• 2014-10-04

On October 3 (U.S. time) Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng visited the Seattle Public Library to find new ideas on how libraries can breakthrough traditional molds and to understand new innovations.

The Seattle Public Library was built in May 2004, designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Rem Koohas from Holland. It was selected for the best building award by Time magazine in 2004 and the AIA Honor Award in 2005, making it a must-see destination in Seattle.

From the inside out, the Seattle Public Library is replete with innovative thinking that challenges traditional ways of doing things. Its exterior looks as if it were made from a steel web and covered with a glass curtain. The origami shape of the library is a reflection of the jutting mountains and twisting rivers nearby. The glass covering is very environmental, allowing natural light to reduce electrical lighting needs. It also has a thin webbing of aluminum that prevents heat from entering the library. The rain that falls on the library is also collected and used to water its plants.

In addition to its architecture, the interior of the Seattle Public Library is also extremely innovative. The first thing that strikes you as you enter is the brightness and spaciousness of the library’s living room. The library emphasizes that it is a part of the residents’ lives and shouldn’t be just a place to store books.Rather, it should function as a social connector, hence its gargantuan living room. The library also boasts 11 stories. While these are divided into five areas—offices, print and information, interaction and discussion, business, and park—the areas are all interconnected. The space between each area is available for working, interacting with others, or reading. All throughout the library public art is infused within the design. For example, in the foreign language area there are 11 different languages carved into the floor.

Another innovation at the library is a four-story tall Book Spiral that can hold 1.45 million books. This effectively sidesteps previous problems with having books shelved in different parts of the library, causing difficulties for patrons and library staff alike. Indeed it is a revolutionary breakthrough in space management of library holdings.

To develop a professional library staff, as well as to make serving patrons the primary task and not have most of the staff’s time be consumed with checking in and out books, the Seattle Public Library had installed a RFID automatic book sorting system. Even when the library is closed patrons can return books through the return window, after which a conveyor belt takes the book to the second floor where it is processed by an RFID reader, marks it as returned and sorts it into the correct predetermined bin. If the book has been put on hold by one of the 28 branch libraries in the area, it will automatically be placed in the bin for that branch and the waiting patron will be notified the next day. If there is no hold on the book, it will be placed in a shelving cart and automatically reshelved—effectively replacing traditional duties of the library staff. In addition, the library has given each staff member a Vocera communicating device with a built-in GPS, allowing staff members with discipline-specific expertise and know-how to be located immediately.

During this trip to Seattle, Director-general Tseng also visited the East Asian Library at the University of Washington and had a wonderful time with Director Zhijia Shen during the beautiful autumn.