The Johnson County Library system is great and this location is massive. We recently visited with…read moreour five year old and she loved the kids area. It's filled with kid sized shelves, tons of picture books, chapter books, and kids DVDs. The librarian was so kind and got her all set up with her own library card, we checked out her items, and she's been loving exploring all of her recent finds.

I visited the central library today with my grandson and mostly in the children's area. Because…read morethis library is the central library it has a great variety of books and resources. My grandson who is currently 14 months enjoyed the activity center on the wall. I went through the collection of board books for toddlers and selected some to check out for him. The library was clean and quiet and has many excellent resources. I do wish they would have a more balanced approach to their selection of materials though.,

Yesterday I took my 14 month old grandson to this location. It's a nice modern building with lots…read moreof natural light. Very clean and they were cleaning while I was there on a continual basis. On this visit, we mostly visited the kids section even though I have been in the other areas when I've been alone. The children's section has a lot of nice resources and several computers for older children. There is and enjoyable discovery section for smaller children with activities next to large windows and some tables with age-appropriate chairs with a variety of learning toys. We checked out some toddler board books for my grandson. I do wish they had a better selection of board books. I feel like it was difficult to select appropriate books for him from the selection they had.

First of all the architectural design is INSANE. From the roof top patio to the circular conference…read moreroom. This Library is for all ages and is very inclusive. I was surprised to see all of the diverse books on the shelves and pamphlets available with information for what Juneteenth means! The library staff aren't the most welcoming, but if you have questions they will answer in depth. This place just isn't for books, they have dvds, host book discussions, art and exhibitions. So cool that they offer FREE career development classes from finance to sewing! The new Black & Veatch MakerSpace is dedicated to those wanting to learn or refresh sewing skills or basics of metal casting. The BEST part is that they have book clubs for kids in 1st grade all the way to high school and a few that get active! With all of the events no local child should be bored this summer!

I tried out this library for the first time today. What a wonderful, Modern, fun, and interesting…read morelibrary! The kids area is perfect and fun for small children. They have a great selection of books and play items. I love all the places to enjoy reading a book throughout the whole library and the huge wall fireplace and all the windows for natural sunlight. I was glad to see a bookstore and also a coffee shop with snacks available and lunch items. Will definitely go back! The staff was also nice that I interacted with.

We visited public library to meet up some healthcare workers will basically we were trying to find…read morea conference room where we can have a private conversation and we had a bunch of friends who also wanted to take advantage of the place to have their kids play around and also have their teenager kids spend time reading some interesting books. Guess what this place has it all there's a kids area where they can play outdoors if the weather permits and there is an amazing collection of books, Internet, and conference room for private conversations if you have something to talk about with a business related or something more private, this place is extremely neat well organized and has an amazing ambience. There's also a mini coffee bar inside where you can buy beverages there is Internet for a very cheap price. If people are looking for any of these options from what I've mentioned, you deserve to visit this place.

I visited the Hermetheus coffee shop that is located in this downtown library and I decided to…read moreperuse the library itself since I hadn't been here before. The entrance has the coffee shop and a librarian to help direct people to the various floors. The books are on the second floor, and that is the floor that I went to. All of the people that worked there were very nice and helpful. I had a great experience with the various librarians. The second floor if you get out of the elevator and turn right is the adult/teen section with nonfiction and fiction. If you turn to the left, it is the children's section. I visited both areas and checked out books in both. This is a smaller library, but nicely updated. They have a play section in the middle of the kids section for smaller kids. I checked out some toddler books for my grandson as well.

This is a BEAUTIFUL library. However, there is not nearly enough seating for people to work at…read more There are only a few study rooms, and most are dedicated to specific activities only. I would love to be able to do my work and study in this beautiful library, but there is just not enough room. I think adding more study rooms and seating should be taken into consideration.

I brought my 18 m old grandson to this library to check out the kids section. I haven't been to…read morethis location in many years. It's an older library but homey and I actually like their children's section better than all the updated libraries! It has a nice array of learning areas and toys. It is peaceful and has a good selection of books. He really enjoyed trying out all the various learning areas. I wish the newer libraries would keep this in mind and have more to offer.

