The KCLS is the biggest library system in the US as measured by
check-outs of books, DVDs, CDs, ebooks, etc.
They have a great website, at least 4 libraries in Bellevue and do a
great job on rare books via an interlibrary loan system. For example, I got the book Alcoholism as an Attachment Disorder via
the KCLS from the Evergreen College Library in Olympia a week after I put in my
request after learning that the KCLS did not have that book.
I had not used the KCLS much for the last couple of years until a few
months ago. Reading the positive
psychology books is easy when all I have to do is order them online and pick
them up at Crossroads on my Friday get-together at the Mall. Unfortunately the Crossroads library is being
updated with new paint, carpet and a light overhaul and so is closed until
later this fall. That means I have to
drive a mile over to the Lake Hills library to get my reserved books. Not bad, but not the same as walking 100 feet
from where I already am at Crossroads.
Currently I have five books checked out and five more on hold that I
will get in the near future. Free books
to read are great and I don’t have room in my apartment for the book collection I would amass if I
were to buy them.
The library at Alexandria is the world’s most famous library (partly
for being history’s first mass book burnings including fire set by Julius Caesar in 48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in the 270s AD, the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in 391, and the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 642). The KCLS has 43 branch locations that all
have access to more information more millions books than the librarians at
Alexandria ever dreamed of.
I am grateful to have a library cards at one of the arguably library systems in the history of the
world.
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