Sutro Library California State

The best well hidden secret of San Francisco history. A great collection of ancient, rare, and first edition texts in a new, bright, quiet, well lit building with many convenient, comfortable, pleasant places to read and study. The staff is very helpful and friendly and enthusiastic about their work and very proud of the collection.
It is located in the same building as SFSU library, but is not a part of it. It is a part of California State library, bequested by Sutro family to the City of San Francisco and it is open and accessible to all Californians., not only SFSU students and faculty.

It’s situations like this that highlight the unsatisfactory way that Unilocal allows users to rate places.
If I were rating the Library itself, it would be 5-​stars all the way. It’s a tremendous resource for genealogy buffs. Not only is the physical collection extremely broad and in-​depth, but if you don’t have a laptop/​tablet/​smart phone with you, the free computer stations allow you to consult on-​line sources. And they have a free scanner/​copier/​printer that allows you to print out sources (or save the scans to a thumb drive) rather than having to check out an entire book.
The Library’s open hours are a bit limited, but I understand the limitations they have to work within. The space is quiet (except for staffers — see below), clean, comfortable, spacious and well-​appointed. The bathrooms are exceptional! There’s a Peet’s Coffee just an elevator ride away. Like I said — it’s a wonderful resource!
…and then there’s the staff. I’d give them an aggregate rating of just 2 stars. A couple of the staff are nice and helpful. Angelica (?) is unfailingly considerate. But three of the other staffers (one white woman and two Asian women) are unhelpful, lazy, often noisy, and sometimes bordering on the rude. I find it hard to believe that they would still have jobs if they worked in a service industry in the private sector. If the Library could find a way to re-​train them (or replace them), the Sutro would get full marks.

Great library with plenty of study commons, quiet rooms, Pete’s Coffee and snacks. Always come here to get work done!

This place is awesome! I really want to write in all caps in order to fully convey my enthusiasm… I am summoning up restraint though. Seriously though… if you’re a «gene-​ie»… this place is heaven!
Tip #1 — bring your USB flash drive. They have a digital scanner and you can save the scans to your drive. It is free to use this machine. No more dimes!
Tip #2 — the staff is really friendly. I told them it was my first visit there and she gave me a quick overview of the place.
Tip #3 — The library is located at 1630 Holloway Avenue, on the 5^th floor of the library at SFSU.
The Sutro library prides itself in maintaining a large collection of resources from all over, not just California. For example, in my research, I came across a book entitled «The Lost Children of Early East Tennessee through 1825.»
My only gripe is that they library is closed on the weekends.