Really sweet small library. Great kids section! Always very clean and library employees are helpful.read more

Libraries are great. I think most people have fond memories of visiting as kids and if you're like…read moreme, those memories are very suburban. The libraries I grew up visiting had 90s flair, and while amazing spaces that kept me entertained all summer long, they didn't have the grandeur of an iconic inner city library - like this one. The first time I stepped foot in here as a young adult I was in awe. It's just a gorgeous building, and incredible atmosphere to sit and read. The parking garage is set up to look like a bookshelf which I think is cute, and I love how you can just get lost in here and enjoy the space. It just FEELS like a library which sounds dumb but is true. What pushes this into five star territory for me though is the rooftop terrace. On a nice day there really isn't a better spot for an urban picnic.

I've never seen (or smelled) quite so many homeless people in one spot before. They were at every…read moreopen table, bench, chair and study room. It really smelled awful. In addition, the carpet smelled really dusty or moldy... The huge vault in the basement and the building's architecture were really the only things worth going for.

Public libraries are amazing, and this is a particularly wonderful branch of our own JCL system…read more The ease of holding books/DVDs (and as long as you avoid placing a hold right before/during the weekend, JCL is really impressive at transferring items from branch to branch promptly) and checking out/returning items (with the self-service checkout stations and automated return slots) makes borrowing library content a delightful, hassle-free experience. The JCL system's catalog is pretty expansive too. It's also just a nice, relaxing place to study/read when you need to kill a couple hours or get out of the house for some reason (and unlike with coffee shops, you don't have to buy anything to justify your presence there). I really can't sing JCL/Leawood Pioneer's praises highly enough.

I had never tried this particular library out before so I decided to bring my grandson and try out…read morethe children's area. I was disappointed as the smaller children's area was quite small in comparison to other libraries. They did have some nice toddler board books and the children's area in general had the normal amount of books that the other libraries typically have. The teen area is in the youth/kids area. As you enter the library, it's to the right in a separate room. I think what I find disappointing is that I have visited almost all of the libraries in Johnson County except two, which I plan to visit soon. And I find that the children's librarians tend not to be very friendly. They're usually sitting behind their desk often with a scowl on their face or hiding their face and really never offer any help. If they're approached, they seem irritated. The 95th St. library in Overland Park tends to be the better and more welcoming library for children. The adult section was typical of an adult section. So I would say this library is fine for adults or probably teens that want to study as they have steady areas, but there are better libraries for smaller children.

This is my local library not far from my home. I visited today with my 14-month-old grandson. We…read morewere particularly in the children's area. They have a variety of books that are age-appropriate for children. They have some wall play activities for small children and some table and chairs with some activities for slightly older children. There is a nice seating area for adults on the other end of the library with wide open windows looking out onto trees. It's generally a quiet and peaceful library.

This is a great library! Tucked near the corner of Johnson Drive and Pflumm, this is a peaceful…read moreplace. The staff is very helpful; I was having issues with printing and they bent over backwards to help me, since it was almost an emergency. The Johnson County Library system is awesome; you can borrow books from all over, ebooks, and I saw something about downloading music, although I haven't investigated that yet. Check the hours before you go; they have changed in the last year or so. Currently closed on Sundays!

People genuinely can be so loud here sometimes. It can be frustrating, so bring noise cancelling…read moreheadphones.

This rating is for the Johnson County Community College Billington Library's culinary arts…read morecollection. JCCC has one of the largest and best-regarded culinary arts programs in the U.S. and the library reflects that. They have quite a large cookbook collection! Not very well-known is that non-college people can check out books at the library, especially if they're Johnson County residents or business owners. (More info on the library's website.) The circulating collection is on the library's second floor, but there is also a large non-circulating culinary arts reference library in OCB 153. Ask at the library for directions and hours the reference collection is available. The online catalog is easy to use -- you'll get great browsing results if you're making a general search by entering the values "(nationality/ethnicity/style)" and "cookery", like French cookery or Brazilian cookery or Jewish cookery. You can also use terms like "desserts" or "baking" or "vegetarian." Of course, you can also search by a book's title or author if you already know them. There are quite good cookbook collections at the Johnson County Library (I know they're pretty extensive at the Central Resource Library and Oak Park branch) but when you can't find the cookbook you're looking for at your local public library, JCCC's Billington Library is where to look next! Especially if it's an older, expensive or out-of-print cookbook! Thumbs up for a great local culinary resource! Professional chefs and curious home cooks will love this library!