San Carlos Library

Be aware of volunteers at the San Carlos Library. Especially of this easily recognizable gentleman. He isn’t very tall and has a light red/​gray beard. He was wearing a golden necklace and had a back supporter. If you see him, RUN. He is a story. I came to pick up a book for my child and he was putting books away on to the shelves. I couldn’t grab my book from the shelf because his cart was in the way. When I asked him to move his cart over, he began to make fun of my accent and kept on sending me to the wrong part of the library. I told him that the book was right there and he didn’t move his cart out of the way when I asked him multiple times to. I went to pick up the book from the bottom shelf and all of a sudden he accused me of being rude to him. Telling me that he is a volunteer here and wants to help people. I told him nicely that I didn’t need his help and he started to point his finger in my face (literally). He demanded that I leave him alone and I did, even though I did nothing wrong. I am still in a state of shock. I have come to this library for many years now and this has never happened to me before.

I love the community meeting rooms! Clean, spacious, well kept. And the little kitchenette area attached is a bonus.

I loved this library even before the latest remodel. They have a fantastic selection of books and CDs for children. The adult section has a great selection of the latest books as well as the classics. Their movie selection is pretty good too — I always find something. All the librarians are very helpful. I’d still getting used the the new setup, though.
I love that San Carlos library participates in the «Food for Fines» program in which we donate food to the local food pantry (Second Harvest in San Carlos) in exchange for waiving our hold and late fees. According to the librarian, most people donate much more than the dollar value of their fines and this enables the food pantry to have food beyond the holidays because hunger happens all year round. Kudos to whomever thought of this — everybody wins.

This review is for the children’s section of the library only. I really like the children section here, it is very big and has lots of interactive toys for young children to play with. I have not made it out to storytime here but it seems like there’s a nice open area for the book reading. There are four computer set up specifically for toddlers although the sound on the headphones is not the best. This place is a great location to come to you when it is raining outside and your kid needs to come and let out some energy.
For the adult side I would agree with some other reviewers that say that the organization system at this library is rather weird. Books are just organized by category and not by the dewey decimal system. You can still find books by using the catalog and going to the section that your book is located.
Overall it is a nice library which has a separate section for small children which allows the large area to remain quiet. The hours of the weekdays are pretty good since it is open until 8 PM.

As others have noted, the library got rid of using the Dewey Decimal System. So finding a book is much harder than before and it’s harder to determine whether you just didn’t see the book. That’s why I gave the library a bad mark. For those who don’t know, the Dewey Decimal System was invented in the 19^th century and I’ve never seen a library that didn’t use it until now.
I can only think of one thing that would explain such a seemingly stupid change. Perhaps the library budget has been cut to such an extent that the library no longer has the staff to keep the books in order? Or perhaps it’s the patrons’ fault too? Maybe people have become horribly bad at putting the book back in the correct place? I don’t know but I don’t like it.

This is a great library with plenty of materials to check out and computers. It may not measure up to SMP Library, but it’s still quite good.

As previous reviewers have stated, what the heck, eliminating the Dewey Decimal System? The San Carlos library has dumbed itself down to the lowest common denominator of a coffee/​computer lounge with far less emphasis on actual books.

I don’t really care about the remodel I thought it was perfectly fine before but this is still a pretty good library, great selection of cd’s, dvd’s, and books. Things seem a lil more difficult to find now. They’ve really refreshed the place. I like the ice cream socials and the lil book sale area. The bathrooms are always clean. The location is great very close to everything .
Its a very big library. They have a good amount of computers to use too.

The San Carlos library always struck me as a fine well-​appointed suburban library,
big enough to have interesting books beyond the usual collection and yet small
enough to be comfortable and accessible for the average user.
But now they’ve gone over to the dark side! Books no longer have a specific call number on them. Instead there are ranges marked ‘Business’, ‘Geography’, ‘Self-​help’, and so on. So you have to look through the whole range for that subject to find the book. This may mean eyeballing several shelves to find an item. If you don’t find it, you can’t be sure if you have just missed it. The dumbing down of the U.S.A.
continues …
I guess I’ll have to go back to my home library in Redwood City, where some
’bright’ person got rid of all the Reference books, stating that all the information
was on the Internet. Guess I should rejoice that we still have public libraries,
with all the budget cutting.

So many good things about this library– really great place but… Getting rid of the Dewey Decimal System was a major mistake! A major dumbing down of the whole library. Sorry it is much much more time consuming to find a particular book. The old system worked! It really is just shameful they chose to get rid of it.
I will go to the other libraries.

