Orinda Library

parking is easy to find. 3 hour limit near the library and inside the garage but if you drive down toward the community center (next door) there are 4 hour parking spots. Pretty quiet compared to other libraries. I wish they had more cubicles but even the shared tables are pretty quiet. I also felt safe leaving my things at the table while I go to the restroom (in the hallway outside the library). Internet is easy and quick to connect to.
Of note: they have a dog reading program on Wednesday for the kids. So cute!

Staff? Amazing! Extremely helpful especially since it was my first time there.
Location was ok, I’m never usually in Orinda often, it looks like it’s in a small part of downtown or something. Parking has a 3 hr max limit, there’s also a parking garage.
It’s pretty small compared to the Alameda library but if you’re lucky you can grab a desk that’s isolated in the corner so you’re not distracted and have privacy.
There’s also this nook by the window you can sit in and read. I didn’t notice it until I walked around. It looked so comfy.
Loved this library! Favorite one besides the Alameda one.

I have been to this library throughout the years and it is always a great community resource!
When I was a student it was a great place to study in peace and quiet outside of my house.
As a person who enjoys reading its a great way to get access to tons of books to read — now I can even get them for free for my ereader and some are downloadable audiobooks as well and this isn’t just for the Orinda public library but all public libraries.
Now that I am a new mom — I was looking for things to do with my DD. I found they have Peek a Boo Time — for prewalking babies and I took my DD — we both really enjoyed it — books were read, songs and toys to play with. My DD was the youngest at 3 months old but I figure its never too early to instill the love of reading and play. It was mostly attended by nannies with the babies they care for and the same was true with the Toddler lap sit time that I observed before the Peek a Boo time.
I also really like that the Orinda library has covered parking under the building, that there is a café downstairs to grab a bite to eat and just a stones throw away is the big park with a playground.
This is the best library that I have been to in the San Pablo Dam Area.

One of the loveliest libraries in the bay :) However, I definitely have a bias as I spent a great deal of my time here growing up.
It has books – paper and audio, cassette tapes, VCRs, and lovely art right outside.
The ambience is really quite relaxing and pleasant and there is a small park just outside.

If I have time to read something special.
I want to go this place.
Good place… good service…
A lot of park.

My favorite library in the east bay! Nice comfy seats, always super quite, and clean. Great place to hang during my breaks from work.

Beautiful, quiet, clean and overall just a great place to sit down for a few hours and study or read. I don’t check out books here so I can’t review the variety of titles or other book related things but as a study place, this is probably my favorite. There are lots of windows that let in natural light and there are lots of comfy, clean tables and chairs to sit at and get to work. Parking is free, though limited to a few hours at a time, so if you plan to be there long, you’ll have to move your car once or twice but there is lots of parking in the area.

I am from Concord and always go to the library there and never had a problem until I was trying to teach myself Excel last week. Concord is so so noisy. People have the audacity to bring a transister radio while they are on the computers, have earphones on listening to music very loudly, will have 5 minute phone conversations with others while using the computers.
So yesterday while visiting my sister I came to the Orinda Library and fell in love. So clean, so plush, so quiet and so me. The sun streams down through the windows and you can sit in a window seat while you are reading a book… how delicious. They have have two sets of 7 computers with 1 hour times and 1 set of 7 computers with 2 hour times. Today I am in th library in the 2 hour time section and very very surprised that one of the two older men has a transister radio on and no one is the wiser. If not for that I would have given it 5 stars. I think at all libraries they should have someone walk around for thirty minutes in free time and see if someone needs to be told to have their phone conversations outside or to turn their music or radios down. And I must say that Concord does not have a Caffe on the ground floor with the most delicious rocky road cookies and the best lemon bars I ever tasted. I will be back this summer.

