Durham County Public Library-- Stanford L. Warren Branch

This library holds a special place to me as it is one of the Libraries associated with my Grandmother, and of course I still have some friends that work here to this day… It is definitely used as a great event space here in the community, and the staff is always willing to help their patrons. Definitely one of Durham’s crown jewels and a vital link to it’s past grandeur as one of the beacons of the African American community throughout the country in the historic Hayti district… The area may not have the same appeal as it did historically, but these folks are definitely one of the keepers of the flame…

Leaving the Stanford Warren library branch, I couldn’t help thinking to myself «What! Did we just become best friends?! YUP.» Let me preface this review by letting my avid readers (I like to believe) know that I love libraries. For those of you not taking advantage of our library system here in the triangle, stop what you’re doing today and get yourself to a library. You can reserve books, DVD’s, movies and CD’s online so all you do is wait to get the e-​mail (it’s like a present sitting in your inbox) and then head to the library to pick-​up your items. Not only does the library have all the latest hot novels but they also have guide books for the travel curious and well stocked shelves of everything from cook books to gardening books. Books and CD’s can be rented for three weeks at a time and renewed up to three times (unless someone else has requested it). DVD’s are week long rentals (hey people, that’s a week FREE compared to Redbox which is $ 1.50/day – see what I’m getting at here?!)
This particular branch is a dream. Beautiful building, private parking lot in the back and it’s quite (aren’t all libraries?) I walked in and was greeted, asked if I needed help AND received a whole tour of the branch! There are three study rooms that can be reserved on a first come first serve basis for an hour at a time (or longer as long as there’s no line!) There is a huge «conference» room that seats 75 people that can be divided into two rooms and is free to rent up to as long as you need it, just have to book it. They also have a kitchen that you can rent for $ 25 total during your meeting ($ 100 if you’re making a profit from your meeting). I really like that the children’s area is separated from the adult area (both for safety and noise). There are plenty of tables the sit at in the main area as well as eight or so computers to use (printer use is available for $.10 for black and white and $.25 for color copies). Although the library was very quite on my visit, the librarian informed me that they get busy at night and especially around midterms (lots of students from NCCU and Durham Tech, plus a fair amount of high school students). Overall, a beautiful library with everyone one can desire available, plus, my favorite part, a drive by book deposit: can’t get more convenient then that!