Los Angeles Public Library – Chinatown Branch

I’ve visited the central library in dtla, library in little tokyo and this chinatown library. I feel this library is the cleanest and most bright of all of them. There are a decent amount of tables for this small library along with wifi and outlets. I visited in the afternoon and there are alot of students apparently use this place. Since this is downtown, there are homeless people around but they seem less mentally ill than the ones in the other 2 library.
Decent selection of chinese and vietnamese along with english material.
I plan to come here more often and also try out some of the cheap eats around the neighborhood!

GREAT STAFF!!! True, it can be noisy sometimes. I believe that they should control that better, but on the other hand, the people you meet are amazing. They treat people with 5 stars and such politeness. It’s amazing. That’s all I have to say

Clean spacious and quite in the heart of china town only problem is not enough parkng space

Decent parking. Clean rest rooms.
Powerful A/​C. Plenty of magazines newspapers and comic books. The homeless keep to themselves. Very spacious. One time I checked out a book and the clerk handed me four tickets to a Dodger’s game, at Dodger Statium, for free! I remember going to the smaller one as a kid and as an adult I really appreciate this newer and bigger facility. The employees here are extremely helpful. Want to read classics like Huckleberry Finn? They have a wide variety of these most awsome American classics! What are you waiting for? Summertime is here, go get your reading on!

Substandard library branch.
1. Loud
2. Spacious, and therefore nowhere to escape noise.
3. Disgusting bathroom (although not the library’s fault)
4. Slow internet (although manageable)
Really, it’s just a loud library.

The novels selection has gotten so much smaller… And it’s now in a very secluded area. It makes me so sad.
I grew up going to the Chinatown Library. As the years pass, I can’t help but feel more and more disappointed with the way things are in this place. Now, I’ve been angered by the outrageous charges for every little thing. Not only are they outrageous, they’re constantly increasing. Okay, I can deal with that. I’ll just be more careful with holding, borrowing and returning books. The library is running on low budget. I can understand that. A little understaffed. That’s fine, I can understand that too, with the budget and all. (The Los Angeles District, if you haven’t already heard, isn’t exactly rich.) Later opening and earlier closing times? Also understandable. Especially these days when so many kids have internet at home and don’t need the library to do school projects or have the half hour session of internet game fun (remember games like Bomberman and Pang?).
Anyway. 2 stars.
Heads up:
— Noisy. Library and noisy usually don’t go together. At the Chinatown Library, they do.
— The used-​to-​be YA novels section has become an entire Manga section. I don’t mean to hate on Manga or anything, but COME ON. Encourage reading TEXT. I came back to the library one day to look for some novels, and I felt like crying when I came upon the Manga section. Did they take away all of the novels?! After looking through several aisles in the library, I almost lost hope. I asked a librarian, and she paved the way to a section where the books can hardly be seen. SO disappointing.
On the bright side, I suppose they’re going along with the teen trend…
— I haven’t actually used the restroom in this library for years because I am aware of how dirty it is. It definitely ought to be cleaned more often.
— Some of the librarians can be quite cranky.
— Because of its location, the library does attract some homeless that loiter in or outside of the library, sometimes shouting out of nowhere or asking for money.
— The parking lot isn’t too big, but finding parking isn’t very difficult.
— I believe they still have various activities at the library for kids and teens, which is good.
— Wide selection on DVDs nowadays, too. Pretty good finds.
— The children’s section is still really cute, and they have elders who come and read with the kids. I appreciate that. Always have.
Anyway, go ahead and check out this library anyway. Books are books! :)

This is a wonderful library filled with kids and senior citizens.
However, the ratings on Unilocal do not truly reflect this little library’s true potential. I gave it 4 Stars because it is a bright, safe, and clean facility. It has the following:
Pros:
1. mainly books for children and chinese books
2. a lot of kids with parents.
3. Great staff — they look after the children and report suspcious looking people and also keep the area safe.
4. policemen also visits to kick out suspicious looking people as well.
5. WIFI access
6. in chinatown, lots of places to get snacks and food
cons:
–noisy sometimes
–bad parking (small parking lot), but there is meter parking all around
The problem with the library is that it is located not in a great place therefore you may see a lot of ghetto people and homeless people that enter the library and brings it down. Just like you can have a 5 star restaurant, homeless people can still come into it and ruin the experience for others. I give those homeless people 1 star, but this library deserves at least a 4 star. So, don’t let that discourage your visits here. Fortunately, the majority of visitors are responsible adults and kids.
It can get a little noisy due to kids, cell phones, and chattering. So if you need a quiet place to study, this is not a place for you. If you can endure it, it’s a safe place.
*if you do visit, please report suspicious people in the library to keep them out and discourage them from coming back, help keep undesirable people out and from ruining a public good*

It has limited amount of books, so it’s hard to find something you might like in there. They do help you place an order on a novel you might want, but what library doesn’t? It’s not as big as other buildings, so that could be a reason why they don’t have as much sections to choose from. It’s pretty cramp (good luck finding a seat) in there and they don’t have a very good AC system, if they have one at all. You may spy an occasional homeless person inside or outside. The librarians are alright. Some of them can be nice. I like how the library cards are free of charge though. They also have a big Chinese section, so yay for them.

