Shasta County Public Library

I love this library, but I hate the location. The old location was within walking distance of several schools, which is a much better place for kids after school than hanging out at Subway or Jack in the box. At the current location there is too much of a transient community in the library to make it safe for unsupervised children. On top of that, I have friends that refuse to go there alone because they do not feel safe with the transient community hanging out in front. I do love the friends of the library store. I love to own books that I thoroughly enjoy, and the prices in the friends of the library are great, and the books are in great condition. The friends of the library book store sadly only takes cash, no debit or credit. This really is a great building, it just seems like a bit of a waste in the location that it is in.

Huge library and have lots of great books and helpful librarians to help you. If you can’t find the book your liking for they will be glad to help you find it or ever order it:)

A gorgeous, monster of a library! It seems they spared no expense when constructing this bad mama jama («she’s built, she’s stacked…») Two stories of everything this book-​lover could ever want. They have EVERYTHING. Even their audio-​book and DVD sections are vast (multiple aisles). They are up-​to-​date and big on technology here. When you walk in the doors, there is even a little LCD screen that shows you the «behind-​the-​scenes» of what happens when you place your books in the return slot. The kiddos (MYSELF INCLUDED) can watch the books go down a conveyer belt, etc. Many computers for all your technological and internet needs.
My only qualm about this establishment: This place is a TOTAL weirdo magnet, especially in the summertime when they are pumping out all that «free» air conditioning. Aside from the annual Shasta County Fair, I have never seen so many questionable people in one place. Such an amazing building with excellent services, but it looks like it’s a rescue mission in there.

The library is great and we enjoy Storytime but I couldn’t give it more than 3 stars due to the transient/​crazy people that hang out there. They yell at themselves and each other, smoke and hang out in the bathrooms. I had a woman corner me in the bathroom while I was washing my hands and a guy came in yelling at someone…
Very sad that they can’t fix this problem and make it safe and clean

We were in Redding for a vacation to the surrounding wilderness, but as the temperatures zoomed past 100 degrees, we went looking for a cool place to relax. This library seemed to be just the place. We were here on a weekend afternoon, but it wasn’t very busy at all. The library has a spacious and airy feel. A bonus discovery was the Hawaiian shave ice place in the library building itself, which made this an even more enjoyable trip.
Unfortunately, we felt a little uncomfortable at this library. There were some people hanging out in front of the library who would occasionally get into arguments with each other. We could hear a woman around the corner and out of sight screaming at the top of her lungs. When I went into the bathroom with my son in the entryway, there were two men that were using the restroom to wash up completely. Even inside the library, a security guard made frequent rounds through the children’s area. I realize that he was trying to make sure that things were right, but it was sad to think that this was necessary in an otherwise very nice place.
While you’re at the library, stop by the nice veterans’ memorial across the parking lot. It’s partially obscured by trees and parked cars, but is a fitting tribute to our military.

It is open on Sunday! It is close enough to downtown, if you can handle the wasteland of empty streets and horror stories women tell you about the area, it is accessible. Strange thing for internet passes: they take your id, print you a password slip which you are supposed to return at the end of your computer session. This is something other libraries use that we throw away after entering the information in at the beginning of the session. I wonder how may people they have refused to return IDs for scraps of paper with irrelevant information? Regardless, they have internet terminals and are open Sundays, for which I am grateful.

