West Ryde Library

They have clean toilets. Lockers. Free wifi. Comfy couches and sitting nooks with plug areas for laptops and all your other gadgets.
And they have books.
Granted, it’s a library that doesn’t stock Terry Prachett (or maybe there wasn’t any on the shelves, let’s go with that shall we instead of my poor broken heart!) — and a library without Terry Prachett, to be honest, is no library to me.
On the plus side, they have a huge area for children’s books and entertainment. On the other side of the library is a place for adults. It’s hushed tones and book peace was soul soothing.
The way the adult area is set out is that they have the shelves with books in a U shape with the tables in the centre with power points and couches around the outside with small tables. Half of the U is dedicated to Fiction. The other half to Biology, Travel, Self Help, etc.
The difference in this library is that they don’t have different areas for different genres of books. And to be honest, I was expecting more books than what was on the shelf. Instead they have a fiction area that runs from A-​Z and then they have wee stickers on the bottom of the spines of books to let you know if it’s fantasy (dragon), romance (love heart), hot romance (love heart with horns), comedy (smiley face), family (family of 4 sticker), crime (Sherlock Holmes style hat and magnifier), horror (horror written in blood dripping writing) and more.
And they don’t mind you grabbing a book and kicking your shoes off to snuggle up in a couch to read a book you never thought you’d read in your life.

They have a good selection of books, magazines, CDs and DVDs, and they can get books that are not currently available at West Ryde from the other Ryde libraries for you if you reserve them online. You can also extend your loans online, provided there are no reservations for the item.
There are plenty of desks with power points and LAN outlets to allow you to plug in your laptop and do your work. There is also free wifi available but there is a limit of 500mb and I’ve found the speed to be slow, slower than my 4g connection on my mobile.
There is a section for kids on one side of the library.
They also have a volunteer JP service, not too sure of the date though, but this information can be easily found on their website.
Patrons here are generally quiet though some talk on their phone.