Cleveland Public Library – Rice

The Rice branch is the closest branch to my house, so for the first year or so that I lives here I would always come here first just for the convenience of a 4 minute drive. The difficulty that I encountered was when my wife had the car for work and she didn’t get home until 5:30. On most of the days that I needed to go pick up books the library would close at 6pm so I would have to hurry over as soon as my wife got home.
Even though the library is close to my house I don’t feel too safe walking or riding my bike over there, though I’m probably just paranoid. In the library they lock the bathrooms and you have to go get someone to open the door for you if you need to use it. I think this reflects a little on the location. There are always security guards on site too, usually more than one.
After a while I decided to switch over to the Cleveland Heights branch on Lee because they close at 9pm on most days, they have self checkout, and the library is beautiful and huge.
The Rice branch has a very nice building, and the people there are incredibly helpful, but overall I think for me it is not the best. I give them a 4 star rating because for the people who use it the most it is indispensable. It brings a great feature to many people in that area.
I think that the lack of self checkout, locked bathrooms, early closing times, etc are most likely for safety reasons considering the location. I thought about giving it a 3 star rating but then I thought that just because it’s not the best fit for me doesn’t mean it’s a poor library. It is great.