Prince George’s County Memorial Library System – Bowie Branch

I love this Library.
It’s big. It has a great selection. It has very helpful librarians. It has a great location with plenty of free parking.
What more could you ask for?
The missus decided we should start going to the Library instead of spending money to actually buy books on Amazon. It turned out to be a good suggestion. I can find most (not all) books that I want to read here. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait or order a book from another library.
Their online presence is great. Lots of good information. It almost seems a shame that everything is being so automated. I like real people in the library. More than once, I’ve asked for help and they’ve been there to walk me down the aisle to exactly where the book is (I never understood the Dewey Decimal System).
They have book clubs, artists exhibits, all kinds of stuff.
Great place.

The staff is very helpful and I can always find a big table to spread out my kids big school projects. Yay!

Good selection of books, nice variety of kids’ storytimes, great used books in their bookstore for super cheap. The staff aren’t always super friendly and not always good at their job (many times I’ve returned books that they’ve failed to check in and just put back on the shelf so my account shows I still have them! Luckily they are aware that they do it so if you call and say you don’t have that book, they’ll take it off your account.).

I almost wish they had a separate building where parents and kids could go for easy access to the videos and children’s books. Navigating the place, and/​or working within in it, when it’s full of kids isn’t the best in terms of what you expect a library to be.
Plus, the junior high and high school kids can get out of hand, and the staff has become consequently brusque with everyone.