Call them the Anti-Kindle crowd. The Seattle Center for Book Arts cares as much about the tactile medium as the message, exalts the page as much as the word. more ›

Two weeks into the new year, Seattle Public Library (SPL) is proving it's changing with the times. Last week, it was announced that SPL is offering free mp3 downloads to library card holders through Freegal. This week, SPL announced that it is now on Twitter @SPLBuzz more ›

We were all prepared to snark about potty humor when we first heard about the Seattle Public Library’s celebration of World Toilet Day this Sunday afternoon. (A toilet puppet show? The opportunity to TP a librarian? C’mon!) But it turns out that World Toilet Day—formally on Friday, Nov. 19—is no joke: It’s raising awareness about sanitation crises in developing countries, where 2.6 billion people don’t have access to toilets and thousands of kids die every day from various resulting diseases. The educational event planned for this weekend at the Central Library takes a lighthearted approach to the topic, as evidenced by the presence of Charlie “The Noiseguy” Williams, a local “sound impressionist.” Imagine the kid-friendly commode-related comedy gold. more ›

Sometimes we get so caught up in how pretty the Central Public Library is that we forget there are actual books and librarians inside—and that there are other top-notch Seattle Public Library branches throughout the city. But architecture took a backseat in SPL news this week when the system was named the third-best big public library network in the country by the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service 2010 report. The report was divided into categories of budgetary expenditures, and the SPL was one of only five libraries in the U.S. with a budget of $30 million-plus to garner a five-star rating. (The only other Washington state library system to be ranked in the report was the Lopez Island Library District, which ranked 24th in the $400,000-$999,999 category.) The rankings of more than 7,000 libraries were based on circulation, programming attendance, Internet use and visits. Rem Koolhaas, Schmem Schmoolhaas. (Kinda. Not really.) more ›

SPL estimates that the closure will save them $650,000--over half of the budget cuts they're making this fiscal year. Impressive, and if it keeps the library afloat, we're all for it--but where else are we going to get our free media? more ›

The intern over on the Slog has put together the stats on our brutal week of murders. There have only been eleven murders in Seattle this year--which is the good news; the bad news is, a quarter of 'em happened this week. more ›

Not that kind of pew. It's a Pew Charitable Trusts report on how major cities are handling deficits, and Seattle, we think it's fair to say, is full of fiscal win: our one-year deficit of $44 million is just 5 percent of our general fund. For context, L.A. and Chicago stand at 12 and 13 percent, respectively. For even more context, we're tied with Baltimore, so don't get cocky. "Proposed service cuts are mostly targeting libraries, recreation facilities and aspects of trash collection." It probably makes budgetary sense, but it's really unfortunate, symbolically, that we're cutting library hours and increasing the size of our police force. more ›

Our post earlier today about the new, Red-Bullish atmosphere the library is promoting got us thinking about other things that might be classified as "undesirable" in a public space. As we understand it, Seattle Public Library uses no-pr0n filters on kids' area computers, but leaves the adult section...adult. In fact, "All users are asked to respect the privacy of other users and not attempt to censor or comment upon what others are viewing." What do you think? more ›

Don't plan on getting too comfy next time you're heading to the library or best yet, just bring the snooze of a book home, before you get caught up in one of the newest (and toughest) rule changes approved by the Seattle Public Library Board. A 20 percent increase in recent library traffic and 1,300 plus violations have prompted the board to take a tough-love approach, granting libraries the power to place a two-year ban on repeat offenders. Most common violations include: bringing in extra large luggage, removing clothing or getting naked, and (the biggest culprit) sleeping, aka nodding off, cat napping, dozing off or "resting my eyes." more ›

"Dewey readout" by Bill Bowdish, from the Seattlest Flickr pool more ›

GLUTEN FREEDOM: Dr. Stephen Wangen, founder of the IBS Treatment Center, has a new book out called Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance. As you can tell from the title, his contention is that you don't have to have celiac disease to be gluten intolerant. Personally, we are disturbed by intolerance of any kind, so we are glad to hear that he's working on a cure--what? Just don't eat wheat? more ›

Back in '06, Seattlest James mentioned that the library let you scope the difference online between active and inactive holds, which made us pine for a "Netflix queue" for hold requests, not realizing that active/inactive was a big step in that direction. more ›

PILLOW TALK: Almost no one we know gets a terrific night's sleep these days. Either it's restlessness or insomnia or neighbors, but it's tricky to get sleep to shroud you in his purple cloak. Dr. Catherine Darley, a naturopathic doctor from The Institute of Naturopathic Sleep Medicine has put together a Sleep 101 seminar (seminars do put us to sleep!) on what normal sleep is, and what can go wrong: sleep disordered breathing (and its effects on the cardiovascular system), insomnia, et al. And she'll talk about how sleep deprivation affects you, and how a sleep disorder can increase obesity. more ›

