Allison Mingo

Review of Boynton Beach City Library

I love books, and this library is beautiful. They ...

I love books, and this library is beautiful. They have a large childrens' area with toys and puzzles to keep them occupied. The problem is, it feels as though children aren't allowed in this library! I brought my kids, ages 10 and 4, to the library to get library cards about a week after we moved here. I was excited to be there and so were the kids. The grumpy staff, however, was decidedly not thrilled to have us there. You see, my 4 year old hasn't mastered his inside voice yet. Believe me, my husband and I work on this constantly. He was behaving perfectly well, but he forgets to whisper sometimes. This library prefers to remain as quiet as a tomb, so we were constantly being shushed and glared at by various library staff, even though I reminded my son to whisper and he would comply. We were told in no uncertain terms that they were not going to allow us to go anywhere in the library except the childrens' area. We stayed in the childrens' area for a little while, but I so desperately wanted to look for books for myself. As we left the childrens' area and ventured toward the adult section, there must have been 10 pairs of eyes watching our every move. I couldn't muster the nerve to even attempt it. I decided instead to check out the friends of the library bookstore in the library entrance instead. I quickly found several books to purchase, but not before the woman started lecturing my toddler about being quiet in a library. The thing is, she was speaking twice as loudly as my son! Her voice was actually echoing in the library! And she wouldn't stop! It was mortifyingly embarassing. I ended up putting half the books back that I wanted to buy and still ended up with about 5 books, but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. It's been almost 2 months since thst first visit and I don't have much desire to go back. If I do, it'll have to be without my kids. That makes me very sad. I grew up going to libraries with my parents back when they didn't have the cool childrens' areas. I used to check out mountains of books. I have very fond memories of that and I really want my children to have those same memories and be excited about going to the library. They LOVE bookstores like Barnes and Noble where they're not treated like criminals for being children. Lighten up, city library.

Mike - I appreciate your response. We will try again soon. Thank you.

Edit: Just came for the solar eclipse event that was listed on the library calendar. The event stated that glasses would be provided. What it didn't say is that they passed out tickets for the event prior to the day of and they were out of glasses for the event. How very disappointing.