Long Beach Public Library

As an employee of the library I would like to address some of these issues. First I would like to thank you for taking the time to come visit us and rate us. I do wish you had come to our director about your dissatisfaction (and you are still welcome to), but she is aware of these reviews. The library was built in 1965. The way they built it is an «open air» design and one of our main complaints is actually the noise level. There are a lot of things the architect did when building this library that we are not happy with to this day, BUT in order to be up and running for the public it is something we have to deal with. I would love for the building to have a better «smell», but a lot of smokers sit outside our doors and the mildew, being close to the beach and only having one cleaner for the city and a VERY small staff makes it very hard to change that. You are correct about the magazines and newspapers. With the price of subscriptions and our budget it is hard for us to get a lot, BUT we do have some behind the front desk if you request them. If we leave certain ones out they get stolen. Our reading area is small because we are outgrowing the building and have to use so much space for books and DVDs. I am very glad, though, that you did find some books in the booksale! Especially since all the funds go to the children’s library! Holly, your children and ANY patron that walks through the doors here are NOT a burden. You are the reason we are here. It is possible that the person who helped you was not having the greatest day. We are a VERY small staff and we all wear separate hats to keep running. Many people don’t realize we are not part of Harrison County and we do not have the staff, management or budget that they do. Our librarians work very hard. Many of us come in on our days off when things go wrong because we love this place so much. The front desk workers have to work with the public at the same time that they juggle processing and covering books, putting in new library cards, shelving, doing banking info, ordering books, etc. Our front desk staff has to occasionally deal with verbal and physical abuse from patrons. The staff has been sworn at, spit at and had money thrown at them. Sometimes this does put added stress on their shoulders. If you felt as if you were a burden we all apologize from the bottom of our hearts. If at ANY point you feel like you are being disrespected please let our director know and she will take care of the situation. Alina, thank you for the compliments about the building! I am sorry you had a bad experience with us. We do have to be very careful where things are plugged in the building because of safety issues. We have talked about having drinks in the library and this particular librarian did not realize we now allow drinks with lids as long as they are not around the computers. We have desks upstairs in the reference department specifically for patrons with electronic devices and hopefully you will try to visit us one more time to use them. We also have a meeting room that you can use to study in. Jennifer N, I am not sure what happened that day, but I assure you our staff will be glad to speak with you if you feel we are being rude. I work upstairs and try to take the time to ask EVERY patron that walks up the stairs if they need any help. As far as our budget what you were told by the librarian is true. Our budget is low. This year the only things we can really afford to purchase are new release books. We have never had e-​books and this is not a service we see having anytime soon due to budget cuts. I have looked at our website and cannot find where we have mentioned providing them. We do have links to Tumblebooks, Learning Express Library, Salem Press, and Magnolia. The librarian who works on our webpage will gladly discuss with you anything you have found on the page that might be incorrect. Our books are checked out for a period of two weeks and may be renewed two times. DVDs and VHS may be checked out three days at a time. Our due dates are set to reflect common library due dates and the size of our library. We do have a lot of elderly patrons. MANY we are close to and sometimes we may spend «too» much time talking with them when they visit when we should be shelving. We have lost quite a few patrons and when we do it is like losing a loved one. In conclusion I would like to assure you we are here for YOU. When situations such as the ones reviews on the Unilocal site occur we do not know until the review is posted. We would like to sit down with anyone who wants to speak to us about problems. Most of our full time staff has been here since before Katrina and worked extremely hard to get the library up and running again after the storm took so much from us. We love this library and take pride in it. Thank you for taking the time to visit us and we do hope you will give us another try.

We are new in town. We love reading. We go to the library all the time. The library has the shortest checkout time I’ve ever even heard of. Just a few days. The entire staff are rude and surly. They looked us up and down. Didn’t greet us at all. When I asked anything I was told to look around because they did not know it. When I asked about ebooks she told me, «we don’t have money like that». The ebooks are mentioned on their website. I said something about it and she said, «I didn’t make that website.» I’ve noticed them treating other patrons the same and being disrespectful to the elderly. She upset one lady so much she was clutching her chest when she left. I will not be back.

I happened to go to this library today because the library on campus was not yet open. I saw the horrible review on Unilocal but was willing to give this library a fair shake because after all, it’s a library, how bad could it be? Well, it was absolutely terrible!
First let me begin be saying, the library is beautiful! The outside is in great shape, wonderful brick, and a southern charm about it! On the inside it’s not that great, but it’s not bad either. It’s two stories and looks like a loft on the top floor. I was pleasantly suppressed, of course I was expecting a huge mess based on the number of stars this library had. I walked in after greeting my small group of friends and walked to the desk to ask if I needed a password for the wifi. The librarian looked me up and down and was silent. So I went on «do you all have wifi here?». The librarian said «No… You don’t need a code or anything». I was a little thrown off by her demeanour, but I thanked her with a smile and joined my group. Shortly after that, one of my group members needed to use an outlet. We asked the same librarian how to take the caps off. From the desk she told us «just plug it in!» We informed her it had a cap on it. Finally she came over and helped us try to remove the cap. The librarian could not remove the cap and instructed my friend to figure it out for herself. In the end my friend finally figured out how to remove the cap and Plugged her electronics in. Once my friend had plugged her things in the librarian told her she could not plug her things in there because it was in the walk way… Why the librarian didn’t tell my friend that to begin with is beyond me! After the librarian helped my friend I asked her if she knew a café near by where I could get a cup of coffee, she responded with the longest sign in human history (not really, but she definitely let me know I was bothering her) and pointed down the street to a popular bank looking café. I ran down the street and brought back two large cups of coffee, as I was walking in with the coffees the librarian told me «ma’am, you can’t bring those in here, we don’t want you spilling them on the books». I completely understand, but why couldn’t she have told me this when I asked about the Café and told her I wanted to pick up som coffee?! We left the library directly after this. The level of incompetence and complete lack of costumer service is absolutely staggering! I will NEVER go back, and it’s such a shame because that library has so much potential!

Amazingly enough, this brick structure from the sixties survived hurricane Katrina’s wrath, and it has recently reopened as Longbeach’s downtown library.
The outdated, sixties façade sets the tone for the rest of the library. The magazine selection is skimpy and does not include any major national news subscriptions (ie: national review, Newsweek, etc). I have found the bathroom to be unserviceable due to. plumbing issues. The whole place has a faint smell of mildew and stale cigarettes. The reading room is just big enough for five. Longbeach is trying to come back, though. I found a few gems on their dime a paperback sale table, including several of Leon Uris’ masterpieces (Mila 18, The Haj) and «Burr» by Gore Vidal.