The Seattle Public Library has a collection of approximately 2,000,000 items. The collection includes books, audio books, music CDs, videos and DVDs, books in large type, and magazines and newspapers - for all ages. The Library also subscribes to numerous online databases including a small collection of ebooks.
The initial move to form a public library in Seattle came only 17 years after the first non-native settlers arrived on the shores of Puget Sound. It was July 30, 1868, when 50 residents gathered to form a library association. A new Ladies Library Association in 1888 provided the strongest foundation yet for The Seattle Public Library. In 1890, the city established the Library as an official city department, designated to receive 10 percent of the amount raised by city licenses and fines. The new public library opened in 1891 on the fifth floor of the Occidental Building in Pioneer Square. A lumber company vice president borrowed its first book, a brand new copy of Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad." Librarian Charles Wesley Smith innovated the first book stacks on the West Coast open for patrons to browse. The Seattle Public Library in 1899 rented the Yesler Mansion. The wooden mansion was consumed by fire in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, 1901, a New Year's horror that destroyed most of the Library's collection. Four days later, Andrew Carnegie had agreed to donate $200,000 to build a new "fireproof" library in Seattle after city officials promised to buy a new library site and guaranteed an annual maintenance amount of $50,000 The city spent $100,000 in 1902 to buy the city block bounded by Fourth and Fifth avenues and Madison and Spring streets.

An architectural competition to design the new Carnegie library in Seattle drew entries from 30 firms, with Peter J. Weber of Chicago selected as winner. The German-born architect produced a classic Beaux-Arts design for the 55,000-square-foot structure, which featured massive pillars and spacious interiors and was formally dedicated on Dec. 19, 1906, during a gala evening that drew an excited throng of 1,000 people. Seattle's annexation of Ballard in 1907 yielded the Library's first full-scale branch, a two-story brick structure donated by Carnegie. A further gift of $105,000 produced three more buildings, which opened during two triumphant weeks in summer 1910. The first was the West Seattle Branch, which was followed by the Green Lake and University branches. Another $70,000 donation from Carnegie resulted in two more branches, the Queen Anne Branch in 1914 and the Columbia Branch in 1915. The 1920s produced more up-and-down years for the Library; one of the highlights was the 1921 opening of the new Fremont Branch, courtesy of a $35,000 donation by Carnegie. But Fremont also represented the end of an era - the last new library branch in Seattle financed by the philanthropist and the last new library branch built in the city for three decades. That gap was one of the great disappointments in the Library's long history.
The Depression pummeled The Seattle Public Library. Jobless men seeking refuge crowded into the Central Library. Those looking for work or diversion snapped up library books at unprecedented levels, sending circulation past 4 million for the first time in 1932. Yet, at the same time, Library budgets shrunk precipitously, forcing layoffs of employees and termination of programs. The Library was caught in a painful double bind seen during tough economic times - soaring demands and evaporating resources.
A forward-thinking 10-year plan for The Seattle Public Library published in 1930 included the urgent need for a $1.2 million bond issue to expand the cramped Central Library. Yet by decade's end, only two of the seven goals in the 10-year plan had been put into effect, and the Library's 1939 budget still was $40,000 less than its 1931 budget. The Depression instilled "so many hard lessons," wrote librarian Judson T. Jennings, that it left The Seattle Public Library "without illusions."

Seattle voters in 1998 approved the largest library bond issue then ever submitted in the United States. The landmark "Libraries for All" bond measure, which proposed a $196.4 million makeover of the Library system, garnered an unprecedented 69 percent approval rate at the polls. Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, in partnership with the Seattle firm of LMN Architects designed the new Central Library. A year after his selection, Koolhaas was awarded architecture's highest international honor, the Pritzker Prize.
The new Central Library's unique shape, unlike any other building in Seattle, is the result of its use of five platform areas to reflect different aspects of the library's program. It includes a 275-seat auditorium and parking for 143 vehicles. The new Central Library opened May 23, 2004, and immediately prompted international interest. The best feature for a tech town like Seattle is the amazing Wi-Fi wireless internet connection at the Central Library. HINT TO THE LIBRARY: GET Wi-Fi INTO ALL THE BRANCHES ASAP!!!!!

Update August 1, 2005
Hello,

That is still in the planning stage so I don't have any exact
information. A lot depends on how the budget goes.

Thanks,

Richard
Support Desk
Seattle Public Library