Which library do you prefer in Tucson (Oro Valley, Green Valley: appointed, loan)

[emiliehope]

There are several library branches here in Pima County! I've visited a few and have yet to find one with a decent movie collection. Whenever I think of a movie, all the branches seem to not have it at the moment. Which branch has a large movie collection?

Thanks!

[tumamoc]

Bear Canyon, but mainly that's because it is right down the street from me. And I can check out Goodwill afterwards.

However, if you are not using the "reserve" option for media from the county website < | Pima County Public Library | Tucson, Marana, Ajo, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Green Valley, Vail, Arivaca | Arizona >, you are really missing out. As soon as they are available, reserved materials are sent to your local branch and set aside. You have something like six days to pick up items held for you.

Here's another tip: If you search google for, say, "movies 2012", it will bring up the most popular titles as a banner across the top of the screen. You'll find that the Pima County Library system has multiple copies of most of those movies.

You can also go online and download music for free (3 songs a week per person). I started a thread on this a while back < Pima County Library now offers free music downloads! >

[Columbia Blue]

I like the Joyner-Green Valley library. Pretty good selection there. However as Tumamoc mentioned, the reserve function on the library website is a great way to get books and movies sent right to your local library. If it's a popular movie just released you may have to wait a while though since everyone else wants to see it too. And if you can't find a book you want, the ILL (Interlibrary Loan) is a great way to get a book your library doesn't have.

[visitor21]

I find the Woods Memorial Library to have the larger movie collection. They have 3 shelves full of movie collections that you can check out. You can also go online (select 'My Account') to reserve a movie and asked them to store it at a particular county library so you can pick it up at that location.

[Jukesgrrl]

Personally, I'm a fan of the Oro Valley library. It has a comfortable and beautiful place to read periodicals and there are not as many children as I always find at the library closer to my home. Like tumamoc, I highly recommend using the reserve system that operates throughout the county-wide system no matter which branch you're in. I often reserve new books from my favorite authors before the library even has them, so I'm on the list early.

If you have a library card, you can perform many library functions via E-mail. I get automatic messages when something I've ordered arrives and reminders when books I've checked out are close to their due dates.

Movies are possibly the most popular things lent by the library these days, especially the branches frequented by a lot of seniors. So if you're expecting just to go to the library and browse for a title that strikes your fancy, you are, indeed, likely to be disappointed by the selection at any single library. But ask and you shall receive.

Take a list of things you'd like to borrow, sign up for them on one of the easy-to-use sign-up computers and you'll often be surprised how quickly your selections will arrive. Pima Co. has 27 libraries in addition to its bookmobiles, so there are a lot of places they can access to get what you're looking for.

I've lived in many different parts of the country and the Pima County public library system gets high marks from me, an enthusiastic library user/supporter.

[coatimundi]

I used to work for the library system, and always thought that the best true inventory of movies was at the Downtown/Valdez location. All materials are received through here and distributed to other branches. However, the movies are always very popular, so they'll quickly get sent to other branches through reserve requests or just checked out off of the shelf. It's hard to walk in and just pick something up but, if you're patient, you can usually reserve it and get it in a couple of days.
As far as the branches go, my impression was always that Nanini was one of the better branches because they seemed to have the most public programs going on. Flowing Wells is the newest actual branch though with Abbett (Continental Ranch) not far behind, while the Wilmot and Columbus branches have both undergone recent renovations.