Montgomery County Public Libraries – Gaithersburg Branch

I love the renovations that they have done to the Gaithersburg Library! It has such a modern inviting feel.
It is located not far from exit 11 on 270 and is easy to find. I love that there is a café here where you can purchase snacks and coffee.
They have a discovery room here that has a cute climbing toy inside. There is also a teen room that has a lot of young adult novels and several reading tables — such a great idea!
One thing that I wish they had were a few children’s toys in the children’s area aside from those in the discovery room. The kids really look forward to the toys at the other locations. Aside from that, we are really excited to finally check out all the updates!
A few other reviews mentioned parking issues. It does get a bit crowded in the main circle but there is a cove of spots that are hidden by the exit that goes back towards Montgomery Village Ave.

This is a beautiful library! Plenty of meeting rooms and informal study nooks to be found. I can not speak to their books as I was only meeting to study.
The entire place looks brand new, as clean as possible. Nice work Montgomery County!

The new library looks great, but there are some problems.
Some pros are:
–Wifi
–Café with snacks (over priced)
–About 40 computers with big screens (they are touch screen)
–Computers in the kids area for the kids to use
–Magazine reading area
–Many tables with outlets
–Reservable rooms
–Discovery room with toys for kids to play in (it must be reserved)
Some cons are:
–The server for ALL the county libraries goes down weekly (and sometimes multiple times during a day) so logging in to computers and printing doesn’t work until they reboot it
–Not enough parking
–Kids use the adult computers to play games and are loud and don’t seem to be supervised
–If most or all of the computers are in use, most people don’t realize that there is a computer kiosk to register on that will assign you to the next available computer (it is toward the back of the library by world languages instead of being between the front door and the computer area)
–The restrooms are in the lobby by the front door (oriented so people can miss it)

It is a very nice building. The people who work there are friendly and willing to help. But… Today was my second time there and got disappointed again. You could hear little kids crying, teens talking loud to each other, cell phones ringing all the time and people been taking the call and actually having a conversation!!! If you want to socialize this is a good place on the low, but if you try to get some work done and study… I do not recommend to go there.

I was planning on a road trip, so stopped my the new Gaithersburg library to pick up a couple audio books.
Wow… new library is so modern. The large glass windows provide a lot of natural lighting and the high ceiling makes the place seem nice and airy.
The check-​out clerk was nice and patient with me. I forgot my library card. With proper ID, she looked up my info, checked out the audio books for me, and updated my address on file.

Long overdue re-​opening of the ol Gaithersburg Library…
guess what? It’s the BEST in the area. Very large, without it feeling like you’re in a cavernous stadium. Little coffee/​snack shop in the front with doors separating it from the main floor. LOTS of computers/​magazines, and a neat machine that dispenses the DVDs… cool!
Haven’t tried the Wi-​fi yet, but walking in, I was able to find Bob Gates autobiography, and get two recent movies on DVD. Awesome!
Also included, a small kid play area! Why wasn’t this around when Jason was a toddler?
Now the big joke: «fuel-​efficient car» reserved spaces in front? COME ON

Great place for teleworking! Plenty of places to set up a computer and go to work. I’ve never seen all the work carrels filled and there’s usually enough space that no one is actually beside you.
I bring my own hotspot and need to be near a window to pick up the signal. I haven’t used the library’s wi-​fi, but my laptop shows it to be excellent strength.
They do have common work rooms which you can book before your arrival in 2 hour slots. Handy for conference calls.
There’s not a lot of restrictions on noise except in the Quiet Reading Room. I am surprised at the number of private phone conversations I can hear, although that’s not a library issue.
Restrooms are large and extremely clean.
There’s a nice coffee shop as you enter.
The low chairs and the level of the carrel desktop means I need to bring a cushion to raise my arms to a more ergonomic-​friendly height.
And on my first visit, the staff was extremely friendly showing my where things were and suggesting ideas.

Nice, new and so much better book selection than some of the others. I am speaking from a preschool teacher’s perspective, there were so many books to choose from! I think this is my new go to library.

I went to the new library today and was quite pleased to see the new place. My expectations were that it would be more like the Rockville location but it definitely has its own personality. I took a ton of pictures so you can check them out to see what it looks like. They still have a lot of selves to fill so that was strange to see how much space was empty but hey, it’s a work in progress. It is smaller than I thought and is just the one level for general use. The upper level is dedicated to community room space but I’m not sure about the requirements to reserve the spaces. I was a bit annoyed because I wanted to get a group study room for my group of 6 and all the rooms were taken by singles using the space as homework or office space. Hopefully they will remedy that soon.
The teen room was a hit for my girls but they were annoyed that every book just about involved romance and sex or were fantasy type books. I hope the library will invest in some good clean teen reading that doesn’t involve relationships and sex activity or too much fantasy if that’s not your thing.
The Discovery room aka play room was a great thing to see but when I went in a lady was in there with her two kids and said she had the space reserved until noon and that we have to reserve the space. We reserved it for the next available time slot of 1pm to 2pm and she was kind enough to let us in the room to play with her children until her time expired. Later on when I was in there I did the same and had two different families join me. It was 5 kids and 3 adults and the kids all played nicely. I’m sure there must be some rhyme or reason to this policy but I just haven’t figured it out yet.
One thing I love about this library is that they have a little café with tables and chairs right at the entrance! It makes sense because there isn’t really anywhere you can go easily for a drink or a quick bite. As of today it was cash only but they are working on being able to accept other forms of payment. Woohoo! I think all future libraries should have this option, especially since you can’t brown bag it when you have a marathon library session going on.
As a homeschool mom I am sure we will be here a lot. I look forward to discovering and enjoying more things at this library. It’s been long awaited and long overdue for the Gaithersburg area.

It’s alright, but it doesn’t seem as big — or as nice — as some of the other regional libraries in Montgomery County. Fortunately, there are plans to renovate and expand the library: