Cupertino Library

Excellent library. Free Wi-​Fi. Long opening hours. Noise level is also relatively less compared to other libraries. Lot of seats and tables. Library staff here does their own work and does not bother you (unlike Santa Clara City library where library administration and staff are a pain).

Don’t go here the weekend before finals. It’s fucking packed. Overall nice environment library appears well funded, with a wide selection of novels from recent times. Review is a little bias since I live in Fremont and drove all the way here to study, and there was no space :(

Best library in San Jose by far. I love the study areas, especially the Quiet Study Room located in the upstairs area (turn L and go down all the way to the end after you take the stairs). There are outlets galore (yay!) and the wifi is fast and free! There are also desks located along the edges of the bookshelves next to tall open windows that lets in a lot of natural light.
The only draw back is that this place can get very crowded with high school students (ugh…) and they get pretty rowdy. Get here before school lets out (around 2pm) to claim a good study spot!

Talk about walking down memory lane. I have so many fond memories here through my childhood. The times I had to check out books (mainly Captain Underpants) for pleasure as a child, to renting DVDs to watch with friends, to the endless hours of studying SAT and classes in high school.
Even though Cupertino may seem pretty deserted and barren, this place was always packed with students, children, and adults. Though the parking sucks — I spent 20 minutes once stuck circling — and at times you won’t have a table to work at, the memories you make here surpass all.
This by far is one of my favorite places on the planet and though I don’t come anymore to hang, I do try to get some studying done if I am visiting home or check out the blue-​ray/​DVDs available.

4 ½ stars.
Lower floor: Awesome, there are about 20 PCs, a ‘kid book lounge’, a nice little aquarium, many little desks, a study room (perfect!), and a little kid place, perfect for playing. Amazing books are everywhere. It can get a little loud ’cause of the kids, but that isn’t a big problem. I go here every day to study, and it’s good.
Upper floor: There are lots of PCs, it’s silent, has lots of desks, LOTS of books, and it’s MASSIVE!!! You could get lost! My friend and I wandered around this floor and we couldn’t find an empty desk, or each other. There’s a silent study room, and a teen’s section. It’s awesome if you’re an adult, but it’s uncomfortable for tweens like me.
There’s a coffee shop next door; it’s nice.

Super crowded on a summer afternoon. Tons of kids showed up at 3 pm. Probably a decent place to read and work while school is in session.

Then Cupertino library is next to city hall and community center. Lots of parking and very clean and well organized. There are study rooms that are extra quiet. The place is packed with ppl although you shouldn’t have a problem finding a place to settle in. The large salt water aquarium says it it all, this place is well funded by donations.

The parking here is INSANE. And they charge $ 80 a year (or something like that) if you aren’t a student within the cupertino school district. The only positive thing i’d say is the staff is kind, and the aquarium is beautiful.

This is a great library! I’ve been coming here since I’ve been in high school and it always makes me actually feel like working and studying. The library is very clean and organized, and as a result is very popular with Cupertino residents. Like any popular place, it gets crowded, but that’s not the library’s fault!
If you want to enjoy your time here, come early or be patient to get a seat. Once you find that spot settle in and enjoy your time with tons of natural lighting and large open areas.

Cupe Library has come a long way since I was a kid, but there are still some improvements to be made!
The library is beautiful, with the location being right by City Hall. However, it’s basically just two stories with the entire bottom floor for kids/​check-​out/​places that I don’t really go. The top floor is where it’s at, with the quiet study rooms, teen space, computers, and solo tables for studying.
However, it’s not enough room for the entire Cupertino city… which is known for being hella studious and totally absorbed in their study materials. It’s clean and the staff are competent (although not too friendly – especially one of the librarians at the teen section desk), but there needs to be more sitting and studying space for all of the people that use it.
I’ve come here multiple times, and every single time I’ve seen people sitting on the ground, stuffed in a corner reading or studying with their books on the carpet and their notepad on their bent knees. I know there isn’t much space to expand anymore, but perhaps incorporate part of the space downstairs for more tables/​desks? Just something to think about.
Other than that… the wifi is free and there is a beautiful park right by the parking lot and lots of outdoor space to meander about.

