This is 1 of my favorite places ever!!...what's there not to love...the amazing variety of books and information...the people that work there excell at kindness and just walking in there causes a peaceful effect within me that reinforces everything good...and fyi we are getting a new library on the horizon...yaaaaay...you GO! Riverside!!
We enjoy story time at the library for kids, great book selection to borrow and for sale and nice and helpful staff.
Great library. I'll be honest I wonder who cleans the restroom . I cannot wait to see the 2020 library open. I might voulnteer to move books.
The library clerks here do a fantastic job, some of the "customers" appear to be somewhat of a challenge at times. Good to know that the main library will be in a new and better building soon.This old building has long been outgrown. Got my first library card here in 1970 when I was a kid.
A great resource for Riverside. Many community events are also held here. There is a nice separate section for kids. Be sure to check out the activities.
Very nice place offering quality non-profit service for the community. We appreciate the staff and library offerings as a whole and encourage what they have been doing.
I truly do love this library. The staff is so friendly and helpful.
Great location! This library is one of my favorites. They have a study room you can rent out and many tables on all 3 floors that you can sit at. The children's section is wonderful and apparently you're not allowed to sit in the aisles (even if they are on the bottom floor and no one ever goes down there to look for books *cough cough*). Printing cost you 10 cents a sheet and 20 for photocopies.
Review in progress...
From its birth in 1901 (few rooms in the Loring Building) post funding by Andrew Carnegie with an inital grant of $20,000 in 1901. Many changes and progress through the years happened.
This new library opened in 1964 and dedicated in 1965. Design by Moise, Harbach and Hewlett with a capricious ability to house 300,000 volumes of books and comfortable expanded seating for 550 souls.
Riverside is growing and new plans are in place for the modern 2020 library. This location is being transformed into "The Cheech Marin Center" for Chicano Art, Culture and Industry.
Staff is SO helpful and sweet and caring. They work to help you the best they can and they do so happily. Wonderful experience. Lovely library!
Nice library but restroom there is always homeless people washing them self's when you try and use the bathroom not good but the rest of the library is very nice clean out side you will see every day drunks and drugs being used.
Lynn the security guard continued to tell me that my 11 month old was crying and she was making Cooing noises not upset whatsoever the receptionist Sylvia also asked if I had to cover up while breastfeeding because I had to supposedly control my happy child she became unhappy and I had to dismiss myself the first time I ever attended this library and I will never attend again I have never felt so uncomfortable at a public location again they do not support happy babies nor do they support public breastfeeding. But somehow a happy baby was such a destruction but when the library decided to hold a event today with loud drums that were over heard throughout the whole library you could not even study in silence but my baby was a problem who was under control.
Beautiful historic location in downtown Riverside with friendly staff!
Brought my kids when they were little... place is starting to fade....
No coffee allowed. Not usually a problem except that I looked around at the entrance before I even tried to go in and there weren't any signs l that I could see posted notifying people of this, so the first you hear of it is when you walk inside, thinking it's fine, and are abruptly stopped by the librarian and told that you need to leave. Will check around later to see if there was one posted somewhere that I missed; if there is, I'll remove this review. I'm a bit steamed, though.
Maybe the library is a great place, otherwise? I wouldn't know; getting told to leave for the coffee was my first experience with the place. If you take anything from this review, it's this; don't plan on grabing a coffee from one of the nearby stores and going there to study. You'll be told, politely but abruptly, that you need to go back outside. The low review score is mainly because I think they should at least have the courtesy to leave a small notice out front.
For the rest of what the library is like, I'm sure the other reviewers have good information.
Lots of shady people doing drugs by this building in broad daylight underneath the stairs..
I think it needs a touch up in color. I love going here.
Internet over WiFi was extremely slow in my experience. So it was extremely slow and frustrating trying to get any work done on my laptop.
Much better than the Casa Blanca location. Large selections of books for purchase. nice employees also.
Great library with helpful and kind staffs. They have the books that I need for some of my research. Clean and organized.
A lot of great things about this library but the downside is the people hanging around outside of it.
It's a nice quiet place to read or study for a test. Very quiet and had computers to look for certain books. There is a kid section and adult section. Recomnde you try going there.
We have our annual Library Foundation fundriaser here and this year I won the mother load!!
A library is a great convenience for the public and it free. I have always appreciated all the services it also provides, like office support services and childrens reading and many books for research, and staff is great. Needed funding for upgrade would be better.
Just attended the family storytime for the first time and it was amazing! This library has so many fun, free activities for children throughout the week. Plus the children s section is beautiful and clean. So lucky to have this local gem!
Everyone here is so friendly and helpful, I love coming to this library.
Rebooting computers that don't need to be (trying to get rid of homeless surfing the web) and delaying the people who are actually trying to get work done.
This is a great library and location. Every time I visit I am surprised that it isn't busier.
The library is quiet & peaceful a great place for learning and reading.
I studied there while going through school and after as well. They have computers available for this changing era of posting online and doing all sorts of things online. The books are all in the proper place thanks to the Librarians doing a Super job. I look forward to the new library to be built. God Bless our city library.
This place is a joke. Who buys the books here? Is their brain missing on what the public reads and what the modern society needs in research? Also, what a dump the outside smells of urine and piss.
Disrespectful lady that works here named Sharron was very racist against the black people here and very rude saying that people get paid to charge there phones while she is working she also told one person to mind his own business she wasn't talking to him then had security come and bully 4 or 5 people from the table even though all she was asked is to stop being disruptive to peoples studies kathy the security was also disrespectful very sad libraries are struggling enough with out disrespectful or racist people bullying others
The best library it's very clean and the people are nice.
Came here for a meeting with my FFA chapter from jurupa valley high school and it was amazing! Love the location and the nice employees! 5 STARS!!
Very helpful librarians. Showed me around. Explained to me how everything worked. Not overly crowded
The sweetest librarians ever! Always a pleasure to visit the friend's of the library book sale. I also enjoy the selection of books in Espanol!
My kids and I absolutely love going to the library. The staff is always friendly and they are always keeping us up to date regarding the most current reading incentive programs and other events happening. Casa Blanca is our library of choice since it's closest to our home.
It is very clean, very beautiful, and those who work there are very professional
riversideca.gov
