5 stars if you are unhoused and looking for a place to nap and listen to music while charging your…read moredevices!!!!!! If you're a person looking for a library, good luck to you.

During the height of Covid 19, McCarthur Library kept me sane. Thank you for mailing me a…read moreselection of books during business and societal closure. Now, several years later, I continue my admiration. You "all" are the best definition of what a public library should be.

A library by the…read more sea As real estate people are constantly stating, location is one of the most important things in a house or building. The Libby Library of Old Orchard Beach isn't particular large but it certainly has plenty of location. Right next to a lovely park and just a minute walk to the beach is hard to beat. The inside of the library is a bit cramped and narrow and it doesn't have a whole lot of comfy places to sit but it does have some nice old things scattered around and even a shed in the back with a whole bunch of used books at dirt cheap prices. The librarians and people at the library were extremely nice and friendly and seemed to enjoy talking to us and telling us about the cool town . They do recognize that the library is a bit small for the town now and they are trying to raise funds for a larger building. Until then this building will have to serve. If the inside of the library gets too crowded or cramped you can always go outside in the nice park or better yet walk across the street the water. Not the grandest library in the world but it certainly has a whole lot of location.

This afternoon's "office" was the Scarborough library where I had a productive day. Clean, quiet,…read morewell stocked and with a free wifi that worked really well. It's great that they allow non-residents to use the library - you just can't borrow materials and that's okay by me! [Review 18560 overall - 111 in Maine - 2082 of 2022.]

Scarborough residents are so lucky to have this library in their town. What a beautiful space! The…read morestaff is incredible -- always helpful and friendly. They have a vast book selection, and the amount of community events is impressive for a library this small and a town of this size. Their hours of operation are also very convenient. I've been visiting regularly and love every minute I get to spend there

The library is wonderful in every way. You can easily reserve a book and, in most cases, the…read morelibrary will order a book you recommend for purchase. Staff is very knowledgeable and pleasant. A real gem.

A little lighthouse…read moreof knowledge The Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth is a very long library. I couldn't find out much about the history of the building but I suspect it had an original part built by William Widgery Thomas and then kept growing and expanding through the years. A very distinctive and unique place that just oozes charm and charisma. Even through it has been around for a while the library is very modern and has all the conveniences that would expect. Lot of the books, magazines and a cool young adult room, children's room and even a lounge area where people can unload their kids while they look around. A very user friendly place. But just being functional and pleasant isn't what makes this library so special. It is a very cool building with all kinds of great art and history. Such a strange and long building, it has surprises around ever corner. We had a great time here because everyone, from the librarians to the other users of the library, were just so pleasant and friendly. Still a place to meet and talk to people and not just look for books. The outside or the library is lovely with gardens and flowers everywhere. Everything about his library is so unique, cool and special. I've been to a whole lot of libraries but the William Widgery Thomas library is definitely in my top five. It is that cool and special. William Widgery Thomas summed it up when he wrote, " I hope that this will prove a little lighthouse of knowledge... It is for you, inhabitants of Cape Elizabeth, to keep the lamp burning so that it shall shine over this town forever".

Library is equipped with free WiFi, friendly staff and has large collection of books on different…read morecategories. It has got a spacious room to read books of your interest. It always fascinates me reading about the Space and beyond.! This library has few cool books related to Space and Technology. Definitely a good place to visit and give some exercise to the brain.

This is a great stop for families. The decor is reminiscent of the mod decor era, which I love. The…read morekids area is huge. There was a huge selection of books plus fun manipulative toys for every age, computers, puzzles, etc. I didn't see any crafting but my kids were entertained for nearly two hours between choosing books and playing with their other goodies. I glanced at the activities offered and this is a very active library in the community. We love visiting libraries and this was definitely one of my faves.

Everyone was extremely friendly and very helpful . I really enjoyed visiting the library .read more

Small town library which features all you'd expect of a small town library. One thing that stands…read moreout is that they lend more than books; they lend out telescopes, binoculars, puzzles, games, park and museum passes, knitting and crochet needles, and even ukuleles. Many programs for children which is nice. Free tech time appointments so you can work with a librarian to answer questions. During the winter they tend fires in their reading rooms. Free WiFi and good study spots.

Even though I wasn't a resident of sopo, the staff were very helpful in figuring out how to check…read moreout books, and even helpped me renew my Falmouth Library card! Sweet, kind, and understanding people!

Book bridges and…read moregolf There are much larger, older, historic and certainly more aesthetically pleasing libraries than the Memorial Branch of the South Portland Library but I have certainly never seen one with a golf course before. The small library is reached by crossing over a cool little bridge into the upstairs of a building that the library shares with the pro shop of a municipal golf course. They also share the same little parking lot and you can get some nice views of the golf course from upstairs in the library. We saw people from both the pro shop and library oddly moving around together. For some reason this odd juxtaposition of rather dissimilar services seems to work quite well. Neither seems to be bothered by the presence of the other in the least. The library is a typical small branch library, convenient, well organized but small and a bit limited in the selection of materials. However it is nicely decorated and the librarians were very friendly. A strange but very cool little library where you not only get to find some books, do some research, use the wifi and just maybe get in a round of golf.

