Bethlehem Area Public Library

I’m not even going to try and lie. I’ve got one hell of an axe to grind towards the BAPL.
Why you ask? Quite frankly it annoys me to no end the lengths that the staff will go to protect one another and to make sure that no matter how things play out it is always your fault, not theirs, even when it is blindingly their screw up.
At the core of my rant:
Years ago we would like most people use the outside book drop when returning things. All seemed fine and dandy except that over time quite frequently we would go to take out books only to have the circulation clerk tell me that I had accrued a fine due to a book not being returned.
Now I’m going to stop for a minute to point out that in our household we’re pretty rock solid on keeping track of books because reading is huge which is why it’s not uncommon for us to have out 40+ books at any given time.
So after being told that I owed X dollars for this book I would say that it’s impossible because I know that I returned it. Circulation clerk would tell me that she’ll «let me slide» but that she would have to file some sort of paperwork to find that book and until that time the fine would stick. The next time back at the library I would get asked about paying the same fine again because they «couldn’t find the book». Afterwards I would take thirty seconds to find the book on the shelf right where it’s suppose to be, normally in the children’s department. So not only could staff member X not properly work a scanner to scan the book back into their system, no one could be bothered over the next 2 – 3 weeks to take thirty seconds to look on their shelves to see if the book was actually there. It’s just called pay the fine because we say so and of course when I would take the book from the shelf to the circulation desk it’s not like anyone on their side is apologizing for wasting my time again. Instead it’s an indignant attitude in return. Now it would seem petty on my part if this only happened once or twice, but as my cat is my witness, this happened easily a dozen times over a three year period before my old lady banned us from using the book drop.
There have been other issues like the time that I had to pay for a fifteen year old book that had been borrowed thirty plus times yet suddenly, the book had irreparable water damage (it looked no different than the day it came home with us) and had to be replaced and of course it was my problem to pay for it. This set in motion Keystone Cops-​esque scenario where I attempted over several different visits to talk with the person in the children’s department who had made this eureka determination yet I was always shuffled off to someone else and even after I paid nearly double what it cost for a new copy on Amazon, it still took four visits for them to find the book to show me the water damage/​so that they could let me take it since I paid for it.
Overall the collection is nice, the hours are decent but the circulation staff and in particular the staff in the children’s department are slippery at best and in reality did their best to obfuscate multiple situations which really did not need to be that difficult.

I visit the main branch of the BAPL often. It’s not the best library I’ve ever visited, but it’s not the worst either. It has one of the largest collections in the Valley. I’ve found their travel, finance & food sections to be not too bad. They have a DVD collection, but I never find much interesting. The «new release» titles they told us about when we got our cards are never in. Maybe we just show up on the wrong days?
Fines are reasonable. I don’t mind paying a few late fees… it’s just another way to support my local library. :) There’s a fifty cent charge to reserve a book, and it’s either 50 cents or a dollar for ILL, but again, very reasonable.
Check the web before you head down. It’ll show you if a book is in the main branch, or the much smaller Southside one.