The Ossining Public Library of Westchester, New York

IT'S EVERBODY'S BUILDING:
Comments on the New Library

Wow! What an event! You came out in force Sunday to see the new library. Now, please. Tell us what you thought.

Please enter your own name and remembrances

Katherine
The same thing happened to me when I wanted to put a book on hold. I feel sorry for you Ann, and :)(:

Ann
I believe that you should let :)(:, and many other children be able to get the books they put on hold. The same thing happened to me when I put a book on hold. I was suppost to get the book next, but I never got it. I had to wait a month before I could get the book.

: ) ( :
I love reading, but sometimes when I put a book on hold I don't get it. I want to read more, but I can't even get the books that I want to read. Can you please do something about this!!

James H
save Us.222

James G
I ate some books in the library!lol

James M
This library smells very good great job

Debbie O.
We love the new library. Thank you to all the hardworking staff who have provided a great place for us to work and learn. My children and I recently attended Dr. Fred Opie's lecture on Soul Food. What an informative program.

emily
Please Please Please put a drive through book drop. Why would you build a parking lot with a circle and not put this in? What a pain to have to park just to return a book. It is such a simple measure that would really add to the convience of the libraries patrons. It seems like a no-brainer!

Edred1

Paul Cantu
Can you post the newer comments at the top of the page rather than at the bottom? It would be nice to see this ongoing community conversation without having to scroll down to the bottom of the page. Our library is not perfect, but it is such an improvement -- accessible and spacious. Many communities would love to have this library.

Investor

to much wasted space

JV
This Library was a failure in form and design. It wasted space on its site that this community does not have, and seemes to have been designed by somebody not interested in the function it needed to play. It looks bad also. (why is the reading room in the darkest corner of the site. Lots of expensive building design haracteristics inappropriate to the needs of the people. What a dissapointment. The members of the Town/ Village who were in charge of overseeing the work of the Architect should be dismissed, aka fired. They had a job and failed. My wife and I are moving out of Ossining. It is obvious the people in charge don't care about the needs of this community. For reasons like this Ossining has a bad reputation. p.s. For a building to be truly 'GREEN' it needs much more efficient and systems of recovery then this place.

Tamara Stewart, Teen Services Coordinator
If you'd like to offer constructive criticism AND participatory problem-solving to help make Teen Services better, please call, e-mail or stop by the Teen Room to chat. Phone: 941-2416 x336 E-mail: oplteens@wlsmail.org

Lisa
I am a parent of a teenager. I just discovered that you will be showing Dreamgirls. How can that be edifying to our teens? Could you not think of another activity that promotes positive behaviors or morals? You seem to be working against what parents and the school system is trying to encourage. We have a beautiful library. Can't we use it better?

Monica
I grew up in Ossining; now I live in the Boston area. I visit my relatives often and always stop at the library. I am a librarian in a public library outside of Boston. I work in teen services and have done this for 8 years. I read all of the comments about the teen room and stopped in a few times. Just recently I visited and nothing has changed. I work in an inner city large library; close to 50 teens come in and have an area a little larger than yours. They do not curse or yell out or argue with any of the adults. How can you allow this? And why do you show so many movies? I always look at what other libraries do to get ideas for our programming. I am surprised that there are no literature appreciation programs. Teens can always see movies. The library is to offer experiences that they cannot get elsewhere. I grew up in the Ossining library when they offered real enrichment programs and librarians worked hard and did not allow teens to act out. Get your act together and clean up whats going on in the teen room.

Rita
I am a serious high school student/ Ossining resident. I stayed away from the teen room for 5 months and just returned. I have been going to the Tarrytown Library. The teen room at Ossining is terrible. How much does it take for the library leadership to see that it isn't working? Yet, the leadership insists that an out of control room is what they want. The librarian in charge of the teen room has had time to make the changes and they have not happened; the books are so few and have little to do with what I need for my high school courses. When I stayed out of the teen room and stayed in the reference area, I could still hear the yelling and running around. Even as the teenagers come in and out of the room its like a cafeteria atmosphere...they can't wait to go in so they can have an arcade experience. Do you notice the closer they get to the teen room the more disruptive their behavior is?? You need to dismantle the room and start over. I am going back to Tarrytown and will try again in a few months.

Sayantani Mukherjee
The new Library is a place with plenty of spaces. But surely needs to be more organised. Each section shuold be under a separate supervisor. Because everything that seems to be scattered around needs special attention. And a library like this with huge space, great architecture, excellent color combination, nice view and warm atmosphere should be the best so that everyone shall get the best out of it...CHEERS!!!!

Eric
There needs to be more discipline. Some people are really trying to work and study while there are kids and other people who just have no respect for the library. They yell, leave cell phones on, and just don't care about the people around them. And the librarians don't do anything. I saw once a guy's cell phone rang and he answered it and started talking and the librarian 10 feet away didn't do anything. I mean come on. Some people come here because the NEED peace and quiet or because it's too loud at home or because they need a computer. If they can't use these resources without being disrupted where can they go?

a high school student who cares about college
I love to come to the library, I find it a great place to study and concentrate. However I was unable to do so in the teen room because of the noise, dim light and un-proper seatings. Thank god for all those quiet tables outside and teen room. Except for that place, there's nowhere else in the whole library where I can sit properly and study without disruption. I find that upsetting because the whole library should be like that. And also the cafe, it kept saying it's going to open soon, but it had been saying the same thing since August.

dejourae
the childrens room is great you can find lots of cool thing in the childrens room.

dejourae
the childrens room is great you can find lots of cool thing in the childrens center.

