Tacoma Public Library Main Branch

Nice and empty. Usually it's filled with bums.

Decent place to get work done. FYI, PVBLIC is the old spelling of Public. It's obsolete now but older buildings keep the remembrance alive. It's history folks.

Typical liberal inner-city library. This place is more of a homeless rec center than a library. Every street person in Tacoma must be here. The place smells like a locker room. They all come with back packs and suit cases and even bed rolls. They all know each other by the way they carry on.nnThe only saving grace is that the staff are quite helpful.

I went to the Tacoma Public Central Library for the first time to do research for a local history project. I was able to access the extensive collection of primary and secondary sources housed in the Northwest room. The staff went out of their way to help me locate the materials I was looking for, and were very friendly and helpful, even offering to look through the microfilm collection to find the missing half of a newspaper article I was looking at. I also was pleased that there were ample electrical outlets- even in the historic part of the library.

Visited Tacoma for a weekend and needed to print some documents. It was easy to sign up for an Internet Only library card, and the staff were welcoming and helped us learn how to use the system. Very quiet space!