Osterhout Free Library

According to my mother I was reading at fourteen months old so it’s no surprise that I’m quite the book lover. I greatly enjoy the Osterhout’s annual used book sale which is the largest in the area and typically held at the start of summer. You can take home an entire box full of books for very little money. This summer I found a used book for sale that I had previously checked out of the library some twenty years ago: a crime novel by Max Allan Collins entitled Spree. It was the same copy, now with a badly cracked spine and loose pages, but I bought it for nostalgic reasons.
I’m also very pleased with the Osterhout’s selection, particularly in regards to stacking rare and hard to find materials. I was searching for a book published in the 1970s but now out of print. Used copies of this book were selling for around $ 150. I was able to find a copy in the Osterhout’s nonfiction section and am one of the few who had the pleasure of reading the book without spending an arm or a leg. I won’t mention the title of the book in case some unscrupulous reader wants to check out the book, never return it, and sell the copy for profit.
There was a time when I was obsessed with the concept of nuclear war and worried how fallout would effect our planet. During the height of the Cold War a number of films were made about this subject including the BBC television movie «Threads.»
“Threads” was know for its unflinching look at nuclear fallout and is regarded as one of the most dark and depressing films ever made. «Threads» was released on VHS shortly after its television première but had long since gone out of print by the time I wanted to see it. After scouring the Internet for a copy of the movie I finally found the VHS in the video section of the Osterhout. «Threads» has since been released on DVD and is now widely available but thanks to the Osterhout Library I didn’t have to wait years to see it.

I love this library! Ordering books is super easy and great if you don’t have time to look through the stacks; they have the books waiting for you at the circulation desk. Curbside drop off is brilliant, too!

This library is one of the most miserable places in Wilkes-​Barre. I’m not sure why all of the people who work at the front desk and circulation desk are so grumpy and rude. Maybe it’s the stench that comes from the bathroom that is located in the book stack area on the first floor and wafts into the main part of the library, or maybe it is the cracked glass floors on the second and third floors (not very safe), or maybe they just don’t like to move their miserable, lazy bodies in any way. They always act like they are being bothered by patrons, and they never go out of their way to be helpful. I only go to this library if I have no other choice, and I am desperate for materials. Their DVD section is pretty bad, and the books are not grouped logically. There is also only meter parking, or free one hour parking in the frightening Boscov’s parking garage across the street. It surprises me that this is the main library branch. The Hoyt, in Kingston is much better in all departments, and Scranton’s Albright Memorial Library blows all of the Luzerne County Libraries out of the water. My advice– avoid this depressing place if you can.
*Also worth mentioning, the service was just as terrible before the budget cuts by the state as it is now, so that’s not why it’s such an awful library.
**Also the security guard at the Osterhout begins to tell people to leave at about 7:20pm, even though the library doesn’t close until 8:00pm.