Northeast Branch Re-Imagining

Have any holds at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library?  If so, you have until Sunday, August 22 to pick them up.

As of Monday, August 23, the branch will be closed…until early October. No no, not just closed Labor Day week like the rest of ’em (for fiscal and BBQ reasons), but for MUCH. LONGER.

But FEAR NOT!  The closure is for a good cause (or three):

• The hold areas are being consolidated and expanded, and moved into the current Teen area.
• The Teen area is being moved to the northern end of the branch. [Insert joke about teens here.]
• Two more self-checkout stations are being added.

I first noticed the monstrous piles of materials on hold after last winter’s snows.  I just figured that the books were getting to the library, but patrons weren’t.  Turns out that this branch of a mere 15,000 square feet process more holds than nearly every other branch in the system.  The aforementioned switcheroo refurbishing will make room for all of that.

Yes, I’m sure that the library folks are aware that the branch underwent a doubling of size only five years ago, and now, here were are, already needing to close things down and rework it again. But I imagine that many of us were hitting the bookstores more back then, in the heady economy of the mid-2000s.  *sigh*

Your holds will be transferred to the Lake City Branch during the closure, unless you choose otherwise.  I’m going to switch to the Green Lake Branch and go for more walks.  Or just visit Chocolati a lot, to try and cope with the change. We’ll see.