The Urbana Free Library Reviews

Great selection of books and other resources.
Staff is wonderfully helpful.

One of my favorite places in Urbana! Staff are eager to help you find the book or resource you are looking for. Ten minutes are all you need to get a new library card, which allows you to access free e-books for your e-reader or tablet. The building itself has ample study/reading spaces with rentable rooms. Be aware though that these rooms are all-glass. The inside decor is gorgeous with tall ceilings with detailed moulding. There's even in house coffee! Other nice features are 3D printers and rentable musical instruments. They have substantial children's programming. The ivy covering the outside brick facade is the icing on the cake. Truly a neighborhood gem!

Beautiful library! Enter on Race St. for the original experience. Plenty of good books to browse, and also a few good places to do work. Stop in at the archives on the second floor- it s a cool spot.

Nice place, good selection. Okay for studying. Bring change, parking is not free (but it is super cheap).

It's a wonderful library with a great atmosphere. I just wish they had a wider selection of books for teenagers and children. I also wish there were more activities for children between 6-10 years of age.

I grew up at this place! Each day after a long hard day of school, id come here to relax. I would read, play on the computers, and hang out with friends. If you need your kid to have a place to go to r just hang out at, this is the place!

This library feels cozy and the librarians are always very friendly and ready to help! :) Also, I love that we can check out board games here! Yay!

Extremely cozy and silent. Good for studying and with a different atmosphere compared to the UIUC campus area. The homeless people issue is true, but with a little bit of tolerance you can have a nice experience there. This also reminds you that society different levels of income and that living together is possible.

I forget about how despicable this library's poor service truly is, until I accidentally try to use it again. You spend your change on parking, then spend large amounts of time trying to print off important documents, and then are told that you cannot get your printed documents because this library doesn't offer the most basic customer service. You can't use a card, you can't get change. You can't even get change from the private enterprise selling coffee! You are forced to go to some external location to try to muster up the smallest amount of cash so you can get your print jobs, AFTER spending your cash on parking. They justify selling products at this library, without even allowing you a means to hand over your money to them, simply wasting your time and leading to unwanted donations to the Urbana parking extortion system. NEVER AGAIN. Thank GOD Champaign actually serves its residents with a reasonable, sane library that is fair to the people who walk through its doors.

The Urbana Free Library has such a good music and movie collection. Every time I run across a strange album that's come out in the past few years which I want to get hold of, I check the catalog first because more often than not, the UFL has it. Kudos to their music buyer!

When I describe the virtues of the city in which I have lived for 31 years, I emphasize a few very important items that make living in Urbana especially blessed (in no particular order): the nearness of several 24-hour supermarkets, so that no matter where you live, if necessary you can walk to one of them within a half hour (usually much less); Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, one of the premier venues in the country; Peter B's Automotive (having an excellent, impeccably honest mechanic makes living here very easy); the delicious and healthy tap water, coming from the Mahomet Aquifer; the nearness of World Harvest and the Common Ground Co-op, where we can purchase virtually anything we want from all parts of the world as well as healthy, inexpensive organic foods; and the Urbana Free Library.

Our library is wonderful. The staff are incredibly helpful and friendly; there are resources for more needs than most of us can imagine; and it's physically charming. We rented before we purchased a home back in 1984, and one of the reasons we bought where we did was that the library was within walking distance for our kids. Our children are all grown and live all across the country--but we still value very much our nearness to the Urbana Free Library, whose services we constantly use.

Excellent collection of books and DVDs, friendly staff. Could do with a little better seating arrangements.

Can plug in and charge up to three items at a time while using one of their computers. Each station also has at least one USB port. Many have SD ports.

Extremely friendly staff. Love the environment. Great collection of books.

I really like this library. The staff is helpful, friendly and professional. Nice children's department.

We love our library! We have enjoyed free concerts, workshops, reading and programs. Our daughter is currently participating in both the summer reading program and 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. They have a reading program for adults which is fun. Children can check out music kits, exploration kits, backpacks and more. Weekly crafts, various age reading activities. Clean, spacious, friendly employees. Great access to the archives for family research. Self checkout available, great website for holds, searches and renewals.

Best in town. I mostly borrowed kids books. This library has a nice collection. Helpful staff. Keep up the great work. 5 stars with no doubts or whatsoever.

The library has a lot of good spaces for reading. They have a great selection of movies on DVD and Blu-ray. They also have quite a few music CDs. They're public computers are well managed and easy to use. The staff is excellent and eager to help. Great place to recycle batteries as well.

Great library. Lots of resources. Many helpfull people to help you get most out of your visit. Offers many things you might not expect such as you can check out musical instruments and telescopes

The Urbana Free Library is a place of solace and a treasure in our community. Much missed during the current pandemic.

The Urbana Library offers a great service to the community. Not only is the facility exceedingly nice, but the employees are super friendly and helpful. When I first moved to the area, I needed a notary for a few documents and they did it at the library for an extremely small fee (like 10% of what I would have been charged by finding a notary online through some website).

The internet hardly ever works and when it does, it's intermittent. There are usually homeless people around- many of whom are threatening. Once, a homeless man with a mental disorder was staring at me, and when I looked up and made eye contact, he started threatening me with violence. He was shouting at me through the window and urinating on the front balcony. The police finally had to be called. Today, a clearly "disturbed" individual sat behind me and started making random and unusual statements. He was also repeating "get off my computer, get off my computer." Mental health facilities have continuously been getting cuts to their budget which leaves many dangerous people coming face to face with children who have been dropped off by parents believing the Urbana Public Library to be safe. It's not- and children should be closely monitored.

Very friendly, with a well-stocked section of art and comics! Highly recommend!

This place is amazing!, They have a kids room downstairs where the kids can play, get on the computers witch are easy to ues!! And more. You should check out the library!!!