Library visit: Seattle Public Library

I'd never been to the Seattle Public Library before. I'd visited the Queen Anne branch once or twice when I lived there for school, but I'd never been to the main, recently-renovated, big-deal branch before. So while in Seattle today I visited.

I have to say, I wasn't impressed.

The automated book return is cool, and the gift shop is nice, though when I see a sign for a friends store I expect a cheap used book store. I bought a too-expensive-but-at-least-it's-going-to-the-library Alice in Wonderland business card holder. I needed one, and I love AiW. But the library itself...seemed like a waste of space. Keep in mind that I volunteer at a library where they weed great big bins of books and still have so many books that they have overflow stacks in the basement where patrons can't see them. Every library has to weed. And here's this Seattle Public Library with tons and tons of empty space. Which isn't set up in a way that they could fill it with books; I'm thinking specifically of the red room but also all those half-height shelves and lots of airy space around them. Space for computers I understand; I don't like it, but I understand it. But the "artistic" empty space that is intended to be just that? That will stay empty even while they have to weed books for lack of stack space? That I don't understand, and don't like. It also didn't seem as welcoming, to me, as I think it's intended to; I also thought it was confusing and hard to get around. The genealogy room, which is why I visited, is nice though the reference desk seemed a little too high and imposing. This is a semantics issue, but the famous stacks spiral isn't round, it's more like a switchback - not a spiral! It seemed drab and impersonal, not at all like a comfy place to hang out. I think there might be a place to sit down and read, but I didn't see anywhere that looked nice - like I said, though, it's confusing and hard to get around, so maybe I just missed it. Granted there ARE chairs, which is more than my library has, but not as nice as I think libraries should be. And - the joys of urban libraries - the bathroom stall doors are the really short kind so you can see over them and make sure nothing untoward is happening. Ugh.

The one really cool thing, though, was that they have an ASL book group and ASL story times. I've never seen that before, and I think it's really awesome.