Bascom Branch Library

Loved children book selection. Huge collections on pre reader level, which is wat i was looking for my toddler kids.

When it is open I love this place but the down fall is and always has been the hours. I come here wanting to do homework, study, and anything else work related but Unilocal gives the wrong hours so whenever I come they are closed. I wished this branch was open earlier and also later. Aside from all of that I think it’s mostly just a waste of my time to come out all the way to come to a closed library.

This review is for Music and Movement;
While the facility itself is nice, the way the Music and Movement sessions are conducted here are strange. I have been with my children to many story times and Music and Movements at many of the other SJ library branches. Usually you just come in with your child and take a seat and enjoy the presentation. However, at this particular branch they want you to sign in your child and provide a bunch of personal information. It felt like I was signing into a daycare or something and I even had to double check that I was allowed to stay with my child. There is no reason to collect a bunch of personal information from parents who are trying to keep their eyes on and take care of multiple children and/​or squirmy toddlers. We will be going to the other branches that do not do this.

Bascom Branch Library
This lovely branch of the San Jose Public Library is open as follows:
Mon CLOSED
Tue CLOSED
Wed 11:00 AM — 8:00 PM
Thu 10:00 AM — 6:00 PM
Fri 10:00 AM — 6:00 PM
Sat 10:00 AM — 6:00 PM
Sun CLOSED
Please log in to the branch page for more information at:

The outside is littered with trash and low lifes abound that litter the grounds.
The inside however is clean and nice but wifi does not work if at all.
Pass on this place.

I’ve been coming here for about a year now. Not for books, but for their private study rooms. I like how I can reserve a room in advance to get tutored for accounting. The inside is neat, and very well organized. One odd thing I noticed was that there were romance novels right next to the children’s section. That was a bit odd.

They just cannot comprehend that very loud toddler computers have NO place in the general library room. It is like trying to read to/​with my children in the television section of Target. I have brought it up to the librarian on more than one occasion… they do NOT get it.
Tonight is the last straw. The computers are spouting off to NO one and we cannot get them to stop. Finding another branch with fingers-​crossed they are not like this.

Wow I absolutely love this library. It’s very clean and organized and the workers are very helpful. There are computers EVERYWHERE. They have sections for kids and teens and its pretty quiet so it is a nice place to read and study. The bathrooms are immaculately clean. They have showers in there too and the water from the fountains taste very good. Haha this is turning out to be such a weird review. Anyway, i don’t live that far from here and i’m definitely going to be supporting my local branch.

This library was worth the wait. Visually it is stunning. The floorplan is wide open with a lot of check out computers with a helpful staff. The book selection is first rate. This branch seems to have more «New» fiction and non-​fiction than the others. I think the Cambrian Branch gave up a lot of their new stuff to this location, which is OK. it is a shorter walk from my place, which makes my selfish heart happy if not necessarily healthier.
Excellent place to people watch also, a key to any good library.

This is a great facility. After being built it took so long to open. It would be nice to say it was worth the wait, but frankly this community should not have had to wait.
A top notch library and community center that is worthy of the neighborhoods it serves and all of the City of San Jose.
Great job.

After an extra year of waiting, the Bascom Branch Library finally opened up last week. We took advantage of a family events night to pop by after work to check it out and were very pleased with the new local branch, OUR local branch library.
The entrance at night is absolutely stunning and the fact that the community center with its fitness center is attached makes the space active and dynamic… nice vibes.
The offspring-​unit loves books and went straightaway into the age appropriate child section and buried its head into the books while the spouse unit and the self unit browsed both the kids books, and ones for our own reading pleasure. It was like going into a new book store where most of the collections were brand new and it just felt good. Fairly well attended on a Wednesday evening after dinner, but well worth the quick dinner to take the time and enjoy this library.
Has quiet rooms, group study rooms, tech room for computing and a dedicated teen area for the older offspring units. Spacious and airy, though the aisles in the non-​fiction area were a bit tighter than ideal as two persons searching on opposite side of an aisle woudl not be able to cross each other without yielding to another.
That all said, it is a really nice library and one we will plan to come back to regularly now that there is one so conveniently located.