Way Public Library

Located across the tracks from the vibrant downtown Perrysburg, Way Library fills the needs of all. Young kids can have fun with storytime. Kids between about 3 and 7 years old can enjoy playing with other kids in the spacious area stocked with a wide variety of play things for kids their age. Older kids and teens can join interest-​based group activities. People wanting a little quiet-​time can take advantage of the library’s layout that steers the louder crowd away from the quiet areas. All ages wanting to get some computer time will find what they need. Lastly, anyone looking for a book, video, or other item to checkout can find plenty amidst the respectable variety of local holdings and interlibrary-​loanable options that the knowledgable librarians are eager to help patrons find.
I have one substantial complaint. Their online system allows patrons to renew items only twice, which seems rather restrictive in comparison to the Toledo-​Area Library’s online system that allows 10 renewals. Hint: the Maumee and Waterville Libraries are just across the river, and Wood County residents can get a Toledo-​Area Library card for free.

Woot, woot! Love the library. The liberal inside me must have a good public library funded by all the other taxpayers, but the conservative inside me likes to see a well run operation if you’re going to spend my hard earned tax dollars. Well both sides will be happy. A great library with all the modern amenities and clean, well cared for. Everybody from 2 to 20 to 200 years old will love this library.

This library has the worst business practice of any facility I have ever encountered. They turned my wife into a collections agency called Unique Management Services. This was done because they claimed she had outstanding fines for overdue books. This Unique Management Services is essentially a mob tactic that can damage your credit score. Directly quoting from their web site they can:
«* We conduct extensive skip-​tracing to find patrons who have moved. We report new addresses to the library monthly.
* As soon as we locate the patron, we send a final letter that informs the patron that we will credit report the account if it is not resolved.
* We wait several more weeks before reporting the patrons account to the major national consumer reporting agencies.
* The very earliest we would credit report any account is 120 days after we receive it. Patrons are credit reported only as a last resort.»
Please read this independent blog for more information on how this can damage your credit score:
After my wife went in person to the library they looked and found their books. The books had been transferred to a separate library and they were sitting at that library. The library lost their own books! So instead of contacting my wife (she never received a call or letter from the library) the library turned her into a collections agency.
After removing the fines from the books they themselves lost, the librarian then informed my wife there was still an outstanding fee of $ 12.00 for a late return of a separate book. The issue is my wife returned the book before its due date. The librarian informed her that it would take two weeks to determine if that book was actually turned in on time or not. Why is it the customer’s problem if the library cannot tell you when you retuned a book?
We could not wait the two weeks for the library to absolve us of the $ 12.00 late fee because the Unique Management Services would then move into their next phase of credit reporting.
Beware this library has very poor customer management.
With a credit score over 780, please don’t let this library that: 1) loses its own books and 2) reports customers to collations agencies rather than contact them by phone or email to resolve issues harass you or damage your credit score. Please frequent a different source of information.

Being a self-​proclaimed regular reader, I’ve been to many libraries in my life. Some were small, had a limited selection of books and DVDs, and reaked of nasty little children. The library I grew up with always had tiny asian kids running around causing a raucus (I was one of them, till age 10). Nevertheless, I was really impressed as I drove up to this beautiful glass building with regal architecture (for Perrysburg, anyhow). There are several dropboxes in the front of the building guided by the driveway. Why leave your car in 19 degree weather?
Inside the building, it’s clean and well-​lit, and the room is lined with plenty of places to sit. Along with plushy chairs, there are neat little booths all around that you can sit in to do some work. The children’s section takes up about half the main floor. I haven’t ventured in there to claim MY Harry Potter, but it looks impressive and spacey. There are also several computers that are surprisingly not ancient. What surprised me most about this library was it’s vast, up-​to-​date DVD collection. There’s no limit on how many DVDs you can check out, and you can hold it for 1 week. You can also check out books for up to 4 weeks, which is pretty amazing. I remember the good old days when books can be borrowed for only 2.
The staff is made up of friendly old women and nerdy clerks. I love this library. Sign out of facebook and check it out, Perrysburgers.