Yardley-Makefield Branch, Bucks County Free Library

I was visiting family and stopped here and thought this was such a nice library. They have a mini area where children can pretend to build a house, or be at a diner.. a small scale “Please touch museum.” Had the pleasure of seeing the magician Rand D Shin, who put on a fantastic magician’s show for a very large group of children and parents. He was awesome and the library is so very nice.

We love coming to this library with our kids. The renovated play area is wonderful and I enjoy the librarians' reading recommendations.

Not good for study, busy and you can hear a lot of noise and kids around the place. Good for kids though.

Can we please enclose children's areas in libraries again? Most of the 5 star reviews here are people who want somewhere for their children to play. These parents are also the ones who use the designated quiet study rooms to noisily eat their lunch and talk on the phone. I gave up after two trips. Do not go here if you want to have a place to concentrate and read or study because the kids area is half the library and there's no enforcement of no-eating and no-noisiness. Libraries are meant to be quiet spaces for study and reading and I don't know when they became one of the many places intended to cater to parents who won't take kids to parks or the many child-centered spaces and restaurants in the area. I love children but please can parents give us book lovers and students back coffee shops and libraries. We no longer have anywhere else to go and we don't all have huge houses with rooms all to ourselves. Or at the very least put the kids area behind a wall with a closed door and muffle the noise.

I've been going to this library all of my life and it seems as if the Bucks County Library System is increasingly moving its already limited catalog online and into e-books. I'd personally prefer hard copies of books from my local library. Regarding this specific branch, I rarely have a pleasant interaction with the staff who seem to go out of their way to assert themselves as patrons quietly browse the collection. It'd be nice if they could focus on curating a broader spectrum of content and books rather than enforce arbitrary rules.

The BCFL Vision at the Yardley branch is harshly lacking in embracing this BCFL Vision, Mission & Values. The "materials and services" that are present in the library to help young children are apparently restricted. I shall describe my experience: my children were playing in the Career Corner at the Yardley Branch. It is wonderful, imaginative, and creates curiosity for sure. Only apparently per the signage that I was directed to, myself and my two older children would need to stand on the sidelines and "watch" my five year old play by himself. As a parent of a neurodivergent child, this direction and suggestion is cruel, humiliating, and ignorant to the needs of special needs children. My five year old thrives on imaginative play and his sister and brother allow him the opportunity to feel safe and comfortable while he explores imaginative play. My children were playing very enthusiastically together as they were cooking in the kitchen and taking turns making "order-ups." As I am standing one foot from where they are at the book table, I see a librarian walk briskly past me and enter the children's play area. I see she’s bothered and emphatically says to all of my children as they are playing, "ARE YOU FIVE?" They look at me, and I look at her questioningly and she says, "because this area is ONLY for five year olds and other kids might get scared off because they are SO loud and they are clearly not all five." I respond to the librarian and say, ``they are brother and sister, and they are using their imagination and playing together, and I am right here.” She points to the sign that says "Only children ages 5 and under” and I look at her again questioningly. Honoring diversity and treating everyone with respect means NOT BEING IGNORANT TO DIFFERENCES IN DIVERSITY AND RECOGNIZING THE TRUE INTERSECTIONALITY OF DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN. I am left thinking and feeling like the library has no sensitivity training towards children who are different..no actual diversity training to truly embrace the qualities within the asserted BCFL "Values" because welcoming all library patrons to "accessible physical and virtual environments" does not create implicit and subtle biases that send the message that when playing and using one's imagination in an environment outside of the home, one must play “normal,” “quiet,” oh and “you cannot play in certain places with your siblings.” Implicit Biases in this manner create 1 Exclusion- excluding children based on variations of their brain development, sociability, and cognition-just to name a few examples, 2 Sterotyping-presenting the perception that all children have the same needs and play the same way, 3 Creating unrealistic expectations-making the indication that a child is not permitted to play with their parent or their siblings, 4 Fragmentation & Isolation-sending the underlying suggestion that by not being "normal" you are not worthy of participation, 5 Age Bias- restricting uniformal and imaginative play between children and their siblings, friends, parents, 6 Ability Bias-ignorant to the different ways and abilities that special needs and/or neurodivergent children are able to function from a neuroscience and brain-based perspective. And underlying it all is when one's personal Affinity Bias appears discriminatorily, then they are unable to see, perceive, feel, or hear, anyone or anything that does not look, act, or behave in a way in which they themselves, look, act, or behave. This flaw in judgment creates the very opposite of a welcoming, respectful environment, and instead it illustrates with amazing clarity the lack of intersectionality between the Yardley library itself, the librarian who shamed me and my children, and lays bare the glaring example of power/privilege/prejudice. The Values at the Yardley branch of the BCFL completely lack cultivating a sense of safety for children and adults, they do not "treat everyone with respect," and they do not honor diversity.

Wonderful library that is very inviting, pretty quiet with welcoming noice of children and laughter, has lots of great books and is a great place to study! The library also includes a quiet study room which allows for a silent space to work in if there is noise / conversations in the main part of the library.

I have enjoyed this library for the past 2.5 years, particularly because of the small play area for small children. However, the customer service has gotten significantly worse ever since they put in the automated check-out machines. You would think that the customer service would improve because the librarians have more time to work with you, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Today was the second time I've been scolded at this library for "renewing late items". I'm not even sure why the scolding was necessary. Shouldn't they be happy that I let them know that I'd like to continue keeping this book? And if they didn't want people doing that, why don't they just program their machines not to let this happen? Also, the Bucks County Library system needs to work harder on procurement of their books. My 5 year old lost a book worth $3.99 full retail price printed on the back cover of the book itself and so I purchased one to replace it. When I brought it to this branch, the customer service person told me that they can't simply replace the book in the system with the one I had purchased. In fact, she said it would cost $12.99 for them to replace it because that's how much they paid for the original. I'm sorry, but that is almost 4x the price someone can get it off of amazon or B&N. No wonder these county libraries are always trying to raise money. Maybe they should try harder to utilize the funds they already have from our taxpayer dollars. And when someone comes in to admit they are at fault and already purchased you a replacement, you should take it and say thank you.

They used to have more books until they put small stacks in. Too small a selection.

The library staff is right there whenever you need help. Covid restrictions are in place and seem adequate for both staff and public. The fiction selection is somewhat limited onsite but books can be obtained from county and state systems if you know what you are looking for.