Reviews of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main (Oakland) (Library)

Iris Hui-Ju Chang

BEST library ever! BEST children department ever!! So pretty and sophisticated. My toddler asked to go every single week. The librarians are super nice and helpful. LOVE HERE! From the book section on the second floor, you can see the Brachiosaurus fossil through the window!

Emily Forney

Lovely space. Offers plenty of community classes. Great selection of graphic novels and comics! Nice areas for teens and children. Plenty of space for quiet reading or studying. Computers with internet for use by card holders. Printing and scanning services for a small fee. Has a vending machine of useful things on the second floor such as a USB stick, chapstick, bookmarks, etc. You can see into the dinosaur exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on the second floor stacks!

Maggie Jones

the people are very nice!and helpful whenever you need it. the staff bring a smile to my face everyday i volunteer there. love it!!!!

刘荫楠

Great place to stay when you want to read something quietly. There are beverages and foods served on 1st floor and it connects directly to Carnegie art museum, super convenient.

Henry Martinez

the people are very nice!and helpful whenever you need it. the staff bring a smile to my face everyday i volunteer there. love it!!!!

Visa Say

My son loves this library. We always go to Children's Department (1st floor on the right). There are story times, which have a couple times a week. All the librarians are very nice especially Kathy, Both Lisa at Children's. They can also suggest us good story to read for our son.

Curtis Younger

With a library card you can do alot of stuff. Get a movie, books, iPad, Hot spot for WII ext

B Kripto

The original FREE Library from Andrew Carnegie. HUGE selections. Computers & studying open to all.

Jon Te

Slowest wifi I have ever encountered, and getting slower all the time. And, it frequently disconnects, which is frustrating when attempting to complete financial and health related communications and information exchange. Also, it's impossible to watch or listen to video without it stopping to load because of the incredibly slow wifi speeds. The library computers crash frequently since they have been "upgraded" to windows 10. I don't know why these morons are making the internet worse. They should be improving it. Well, overpaid incompetent government employees don't give a damn.

Maia Wille

Amazing place, with loads of floors. Has a laptop work space and an awesome teen room. Café on the first floor with an excellent chai latte! A nice thing that I like is that you can have food and drink on the first floor, and there are lots of cozy chairs and window nooks to relax, have a hot drink and a good read.

Peter PA

Amazing library built with the old money from Andrew Carnegie. Thank you for this gift to the city of Pittsburgh

Echad

Wonderful.

Sofiane Machani

Great library

Duane Stokes

I've never written a review before, but for a treasure of Pittsburgh I got to. A fantastic library with numerous services and a huge selection of books, dvds, blu-rays, and CDs. An absolutely fantastic library.

Sergey Opanasenko

Amazing place

Honest Reviews

A quiet establishment with a wide variety of books and entertainment for all ages.

Anna Kaminski

The best thing about the CL is the staff. Very willing to show me around and help my mother and I.

Swaprava Nath

Amazing collection of books, and on top of that it's absolutely free! Things cannot get better than this.

Luca Deseri

Amazing library, Awesome system!

高驰

Really comfortable library. Thanks a lot.

X_SL4DE_X

I personally loved books so I would go here ALL the time when I was younger.

Ilya Yashin

This library is such an amazing place in many different ways. - The variety of books -- particularly popular science books, which is what I usually go there for -- is remarkable. Much better than at public libraries in NYC. And even if they don't have something, it doesn't take long for the item to arrive from another location. - They also have a lot of high-quality coffee table books, many of them very recent. - I like that there are many encyclopedias around in one of the main seating areas on the second floor. It's a very welcoming environment to pick one up, browse it, put it back, go for another one... - They have lots of current magazines -- both the more popular ones on the first floor and the less well-known ones on the second. - There's a whole big room for teens to hang out. - They often have live music and other events. - There are many movies, including recent ones, LOTS of documentaries, and movies in other languages. An amazing place overall. Very welcoming learning environment. A gem of Pittsburgh.

A Google User

I would like to work for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh cleaning bathrooms I'm bussing tables part-time 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon 3 days out of a week

Lois McClendon

I love to spend hours in the stacks and in the music department.

Y Faulkner

Great library with wonderful staff. Lots of seating and good WiFi connection. Great selection of books for all ages.

Joe Papp

An amazing library, with a truly dedicated and professional reference staff. I visited often when I was a student at Pitt, and now frequently obtain materials from the Carnegie via ILL. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is a fantastic resource.

