Multnomah County Library

This county library allows homeless people to basically live in their bathroom stalls. Pretty inconvenient if you need to take a poop.
Also they open way too late.

I am so happy I got a replacement library card recently. I lost my original one several years ago when I lived in SE Portland. I received my new card at the tiny NE location next to Whole Foods, just off 15^th and Fremont. As this is the closest location to my neighborhood, I was happy to learn that I could select all of my desired my items online and have them shipped and held for pick up at my convenient NE location. Back when I lived in SE, the online services were not as extensive, so I kinda didn’t use my card as much as I should have back then, I just bought ‘em at the bookstore.
I am a true book lover and I have an entire room in my house filled with various books, but given the current state of the economy, I am feeling less frivolous. I would much rather get a taste for a book by borrowing it from the library, than immediately running out and buying it, only to discover that I may not want to read it again.
On my most recent trip to the library, I not only got a great novel, but an audio book for my daily commute, as well as cookbooks and gardening books. Even the selection at my tiny local branch was very good.
The downtown library is really amazing. Not only for it’s vast selection, but because it has that lovely historic library feel.
The folks who work at the various Multnomah County Libraries vary in the levels of customer service they choose to provide. When I got my replacement card, the librarian who assisted me was outstanding. Super friendly and cheerful. Her counterpart on a different day, however, was rather stone-​faced and generally rather uptight.
In general, the library system here is well-​organized and I am amazed at the selection of current titles in all of the sections. I am very pleased overall with my newly acquired replacement card.

The library in all of it’s antique gloriousness with stairs that wind like a three tiered cake, and roses on the carpet, and the creepy haunted smell of old books. You can get married at the biblioteca. I have seen it happen. How perfect. I love how the library has books and DVDs and CDs that I can never seem to find. They have EVERYTHING. Seriously, even Harmony Korine and Larry Clark films that are so hard to find! I love the silent solitude, I love the mysterious hidden bookshelves, I love the treasures I find. The only thing I dislike about the library is the smell of urine and peasants and hippie Portland people.