Seward Park Library

"Horrible experience, I tried to charge my phone couldn’t find a place only one area( teens area), the security come up to me asking to stop bothering the teens, ( how I am bothering them when I’m Just reading my book), due to this gentleman age I didn’t want to cause a scene, but this older gentleman was out of line telling I can’t charge my phone in a public library, I know it’s late but maybe a little refresher will do him well ."

"Fun times, this library has storytime every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Fun for the kids, books song and dance always a really good time."

"Really loved Mr Fairweather’s public lecture series on Hegel! The programming here is great."

"I don't live in New York, but I love this library (NYPL) more than any other library in the world because of the online series by Andrew Fairweather. Now, I want to be a wise librarian just like him. I truly enjoyed his series on Hegel (and previously on Freud). They are food for the soul, mind, and brain. Well done!"

"This is the library I grew up with. Being a teenager for me was overwhelming and scary. And this library felt like it was all that I needed to not feel alone. I would see the same friendly faces of librarians working hard. And they always said hi. Felt so welcoming. Now I am 28 y/o. Two years ago November 2021 I brought my 1 y/o at the time to the kids library section. It was just me my daughter and the librarian with short blonde hair and blue eyes. I remember at the time how depressed I was. My hair was always undone. First time being a mother, and breastfeeding exclusively day and night. However, I made sure to take my baby out daily for neighborhood walks, playgrounds and my favorite library that made me feel safe until it didn’t. I remember I was breastfeeding my baby in the kids library section. And the joy I had seeing my baby finally be independent from me as I sat there watching her look through books. Next thing you know more than one staff, and security were asking my daughter if she was okay.. I remember how stuck in my head I was I didn’t realize what was going on and I remember telling my one year old at the time to say hi. It wasn’t until I was walking out the library I realized security was called on me. I remember looking on google “reasons why someone would call the security on someone and it stated it meant someone’s is putting themselves or others in danger… so when I realized this I was triggered and scared to speak up for myself at the time. I felt uncomfortable to come back.. I tried my best to go back and I have but not as much at the time.. I also remember during quarantine I was searching for therapy and it was so hard. It took a year to find a therapist that my insurance could help cover for.. I had to deal with feelings of fear by myself. However, I’ve been coming here but sometimes I think about it and it’s uncomfortable and still a scary thought for me. However, what made me feel a little better is knowing that there are cameras. And hopefully they were on. Today, I feel strong, supported, and courageous to speak up for myself and feel like I want to understand why that happened.. so I asked a woman who was one of the persons to check up on my baby and I asked her if she remembered me and she said no.. I expressed what happened and she told me “we wouldn’t call security on someone for breastfeeding” and it was left like that. I didn’t say anything else and thanked her. It felt dismissive for me and it landed for me to express myself on this review."