I recently discovered this library as I spend quite a bit of time in the downtown, World's Fair Park and UTK campus area as an Uber driver. When I am in the area and driving requests get quiet I park, feed the parking meter and feed my brain. I have just touched the resources that are available here and really love the DVD selection- have donated a few titles myself. I am pretty sure with services like Netflix and streaming media players at home many/most completely overlook this treasure trove of content- and much of the titles are available in Blu-Ray. How very nice. I find the staff is very helpful- always responsive.
My only real issue is that it is a magnet for many downtown Knoxville bums who only really go in to charge their phones, suck up the Wi-Fi and waste time daydreaming. Many of these folks bring in their belongings in multiple bags. I am old school. You don't go to the library to talk to your friends. A library is a place where you go to retreat from noise and distractions. I found that many use it as a meeting place and social chatter. Of course, they do it because no one is telling them otherwise. They don't get it. They live on the edge of society and their great public library becomes their new pseudo home. Whispering? quiet, occasional chat/exchange? That's respectful. Continuous social chatting in a place that the rest of the folks are getting away from? Wrong. And, there are in-house security people sitting right there. This means one thing, of course. If most of these folks had any kind of job or work they would not be the problem they create. Yes, they are bums by choice- working the system. But that is another problem that has nothing to do with this wonderful library except that they often end up here. Such a waste and sad. read more