James S. Thalman Library

Spacious, beautiful library with lots of computer terminals and quiet places to study. I love the inter-​library loan system, where you can reserve a book from another library online, and it comes to this library for pick-​up. I also really like the private study rooms that you can reserve. My children have used these several times to meet with groups from school when they are working on projects together. The summer children’s program is also great. They have free weekly children’s programs and weekly prize incentives for reading.

Its clean inside but next to impossible to study if your distracted easily due to the kids area right next to the tables you would study at… I came here to have a quiet study area and thats not what i found here

everything is nice except one thing, they set a children’s place inside the library, you cannot study with that noice.

I love this library and the children’s library! Someone from this library really cares about the future generations’ readiness on reading. I love that they have tons of fun programs for small children. Now my 3 year old and my 7 month old are so excited when going to the library. My 3 year old also love reading books, I think it’s a good start for him!
We love Ms Beth, she is super loving and caring and she is fun. It’s so much fun for me to listen to her story reading for the kids, I can see the passion she has for the them. Other staff are very friendly and helpful too.
Thank you and please continue with these good works!

This place is clean, large, and in a good location. This is my favorite library to study. I suggest finding a table near the Young Adult section, which is the furthest area from the Children’s section, which may get a little loud during activity time.
Recently, I have been experiencing poor network connections here though. It’s difficult to get any work done when you keep disconnecting from wi-​fi and your videos take forever to buffer!

Very modern. Great place to get work done. Also, very close to the shopping center. Plenty of seats, plenty of windows.

The building is nice enough but the book collection, even with the rest of San Bernardino County via interlibrary loan is pretty limited. Fines are pretty high and most of the staff isn’t very pleasant.

I may be a Diamond Bar-​ian, but Chino Hills is literally my second home so it’s no surprise I wound up in the land of green pastures and farm animals on a lazy Monday afternoon. This library is much cleaner, more spacious and, best of all, better-​stocked than other libraries around my home. I’d usually spend my time here book-​hunting but since I’d already done that two days ago, I decided to buckle down and take care of some assignments and errands online instead. Why at the library you ask? Because the wifi is so much faster than what I have at home. If rows of bookshelves stocked with the latest books, ample study space/​private study rooms and fast&free wifi aren’t enough to convince you to check this place out, I don’t know what will.

I agree with the most recent, negative, reviews — this library has much to be desired. For one, it seems more like a tax-​payer funded day care than a library. I stopped by on a weekday afternoon at about three p.m. and it was noisy inside! Aren’t libraries supposed to be a quiet refuge for reading, learning, and studying? How can one concentrate in such a place? Why don’t these ‘patrons’ engage in respectful behavior? Where are the parents?!
The other concern is with a woman who was at the front counter. I approached the counter to return a book and when I asked the lady at the computer a couple of questions, a woman (brunette, 30ish) standing next to her replied (as if the lady at the computer couldn’t answer questions) in a manner more appropriate for a correctional officer than a public library staff member. A few minutes later I overheard the same woman talking on the telephone to what seemed like a library ‘customer’, in the same unfriendly manner, completely devoid of politeness.
Overall, this library is a big disappointment.

This City’s library sucks when I walked in just to ask where are the books the guy at the information desk wasn’t even friendly he wasn’t smiling he was just giving me this weird look like: Haven’t you ever been to a library before? and I look at him well every library is different so I don’t get why you can’t just show me where your fiction area is at. I also hate the policy where you can only borrow five books its like um hello the County Libraries let you borrow 50 Books and no limit. I rather go to the County Libraries instead. I mean yeah the place is nice and all but aside from being nice and all I hope they have better customer services :)

Five stars for a nice clean public library. The staff is good. The amenities are nice. The location is nice. Buttttt…
WHO THE HELL decided to have a kids recreation center in a place of study? I left my house because I couldn’t concentrate.
Im trying to read in a private room and lets start with what I hear through the shut door. I hear a lady talking about dinosaurs on a microphone to 50 or more children and half of them are crying. In my peripheral theres about 10 –15 kids playing hide-​n-​seek between the book shelfs, or just wondering around aimlessly.
This one star is specifically for when they host this event. Maybe before you come, look up a schedule of events or something and when ever they are hosting some mickey mouse club garbage do not come.

one of my most favorite spots to do my studying. Their selection of books is decent. I haven’t been able to utilize it for that purpose yet. I love that they have study rooms and they’re somewhat sound proof… sucks that the time limit is an hour long unless it’s a really slow day. Then you can use it much longer… it’s a nice cool facility. Except the study room gets stuffy too, like it did one time, however it was nicer yesterday. I am definitely going to check out their selection of graphic novels though!
The staff is really friendly, the soaps in their bathroom smells phenomenal. Cherry Almond! YUMMY!!! So read on, knowledge is power.
Love the ambiance to the place too. cause yeah it’s Chino Hills!