So I’ve been living almost for my entire adult life in library deserts. Bleak no-​man lands of bookless terror. I’ve been in SO many towns where the library is the first thing to get shut down during the annual county budget fights (Susanville, Cave Junction, Grants Pass, John Day, Hayfork, to name a few). Heaven forbid that we should have a book to read when there is nothing else to do except learn how to brew hooch or cook meth. Sick bastards (read ‘County Commissioners’). I’d like to point out that even towns like Dawson City in the Yukon, where the population is maybe 800 for 9 months of the year have marvelous libraries. Of course, I understand that indoor activities are pretty important up there…
Now that I’ve got some extra time on my hands (my better half has officially retired) and we can take leisurely trips to Redding in the middle of the week, I got my first Shasta Library Card last week. OMG! They have books! Rows and rows of BOOKS! Two stories (ha ha) of BOOKS!!! I almost start twitching and drooling when I walk into the building. HAPPY DANCE!
Last week we had a couple of hours to kill in between a hike up in Lassen (Bumpass Hell) and seeing Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan at the Cascade (fer Yew, Buzz — John Hiatt in Nov, Bela Fleck & Chick in Jan.). Grits and Glamour. Nice shoes. So we decided to hang out at the library. And the chairs… the chairs… ahhh. My ass is still happy about that visit. There are grand large windows (facing north — good design choice for Redding) that let in tons of light. There’s fast wifi, and huge computer section, digitized check out, and even a cafeteria with Hawaiian shaved ice. Oh, yeah, and very nicely air conditioned, of course.
This is better than when I walked into a Goodwill once in Portland, and discovered that they had a cafeteria and were serving hot dogs in the back. Used toys and a cheap lunch. Hours of fun for the kiddies!
Shasta, I love you for the job you’ve done making your library so fine. Now I don’t have to move to Alaska for the winter.

The library is way nicer now that they moved to a new location. The only part I don’t like is that there are always shady people wandering the parking lot and the surrounding area. It would be nice if they had a security guard patrolling to make sure your car doesn’t broken into.

I just relocated to Redding temporarily after a stint in Los Angeles. In a city where everything costs a fortune, I found refuge in my local libraries. Upon my return to the North state I needed some books not only to pass the time, but to also brush up on knowledge that will be pertinent to my near future so I turned to the library.
Embarrassingly enough it had been YEARS since I was a card holding member of the Shasta County Library. In fact, I was still operating under the assumption that the library was downtown. With the new address in hand I headed to the library.
What a huge surprise! The place is ginormous, hi-​tech, and swanky! They even show free «Art House Films» there monthly. Toto, we’re not in Redding anymore!
A couple of things though: The book selection isn’t the greatest (a lot of their books are really old and seem somewhat outdated) and ask for help with the self check-​out machines, I tried to navigate one of those myself for the first time entirely unsuccessfully!

It’s great that they got this built before the economic collapse and the return to power of the «government-​should-​exist-​only-​to-​fix-​potholes» crowd in local politics. The old library was embarrassing.
The new library is pimped from the entrance to the rooftop.
I’ll admit to being a guy with a habit of buying a new hardback at Barnes & Noble when I need a new book, and then adding the book to my bookshelves when I’m done with it. But I’m coming around to the idea that collecting books is inherently dumb. Nobody is going to read most of those books ever again. I’m in my office right now, and I can see reference books that haven’t been cracked since college 20+ years ago. Books should trade hands until they’re tattered and faded.
I’m furnishing my new office, and I love the conference chairs in the new library. I was online (the library has fast WiFi), so I turned over one of the chairs and found the make & model, then looked it up. $ 600 per chair! That’s how plush this place is.
Now, before you furrow your brow and complain that $ 600 per chair is an outrageous example of the taxpayers getting sodomized by irresponsible government spendthrifts, consider that Americans vacation in Europe because the Europeans appreciate — and are willing to spend money on – the commons. The amazing architecture, infrastructure, and other cultural treasures — it’s all there because Europeans don’t have our «every man for himself» attitude about such things. And their centuries-​old philosophy that publicly shared space should rock pays special dividends during hard times.

I am a huge fan of books. I was shaking and crying when I signed my first library card as a tot. Until my mid-​teens, I felt much more comfortable with books than people — then I discovered boys. For the next several years my reading was pretty much reduced to books read to impress intellectuals and/​or professors, followed by reproducing with one, leading to many tired days and nights and years reading books about and to children. Recently, due to the kids growing up and my desire to avoid Barnes and Noble, I decided to try our new and much improved Redding library. It is really quite nice and conveniently located next to the weekly Farmer’s Market. Now my bed stand is littered with books. An especially cool thing about this library are the paperback uncorrected proofs. These hot off the press, not yet released books, are checked out on the honor system, meaning you just walk out the door with them, no due date, no late fees. Check it out — I mean check them out.