but since I already had 3 books on hold (Since August!!!) I’d have to chose one to take off my hold list. Heck, I’ve already waited 3 months for these books so why not throw one out. It was a book with the word Samurai in the title and this librarian couldn’t figure out the word, Samurai. Not to be mean or anything, but really? You can’t site read the word Samurai? I kind of lost faith.
So, hopefully I won’t have to wait three months for my intended book, when it was supposed to be on the shelf to begin with. Since this library is so close, I’m sure I’ll be back. Hopefully my next visit will leave me feeling that my literary life is in the hands of a competent library staff.

I really like this library. I have nothing bad to say about it, really. I’ve come here a few times with my 1 year old. The play room is great. Also a great book selection for all ages. The employees are nice and helpful. I will be returning many times, especially in the winter months :)

If there is a «library experience» to be had in this country, you can have it at Sulzer. This is the best library I’ve ever set foot in, hands down. The people working there are incredible and feel local. The selection — books and music — is as good as it gets. Part of the reason I feel lucky to live where I live is this library. Thanks for everything.

I used to love coming here as a child. It is a great neighborhood library with a lot of history and charm. There’s a great selection. It might be one of the best libraries in Chicago.

Yep. Still a 1 star. Just got an email saying I had a fine posted to my account, even though I haven’t checked anything out since my last incident. When I called to check on the fine, the lady that answered said there was nothing, and without waiting for my response said okay… thank you… and hung up as I was trying to explain. Avoid this place if you can, it’s not worth the headache or rudeness.

Sulzer is a solid branch library. You’d be surprised at the quality of their selection. And I’ll say this: I hate being around Harold Washington, but I hang out at Sulzer for hours. It feels like a genuine neighborhood library. I grew up with the Oak Park library, which is fantastic, and even though Sulzer isn’t particularly fancy it’s got the same sort of friendly, laid-​back vibe.

Today I realized that I have been utterly spoiled by the main Evanston Public Library. Still, Sulzer is now my go-​to library within walking distance — who am I to complain about being able to borrow books for free? I love books. I love libraries.
The selection is so-​so (but they have plenty of my beloved Agatha Christie, like every library should), but on the Chicago Public Library website, you can place holds on books that are at other CPL locations and arrange for pick-​up at your local branch.
The building itself is really neat, and everyone I encountered (from getting my shiny new library card to check-​out) was very friendly (Chicago totally wins in the library friendliness department).

Sulzer is like your favorite baseball team that goes into the season looking great on paper, but manages to underperform consistently. Maybe they scrape an occasional three– or even four-​game winning streak, but halfway through the season you know that they have no chance to make the playoffs. But you keep rooting anyway because they’re your team. Or because they’re the closest team.
When I moved into the neighborhood over a year ago, I was excited to be near a regional library. A greater selection of books and longer hours! Yes!
But despite a wider selection in theory, the main problem with Sulzer is that they almost never have what they’re supposed to. I got so aggravated with checking the online catalog, then showing up to find that the item was not on the shelf, that I conducted an organized survey over last winter and spring. I wanted to attach some hard numbers to this frustrating phenomenon. I made six trips to the library, each about three weeks apart. Across the six visits I looked for twelve items that were allegedly «Not Checked Out», according to the catalog. Various categories were represented – current fiction, older fiction from the 70s through the mid-​00s, a classic or two, various American and European history, and a book on evolutionary biology. Of the twelve, I found four. Four! THIRTY-​THREE PERCENT.
Where are all these books going? Pulled from the shelf by a browser and then laid on a table? Sitting on a cart for weeks waiting to be reshelved? Stolen? Eaten for lunch by hobos? Sucked into a tiny black hole? Why can these clowns not keep track of the books in their library?!? Librarians – it’s 10:30, do you know where your books are?
Last summer I put a hold on a certain book. Today, thirteen months later, it still shows as «In Transit» to Sulzer. That book is probably lost forever, which is really sad because it was an old book and the only copy in the whole CPL system. If ever a «WTF» was called for, it’s here.
Recently I was looking for a copy of Working, the Harvey Pekar adaptation of the Studs Terkel classic. The catalog claimed that it would be upstairs in the non-​fiction section at call number HD8072. T4 2009. Guess what? That’s right – it wasn’t! I happened to find it purely serendipitously, downstairs in a special display of comic books, cowering in a corner of the bottom shelf, being terrorized by dozens of volumes of manga and X-​Men comics. Thanks for flipping the bird to the Dewey Decimal System, Sulzer.
How about the handful of positives. Those hours, for instance: the library is open on Sunday (just 1−5pm) and until 9pm on Monday through Thursday – very useful. Let’s see… I usually don’t have to wait in line very long… only occasionally is there a horrid-​smelling homeless person standing exactly where I want to look… I like that they dim the lights to conserve electricity on hot days… uh…the security guard doesn’t search your bags like at HWLC…
Hmm, that’s about it. Basically this is a larger-​than-​branch-​size library with evening and Sunday hours, so moderately more convenient on both counts. For those conveniences, we have to put up with the frustrations. I suppose that we should just be thankful to have libraries at all.

