The Seattle Public Library continues to expand the idea of what it means to be a patron. With Read To Me, librarians brought another part of Seattle’s population into the fold – the inmates of the King County Correctional Facility, just blocks away from Central Library. To many kids in the city, these inmates are … Continued

In this season of social distancing, The Seattle Public Library’s Summer of Learning program underwent a radical shift in order to keep kids engaged this year. Anecdotally, kids have struggled to remain engaged in remote schooling this spring because the curriculum did not evolve with the format of virtual learning and students were removed from … Continued

Success was not handed to 17-year-old Deborah Tesfay and her family. After immigrating to the Seattle from Eritrea when she was 9 years old, Deborah stayed in a homeless shelter with her mother and two siblings, separated from her father because men weren’t allowed. “We had to start from the bottom,” Deborah says. “Starting from … Continued

For the past seven years, the Stim Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship has helped young Seattle-area students pay for college. Early winners of the scholarship are now graduating and entering the professional world, continuing their young lives of achievement. The Seattle Public Library Foundation checked in with a 2015 scholarship recipient this month, Noah Foster-Koth. A … Continued

The Seattle Public Library Foundation is thrilled to announce the three winners of the 2020 Stim Bullitt Civic Courage Scholarship. Deborah Tesfay, Evelyn Chen, and Della Floyd have each earned tuition support from this scholarship fund with their essays about local civic leaders. Now supporting students for 7 years, the scholarship honors the legacy of … Continued

We are proud to announce that The Seattle Public Library (SPL) was named the Library Journal/Gale 2020 Library of the Year! This is the most prestigious award in the library industry and SPL competed with several excellent library systems across North American to earn this honor. What pushed SPL to the forefront, according to Library … Continued

Recognizing the Library’s and the City of Seattle’s economic challenges that lie ahead, The Seattle Public Library Foundation has issued an additional $250,000 in unrestricted grant support to The Seattle Public Library. The Foundation had pledged $4 million in grants to collections and programs at the beginning of the year as part of its annual … Continued

Like most of us these days, Lauren Ubaldo could use an escape. The West Seattle resident is a house cleaner who owns a business with her husband, and work has dried up for now. So she turns to The Seattle Public Library and its collection of eBooks and audiobooks, which makes being home all day … Continued

Earlier this month, more than a dozen people representing seven countries gathered in a Zoom video meeting to discuss a universal passion: food. They started off by introducing themselves and their favorite snacks: nuts, cheese, chocolate. It was a continuation of a long-running program, but in a new way, uniting people online instead of at … Continued