New York Public Library – St. Agnes Library

They didn’t have the books I was looking for but it’s a small, clean library with friendly & informative staff. A far cry from the libraries in Queens; no loud teenagers or smelly folks here. It feels like a place civilized folks can hang out in without being hassled or bothered by creeps. Yay!

Don’t know why this library got such low reviews. Three floors of clean, well lit space, a beautiful curving staircase and a good selection of books, dvds and computers. There is even a self checkout and a security guard. It does indeed cater to kids and their families, as I noted the children’s floor was on the bottom and adults had to go up to the second floor. Thankfully there is an elevator for those who can’t navigate the stairs. I visited at a time when the kiddies weren’t out in hordes and screaming. As for the Unilocaler who complained about a homeless person, NYPL got sued for trying to keep some homeless people out who came in and reeked. So I guess they aren’t allowed to keep out homeless people unless they are dangerous. I have noticed, depending on the library, many homeless just camping out at certain libraries. It may not be ideal if the homeless smell bad but unfortunately, the library is unable to eject them. When I was checking out some books, I did notice a man snoring loudly at a table. I wasn’t sure whether he was homeless; I didn’t check him out. People just ignored him. This library apparently was renovated and the improvements show. I just wish the adult section was on the first floor.

This is a really great neighborhood library and community resource. The library is well organized and has been clean when I was there. I go weekly, sometimes twice a week (we read a lot).
This library is very welcoming of kids and has a really great children’s library on the first floor. There are lots of books to choose from, plenty of space to sit and read, and nice programming. There is also lots of room for stroller parking. I love that the story hours and play times have a separate space.
I found the staff to be friendly and helpful. Some more than others but that is true of pretty much everywhere. I have found the staff here to be friendlier than some other locations.

Today it was my first time and probably the last one. I went to pick up a DVD that I placed on hold a month ago and the stuff were super slow, there was a long line to check out. Even though they have a system to check out yourself, the instructions are not very clear and when you ask the staff they are not nice about it. The staff need to have better computer skills because she was tipying with one single finger. No wondwr why the line was longgg.

I called today to renew a book. I WAS PUT ON HOLD FOR TEN MINUTES. I hung up. I called back later and got on some sort of endless loop… yes, the recording kept giving me the same instructions with the same numbers to press. I went online to try and renew the book and guess what? It wouldn’t go through! I’m going in person to renew the book. Who knows what will happen then. I will say, they’re nice at the library.

Come to this library if you want to drop off your loud, spoiled child. It seems like everyone else has. If you actually wanted to study or read, you know like people seem to enjoy at a library, pick a real library, not this daycare.

I figured where is a great place to go study and have some peace and quiet? Library right? Nope the underlings of society come to this place to sleep and hang out !! An employee behind me was conversing with someone about finding a different job. If they lowered their voice and had a hush hush conversation who cares but nope they had to use their outside voice and made studying impossible !! Oh a final straw was witnessing what appeared to be a homeless lady sorting through her cart which was sprawled out on the floor of the library !! Yah I think I’m going to continue studying at Starbucks and ditched the idea of the library !

THE WORST LIBRARY THAT I HAVE BEEN IN MY LIFE.
That’s it. When you go to the library, you expect silence and a quiet environment to read. You expect people be respectful. But not in St. Agnes Library. People is talking loud all the time, making noise, like in a bar (all of them, adults, unbelievable!). Library´s Assistance was talking more loudly that no one. Seriously, people go to catch up with their friends, cellphones ringing every minute, nobody from the Library does anything.
If you wanna gossip with your girlfriend about your last fling, this is your place.

The booksales did return: super collection of donated books sold by patron-​volunteers, bless them.

A wonderful haven for loud obnoxious children! It is difficult to find books as they are mislabeled and unorganized. I usually only go to borrow DVDs which are range from totally weird to new releases.

GREAT library. very helpful staff, especially for a lazy person like myself who can’t even be bothered to browse for a book.
my only concern: why do they have (at least) three travel guides to walt disney world? disturbing.

New York Public Libraries are great! You can rent books, cd’s and dvds. Think about it, they were doing all this before the internet and iphones and ipods and it’s all free!
If you haven’t been here in a while, they’ve renovated the place and it looks great. They moved the chidrens section downstairs and the books and periodicals are upstairs. It looks great, and there are more seats and computers available.

At first, I thought this library was new because all their great selection of DVDs and CDs seemed new.
…but then I saw the review below.

St. Agnes has been closed since October 2007 for renovations. It is scheduled to re-​open later this year. The addition of handicapped accessiblity and public bathrooms will make it a lot more up to date. But I think they are going to get more computers, which will be much more exciting.