Today, I went to the Sulzer Regional Library to do some genealogy research. Parking is kind of dicey as the library is across from a park and next to a residential area, but if you drive to the back of the library, there is a dead end street to park on. The building looked almost like a jail with all of the iron bars on the windows… a jail for books.
I walked in to find two security guards stationed between the foyer and the checkout line. I guess they help keep the homeless in the area in check. I started at the checkout line and asked for a guest pass. The attendant has no clue what I was talking about so she accompanied me up to the second floor where the librarians stand guard over much of the computer equipment and the reserved section and that’s when I announced my intention of searching an old newspaper database and was issued the temp #.
I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find some more information and books for research, so the trip wasn’t a total loss.
Free WIFI and helpful staff. The second floor is nice and quiet and there are many different places to sit and plug in your laptop. That’s also where a copy machine is located.

I’ve walked past the same old guy downloading the same nasty teen, obese, swinger porn for my last two visits. I feel bad for the people using his computer when he’s done.
Yesterday I watched a guy get carried out for a seizure… paramedics came in under 5 minutes.
As far as the facilities go… tons of movies, computers, a section for Russian language mags, and books galore. This is a regional branch, so it is bigger and better than most and the workers get stuck working on Sundays.

I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities here. The building itself appears to have been renovated. It has various different levels including a mezzanine level. I came here for the sole purpose of printing some paperwork. To print, it will cost $ 0.15 per page. Also, unless you are just visiting Chicago, you will need to obtain a library card from the reference desk on the second floor to use the computers.
There were many computers at the public’s disposal. In fact, it was neat seeing so many people from the community actually using a computer. I think the only thing that is convoluted is the way you print a document. You have to pay the lady at the reference desk for each page, and then you go to another kiosk to actually print. The libraries that I have seen just make you pay for it and they just print it for you. I think it is inefficient the way they have it now. Instead of buying all those printers, they could have just used one or two. It is not like the patrons are printing massive docuemnts because that could become very costly.
It is a quiet facility so one could conceivably come here to read a nice book without being disturbed.

I forgot how much I like to read books until I walked by one day and found myself feeling nostalgic.
With my fast paced life of pharma, socializing and lovin, I found that I don’t have time to read any more. I’d rather space out than read since I’m constantly reading documents for work.
Well, walking into Sulzer, I started reminiscing and found myself walking out with five books, the limit when you don’t have your card with you and a date to visit the friendly librarians for some more reading materials in a couple of weeks.
Got to go now, I have to finish this book if I’m going to move onto the next one by Wednesday.

In days of yore, when one would use a PC here, one would be in an oddly cramped semi-​circle on the the first floor, or sitting around a large circular dome upstairs, facing a wall, and using an old clunky PC. Well, not anymore. There’s been a major renovation at Sulzer, and we now have a large open area with flat screen PC’s, maybe about 100 of them, on the spacious second floor. The rest of the place has been well-​organized with tables and chairs, and a special new area full of flat screen PC’s are in the children’s department, too. So they have improved the overall feng shui.
Now, one hardly ever has to make a reservation for a PC. There is almost always one available when you walk in. Staff is helpful. New and improved printers are here, too. What a great resource this is when the old home computer is on the fritz. Love that renovated hull-​of-​an-​empty – ship feel to the place. Great people-​watching. I don’t know where they got the funds to do all these improvements in these economic downturn times, but I’m sure glad they did. Makes me proud to be a Lincoln «Square.»
Oh, yeah, they have books, movies, tapes and DVDs too.