Seattle Public Library
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Image:Seattle Central Library interior.jpg Image:Library esc2801.jpg The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been a library association active in Seattle since 1868. There are 25 branches in the system including the new (2004) Seattle Central Library and the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL), as well as mobile services. In addition, as of June 2004, there are three new branches in the planning stages, and one new branch in the first stage of construction.
In 1998, Seattle voters, with an unprecedented 69 percent approval rate, approved the largest library bond issue then ever submitted in the United States. The funding provided by the "Libraries for All" bond measure, which proposed a $196.4 million makeover of the Library system, doubling the square footage in Seattle's libraries, including the building of new branches and a new Central Library.
As of 2004, the Seattle Public Library system has 590 staff members (453 full-time equivalents). In 2004, the system circulated 2,812,451 adult books, 1,411,903 children's books, 469,871 WTBBL materials, and 2,351,512 other media (CDs, DVDs, videotapes, etc.) for a total of 7,045,737 items lent. They also report 1 million reference questions answered. [1] The system also provides 767 public computers (400 of them at the Central Library). [2] Anyone with a library card can get up to one hour a day of free computer use; the system accepts reservations for a computer at a particular time at a particular branch.
The library has moved to an RFID system for materials, which allows people to check out their materials without assistance, freeing librarians to focus on matters other than circulation. [3]
Until 2004, the library was home to Nancy Pearl, one of the few celebrity librarians in the English-speaking world. Pearl's Book Lust book series and her much-imitated "If All Seattle Read The Same Book" project resulted in her being perhaps the only librarian who has ever been honored with an action figure.
This new Central Library was designed by Rem Koolhaas and his group, the OMA Office for Metropolitan Architecture.