Matthew Hughes

It is a good library. Books on most subjects, including separate sections for kids & teens. Quiet reading room. Jobs & career help. Courtyard. (Crazy Mocha) Cafe. Lots of computers. Video games, movies, and music section with Theramin zone. Only downside is they got rid of 3d printer cause it broke. Used it to scan a document. Also went to a free class on how to use Gnu Image Manipulation Program, where they gave me the program.

Ziggy DaMoe

I love this library.

Faria Madhumita

This is a big and beautiful library with good collection of books. Not only books, but they also have variety of activities to do in the library. For instance, chess, puzzles, adult coloring books with color pencils and lot of other options. A perfect spot for anyone starting from children to seniors. They also offer free classes on different languages such as French, Spanish etc. their staffs are very helpful too. Last but not least, I love their variety of sitting arrangements which include rocking chairs, comfy couch, and padded seating next to the windows. These seats are overlooking the crossing of Murray and Forbes - a happening view. This is the best thing of living in Squirrel Hill.

John Brzustowicz

A great resource. Great areas for research and an excellent selection of books and other media.

Bob Shields

Just a lovely place to spend any amount of time.

Yalong Dang

环境优美，海量资源，人性化的设计和服务，有这样的图书馆在身边好幸福。

Tobias Song

The best public library ever

Zach Alcorn

A truly fantastic library with a bunch of great books, movies, and music, as well as neat views into the Carnegie Library. If you're living in Pittsburgh, there's no reason not to have a library card!

Eric Boerer

The best library

Annie Storm

There is something for everyone here.

Timothy Jay

Okay selection of books. Most are outdated.

Sara Gray

To LGBT folk - please stay away. This institution employs and supports homophobia. My partner and I were harassed and kicked out after using the bathroom. Something the very hostile security guard told me gay couples are not allowed to do in the library. Pretty embarrassing that an institution that prides themselves on “inclusivity” would support this.

J

It’s a quite and peaceful library close to CMU and Pitt

Anna Newton

Great convenience to have this service downtown.

Jenn Gingerich

There is something for everyone here. You get to check things out for a longer time than other community libraries as well.

Aaron Romo

Main Library

Robert Zacharias

Pittsburgh is so fortunate to have such a fantastic library system. The main branch is wonderful, comfortable, interesting, well-stocked, and is staffed by some of the best librarians I've ever met. The quality of this library, and other branches, was a significant factor in my deciding to move to this city!

Zane Stiles

Massive collection, friendly staff

Joshua S

Has everything a book reader could want. Plus has reference, historic volumes and research books for the college students. On top that no other library I know of carries anime, manga and comic books or has a coffee shop

Carmen Wright

It's a peaceful, well organized, and kid friendly.

a living dead boy

the workers and people here are amazing. it's really cool to find broken teenagers like me

J J

Such a great place. You could get lost here in a book... but there is so much more! An amazing place! And the librarians couldn’t be any more helpful.

Lynn Abdouni

I love this place and what's there not to love? Huge library, plenty of study nooks in all shapes and forms, very extensive book selection, a reading room for children, a reading room for teenagers, free language classes, a crazy mocha on the first floor, a café in the basement floor, community events every week, nice clean bathrooms, green desk lamps to get you in the booknerd mood, a super team of staff to assist you in all bookish endeavors, and you can walk over across the lawn and grab something to eat off one of the nearby kiosks. Pretty close to the park and to the pool. What's. There. Not. To love. If that library were a person, it would be my best friend.

Cara Wimberley

Ask to see the stacks

Bob Eberhardt

I spent much time here while in high school and college. Such a great place to research and study.

Jake Malone

This library is absolutely huge, I didn't stay very long here but it was a nice experience. The librarians here were super friendly to me as well. I took one star off as the parking was a lot ($6 for 1 hr, $11 for 1-2 hrs), so as a college student I stayed 30 minutes for free. I would reccomend taking the bus down and staying the day as it was very nice.

Margaret Anne

Every librarian is super helpful!

Wadia Singh

NOT SURE WHY THEY LET U REVEW LIBRARY BUT I LOVE THIS ONE. BEST EVER. NEVER HAD A BETTER LIBRARY. HELPED ME STUDY THANKS :)

Cheng-Wei Wu

A library in a wonderful building. Has very good collection, including music.

James Kim

The entire library system is a great resource for Pittsburgh residents. The main location is a wonderful building with great facilities and resources.

John Titor

Great library, the staff here are very well mannered and respectful. This amount of knowledge here is great. There's so much for the curious mind, movies and audio section is a good size.

