The Seattle Public Library is AMAZING!

While at the Training Institute in Seattle, we had a tour of the Seattle Public Library. This is an amazing building. Truly, a work of art. I got a little camera happy while I was there...

Here's a view of the outside of the building:


Here is the children's area of the library, just gorgeous:

Here is a room where children's programming is held:


Next, some amazing views from within the library. Imagine, a wall of OPACs!:

This one shows a cafe to the left, greenery in the building, and an amazing floor plan:

More OPACs and more information staff counters that are scattered throughout the library:

Looking down from one floor to a lower floor, I think there are 7 or 8 floors all together:

Imagine having this many public machines and a technician staffed there FULL TIME!

Here are the stairs to the staff floor, which is also COMPLETELY red:

Photo op:

They have a world department and the floor itself is a work of art with sayings on it in all the languages of the world:

The same department has quite a selection of foreign periodicals:

Here is the teen center, more RED!

And you can't even believe how they sort the book drop, check it out - all the books come into one location and it's like a factory with conveyor belt and all:







Their auditorium can seat up to 400:

And they have a display showing the amount of items by material type that have checked out that day - impressive:



Just goes to show what a library can really be when the people in the area advocate for libraries!