I wish I had more good things than bad to say about this library. Let me just first start by saying that I pretty much grew up having this library around, so you would think some sentimental attachment would at least help endear me towards it. But having watched it change from its humble origins as a small-​town library to what it is now, I can only shake my head.
It’s probably not the library’s fault for what really is its most flagrant flaw: it’s simply just too packed. We all want to love the library and use it, but to be honest I’m not really sure how many of us can love and use it with their newly implemented parking restrictions. Permits are now required for almost half of the library’s parking spaces. As if finding parking was not already hard enough, here they go cutting the few in half. Oh, and good luck finding table space. Give it one hour into opening time on any given day (to say nothing of Saturdays and Sundays), you’ll likely be on your way out as soon as you are on your way in.
The librarians that work here, I am sorry, are terribly snarky and love calling people out on the tiniest things. And when kids are screaming out downstairs, nothing is done about it. Don’t get me wrong — I truly appreciate how organized and timely holds are processed, and I’m sure the librarians have a role in that. I’ve always been amazed at their system and how they have improved the check out lines to a bare minimum. The system truly works well; unfortunately the attitude does not.
If it sounds like I am a bitter library goer, that’s because I am. The city has poured so much money into it only to unravel its usability with these god awful parking permits, restrictions, and poor space/​resource allocation. That’s a lot of work and $$$ poured into a place that at this point is merely a repository of books and and hardly any space to sit, read and work.

It’s about time for me to write a review for Cupertino Library. I’m very conflicted because I practically grew up here and have borrowed countless numbers of books from this very building. That being said, I think the vibe of this library has changed dramatically since then. If you are thinking about coming to a library to sit, read, study or do work peacefully and quietly… do yourself a favor and don’t come here. Unless you intend on coming between 10am to 2pm on a weekday when it’s slightly quieter, you’re better off looking for another library.
At all other hours and especially on weekends, this place is really more like a zoo with books. There are a million kids and their parents and grandparents running up and down, in and out. The level of noise in this library has got to be the loudest of any libraries I’ve been in which is really saying something considering I almost live in libraries. It is way too crowded and I have a really difficult time understanding how anyone can sit and accomplish anything here.
Even the quiet study room is pretty packed. On weekends, unless you arrive within the first 30 minutes of opening, good luck finding a place to sit without having to awkwardly squeeze yourself between two unknown people. There is so much random noise going on (paper shuffling, unzipping backpacks, people with annoying habits of kicking chairs or tapping their pencils unknowingly, cell phones & computers without the sound turned off etc etc) that’s caused by the 30 – 40 people stuffed in the one quiet room that I have to wear earplugs in order to concentrate. It’s actually quite frustrating when you’re trying to seriously study.
Still, lots of families spend their time here and I can’t deny that it’s a great place to be for kids. Not only are there plenty of books and a great requesting service, but the outside courtyard is adorable, especially the water fountains. As soon as the weather permits, you will see kids and even their parents playing in the water. (Let’s just ignore the fact that the sound of shrieking kids playing outside can be heard from within the library, thereby compounding the level of noise inside…)
In general, there’s a lot going on at this library and it is always, always filled with people. Hence, three stars since this is either a good or bad thing depending on your purpose here.

I’ve been to quite a few public libraries, but this is one of my favorites. It definitely gets crowded and is super popular, and I do know that non-​residents hate the $ 80/​year fee, so keep those things in mind when picking a place to go. Lots of people also commented about the unreliability of the wifi, but I’ve actually never had a sustained problem, and I’ve studied here pretty frequently.
It’s nice and spacious upstairs with quite a bit of space for studying. There are lots of tables of four, and most of the time people go to study on their own, so you might just need to be willing to buddy up with a stranger to get a table, but I’ve never had anyone bite my head off about it or anything. They have a teen area which I’ve taken advantage of during school hours because it’s pretty empty (which I’ve also used a ton during my own high school years), but I leave it open for them high schoolers once school is out of session.
The children’s section is also great because they have a small open area with a couple of toys and some rugs which my 2 year old twins love to play with. They’ll grab a couple of books and we’ll sit on the ground and read there out loud for a bit (and sometimes other kids will join! haha). Also the shelves in the children’s section are nice and short so my kids can already reach almost everything that they have.
They don’t technically allow food, but I’ve brought in drinks like jamba juice or my own thermos and that’s usually not considered too offensive to the librarians since nobody’s ever talked to me about it.