Reviews of Oakland Public Library (Library)

Hebrew Yisraelite

Ms Kathy whom is the supervisory authority there is extremely kind, courteous, and knowledgeably comforting to me each and every time Always accommodates me without me having to say a word and makes sure that the staff members under her assists me also

Habeshawit Tube

Very nice homeless camping library, smells horrible, management is zero people spends all day doing nothing just sleeping, cellphone ringing every where, the worst library I have ever seen in ma life, I hope this library closed very soon. Useless.

Jason Strader

It's a big city library not always the cleanest or quiet but functional with great selection and good wifi.

Carl Price

Staff are very helpful and knowledgeable. Children's room is excellent.

Tim Daw

Decent library with tools for loan as well as books. The staff are brilliant.

G Lee

Oakland Public Library is a great community resource, one of the places that benefits the public. When cutting funding was considered, the public voiced strongly their objection. The library failed to obtain a two-thirds majority needed vote to expand and move the library to a new home.

George Brathwaite

Did not feel clean. Verification of that, when I went upstairs to use the bathroom. Unfortunately it was so filthy, I tried not to throw up as I exited the library, never to return there.

Rain Feng

very quiet and the people is friendly

Isidro Hc

Nice place

Heather Morrison

I love having this fantastic this great resource.

Perry Ko

Great library with a lot to offer.

Hezekiah EL

Good staff well educated and very helpful

Shay Evans

It was my first time here. The womens restrooms need more attention but other than that this library is great. Friendly staff & a good selection of books. I'll try to come here more often.

Xingwei Zhang

Nice place near the Lake

Long Vu

They have a lot of books, spacious and quite area for study. Good place if you can deal with homeless people lurking around.

Jackie P.

Love the teen section

Molly Golson

The worst I haven’t ever went to a library like this that allows alcohol. I was on the computer doing my homework and there was another computer available next to me and this man came over and used the computer and he pulled out a bottle of beer and started drinking I was so stock I got up and left the computer area went up to the front desk and reported to this lady and she said they can’t do nothing about it I said really I said I will never come back here again terrible experience.

B Hall

Went two weeks. Also a cool place to get all the information you need

Albert Hong

Fantastic children's library. Super friendly staff and an amazing collection of comic books.

BayLeaf Wilson

The teen zone of this library is fantastic. They have an abundance of programs and events created for the betterment of youth. The staff are ridiculously nice and accommodating. This library is a great safe place for teens!

Laura Roberts

Amazing books.

Patrick Diner

The education value is worth its time. Time and time again.

MM Miller

Think it's great that local libraries still exist. Great location downtown with friendly knowledgeable staff. Library cards are free. How great is that? I'm sorry others found it a bad experience.

Josh Chang

I'm super confused. This picture was taken Sept 9th, 2019 at 6 pm. As you can see from the hours posted the library should be open, but you can also see that it's closed via the large banner and the doors were locked. Is there a list where I might find out when the library is open in the evenings and when it isn't?

Eva Hamer

Beautiful library! A couple things that might be useful to know: Large print jobs are discouraged, but they only tell you once you get there with a dozen documents you're supposed to print in twenty minutes. They only have one printer and it's pretty slow. They can't give receipts for printing, but you could have taken a picture of the invoice screen if you'd have known. You're welcome!

Maria Yee

Are they closed on Tuesdays? I went last week in the evening and children's room appeared closed. Website States that they are closed today?? Again? Would like it to be opened Tuesdays late afternoon-- would be great.

Tu Lam

This library contains a lot of Chinese books, some Japanese and Korean. The English section is small here. If you're looking for a particular book, you can go online and reserve it for pick up. It's usually not very crowded here and there's limited hours compared to the public libraries.

Lena Wu

This library may indicate Asian language branch but mostly has sections of books in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese. I like that there is a section of Asian American works, though not all exclusively written by Asian Americans. Not overly crowded, but relatively small and limited hours.

Kimberly Carr

Excellent Day at the library with Ka'Mya

Niklas Lollo

Nice small library connected to the tool lending library, too.

joan ross

Always acquiring new books.

Jennifer Rojas

They have a great books

Aaron Felix

Just because I can

Brian Dillard

Great classic library with lots of books and programs for locals. One of my favorite libraries in the region.

Dylan Clements

Not bad once you get inside. The smell of urine on the front steps was almost strong enough to deter me... But I NEED me some books!

Matthew Patella

As a person with learning differences I get targeted by bullies quite regularly, especially when I don't have good food money. Having learning differences makes reporting abuse in systems designed for normal people more difficult, and those same learning differences often trigger abusive behavior in those systems. As a person with learning differences the rate at which I have to gain experience in filtering probing strategies that result in violence goes up the more damaged I am. The rules at Oakland Public libraries are mostly against what are often probing mechanisms that can often lead to violence. I was there regularly for 2 years. There was this weird moment when I noticed that there usually (90% of days) was someone being emotionally disturbing by violating a rule (rules listed at the front), and I'd rarely seen security enforce a rule without me bringing the rule violation up. Like, I'd been there on 100 days, and 90 days had someone energy draining me somehow against the rules (babbling schizophrenically endlessly, or a saner person flat out making fun of me endlessly, or someone snoring loudly for hours on end, or someone getting fast food everywhere or spitting. Not to mention the energy vampires.) And I'd seen each security officer enforce a rule once maybe. So I was always underwater there trying to get away from someone who was clearly violating the rules, and there was never any help really. So I went and talked to security, actually, and told the main one Vernon he sucks at his job, and they started walking into me without saying things later. So I complained to the main library website about that, and the primary security personnel Vernon started following me around every time I went to the library and he was ignoring the actual rule violators and watching me, like I was the problem for politely asking people to obey the rules when it got hella creepy. So its a brain drain zone for sure, where the smart people have gotten out, and the longest tenured people are blank and blank, and I couldn't tell for 2 years because they did enforce rules when I asked them to. Debby the reference librarian did like to make fun of me when I got weak from the bullying and insanity, but the other librarians were usually fine, so I couldn't figure out what Debby was doing there for a while, until yesterday (8/1/17 Before I wrote this review) when I was on the 3rd floor sitting on the benches under the Director's Office Sign, and theres this morbidly obese woman who looks similar to Debby dissing me with a mob accent slur endlessly from the director's office. And you are not allowed to complain about verbal abuse in court but the director did sound like she told me she was going to get someone to shoot me. So time passes and I've emailed them, and Vernon refuses to stop showing up and trying to walk into me when I go to the library. A head security person has descended from the elevator in Dr. Dre Ice and dissed me, and when I've confronted Vernon he started brandishing a wire with handles at the end of it, and continues following me around. And they hired a person claiming to be a mental health professional to stalk and brandish at me additionally. So as a note, contacting the main email address politely resulted in escalation to brandishing weapons.

Wadmilo Bbs

Excellent condition and very helpful

Ashanti Condon

The library is a gorgeous mammoth building with huge columns or marble.It's a breath-taking place.The entrance hall is awe inspiring, hinting at what is cradled within it's belly.The collection of materials contained within bleed history.Absolutely gorgeous. The loss of one star only comes from the fact that it's easy to get lost in the halls that surround the core of the library.I was lost for a good five minutes before I could find my way out, and didn't see one other human being the entire time I was lost.This is a must see, especially in an age when books are becoming a thing of the past.