Having a library within walking distance of home is a great luxury, one that I’ll miss dearly while this library is shut down for a few months for renovations. I’d probably end up spending a lot more on Kindle books if it wasn’t for this place.
Stopping by to pick up some children’s books is a somewhat regular part of our weekend routine. Camille really enjoys drawing with the little pencils, bashing the keyboards, playing with the toys in the kids’ area, and picking out books. They do a nice job of showcasing interesting books in all parts of the library.
Looking forward to the reopening!

Like in a prison, the librarian looks at me like I’m hiding a shank in my sleeve and about to get violent with one of the other inmates, or patrons in this case. Expect to receive the first degree if you try to pay off one of their exorbitant fines at the desk, with that particular middle-​aged librarian.
Two stars for the nice patio and the particularly bizarre homeless people which makes for an interesting afternoon.

Although the place is really small, it has a wide selection of books, magazines, CDs and DVDs.
The people that work here are very nice and helpful.
The vending machines and the fact that it is a block away from downtown is very convenient if you want to get a cup of coffee so you don’t fall asleep while studying.
If given the chance, I will definitely choose to study here over some other public libraries I know. If only I still live in San Carlos…

Studying for the ARE has allowed… err forced me to frequent many of the San Mateo county Library’s. My 2 cents about the San Carlos Location
Pros:
— Free underground parking
— Paper towels in the bathroom! (basic yes, but some branches only have the blow dry machine)
— Vending machines
— Comfortable chairs (only certain ones)
— Peets coffee a short walk away
— Good WiFi speeds
Cons:
— poor lighting (some areas are simply to dark)
— mushy soft chairs (certain ones, you’ll know it when you sit in it)
— Lights off 5 minutes before closing (see below)
— Closes at 6 on Thursday
— The chairs at the tables along the side are not particularly comfortable
To the people who work here: Turning the lights off 5 minutes before closing is just plain rude (!). Yes I/​we all understand that you want to go home — we all do after a long day at work, but sometimes part of having a JOB that deals with the public is staying a few minutes late. We have all had to do this before. Admittedly this isn’t as bad as the woman at the Belmont branch who would walk around 10 minutes before closing and tell each and every person «we are closing, we are closing…» Yes I know you announced that 3 times on the speaker phone already.

I have only been to the San Carlos Library once… yesterday. I was totally impressed and I was only there for a good 5 – 10 minutes!
I had completely forgotten to print out my résumé for a job interview so I stopped here to use their computer, printer, and copier. I was stuck in traffic due to the rain and had only 5 – 10 min. to spare before I had to jet across into Redwood City. I had lost my library card a while back and explained this to the gentleman. He was quick and offered me a 30 min. guest pass. Who knew libraries did this?
I was blown away and got my stuff taken care of and left for my interview. I will definitely be back and to sign up for a replacement library card. For those who complain about not having a comfy chair to sit in to do research or write, you might want to try your own home, a Starbucks, or Barnes and Noble at Hillsdale and quit complaining! It’s a library, not a furniture store!

