Oakland Public Library: Temescal Branch

Oakland has many little neighborhood branches, and this is one of the coolest ones in all of Oakland, maybe the state for sure, and houses a friendly tool lending library. I discovered it in 1978 and been paying overdue fees and lost card fees on and off for years.

Truly a gem of Oakland.

Friendly service, small selection of books but has everything you'd expect and some cool extras like the tool and seed libraries.

The Temescal branch is quaint. It's gets high marks for its tool lending library at the rear of the building. Go online for the list of tools you can check out. It's their crown jewel.

Um. This is THE best neighborhood library a human being could ask for. Literally, the best one. But you don't ...have....to take my word for it.... GO READ A BOOK there! (Plus therrs the tool lending).

My neighborhood library, staff are friendly and courteous, and the librarian made some lovely recommendations.

Storytime here is THE best one, which is why it's always packed. Staff very friendly, and helpful. Conveniently located next to freeway entrance.

What a treasure of a library. Wonderful librarians. The definition of public servants.

Karen provided excellent customer service. Wonderful. Nice and attentive

Story time is the best ,,we love it .

Great little library, it's architecture is beautiful.

•This library is very small and does not have as much room as other library's in Oakland.
•The rule about not being able to plug in any device that you are not directly using.

Came to this library to print some documents for the bloody DMV they requested. Very nice place to print out cost 0.25$ per page directly from your IPhone.

That's a nice, small library with a few places to sit. They have certain types of books, like fiction, travel, and light novels etc.

Oakland's libraries have an old world charm that sadly comes from years of underfunding. If you want to volunteer the library is a great place to do it at. This branch is over 100 years old. It has a great community space downstairs and a good childrens book section and is the closest library to Oakland's Children's Hospital. They only have 5 computers and two tables so you may need to head to a nearby coffee shop to do your reading.