Mountain View Public Library

For my 400^th review, I should probably write about someplace I spend a lot of time at. As a grad student, this would be the public library. See, I can’t study from home. I have two cats that prevent me from doing this. From walking across my keyboard at odd moments, to demanding to be on my lap, they are a… distraction. However, the Mountain View Public Library has no cats that I know of. This is a huge bonus for me. I usually sit in quite zone level #2 to get my homework done, study, and occasionally surf the internet. The internet connection is wonderful, and unlike sitting at a café, I don’t feel awful for not buying a second cup of tea. Have I checked out a book? No, not yet… but occasionally to take a break, I will wonder around the non-​fiction section, just to stop and smell the… books.
So…
+1 No cats
+1 Good Internet
+1 Don’t feel guilty for not buying a cup of tea
+1 The smell of books
+1 I actually get my homework done. Most of the time. *meep*
=
5 star review. Thank you Mountain View Public Library!

Mountain View Library has been great so far. LINK+ is awesome; you can request a book from any network library (of which there are many), and they’ll transfer it to the library of your choice. Denver County had the same concept, and I really value this. The convenience is outstanding. On LINK+, I had a book moved from SF to MV in just a couple days. Pickup was a breeze, too. The book was waiting for me at the customer service desk. Yay for reading!
My only complaint is that audio books are in the form of CDs and not MP3. Bummer :(
Don’t forget to check out the slabs of the Berlin Wall out front. As someone whose family is from that area of Europe, it is truly incredible to see this in California.

I now and then stop at the library which I have done several times over the years. It’s a good place but it’s not perfect. It’s typically busy and the hours are good and convenient, especially if you have a 9-​to-​5 schedule although it is quite noisy and not the kind of place where you can read or study because parents seem to take kids here instead of the zoo (which is clearly more expensive). The help desk downstairs is somewhat «casual». The one upstairs is good and there is an old lady who appears to be very good at what she does.
I occasionally stop by to borrow classical music CDs. Today I stopped to look for some 50s and 60s music and I did not find anything at all. The problem with it is that there is absolutely no fast way to locate a recording. You can look up into the directory on a computer but then you are pretty much left to scanning through an entire section on your own, whether it’s pop or jazz or something else (knowing that some dummy before you might have misplaced a CD). It’s a really frustrating process for many reasons. The first reason is that the catalog should provide a clear and convenient combination of dates, colors, letters and numbers to locate a recording. Maybe the library should ask Google about how to index and search for material because the system they have is very inefficient. Beside, dividers like A-​E or O-​S are not so useful. The second reason is that the CDs are placed vertically inside metal «cradles» so that the sleeves face you. The problem with that is that there are too many CDs in a «cradle» and you have to remove at least 3 – 5 of them to actually see what you have in front of you which is really annoying. It would be much better if the CDs were placed horizontally with sleeves facing up just like in a CD rack so you can scan through them much more easily. I think the library needs to implement an efficient search and locate strategy for CDs because it just doesn’t work. After scanning through at least 100 CDs, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands because the CDs were really dusty and drove back home empty handed.

I love this place
MV public library is the best one in my opinion, has a great kids area and events. Also the dvd’s are in good quality and I always lean on them to print, make copies or scan. Besides has a great park right outside if you enjoy read a book close to the nature.

Every staff member seems more wrapped up in socializing with each other than helping anyone. Hard pass.

Excellent, clean, well lit and quiet. What else do you need? It’s a lovely place where you can relax and read or scoot in, quickly grab your books and scoot out lightning fast by checking yourself out (it’s super easy). The staff is friendly and helpful, the selection is quite good and you can easily get lost in here for hours. I highly recommend it as a comfortable place to read and discover new worlds.

Great place to study with plenty of outlets and desks. Best of all, it’s open til 9pm M-​Th!

Love this library! I come here to study all the time– very bright with lots of open spaces. It’s right next to a park and walking distance to downtown Mountain View so you have many options if you need a break. :)

I absolutely love this library, best I’ve ever seen. All I had to do was show license and bill with my address on it for library card. Definitely worth it, you can use their computers, rent tablets, movies, CDs, books and movies. I love renting the movies because there is so much to choose from and they’re FREE to rent. There is a lot of high tech equipment there an the hours are very reasonable. There are many events that take place on the meeting area there and plenty of parking.

Large selection of books/​magazines/​DVDs/​music, nice areas for relaxing and reading, inside and outside. They have lots of activities going on, be it for fun or functional, for children or adults, or help with taxes at tax time. I enjoy coming here and often want to stay for hours. I tend to leave with several books and notes for future ones to borrow. In the spring there are beautiful cherry blossom trees to sit under in the park, which is quite nice.

Awesome in every way, except the tables needs serious cleaning. I wiped down my table with an alcohol pad and it is as black as night. It’s like I colored those pads with a black permanent marker. I posted the photo in the photo section here. Check it out. Nasty!

My family and I have enjoyed the library since it opened many years ago. Lots of activities for all ages, the library is a great resource for the community. I like to stop in when downtown just to chill and see what’s new.

