Activist library opens in face of Seattle library closures

All the Seattle Public libraries are closed this week because of budget cuts. But you won’t have to go without a read because a group of activists is setting up a people’s library in the Central District where you can have almost all the comforts of your regular branch.

The library will open this week at 23rd and E. Yesler Way, just outside the Douglass-Truth Library, which is closed along with all the other Seattle Public Libraries.

Emily Ravenscraft and a group of friends started talking about what they would do during the closure and then they simply decided to open their own mobile branch.

“Books are very important in my life,” she said. “I grew up in libraries so making sure that there’s always access to that is so important in my mind.”

Each day, Ravenscraft and the others will set up the outdoor library and run it from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be Internet access and plenty of books, all of them donated.

“We have an insane amount of books,” Ravenscraft said. “It’s beautiful to watch how people just started giving the second we asked without hesitation.”

She estimates the People’s Library has more than 500 books to share. There will be no check-out system or due dates, which led me to ask how she will be able to keep the books past the first day.

“We are trying to implement an honor system,” she said. “Don’t take more than you can read. Leave what is left for your community or your neighbors to also take. There is no check-in and check-out date.”

Other than bathrooms and maybe a coffee stand, this People’s Library will have all the comforts of a normal library, including a nightly story time for kids.

The library will be open through Sunday, and Ravenscraft hopes the public takes advantage of it.

“It becomes that pay it forward mentality, which is something I really do believe in,” she said.