Elkridge Branch - Howard County Library System

I went to this library three weeks ago on a Saturday and this Thursday from 10:30a to 5:30p. Wow… It’s the noisiest library I have ever encountered. There was a woman literally shouting with her headphones on, saying something inaudible that I couldn’t make sense of. But it sound like “Hello. Bring us the pebble. Again.” And she repeated that over and over and over again for at least 15 minutes. A woman sitting near me, who was a student at UMD, whipped her head around to look at me and said, “What’s going on here?!” I let her know that her guess was as good as mine. And then later on in the afternoon at 5p, the library turned into a social club for the high school students who were shouting and LOL! Two other high school students complained about how they couldn’t concentrate. Yet, this seemed like the norm at this library to use your playground voice instead of your inside voice, as well as to bring your meals and lay them out on the table to have a picnic in the library. This man did that, smacking his lips and all. I’ve never heard of such a thing to be acceptable. Wow! Two stars because from the appearance, it looks like a decent library.

I spent a few hours studying here and enjoyed the space. I believe it was recently renovated/rebuilt and the space is bright and clean feeling. I didn't explore too much but there was a small cafe area with vending (bonus for decently healthy but not gross options). Bathrooms were clean and while I didn't interact with the staff I did notice that they were attentive and helpful. Seems to be a good place to study. They also have a diy center and tools available to check out which seems like an excellent resource