UPDATE: I can’t believe this library no longer puts call numbers on their books!!!
I put a huge stack of CDs on a shelf for what I thought would be «just a minute» while I went to get the 1 book I really came to that library for (and then someone ended up moving them because they must have thought they were abandoned). I never would have expected it would take more than 2 minutes to find this book, but apparently, the San Carlos library has given the heave-​ho to the tried and true DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM.
So, when I went to look up the book’s call number in the computer, it showed «call numbers» for every OTHER library that this book was at, EXCEPT the one I was at. The computer simply indicated that they had it in the library, and that it was in the self help /​personal improvement section. It was like a joke. I went to the section and there were HUNDREDS of unlabeled books, in no particularly obvious order, on different shelves, that I had to look for, in order to find this one book. SERIOUSLY??? I felt like looking around to see if I was on candid camera.
True, it was my bad that I made the *assumption* that it should only take 2 minutes to locate the book. I had so many CDs to check out, that with the new system of «having to stand there and scan every book on the shelf» didn’t allow me the time to do both. Luckily I was able to get someone to help me find it.
But I am writing this update to state to the people in San Mateo county who made the decision to get rid of call numbers at this library. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??? Listing call numbers on libaray books is such a BASIC thing for a library. This is the bay area, where most people can’t stand to wait half a second for a page to download on our computers! Do you really expect people to just stand there and spend ten minutes looking for a book that should only take about 15 – 30 seconds to find with a call number? The explanation I got, for the change, was something to the effect of, people like to browse (???).
Anyway, one of the staff members (who found my stack of CDs and put them away) also found my cell phone (which I meant to thank her for holding… though my worn out protective screen makes my phone so ugly I guess I shouldn’t be surprised no one stole it).
The folks at this library still deserve 5 stars for their helpfulness, AND they’ve even made improvements and additions to the interior, adding a whole new children’s area that is awesome. I am really impressed with this library, it is beautiful and always has the best selection of CDs (I think that’s the other reason I went a little nuts… I haven’t been here for years, so they had a lot of music. I kept picking up different CDs and thinking, OMG, they have this CD??? And this one too???). My plan is to listen to them all on my CD player for the next week while I get some major work done in my office.
But back to the call numbers… or lack thereof… the people at San Mateo County need to reinstate their old (but necessary) numbering system. For anyone else who feels the same, please call the San Carlos Library at 650.591.0341 (if the SC library staff has a better # to call, please let me know & I’ll change it).
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Previous review:
This is a great library and I can’t believe anyone would give it a one-​star review. I don’t know what planet has libraries with fancy play areas and play dough for all the kids, but I would hope some people would be understanding enough to realize, you’re not going to get the same thing at every single library. There are plenty of other libraries with kid-​friendly stuff. I happen to be an adult who loves it here. May want to try foster city. Or better yet, if you have a kid and you want them to have fun for a couple of hours… try taking them to a PLAYGROUND, not a library.
And yes, there are cozier chairs out there. You know where? At my HOUSE, in my living room. But I’m not at my house, I’m at the library, to do research, etc. It’s funny to see what will make people give things a ONE star review (like, not a 2 or 3 star review, but ONE star, NOT for rude staff, not for lack of materials, but for chairs that aren’t «cozy» and lighting and décor that’s not juuust right). When I was working on a book a few years ago, I actually used to come to THIS library to work on it… I actually LIKED the furniture and lighting.
You know how many people out there would LOVE to have a library as nice as the ones we have on the peninsula? How did our culture get so friggin spoiled?
Jusssayin!
Update: I was here earlier this week and the staff was soooo helpful. I really appreciate all they do. There were tons of people here, using the computers to surf the net, and there were people all over the library, studying, reading, etc. Didn’t see any of them complaining about the furniture or lack of play dough, but… maybe they were just *whispering* their grievances. It is, after all… a li

This library is pretty amazing.
Plenty of parking, computers to use, DVDs to check out, and seating everywhere.
even though i don’t have any kids, their children’s area is quite big compared to other libraries. while looking back at some of the books i used to read, brings down memory lane back when i was a kid.
Staff is great and friendly. Always helpful and attentive.
They always have some kid of event for either kids or adults going on during the week or on the weekends which is a major plus.
The round ceiling in the entryway is my favorite:)
Go pick up a book!

A very nice local library, constantly improving week over week, month over month.
They’ve added, since I’ve been going there the past few year: computerized self-​check out and check-​ins, new and more dvds — domestic and foreign! They also have rows of computers for use, clean open spaces for reading.
Almost every time I’ve been there, early in the day or late at night, there’s usually a good number of folks on the computers, doing work or reading books. I feel better being in an active library than in a stagnant one.
There’s nightly activities for adults and kids a few times per week — history walks, play readings, magic shows, oh my!
Also the air-​conditioned space is welcome respite on warm days! Only downside is their monthly book sale can be a madhouse with a lot of folks looking to score a great deal. I use to go, but at this point it’s a pretty crowded affair that I’d rather avoid.

San Mateo County Library has this program going on now through December 30, 2010 called FOOD for FINES.
You can clear library fines while providing food to those in need. Bring non-​perishable food items to participating libraries and your library fines will be waived! The food goes to the Second Harvest Food Bank.
What else is good about this library?
+ Lots of books
+ Large video section
+ Great kids’ section
+ Free parking in lot and side streets
+ Helpful staff
This is a superior library. 5 easy stars from me.

If you ever want to know what a community is like before deciding to live there, check out its public library.
The San Carlos public library is big. It has tons of books, CDs, newspapers, and other library resources. It is architecturally beautiful inside. It has tables and chairs all over the place, each with an outlet for the laptop-​totting patron who wants to do his/​her homework here. Its layout is excellent. CDs are conveniently located along the right wall. DVDs are right out front. Books are arranged logically along the left wall. A number of checkout kiosks line the entrance. Numerous catalog terminals are sprinkled all over the place. Comfy sofas can be found at the back for the occasional snooze or the quiet read.
Outside the library are bulletin boards advertising not only library events but also what is happening in the community.
The library is also a stone’s throw from San Carlos downtown and a small park meaning one can really make a visit to this place part of a lazy weekend afternoon stroll through this quiet town.
Driving around San Carlos, one gets the impression that this town is probably a nice place to live in. This library further strengthens this impression.