Kandoras
rw6xLz Wow, it can be truth

Feng
The new library is an excellent place for quiet reading that I have enjoyed so far. During the week, I would go there in the evening and stay until it's closed at 9pm. The only thing I have experienced and am not so comfortable with is that the announcement for library closing has been either too loud and/or too early. The loud announcement usually starts 35-40 minutes ahead of time, and repeat every 10~15 minutes after. For a couple of time I saw readers were startled by the sudden declaration. Would it be possible to make such announcement a bit later, say 15 minutes before closing, that is on 8:45pm something, or lower the volume so not to scare people off? Thanks

S
The new library is really beautiful inside and out. The view from Croton Ave is amazing. My two teenage sons love to visit and read. But They will not enter the teen room. Get rid of the games, add more lighting since there is no window to the outside. Get rid of Pillows and add proper seating and tables. Offer useful programs to teens, such as job training, life saving courses, advanced crafts. When serious teens need to meet in this room, shut down the computers. There are so many good books in this room but so many teens will not go inside. Video and computer games should be played at home. Just remove them from this room. Otherwise, the rest of the library is great!

Kandoras
LF7V3T Wow, it can be truth

Jodie
I chose to spend one of my vacation days visiting the new library. It was nice to sit at a table writing in my journal and reading. The view was beautiful and the section was comfortable. My next task was to research a book I'm reading and check out the library in general. To my dismay, I felt lost. I tried to use a computer just to search the catalog and it seemed like I had to enter my library card number to search anything. i had the option to go upstairs and stand at a terminal holding my bag and books - I opted to come home and search in comfort. But I'd rather be in the library so I can search and then look for the book, journal etc. I noticed another posting mentioning some kind of map - I'd appreciate that too! I'm a library user - always have been and I have been a corporate librarian for over 15 years. I have my MLS from LIU. I'd like to visit the library and be able to research your resources without feeling like I'm intruding or being watched. Some signage and/or a map with some kind of direction for uses would be appreciated.

Boris

Zinaida

Anne
It is freezing at the checkout desk. It seems like the front doors stay open for far too long when opened and the heat vent inside doesn't work. I was cold while checking out and I feel sorry for the staff who has to stand there all day. Are you going to fix your heat before it's 20 degrees outside?

14 year old Victor
I am a teenager who visited the teen room about 5 times, once just recently. I am a serious student and am college bound. I am honestly surprised about the group of teens that go to the room on a regular basis. I agree with many of the comments that complain about their behavior. I can't stay in the room because it is noisey and they curse. These kids are the ones who get in trouble at school are rude and just don't care about their lives. They come to the library to play computer games. Their brains are frozen from playing these violent games. Without the games they would never come. They have no respect for the room or what is in it. What happened as a result of the meeting last week?

another teacher
I agree with the previous comment. I think the problem isn't the teens or the room but the adults who maintain and organize the room. Teenagers want and need strucure and leadership; no one wins whee there are no rules or teens are left to supervise and lead themselves. Actually, the librarians need to adopt a teacher mentality.

a 12 year old girl S.R.
U rock but please fix the girl's bathroom downstairs.

Visiting NYC High School Teacher
Greeetings! This library seems like an amazing addition to a very vibrant and diverse community. When seeking to leave a positive comment, I was amazed at the amount of time, energy, and anger that have gone into discussing the "teen room" here at your public library. The very notion of a teen room is progressive and encouraging. If this teen room has become a problem, then perhaps the libarians should re-vamp its structure, w/o dismantling it. Maybe teens should have to sign up for a particular program or event. Having an unsupervised room with no guidance will lead to a 'game room' type atmosphere. This is common knowledge, all after-school programs at high schools are most successful when they are structured/supervised. I think the worst thing to do is shut down something because it has become difficult, or complain endlessly w/o positive action. Teens are NOT inherently bad, disruptive, or rude. They are allowed (and many times encouraged) to behave that way because it is an easy to fufill stereotype. Most of them actually respond well to organization and structure. Adults are often the ones who need to provide creative and consistent guidance. Provide rules and enforce them! Good luck with your teen room. Don't give up!

Lisa K.
My complaint mainly about the teen room is that their noise does affect the entire library. School attendance is manditory, but entering and staying in a library is not. In the end, the teenagers should not feel entitled to act noisy and nasty, like it is their right to do so. Do it some place else where it would not have an affect on others who prefer a quieter study place. The problems of the teen room are not confined to the teen room. I, also, have a teen but will be working at the time of the meeting. It would be best to have it later in the evening.

Phil Helmers
The question was posted "Why do you need a meeting to make the changes that are needed? If you have read the comments, you clearly know what is our concern." (sic), anonymously of course. The answer is that anonymous postings could be the same handful of people (who all seem to be busy on the meeting night), and not representative of the community at large. The problems with the teen room can be summed up simply: teens. Any parent of a teenager knows that teens are generally loud, unruly, aggressive, etc., and it's a thankless task trying to walk the line between being authoritarian and being permissive. I would think that the teen room is probably not a good place to study, as many have complained; I would point out that the existence of the teen room itself makes the rest of the library a good place to study, and anyone who remembers the old library should realize this. Hopefully, this Town Meeting will be a positive step forward.

Janice Noto-Helmers
It is disappointing to read such unproductive posti

IT'S EVERBODY'S BUILDING:Comments on the New Library

Wow! What an event! You came out in force Sunday to see the new library. Now, please. Tell us what you thought.

IT'S EVERBODY'S BUILDING:
Comments on the New Library