Only one for MV and clean layout. Many public transportation info in the lobby. Parking lot is always a fight… street parking is even worse though

It’s really cool that the city of Mountain View allowed the two segments of the Berlin Wall to be positioned outside the Mountain View library. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to drop by and experience other parts of the library during the daytime.
Here is a link to a photo sphere image i posted on Google Maps Views of the segments that you may also enjoy.

I’m a big fan of libraries in general, and Mountain View’s public library is one of my favorites. It’s large, bright, and clean with excellent selections of books, movies, and music. The first floor has the self-​checkout/​return area (with two or more staff members usually available to answer questions), the movie/​music sections, teen/​kids sections, and the new arrivals section. The 2^nd floor has relatively large fiction/​non-​fiction sections, a magazine section, a number of pay-​for-​use computers, the reference librarian, and spots to lay claim for doing your work.
I think you can place holds on up to 10 items at the same time. When you log into your library account, you can track the status of your holds and freeze them if desired. In the past, you could only place holds on unavailable items, but now the library also allows you reserve items that are on the shelf. This is a nice, new convenience.
The library’s dvd collection is very popular with good reason: it’s huge and has a good mix of genres (including documentaries, foreign, indie, etc.). The waiting list builds quickly for the most popular new movies (it sometimes surpasses 100 people), but the library will often order 10+ copies of the movies with the highest demand. The dvd collection also includes many old and current tv shows. You can borrow an entire season for two weeks.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for in MTV’s catalog, you can check the Link+ catalog, which spans many libraries across CA. If the item is available in another library, it usually takes about a week to process your request and transfer the item to Mountain View. Using Link+, I’ve borrowed books and movies from libraries as far away as San Diego (and as close as a few towns over). Such a great resource.
Once each quarter (Feb, May, Aug, and Nov) the Friends of the Library organization holds a huge, weekend book sale behind the library. Most books and dvds are $ 1 or less, and for the last two hours on Sunday, you can fill up a bag for $ 5. The sales are packed with book lovers, but everyone’s pretty polite in the close quarters (with the exception of an older gentleman who managed to shove me three times in one 30 minute span!). They accept book donations throughout the year to include in the sales so consider giving some of your old books to this good cause!

I love coming here because I love to read! I’m 26 y/​o and I’m a fan of teen novels and this library has updated and quite a big selection when it comes to that kind of genre. My boyfriend loves it here too because he can rent DVDs (shows like dexter and movies). Upstairs are computers where you can print papers which costs $ 0.15/paper. There are individual tables with chairs where you can study and do your homework (reminds me of college). They have updated technology where you can check out and return books without the help of a librarian. Outside the entrance of the library, there’s a piece of Berlin Wall and it’s really cool to have a piece of history right there. The bathrooms are clean and staffs are nice.

The library is great but the problem are the kids. I mean, a library is suppose to be a quite haven where you hopefully go to read/​study. I am studying for my bar exam (I hate to study home) I come here at 10am sharp so that I can find a good seat (which btw is not easy to find) and then, comes along some annoying kid crying or shouting… Once I told this kid’s mother that can she please ask her kid not to cry, she asked me to change my seat!!! I guess she doesn’t understand that voice travels and no matter where I sit her kid’s crying noise won’t leave me alone.
I wish parents either behave their kids or library should ban kids from the reading section. I wish they had some rule regarding annoying kids/​at times adults. I hate to sound like a kid hater (which I am not) but we come here to study/​read in peace, I so wish people can respect that.
Otherwise this library is bright, has free wifi and enough charging station. I don’t use their books much so don’t know much about their book selection.
Library staff if you are reading this pleaseeeee make a rule for people to be quite in the reading section atleast.

Nice place. Quiet and lots of space, but they need lots of space because there are lots of people. My second time here in over a decade.
Spent about two hours and there was a police officer just wandering around the library the whole time. ??? Kinda weird. Is that really necessary? Is Mountain View really so boring that the best use of an officer is to wander through isles of books?

Wifi still works well, but provided by a new firm. And printing is now (⁴⁄₂₀₁₄) FIFTEEN cents per page, a 50% increase! [but now the same as the San Mateo Co. Libraries]
Changes, ch-​ch-​ch-​changes…

Oh wait, you can review libraries now?
Anyway, the MV library is pretty awesome. It is two stories so it has a nice selection of books. It especially caters towards teens and kids with a HUGE kids section and a nice teen room where I occasionally spent days doing homework. Not only that, but they also have homework tutors! Way to go MV!
For the adults, they obviously have lots of books and a pretty great magazine selection with a reading area. The upstairs is also absolutely silent so it is a good place to get work done. They are also very strict on the no cell phone policy. Parking can sometimes be a pain with the small lot.
There is some weird stuff that costs extra and a couple of odd policies at the library. Since it is MV, you can only return books to this library which isn’t that big of a deal.
The librarians have always been very nice and helpful.
Pretty decent library. As a magazine and book reader (even thought I walk and read), occasionally I’ll dwell here when I am in the mood for one of those bookie afternoons. Yes, I am a book reading nerd. Whatcha gonna do about it?