Lakewood Pierce County Library

Nice clean and warm library. Best of all free printing. There are free parking at the back of the library. Also please note that this place opens at 1pm on Sunday. Good convenient location. The library is pretty organized. Staff are very friendly and helpful.

Everytime I move to a new place. one of the first things I do is find out where the closest library is. After only visiting two of the libraries here, I have to say I’m very impressed with the Pierce county library system, compared to some other library systems in other states.
I decided to visit this library because my dad said it was bigger than the Parkland one, and he was right.
There’s lots of places to sit, study rooms and more computers on the second floor, lots of graphic novels and manga (lots of Osamu Tezuka books too), etc. They also have books in other languages too like Japanese. Korean, Spanish, etc. They even have single issue comics.
One thing that surprised me was when I saw their large zine section. I had a fun time looking at the different self published zines and comics and things. I’ve never seen a section for zines at a library before.
The Pierce county library also has a ton of free online resources, like Hooplah, Lynda, Treehouse, etc for free to borrow books and movies online and learn things from. I learned a bit of coding for the first time using the resources. They also have events sometimes too. There’s so much knowledge to be gained for free here and online through the library. You’d have to be a fool not to take advantage of it.

The library is very typical in that they have a great selection, although it’s not in the greatest part of town.
What is really cool about this library in particular is the gigantic cut of a tree’s trunk on display near the entrance. Absolutely massive. It is worth stopping by just to see it and gawk at its splendor. Complete with timeline markers of historical events. So cool.

The location and hours are convenient… although I do wish they were open a little later on the weekends, and opened a little earlier on Sundays.
There is a large number of homeless/​transient people here, and the smell upon entering the facility is atrocious.
I do like that they have a website that allows you to search their catalog… and you can place items on hold. If they are available they will pull the item and you just go pick it up. And if the item is not currently available… they will notify you when it is.
I was recently looking for a book, the computer said it was available. I went to go check the book out, but could not find it. One of the folks working there asked if I needed any help… and I told her yes, that I was looking for this particular book and that your system says its here. Apparently there is an «Urban Fiction» section, but the book was not there either. The lady that was helping me was hmmm…“politely rude”…when I gave her the title of the book she acted like she didnt know how to spell it, when they were two normal words… perhaps she may have never used the words together – but nonetheless… she shouldnt make snide remarks and use it an excuse/​reason of not being able to spell simple common words correctly.
My experiences here have been good for the most part… but that lady needs to work on her professionalism and attitude.

Definitely an excellent local library — they have a surprising number of unusual books (how about cultivating cool-​growing orchids? or a book of Salish folk stories from about 1940?) for such a small library, and they can usually order things from other libraries that they don’t have. There is often a waiting list for books my son wants, but I suppose this is a good sign — kids are reading!
I have been going to this library since the early 1970s, when it was known by its original name, the Flora B. Tenzler Memorial Library (it’s always «Tenzler» to me!), so I have watched it transform from a quiet place with not much going on to the hub of activity (sometimes too loud!) that it is today. (It’s a pity, by the way, that they dropped Tenzler from the name — after all, she donated the money (I believe) to get it started originally and it would be nice to remember this.)
At first, I was disturbed that there be so many computers in what for me was supposed to be a place for books and reading, but I suppose that is the way things are.
There are study rooms, which are handy for those times when you just need to get away from everything and concentrate, and there is a conference room that may be booked for lessons.
I miss the funny brightly colored egg-​shaped thingies that they used to have in the audio-​visual section for sitting in and listening to music! Does anyone else remember those? I wonder where those went — I hope to some neat museum of 1970s design!
Thanks, Tenzler, for all the decades of being our library! We love you!

A little community library. Nothing impressive, but has a second floor and the basic sections.
Sorry, teenagers, that I was in your section. But that’s where the wireless router was, and the signal was way too weak at the grown-​up desks by the back windows. I didn’t know Unilocal yet, so the only sure way to find a Wi-​Fi spot before I left home was to look at the library’s website and find that this branch had it!