Best library in the East Bay… and I have been to almost every public library around… from Livermore public library (which is a close second), to my hometown library, San Leandro Public Library, which is my third favorite– all three of these are quietest and cleanest public libraries you will find. Studying is pretty much what I do for a living so I take my study-​space seriously.
Noise Level: Orinda library is the QUIETEST library, sometimes too quiet to where you might find yourself dozing off (it has that «home» comfy feeling to it)… so make sure you have some caffiene to keep you up while you read! There are plenty of study areas to tuck yourself away in for hours and get some great studying in (and also napping in the window cubby bed spaces if you need it! – I don’t recommend that!)– if you find yourself getting sleepy, just go outside and stand by the beautiful waterfall fountain, or take a jog around the park which is adjacent to the library!
Food: The café downstairs opens earlier (6 or 7am) if you happen to come before the library opens… they have amazing sandwiches and drinks (and the customer service is always so friendly)! This is a library located in an area where you can leave your stuff on the table if you have to make a bathroom or food run and don’t have to worry about your stuff getting stolen (although I would not recommend that either!). LOL.
Parking: You do have to move your car to a different spot every 3 – 4 hours but at least the parking is free, and no time limits on weekends.
If I didnt live in San Leandro and it wasn’t a 20 – 25 minute commute, I would come to this library every day if I could. But if you decide to make the drive, it is well worth it and you won’t be disappointed!
Happy Studying!

Very nice, clean, bright, spacious library. Wide aisles, little window seat nooks where you can sit in the sun & read. Please don’t take off your shoes & lay down & read though, you are in a public place not your home. Please do not sleep in the nooks unless you are over 60 then we forgive you. It’s embarrassing to run across sleeping library patrons. Good book & DVD selection.

First: I absolutely love the window seats… Nice cushions to relax on, in your own little window cubby space. Perfect to get lost in a book.
Second: parking can be scary, but if you drive around once or twice you should find a spot.
Overall: the library is on the second story. There are stairs and an elevator. They have a bookstore next door.
I believe they only have self check outs and even book“self-check-ins”. Haha! I’ll add a pic soon…
The book selection has been good so far. The layout is spacious. They have computers. They have a wonderful kids section. They have lots of tables. And those window seats!!! :D
I love libraries, but the window seats here keep me enthralled.

This must be the swankiest library in the entire county system. Of course, this *is* Orinda…
Newish building, I don’t recall where the library was before. Café on the ground floor.
Great place to take your kids. There’s a fountain outside, and you go up lots of steps to get to the entrance, both turn-​ons for the littler set. Close to the Community Park. Many Saturday mornings have a reading time for the under-​5 crowd; usually pretty small crowd, so they get good attention. My girl found a great book about someone who found some socks she loved, refused to take them off, and they got stinky…
Shhhh, this is the library. It’s quiet in here, too quiet, so if you need no noise, this is the perfect place to work, read, or chill. Large selection of books and computer stations, and many places to lounge.
I had to give it three stars, though. Parking is horrendous in this area. There is a parking lot under the library, but it’s hard to get in and out of it. The stairs are pretty bad for seniors or those who are physically unable to tackle them, but there is a (slow) elevator available.

It certainly didn’t hurt that my first view of the exterior of the Orinda Library was drenched in winter sunshine. Even in the absence of the glorious light, the approach to the building is attractive and welcoming. There are lines of arbors perpendicular to the street parking in front heavy w/​pruned back wisteria vines that will be in full beautiful bloom in a couple of months. Walking toward the building there’s a plaza w/​tables, chairs and umbrellas outside the Caffe Teatro. There are also a couple of intriguing sculptures that invite scrutiny and past them a beautiful fountain w/​water cascading down a wall into a pool. The ledge beside the pool provides a place for people to sit. A tall, complex, colorful kinetic sculpture several yards away moved in response to the breezes. I think it was called «Wheelie Peacock». Beneath it is a bench which invites readers to sit and in front of the bench is another water feature which looked like a different sort of fountain, although it was dry today.
There are stairs up to the library behind the fountain as well as an elevator behind the café. Past the Friends of the Library book shop, the library itself is large and light w/​a variety of places to sit. There are chairs next to occasional tables, chairs at long tables well set up for computers, easy chairs clustered around the enclosed gas fireplace and other nooks where people can curl up in chairs w/​books. Alan and I sat for a while in comfortable chairs and read our books. Architecturally it’s very attractive, w/​high ceilings and lots of windows, large windows at the back of the building and well as narrow vertical windows higher on some of the interior walls. There was a repeated architectural motif I recognized, though I couldn’t name it. It had a Prairie School/​Arts & Crafts look and was repeated in the cement and the wisteria arbors in front of the building, in the railings behind it, in the windows and in decorative etched glass patterns inside. It was a beautiful look. I asked at the Information Desk about it and the very helpful librarian looked but couldn’t find its precise inspiration. Nor could I when I got home. I didn’t think to ask Alan to take photos so I could post them, but if you click through the library’s link above there are some beautiful photos others have taken of the building and the fountain, although not of the architectural details that intrigued me.
Not only is the library beautiful, it’s functional w/​its stacks full of books. There is a station where you can check out books yourself as well as a desk where library staff can check them out for you. It was built in 2001 and still looks fresh and new, yet timeless. I left w/​a serious case of library envy. Of Contra Costa County’s new (or newish) libraries, Danville, Layfayette, Walnut Creek and Orinda, I think it’s my favorite.

