Riverside Library | Manhattan, NY

The children section upstairs is fairly large for open play. They have a small play kitchen in the corner, a bunch of magnet boards and a large bookshelf of kids books. In a separate room by the elevators they have a room where bigger toddlers can sign up to play their. Overall a decent place to bring your toddler and meet other moms/caretakers.

Posted on: July 10, 2025

I have been a member of the Amsterdam branch for many many years and also a contributor to Friends of the Library. For sometime now I have worked with Kevin, now my teacher, and helper with my problems on the computer. What a great guy! More recently I have also worked with Michelle when Kevin was not available. She too is outstanding. How fortunate for us to have two fine people serving us. I hope the library is aware of their outstanding abilities and pleasant helpfulness . Louise Sbordone

Posted on: October 21, 2025

Older lady at the front desk with glasses must be real fun at parties. Unwilling to help at all and has an attitude for everything. Some people come in here because they're in a vulnerable situation in their lives and they need free resources not to be talked down to.

Posted on: July 28, 2025

Rudest librarians I’ve ever encountered in my life. I’d never been to this location and I’d asked to transfer a book to it. I went to pick it up and went to the front desk since I’ve never transferred a book to another location and needed help. The lady at the front pointed in a general area where it said “holds” and said to look for my card number and a reserve sticker. There were hundreds and hundreds of books. I’ve never been to a library where it’s set up like this. I was confused and asked another librarian (older white lady with glasses). My god, you would have thought I was asking her to locate the first edition of the Constitution. She rudely pointed to the Holds sign again acting as if I couldn’t read. I told her the signage was confusing and they needed better communications. That pretty much set her off and she went on a rant saying things like: “oh no I made a mistake how dare I” THEN proceeds to loudly tell the other librarians “oh she must have left, but this woman told us we need better signs and blah blah blah”. I said: “I can hear you, why do you have to be so rude?” And she walked off. At last, the librarian at the front came to my rescue and helped find my book, and ignored the other librarian. Major petty high school vibes among the staff. All we’re trying to do is read in peace, sheesh.

Posted on: September 12, 2024

A wonderful neighborhood library with helpful staff and solid collection of books and resources. We were sad to see that the book club has not reemerged yet, but hopefully that will change post pandemic. I have had consistently good success in getting all my hold requests fulfilled. Bravo!

Posted on: November 10, 2022