North Tampa Branch Library

A nice branch with the usual, pleasant, helpful staff. I found some great things to check out in a nice environment. I was just passing through and decided to visit this branch but if it was my «home» branch I’d be perfectly happy.

The North Tampa Branch Library is the closest Hillsborough library branch to my house, so I visit fairly often to pick up books that I’ve reserved online. Reserved books are held in a separate area so you can quickly find what you’re looking for by finding your last name. For added convenience, there are self-​checkout stations so you can easily grab your books and go. If you need to return books but don’t want to go all the way inside, there is a bin outside where you can drop them. Otherwise, you can separate your audio books/​CDs and books inside and place them in their designated areas immediately when you enter the facility.
This branch is located on North Blvd. right across the intersection from Chamberlain High School. Thus you will usually find swarms of kids standing out front, which would be great if they were using the library (yay literacy!) but they don’t ever use the facility. The library is smaller than the others that I’ve visited in Tampa, but it seems nice enough inside. A police officer is stationed there as well for increased safety. My only other qualm about the North Tampa library is that the parking area is set up oddly. There is a one-​way lane in front of the building, although people tend to ignore that fact, and there are also two-​lane parking spaces on the side of the building. A slightly larger lot sits behind the building, but it’s been blocked off for as long as I’ve been coming here. I think with a little more security and a few slight changes, this could be a really great community resource center.

To tell you the truth I haven’t been to a library for sometime (about two years). They came along way since then, they have a self check out counter. The clerk behind the counter (Trish) was beyond helpful walking me through their website and showed me how to order and renew and read books online. I came in thinking that libraries are on the way out, I was wrong!

Second review of 2013 and its another bad one… I don’t know why but explain this to me… how is it the people who work customer service or anything that deals with people are the rudest people in the damn world. I came here to print some copies of my resume and I asked the young lady where are the printers she just pointed and rolled her eyes. then I asked her do they have change for a $ 5 so I can use the printer she said go across the street! I was like huh?. She says go get change from the corner store. So I asked don’t you folks have a cash register because I know folks have to pay late fees and some people buy books but she say no. After walking to the store for change then coming back the my prints came out blank so I go back to her what happen she just look at me with the what you want me to do face… so I went about mt bizness reprinted my ish and I got out of there before I knocked down some books and walked out lol never again.

This library was once my favorite library of all time. I used to have all kinds of books and animé shipped there and pick them up at the maximum of twelve books, but then one day when I dropped off my books in the metal drop box (which is impossible to be opened once you drop something in there from the outside) they decided to not claim one of the books i know I turned in there, thus charging me almost twenty books for a ten dollar manga onto my account. Then my reading days ended because there was no way I was going to pay for something I did not even lose.