Today I went in to the library to use one of the 15 minute PC’s just cuz I needed to print out a free guest pass for the gym.
Sitting directly at the pc to my right was a man with a goofy smile on his face who kept snickering to himself. I wasn’t trying to make eye contact with him or anything but when I reached down into my backpack to get a pen I looked down and saw that HE HAD HIS HAND ALL THE WAY INSIDE HIS PANTS IN HIS CROTCHAL REGION AND HIS HAND WAS MOVING AROUND. I think he must’ve noticed that I probably noticed because he then removed it thusly and continued with his eyes glued to the computer screen snickering softly to himself.
I played it cool, trying not to projectile vomit, and after my 15 minutes were up I calmly went to the checkout line and let the library personnel at the counter know what was going on. For the love of god, there were tons of children around. Get that guy out of there. DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN! THE CHILDREN!!!
Anyway, the guy was probably homeless and I felt a little bad reporting his crazy ass but I thought it my civic duty.
I checked out my DVD’s and before they brought down the full library security heat I got the FUCK out of there.
I posted a Facebook status about the incident and my friend replied:
«Did you get his number?»
Hahahah

considering the tiny lot the chinatown branch of the los angeles public library is jammed into, the building is well-​designed. the parking lot, however, has a sum total of maybe 22 spaces, so expect to park on the street.
excellent summer arts program for kids, run by lacma. the day i stopped in, they had just finished a ‘warhol-​inspired’ linoleum cutting/​printing lesson, to rave reviews.
relaxing bamboo forest-​lette outside the children’s area of the library, silhouetted against the large windows. also, beautiful origami fans decorate the storytime area.
largely populated by locals, the library is a mob scene starting at, say, 3:00 pm when school lets out.
good dvd section, and i saw a great quantity of manga, animé, and other books, dvds.
there is usually a little exhibition of things that were excavated on the site and around chinatown over the last couple decades: bottles, spoons, etc. that was very fascinating. it is not up at the moment to accommodate summer programs advertising.
over all, a nice intimate library.

My first review as Elite.
I saw Santa Claus today.
I was told I could not eat my Fruit Snack candies.
I was called Sir.
Kids were being kids.
If you cant find parking at the library, be prepared to go around the whole block.
The restroom reminded me of the restrooms at the beach.
There was shit on one of the toilet handles. Skip flushing.
A crazy lady called another crazy lady a lobster.
A crazy lady was breaking one of the computers because she could not see the screen or did not know how to work the computer.
An employee at the library, cell phone went off.
Cell phones kept going off. What happen to Silence is Golden?
A lady brought her baby to the library and the baby was crying as it was laying on the table.
The lady sitting at that table must have wanted to kill the lady as she was trying to read.
The Chinatown Library was way better before it moved.
I wanted to kill everyone and everything that was making noise as I sat at the library trying to study.

Chinatown library is usually my destination when my mom does her grocery shopping. Parking can be a bit of a hassle since you’re fighting against other mothers who [illegally] park their cars to go shopping too. Access to the internet can also be a hassle too since this library serves all the kids and «bums» in Chinatown. This place sure gets busy so don’t expect it to be quiet place to read or study. Though I don’t usually look for books here, their reservation system is really efficient and they also have a new book section so you can get your hands on some new and best-​selling books. They often have used book sales and they have free books outside too.

The Chinatown Library seems to be a community hub for this local neighborhood. You find many Chinese seniors, kids who’ve just gotten out of school, and homeless people looking for a place to chill.
One thing I like about this library is that they have a great selection books on Chinese culture and fiction. You can find anything from Chinese cookbooks, martial arts guides, to the latest Amy Tan novel.
Another bonus is that they offer free Tai Chi lessons on Thursday afternoons. Free wi-​fi is a plus as well.
But if you’re looking for a quiet place to study, this definitely is NOT the right place. The kids here can get pretty noisy. Also there always seems to be someone chatting away on their cell phone INSIDE the library. There’s even a couple of people who watch Youtube videos on their laptops with the sound on full blast. The library staff seem to turn a blind eye to this.
Edit 9÷10÷07
Watch out for the crazy bums sitting by themselves in the corners. One of them started cussing me out today as I was minding my own business and looking for a book!