I mean it's a book store…read more Always end up getting 2 or 3 books. Great selection, staff are always friendly and their recommendations allow for expanding your reading interest.

I think, if you're going to come to a chain bookstore, this should be the place you visit. It's so…read morenew; it's got that new book smell (not really, but... maybe, kinda, sorta?)! 1. So much easy, free parking in their huge shared lot. 2. There's a Starbucks-adjacent cafe. NOTE: it's NOT actually Starbucks though, so you can't order ahead or pay with your app. Just a heads-up! The cafe portion of the bookstore is spacious and clean, with the tables themselves also being spaced quite far apart from one another. It creates a real sense of privacy no matter where you sit! 3. The atmosphere/layout here is very modern and inviting; the selection itself is enormous. Genres are clearly labeled, and there's a tremendous amount of content available no matter what you're looking for (so be prepared to spend some time here wandering around and taking it all in... then you'll probably have to come back, because there's no way you'll actually be able to take it all in on the first visit!). They've got new releases, popular books, recommendations, board games, and more. And, of course, the random armchair for you to sit and peruse your possible purchase. Obviously, support local first. But if you're looking for a slow-paced, wide open, very quiet, very tidy spot to spend a little bit of time (without feeling rushed or forced to purchase something) finding your next favorite read, I'd suggest visiting here!

Back in the late '90's, an obviously-bored Biddeford cop illegally detained me for almost an hour…read moremerely because --- after stopping me merely because I had salvaged a discarded-and-smashed-and-obviously-much-weathered TV set and was carrying it to my aunt's car to take it home and strip it for parts --- I did not have any ID and my name didn't come up when he ran it. The cop really had an arrogant and artificially-suspicious attitude, claiming that he didn't believe me regarding who I said I was because "You're a young man, and young men automatically have a criminal record, so you must be lying to me about who you are." What planet of prejudiced MORONS was HE from --- is it actually a DISADVANTAGE in the eyes of the law if I've simply BEEN GOOD ALL MY LIFE?! He even went so far as to run the plate on my aunt's car to see if anything about IT came back as a problem. He should have been GLAD that I was cleaning up the environment, not make me feel scared and humiliated for doing so! They also seriously need to upgrade their street-markings --- on one side-street, they had a confusing double-headed arrow painted at the end of it where it intersected with the main drag, seemingly indicating that it was a one-way street where you were supposed to change to the left or right lanes respectively if you wanted to turn left or right; I nearly got head-onned by a huge SUV that barreled around the blind corner on the left-hand side! What we pay taxes for, and they can't even mark their streets properly or train their officers ethically!

Round numbers have always been a big deal at Yelp. Back in the day, we would all celebrate each…read moreother's 100th and then 200th reviews. That's not as important as it used to be, but this is my 1000th review and we tend to pick them carefully. I suppose that I'm the first to commemorate number 1000 by reviewing Biddeford, Maine but it's no accident. Biddeford is an amazing little city. First, an incredibly abbreviated history lesson. Skip this paragraph if you understand mill towns. Biddeford's mill town community was the workplace and home for generations of immigrants. They came to the mills looking for employment and they started at the bottom, being poorly paid and working under conditions that we would never tolerate today. The mills were busy for years but became obsolete due a new technology called electricity. The old mill buildings became run down and abandoned, the towns were stuck with massive unemployment, crime increased, and it was really bad. Biddeford was luckier than many other mill towns because it became a bedroom community for Portland's workers and because the mills were re-used to make Vellux blankets, but downtown was still depressed. I first saw Biddeford in the 80's and it wasn't pretty. Not only had it been depressed for quite a while, but a huge incinerator called MERC was built downtown and it stunk. And it stayed that way into the 21st century. Fast forward to now and Biddeford is changing fast. The abandoned mills were bought by people with a vision. MERC was finally closed. People have been attracted by the cheap rents in the mills and they're being refurbished at an astonishing rate. I haven't been able to confirm it, but about one-third of the million-plus square feet of mill space has apparently been renovated. There's a group of people who give tours of the old run down mill buildings and they say that in a year or two here won't be anything left to see because it will all have been rebuilt and occupied. There are art galleries, coffee shops, concerts in the local parks, all kinds of ethnic restaurants, and new businesses seem to be opening almost every day. In the last few months, the city has gotten curbside recycling and a new supermarket. This is good stuff for a city that many had written off and I'm glad to write about it for my milestone of review number 1000. I'm giving the city of Biddeford four stars because there's still work to be done and more than a few local politicians act like they prefer the good old days of urban blight. Some bigger businesses have been unable to move to Biddeford because there's not enough parking and there's a big debate about whether the city should build a parking lot. A bright future for Biddeford is within reach and I'm excited to have a ringside seat in my artist studio, located in one of Biddeford's nearly-full mill buildings. And no, I'm not running for office. I'm just excited about where things can go.