Reviews of Chapel Hill Public Library (Library)

Lauren Gunsch

I want to love this library but the internet is TERRIBLE. I can hardly ever get any work done because it's so slow. I usually end up leaving to use Carrboro's wifi

Kristina Ziegler

I usually love this library and everything about it. Today I was very frustrated by it. I knew that we had nine library books to return so I counted them and put them in our bag. When we got home from the library I noticed that one of the library books was still sitting there on the floor. I called the library to see if we accidentally threw one of our books in the book Return. The lady who answered the phone said "currently we are receiving about 500 million books in the return and so I really couldn't tell you if your book is in there. I would encourage you to check the lost and found or the possible donation pile". First of all, 500 million books? Since my one and a half year old and I had just gotten home 15 minutes prior and it was her nap time, this was very frustrating. I asked her if I could come in the next day to check and she said she would recommend I come in today. She said there was just no way for them to check for me. Huffing and muttering under my breath I packed my one and a half year old back up into the car and we drove to the library again. When we got there I asked a lady who worked there if there was a way to check and she said, "sure we sort those out about once an hour and there's a machine that puts them in a pile I'll go check". She walked into the back and brought back one possible book and said, " is this it it?". It was not our book and the whole interaction took 2 minutes. Thank you woman who answered the phone for making me needlessly drive back to the library with my tired toddler.

C A

Great events for any age. There are many nooks and crannies to hide in, even if the glass study rooms are full. May I recommend the chairs in the romance section? Not as good a view as the chairs overlooking the forest view, but much quieter. There is also a secret bathroom if you take the elevator near the top entrance or go down that long hallway on the bottom floor (past the green screen video studio and audio editing studio) that gets less than half of the action the top floor one gets.

Sal Panettieri

Very good library! Parking is inconvenient. The lot is too far from entrance. Good DVD selection. Not many good places to just read quietly.

Ella Whitfield

Gorgeous library! Very relaxing place to read and find new books! They have a huge selection of books too!!

Karl Johnson

When trying to establish a place to study, overcrowded, nowhere to sit and really read/study/work. Staff love to kick you out and love their policies so much even when you are not in anyone's way or the room is empty, overall very disappointed in staff.

Bruce Su

Friendly and helpful staff. Nice environment.

Shahzad Ali

Quiet, peaceful, inviting, bright, and they have a coffee shop!!!

Nathan Toptine

Awesome environment!

Marek K

Great selection of books. The sorting machine is pretty cool

Leland Child-Lanning

Nice building

jeannette moon

-amazing amenities -great resources for kids (summer reading challenge, recommendations) -huge variety of books -spacious carrels and reading areas -great art! -nice periodicals One of the best libraries I’ve ever been to. Thank you, Chapel Hill.

Allison Ross

Amazingly fantastic, comfortable library with excellent librarians and so so many books!! The children's section is phenomenal!!

Firstname Lastname

Not sure it is a library or a day care center. Babies crying, kids running around all the time, and I am not just talking about in the kids section. Never seen anything like this before, and I have been at a ton of libraries. On the plus side it is modern and clean.

Jeffrey Stephens

Good books

Mathilde Kanyange

A nice welcoming place

Sylvia Carpenter

New to State. Very helpful staff. Self service for print/copy is awesome! Great place to continually visit; I will !

Liu Yaping

The librarians are super nice, always patient and willing to help. A variety of books, amazing for kids, and I even find books for academic use! Library always have activities to attract children to read classics, and my son loved the library so much! It had turned him from a play book into a book worm!

Rachel Sheeran

Wonderful library and a great resource for CH.

Jessamyn Farrell

One of the best public libraries in the country. Not only is it in a beautiful setting with beautiful architecture but it has amazing programming and amenities. We’ve benefited from their info sessions, public discussions, story time, and meeting rooms. I also love their relatively new addition of the coffee shop. The only issue is their often limited parking, but I don’t think there is anyone else for them to expand. I’m hoping their light be a solution for this in the future.

Laura C

The librarians are really nice, and chill about fines. Great selection, brand new self check out machines, and really pretty woods behind it (around back there's also some neat statutes). The only thing is it's always pretty busy, so if you go during a peak time, be prepared for parking to be a hassle, though I've always been able to find a place in at least the farthest away parking lot.

Kakki Glover

One of the best public libraries I've ever seen. The baby/toddler storytime is great but always packed!

Jesse Wojdylo

The Chapel Hill Public Library is one of the best public libraries in the state of North Carolina. A few years ago they completely renovated it and it is now gorgeous. There are two stories with dozens of seats overlooking the nature trail outside. As far as book selection, this is one of the larger selections in the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill area. As with all libraries, the new, popular books are going to be hard to find but any book that was published six months ago, you should have no problem finding it here. Another great feature of the CHPL is their only system. You can check to see if a book is available from your phone or computer rather than driving to the library to see if it is available. This has saved me a lot of time and energy over the years. If you are looking for a great place to study or go read a book, I would strongly suggest the Chapel Hill Public Library.