Livia A

Wonderful experience.

Bill

I've never written a review before, but for a treasure of Pittsburgh I got to. A fantastic library with numerous services and a huge selection of books, dvds, blu-rays, and CDs. An absolutely fantastic library.

Andrea Hanna

I haven't got enough words to express how wonderful this library is. Not only is it an aesthetically stunning building, it is by no means a product of its era. It has all the mod cons inside. They have a Mocha Bros [a local chain cafe], areas to play board games, coupon tables, immigration guides, ESL lessons and foreign language lessons, musical shows, a community garden as well as a plethora of daily events for children and teenagers, from games, readings to mentoring. There are also evening events hosted for over 21's, as well as reading groups for diverse genre tastes. The collections of books are also fantastic. I have found even obscure academic books I've needed for my grad classes at Pitt, which Hillman library didn't even have! Moreover, older, specialized books are often kept in special collections on the 3rd floor, and the librarians are very helpful at sourcing and retrieving the books you might want from this floor, and will almost always check them out to you if you explain what it's needed for. The 3rd floor also contains lots of computers if you need a quiet place for research, and there are often classes going on showing people how to user various software and how to compose CV's etc. Additionally there is a huge wing filled with DVD's, VHS's, CD's, Video Games etc. Honestly a massive selection! Another thing I really like about this library is that it looks into the Carnegie Natural History Museum so when you're perusing books in the Mezzanine area you can see the dinosaur skeletons on display next door. Finally, all the staff are extremely friendly and helpful, and will volunteer information about services the library offers you might not otherwise have known about.

toQ 6

Love love LOVE this library SO MUCH. It has an amazing selection of books and all sorts of other media. The staff is always friendly. It is well lit, has lots of comfortable places to sit and read or work. It's also got a lot of great facilities that make it MORE than just a library. Lots of stuff for the community, which you can see on the bullstins posted up front. Little things like the table with the puzzle, the cafe, the scanner etc make it such a great place. I also have very positive things about the library system in general. As the "mothership" of the library system, clp main is probably the best in terms of sheer variety of material and things to do, but I have enjoyed my experiences with all the other branches of various sizes too. Another thing I want to add, is that our library's website and mobile app are GREAT. Make it so easy to find material I'm looking for in a hurry and manage my account. Also, the library system's twitter @carnegielibrary is AMAZING -- they're extremely friendly, and have always answered all my questions. It's an excellent resource to have!

Robert Fenhagen

I use many of the branches regularly and have only had friendly and very helpful service. I've used many libraries over the years, but the Carnegie libraries are the best!

Kerri Bauer

I used to love coming here but whoever is running the "teen" section needs to step up there game because its WAY TOO LOUD

MonaLisa Leung Beckford

This library is the largest Carnegie library in Pittsburgh. They offer many selections of books, many free classes, and a huge computer lab. They also have a small cafe inside. My only criticism is they make it hard to participate as a volunteer.

Alonzo Friedman

I've been told this library is great but I've never once found my way around in it.

Jane Ochsenbein

Big historic library, beautiful architecture & helpful staff

Douglas Cole

Really well organized and the staff is awesome. Longer hours would be better, especially given the location in Oakland to various universities.

Gregg

Very nostalgic as I used to spend a lot of time here as a kid. Cool to see how the place has transformed on the inside over the years. The place is huge and there’s a lot to do. I love coming here.

John Mixer

Great library if you're a Pennsylvania resident. Quick upload speeds too!

Dan Scarpaci

my wife and kids love going there top notch library

Don’t Tread On Me

Thank you for having Owen Benjamin.

毛鸿羽

我到图书馆进行英语会话实践，讲课的英语老师年轻、热情、和霭。图书馆䒙书十分丰富，开架阅览，並有中文书籍，是学习提高知䛊的好地方。

armat lien

I don't have cable! The library entertainment is far more educational and even with the occasional late fee, NO where near as expensive

Janet Spink

This library is enormous and has everything you could possibly want in a library, from a huge selection of books of all topics and genres, an impressive music library, to community programming. And a coffee shop. That said, it's not overly loud and the are plenty of quiet spaces. Only possible complaint is parking in Oakland can be difficult.

Arthur Alexander

One of my favorite spots in Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Library embraces the community with services of all kinds other than being a splendid library with resources for all areas. Whether you're a book-lover who likes to spend timer reading publications or a freelancer who's always looking a place to work remotely, the CLP Oakland is always a good choice.