Took baby to story time. It’s great that they have something going on for kids Almost everyday. However everytime we go there are soooo many people (50 – 100). Too many ppl and too loud sometime. The teacher is really great yet she doesn’t have any microphone and sorry for her that she always has to tell when everybody is talking at same time

Quiet place to read and find a comfy seat for relaxing. I always try to find a local library for in between soccer games and this one was great for that.
My only recommendation is more comfortable seating in the reading room

I love to read.
I place books on hold online and swing by and pick them up.
Parking sucks, but it’s a nice library.

I’ve always liked coming to this library, which is still reasonably new to Chino Hills. Tonight, though, I used the restroom for the first time, and I was hugely disappointed with the maintenance.
Of the 4 bathroom stalls, only 1 was usable. Of the other three, one had no toilet paper at all (both rolls were empty), one toilet was filled with seat covers and toilet paper, and one toilet was full of unflushed urine.
The last two problems may have been due to the same problem the fourth stall had: the automatic toilet wouldn’t flush on its own, and it took me several minutes to find the small black button that was for the manual flush.
Shame on you, City of Chino Hills. Bad form indeed.

This is a reaaaally nice library. Based on asthetics alone, I was impressed. A water fountain wall in the front, spacious parking lot, comfy booths to work on, and fast internet too? That’s really all I need when I’m looking for a place to work. Would gladly come back if I ever get locked out of volunteer again lol.
One issue: there was a room that had a class for kids going on… that was a bit distracting. They need to soundproof that room or something.

I used to come here a lot when I was in undergrad/​and the beginning of graduate school. Fast forward 5 years, I am now done with graduate school and come here for leisure reading/​internet surfing.
It used to be a great place to get my studying/​and projects done. HOWEVER — since moving back to the area this year, I feel that this place has deteriorated.
Been here twice this year:
First time, I took my mom with very high hopes. I ended up getting a few books but noticed the lacking of selection. Not very appealing. Also, you have to get an appointment for a computer slot? What the…
Second time, I came by to do some work and noticed a LOT of people just napping in their seats… I think this library should have some rules and regulations for their people. Also, when I went up to the «information» desk to ask for help, the lady at the desk was semi-​helpful but not that much. At one point I asked for her to look up a Non fiction book and she gave me a dewey decimal code. She then told me very briefly where it was located, but not CLEAR at all… and when I asked, she didn’t seem enthusiastic to tell me clearly. I ended up asking another worker, who seemed «clueless» about where they were — weird… she had to ask another worker closeby… guess she was new?
APPARENTLY, they don’t train their workers! Sigh* this place isn’t as good anymore… It LOOKS good, but doesn’t deliver.

This library is conveniently located to the police station, and the Shoppes in Chino Hills. I’d feel safe dropping my kids off and then going to do a little grocery shopping. The library is open long hours, has a nice book drop located outside, and the entrance is accessible from both the east and west entrances. Also, if you go accros to the City Hall, you can pay your water bill and check out fossil mammals that once lived in pre-​historic Chino Hills.

It looks nice on the outside. Looks really nice with the water fountain wall and all the clean glass walls and the marble looking Palm Springs tiles. And that lovely NO FOOD except for bottled water sign blocking the middle entrance.
No.
This is the loudest library I have ever been to. While I understand libraries are for kids and crying babies too, I despise the extremely loud patrons in the study rooms who seem to think that the walls are soundproof. Either they think that or just don’t care that they’re yelling at their small children in the study room and talking on the phone loudly. I swear, if I didn’t have my earplugs and noise canceling headphones I would have yelled at a mother and her 2 small children and the person they were all talking to on the phone. The librarians or staff should monitor the noise level of the study rooms.
Also, I wasn’t too fond of the fact that the library decided to turn off the lights 15 minutes before closing. Well, I can hear and I know the library is closing in 15 minutes, but at least turn on the lights so I can pack up my stuff.
And lastly, get some toilet paper in the stalls. Maybe I should’ve just peed in the water fountain wall outside. The only good thing about this library is that it has free wifi without requiring a library card/​password. The wifi isn’t the fastest, but it’s good enough. If you want to stream movies, get on one of the computer terminals.