Dhivya Ram

Wonderful library with great books and programs for kids. .

Şerife Yucesoy Özkan

Kid friendly and accesible library! There are several disability parking in front of the library. Car Parking is avaliable. There is coffeshop in the library, you can drink your coffe when you read. Self-return and self-check-out make it is easy. The kid section is wonderful. There are computers and tablets for kids. There is also a family restroom. There are a lot of events in weekdays and weekends. There is multi-purposes room. You can barrow 50 books or materials in a time. You can also barrow movie (DVD). Staff is usually kind. You can work as a volunteer. Thank you!

Don Sailer

Great!

Adv. Pushpa chauhan

Great library..good collection of books . Great location too.

Hongbing Liu

Kids play well in this library, it is awesome place for them.

YOON JISUNG

Best library for me and my kid! Beautiful and convenient building.

Ron Garcia-Fogarty

This is the best library we've ever been a part of! We don't live in Orange County, but we gladly pay the out-of county fee to benefit from its amazing resources and helpful staff

Esra Boz

It is a great library with very helpful staff. Unlike many other libraries in NC, they are open on Sundays.

Ryan Pecaut

Very nice building following a remodel. They have frequent activities for teens and kids as well as many helpful online and physical resources that can be used by any card holder.

Qh

I go to this public library everyday to study. It is big and has a lot of light. But, 1) the internet is so slow; 2) people are allowed to eat in reading and study area. People eat PIZZA, CHICKEN with SAUCE, SALAD with DRESSING and FOLK, STIR_FRIED RICE with SPOON, bananas, oranges, carrots, ... And, people can drink all kinds of drinks here too. Basically, people eat everything you know. When they eat, they make eating sound and possibly cause mess (see pics below). I can that feel some desks' edges are sticky; I have seen flies and fruit flies a lot of times. I have seen food on desks and chairs. I have seen food on the floor. When you are studying near lunch time, you can hear people eating and this makes you feel like studying in a restaurant. I have seen a few types of people too. 1) Some people take lunch to library, eat and leave after finishing food. 2) Some people take food, find a book and pretend to read while eating, and leave after finishing food. 3) Some people take food and drinks with friends. They come to library, eat and talk, leave after finishing food. This makes me wonder maybe this library serves as a "restaurant" to some degree. 4) Some people start to eat around 10-10:30, first they eat snacks, then salad with dressing, and fruit afterwards. They basically spend 1.5 hours to eat. I tried to talk to the staff and emailed the director. But nobody gave responses. Finally, a manager (I don't want to tell her name) called me. yesterday. I said all the food may possibly make books dirty and sticky. She told me that people borrow books home and they eat while reading at home too. This response shocked me. I normally tell my kid when you eat, you wash hands and sit down and eat. When you read, you read and no food is allowed. I believe that most people and parents do this at home too. I said that eating may cause mess and can be annoying for other people. because this is library - should be a quiet PUBLIC place for people to enjoy reading and pursue knowledge. She said that this library is for people to eat and to do everything they like. I told her about the mess and sound, and asked maybe tax payers should vote for this because they pay for this library. She said that ALL TAX PAYERS LOVE TO EAT IN THE LIBRARY TOO. I stopped talking with her because this response made me really sad, helpless and hopeless. I even started crying. Because 1) my husband and I are both tax payers, we DO NOT think it is appropriate to eat in reading and study area in library; 2) I asked a lot of people who also pay taxes, and they DO NOT think it is appropriate to eat in reading and study area in library either; 3) Most tax payers are working hard everyday, and they possibly don't have time to go to library. They possibly don't even know that this library allow people to eat in reading and study area. This library has a EATING AREA that people can sit down and eat. It would be great if the library ask people to eat in the eating area instead of reading and study area. If you read my review fully and agree with me and want a quiet and clean place to study, please go to the staff and talk about it too. If you study here and want to bring lunch, please consider to eat in eating area. In this way, we can all create a better and quiet and clean environment for each other. Thank you for your patience.

Sally Merryman

Love, love, love the new space. So much natural light and comfortable furniture. The study rooms are fantastic, too! I really appreciate the time and thought that went into designing and building such a gorgeous library!

Berenice Grijalva-Montoya

Great library! Book selection for kids is great, they even have a good collection of books in Spanish for kids, love that! Most table overlook the trees.

Michael Higgs

Awesome place to hang out. Cool, calm environment.

Matt Tucker

Attended a WEDDING here and it was absolutely gorgeous, I heard the staff was elated and accommodating. thank you for doing this, I know you mad the newly weds very happy.

Sarah Chittenden

This is a beautiful and very busy public library location. I was shocked that there are two parking lots that are usually full when I'm stopping in. Staff is very helpful and the atmosphere is nice. Great natural lighting and quiet without being so quiet you are fearful of being shushed. Great interface for borrowing e books and audiobooks as well.

