The Lake Bluff Public Library is a wonderful, small town library with a magnificently friendly and helpful staff; and a warm, comfortable environment in which to research, work on a project, or just settle back and enjoy a good book -- plus they have all the on-line features of many larger libraries, such as on-line catalog, e-books and audio-books, and including account management with check-out renewals; in a convenient physical location. I haven't even begun to explore all the audio and video materials and periodicals which are conveniently located right inside the front door. There is a great diversity of books in a relatively small space, and while they might not have an exact title which one might be seeking, they probably have something comparable. And if you do need a specific item, the staff are most graciously helpful to get it through inter-library loan.
I wholeheartedly agree with the four previous reviews -- even what Jennifer H. said about the comparison to the Lake Forest Public Library. The thing to remember is that they serve very different communities -- even though those communities are immediately next to each other -- and I think each does a great job in supporting their respective communities. By the way, my home library is Waukegan, and I also frequent the North Chicago Public Library -- both of which also do a good job in supporting their communities as well.
The Lake Bluff library is also a sort of community hub. If you spend much time there at all, you'll see people greeting each other and "catching up" by the circulation desk or in other areas of the library, or talking about recommendations of library materials, and I've never found those little discussions to be too disruptive of whatever work I was there to do. They add to the homey feeling of the place. read more