New Haven Free Public Library

What a disaster this place is. I will give them credit in that they are trying very hard to make a lot of public services available to the homeless and needy. Their staff are to be commended for not just being librarians, but also basically being social workers. However, this place is a disgrace. It’s the main, public library in the middle of downtown New Haven. Of course, libraries are going to have their share of people who are just looking for a place to hang out. But this library is virtually impossible to make use of.
You’ve got dope fiends coming in off the street with trash bag after trash bag of clothing and whatever else, nodding out at the desks, and just being generally filthy. You have inner-​city juvenile thugs hanging out like it’s their home… using vulgar/​foul language, eating, being completely disruptive, threatening, intimidating, and at the very least, rude. They have areas marked as «Quiet Zones». That’s a complete joke. The staff are just scared to deal with the people that come in. The one security guard hangs out all day staring at his phone doing nothing but collecting a check. The downstairs is apparently the place to play chess, and curse at your opponent at the top of your lungs. There isn’t a prayer of ever using the rest room. There are drug deals going on, and people taking baths in the sink. So forget that. Oh, by the way, this just happened to me today… (updating this review on 02÷24÷16) If you don’t use the toilet as quickly as the drug addicts would like you to, you will get threatened with bodily harm. The staff and the security guards could not possibly care less.
You can definitely score methadone in this place, if that’s your thing. Oh… and the wi-​fi is appallingly bad. Someone in another review suggested that it’s pretty good. It’s not good. It’s B A D. If you come in with a laptop, there’s only one area of the library you can get a signal, and that’s where the dope fiends, and other unsavory people insist on hanging out all the time. There’s a great signal downstairs, but there’s nowhere to plug in a laptop down there. The city has been trying to clean up the green. They need to focus a serious amount of attention to this library. The fact that it’s a 30 second walk from the Mayor’s office should be a major embarrassment. The bottom line… they’ve thrown in the towel at this library. They don’t need one loser security guard. They need police in this place.

This library has a lot of things going for it. They have many of the latest and greatest book and media selections available. Their wi fi actually rather fast (as in you can steam movies in it). It has admirable architecture. There is a fair amount of computers available to be utilized. The staff are actually super helpful and delightful.
Then you have people who forget that this is a library. In my 3 hours of studying I was distracted by:
1. a loud duo conducting live photography/​modeling
2. homeless people essentially squatting in the desk areas and unpacking/​repacking their gear
Oh and needless to say how this has become the sanctuary for many a homeless person, the bathrooms are in rather nasty and in a poor state of upkeep. Look, I’m all for taking care of the less fortunate, but a library is for studying and checking out books, and not lounge for the homeless.

I am old fashioned in the sense that I still would rather walk into a public library and check out books, instead of downloading them on a device or buying them. NHPL is a large library located downtown on the green, but somewhat outdated in the décor.
A librarian there once told me that they have a huge number of «lost» books that people never return and never pay the fees for… guess it is difficult to chase down these missing books after a while. Late fees are reasonable too…20 cents per day, per book.
Parking can be a pain (got a ticket once when I went in for 5 minutes to grab a book). Luckily, Yale lot 51 is right next door and offers free evening and weekend parking.
They have a lot of free programs/​speakers for adults and children. They also have many computers for use with your library card number as a log-​in. You can use the internet, do some research and look up specific books that are available at any of the branches. They also have free museum and theater passes that can be checked out for discounts and free admission.

I take my children here, (even though we’re not residents) from time to time. My children really enjoy their children’s room. They like the selection of books, ample computers, and always some activity of sorts to get involved in. I find the adult’s areas to be quite nice as well. However, I do find that if you’re looking to use the public computers, well it’s often quite a wait, and need to «officially reserve» one. Other than that, we really like this library, it’s size is quite spacious and allows one to move about freely. Happy reading!
P. s. The parking around the library is often very difficult to find. If you happen to get a spot with a meter, MAKE SURE you feed the meter, or you WILL get a ticket! :(

I was not impressed with this public library. The staff were inconsistent: all were polite and friendly, but while some were very helpful, others were disorganized and poorly-​acquainted with the library system.
There are a lot of things here that don’t make sense: for instance, there are three computers set aside for use with the catalog and the interlibrary-​loan system, but the computers are password-​protected and the person behind the information desk did not have access to the password.
I also had trouble locating books: there were a number of books listed as being «on shelf», some even with multiple copies, that were not on the shelf when I tried to locate them.
The staff also seem slightly overworked. There were substantial lines at checkout and lines at the information desk in the children’s section too. This may be due to the fact that this library sets things up so that people cannot help themselves (such as how the catalog computers were blocked off) but need to rely on asking a librarian for assistance.
Overall, the pickings are slim. This library is small; even though the building is large, the collection itself is minimal. One cannot do real research in this library the way one can in the libraries of most larger cities.
I think that it is a public embarassment to the town of New Haven that this library is so bad. It’s also a testimony to the classism of our society: sitting right next-​door is Yale University, with one of the best library collections in the world. Yale is so filthy rich; it ought to pump some money into improving this library. A real city deserves a real library and I think even modest improvements to this library’s collection could go a long way. The library itself seems to have a great deal of open space… I could imagine it could easily double the size of its collection while staying under the same roof.