Took my 5 year old there today for a few minutes to read her some books. Beautiful space, but I won’t be going back. As we were sitting at one of the little tables in the children’s section and I was reading my kid a book, a library employee came over to inform me that people were studying and if I wanted to read out loud to my kid, I could do so on one of the couches over there somewhere. I have visited a number of public libraries from Oakland to NYC and have NEVER encountered a library that didn’t allow reading out loud in the children’s area.
The reason I’m giving the library two stars and not one (or zero) is that one of the other librarians there was actually very nice and helpful, and went to some effort to track down a book that my daughter had requested. Clearly, some of their staff understand what the profession of librarianship entails and some do not.

Awesome place to study and to reflect. They have free wifi, they have clean restrooms and most importantly its quite. Great place to just read or to just spend some personal time if you need it.

+1,000,000: I was sitting at one of those partition desks, minding my own business, trying to compel myself to memorize this IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) chart for my linguistics class when someone sat down on the other side. I didn’t think much of it because I was too busy figuring out the difference between a voiced bilabial fricative and a voiceless bilabial fricative… still haven’t gotten it.
Anyway, some time goes by when one of the librarians came around with his cart to shelve some books. As soon as he passed by the person across from me he stopped and said, «Look, I appreciate the female form as much as the next guy but you can’t be doing that in a public library.» To which The Creep replied, «Uh, uh, yeah. Uh, sorry.» The librarian went back to shelving books and The Creep hurriedly packed up his stuff.
I used to ask myself who in the world would watch PORN in a PUBLIC library?! Now I know that the answer is the Creepy McCreepster who sat within two feet of me. :(
In all seriousness, thank you Orinda Library for having a ROCKIN’ staff that politely, but firmly, tell creeps where to go. :)

This library is a pretty good place to study — clean, looks new, pretty quiet. On a Saturday afternoon, there were plenty of people there, but you could still find a table or couch to sit at. There were also enough windows that it wasn’t depressing inside.
It’s got its own parking lot. The bathroom is clean. When you get hungry, there’s also a café (with sandwiches, baked goods, gelato, coffee, smoothies) downstairs with a little bit of indoor & outdoor seating.
Plenty of computers to use if you don’t have a laptop, but you need a Contra Costa County library card # to use them.
My only gripe is that for the first 2 hours I was there, my laptop (I have a Mac) couldn’t get free WiFi due to some weird glitch. After 2 hours, it magically started working — not sure what happened there.

This is probably one of the nicest libraries in the Contra Costa County area. I bring my son here every other week to get three or four books at a time and we’ve always had a fun time just browsing. They have a few computers that you can use for an hour at a time, if you have a library card. You have the option of self check out, which is quick and easy. And you can even go online to recheck out your books if you can’t return them when they’re due. Can’t get much more convenient than that, I’d say.

It’s nice, clean, and just a good place to study. It’s the ORINDA library! You can’t expect any less! This has to be one of the nicer libraries I’ve seen. AND it has it’s own parking lot, which just makes it so much better!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this library. THE perfect place to study in the area!

This library just looks like it belongs in Orinda. Located next to Orinda Community Park, and just upstairs from Caffe Teatro Library Café, it is a family-​friendly place to check out your books, videos, magazines, DVDs, or CDs.
You can find lots of little kids there, or a few students seriously studying for their exams. It’s clean and quiet, and has excellent restroom facilities.
Two thumbs up.