Lei Luo

Great Library with very helpful staff and nice environment.

Alyson Scoltock

I love our library but there is a woeful lack of parking and bus service.

Amit Apte

Extremely helpful staff: their completely non-judgemental approach to helping everyone and anyone is what makes this place so, so special. I have seen them answer queries which I would have been annoyed to answer: logging into accounts, checking out books, locating items, and all sorts of help to all library users. Such great staff would convert even an ordinary library into a wonderful place. So the fact that it has an excellent collection of books in a very open, modern, well-designed place makes it one of the best libraries around, even better than most of the libraries of the three great universities nearby: UNC, Duke, and NCSU! I would highly recommend taking time out even during a very short visit to Chapel Hill.

Jonathan Gerard

The BEST library. Great staff. Great media section. Great online services. Great book store downstairs. Great programming.

Kemal Ozalp

Beautiful? Yes. Good place to spend time with kids? Yes. Parking available? Yes. What else you can expect from a library? Quiet? No. People speak on the phone inside here. They can speak very loudly. Sometimes so loud that you can even hear people studying in private rooms. Some people really have no respect. It is also very ironic that you can hear library staff speaking loudly with each other at the downstairs study area. It is very common. If you wanna study and looking somewhere quiet, stay away from here. This place more a cafè environment. People don’t realize that loudness is a relative concept. If it is quiet inside, a whisper can be as disturbing as a scream.

Franklin Goncalves

A lot of books, creative events, helpful free classes, movies, informative community board, awesome new building. Great place to read, walk in the trail, cool conferences rooms. Support your local library by going there

Micheal W. Palmer

Chapel Hill Public Library is a fabulous place to spend a few hours. In addition to excellent service s you would expect to find in a good library, there's even a coffee bar in the lobby.

Casey Yo

Great library, great selection. Parking is problematic at times.

Cindy Williams

Great place to relax and read, study, do admin work. Chairs, tables throughout main floor; building surrounded by beautiful woods, nature.

Dave Pcolar

Crowded, so plan ahead. It's a beautiful building and great space!

Ronald Carnes

From Seattle to Atlanta, I've watched the progression of library systems throughout America. Chapel Hill rates high in my book. The founders and the generations that followed; ...they get it. This library has prepared for the advancement of our children in this community. Stop me when you get bored.....conference rooms, private rooms, sound rooms, website reservation capability, computer rooms, electronic WI-fi, study cubby-holes, vending machines, coffee stand, snacks, extensive media, e-books, DVD's, music CD's, two levels, elevator, 360 degree views of nature, walking paths, two massive free parking facilities, historical society, book store, great staff, and volunteers, community bulletin boards, children's library(complete with staff), great bathrooms(and clean), public

Wayan Vota

This is what a library should be! Awesome, welcoming space with daily activities for all ages and a great selection of knowledge in all forms of media. As a parent, I come here often for my kids. As an adult, I’m rediscovering a love of reading. They even have LEGO building afternoons!

Xiao Yiran

Quiet, a good place to study or read books

Scott Watkins

Great location. Recently renovated, large open spaces and numerous meeting and study rooms. Kindly books available online. Parking can be limited at times, easy to drop off people though then park in the lower lot.

Erin T

Read on!

Kendall McGowan

Nowhere to park. Drove all the way here, did probably 5 laps of both parking lots, and never even got to go inside because I couldn't get out of my car

Seungsik Kim

One of the most loved and visited places in Chpel Hill. You might want to live near here if you raise kids. The visitors are showing the composition of world population which means the more people from the country have more population.

Alexander Griswold

Probably the best library I've been to in the state. Very nice interior, high vaulted ceilings, quiet, tons of seating with near-perfect outlet coverage. The in-house coffee stand makes a killer cappuccino - just wish they had ceramic cups.

Ben Baxley

Great selection of books, extremely helpful staff, and an amazingly beautiful facility. Very easy to check out books, and many, many books to be checked out.

Ömer’in Maceraları

An amazing place to study, read and spend good time with kids. Coffee shop is a plus.

Joseph Powell

absolutely wonderful place , quiet but not to quiet , neat clean , wifi , friendly staff , loads of computers , vending machines , water station , beautiful place.

WFP se

Amazing library!

Matt Lotter

The best library in North Carolina.

Christopher Schultz

One of America's best public libraries!

PAUL RYAN

Wonderful architecture...just NOT really EFFICIENT as a quiet COMMUNITY LEARNING space. Every 'SOUND' SEEMS to ECHO and REVERBERATE off of every surface producing a much LOUDER NOISE.....LIKE SOLAR IN REVERSE. To come and leisurely read a magazine....GREAT. To TUTOR CHILDREN, STUDY GROUP, OR BREATH.....NO WAY!!!!!

J Lin

I just want a quiet place to study.

Kila

I love this library. Always super clean Very relaxing couch and nice big windows I absolutely love the book selection and the downloadables online. They now have a self check out for book check out and awesome.