The King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention will double its book budget by ditching their librarians and having inmates and correction officers deliver books within the jails instead. That's how it is in the movies, so we're assuming the new set-up will work just fine. And more money for books is a wonderful development! The P-I's article is warm and fuzzy, and we love us some books, so it's unknown at this point if there even is a downside to the end of the librarian contract. Suffice it to say that if we ever land ourselves in jail, the doubled variety of books to choose from will be much appreciated. more ›

DRINKING GAMES: It's too predictable at this point to use the word "maverick" for your drinking game. Considering McCain's newly announced strategy of character smears and trying to make the country hate their savior, we would suggest going into tonight's debate with a list of drinking game terms that includes "Ayers," "palling around," "that's not true, John." Just a thought. Oh, did we bury the lead? The second presidential debate is happening tonight at Washington University in Missouri. Tune in to any channel. They'll all be showing it. more ›

Okay, friends and neighbors. December is a huge month for local hip-hop, and not just because of Blue Scholars' The Program. This week, Chop Suey's got you covered for Monday and Tuesday with the Parker Brothaz tonight (GMK will be there! We love that guy!) and freestyle master Eyedea & DJ Abilities tomorrow night. Over in Fremont, Nectar's offering Waves of the Mind and Gabriel Teodros/Abyssinian Creole on the 13th (there are nine acts on the bill, as a heads up) and an apparently two-night-long extravaganza featuring One Be Lo and Grayskul (along with some big name producers and djs) on the 15th and 16th. more ›

library by mraaronmorris, a favored shot of our favored spot (yeah, we know it's a cliché, but we love all the angles!), as found in the Seattlest Flickr Pool. If you aren't adding your pics, you should be. We'll love you (even more) for it. more ›

The Friends of the Seattle Public Library are trying to get people to write to members of the City Council in support of funding collections before the council meets to discuss the budget Tuesday, October, 30. Seriously, a $2.5 million shortfall this year, and a shortfall every year since 2000 when Libraries For All funded a bunch of building upgrades (including the Central Library)? That's really lame, particularly here where we get all proud whenever some list ranks us as the most literate city in the world. The most literate city in the world shouldn't have budget shortfalls at the library, and unless it's all a big show we need to fix SPL funding. We've got a bunch of cool new branch libraries, and the Central Library is great (or not, but whatever, we've got it) but If we're going to take the time to burrow through the rat maze it would help if we could be reasonably certain of actually going home with the book we're after. It has to be fixed. more ›

Tell him there's about a 1 in 6 chance he'll appear on Jeopardy! in the next couple of years. He'll obsessively check his phone messages the whole time. more ›

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Magritte references aside, can we catch a break in the 2500 block of Fourth Avenue, please? (See previous post about a sidewalk sale across the street.) Early in our Seattlest career, we opined that Boulangerie Nantaise bakes Seattle's best-tasting baguettes. Still true. But it turns out they don't know squat about sandwiches, whether it's how to spell 'em or how to make 'em. Shoulda gone online, where they've at least posted a picture of a toasted ham-&-cheese panino. Had we but known, had we but known. more ›

We're trying to test Amazon's new MP3 download service because we hate CDs and iTunes and we love DRM-free music files and compensating artists for their work. Hang out with us a minute here while we try this... more ›

Somehow, in between day jobs, practices, live shows, and recording their second album Beehive Sessions (produced by the Posies' Jon Auer), everybody's favorite performance group/art collective/pop band "Awesome" has found the time to put together a new theater extravaganza for all ages. And though it's kid-tested mother-approved, there's still scads of local talent involved: Here's What Happened is directed by WET's Jennifer Zeyl and has a different guest narrator each night--actor Charles Leggett, Almost Live! and Seattle Channel's Nancy Guppy, and man about town Sean Nelson. more ›

So we'll begin, the guy at the podium said, the huge black blast door in the Microsoft Auditorium at the Downtown Library eased down its track, slowly cutting off our view of the lobby, and we shivered. more ›

"Neighbors fear development" has become the Seattle equivalent of "dog bites man." Of course neighbors fear development. That's what they do. more ›

After all, the Seattle P-I's got a story on the recent street violence, the Seattle Times has coverage of the war zone and the thug factor. And although three of the four incidents since June occurred after 10pm, it's easily worth the $500,000 the city will spend over the next four months to keep lunch hour safe in Westlake Park. We were there, and we've never felt more secure -- which was great because we couldn't find any bike racks in front of Westlake Mall and had to lock our bike to a trash can. more ›

Rifling through the remains of the house's cookbook library (which was amassed sometime in the 50's when it was used as the high school's home ec facility), we came across a promotional brochure from the Vermont Maple Promotion Board. It gave information about maple trees and sugar houses (it takes 35 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of delicious Vermont maple syrup!) and a few maple-laden recipes, a surprising number of which actually sounded good. more ›

We want to know where's the scariest place to live or hang out within Seattle city limits. (Sorry, Skyway and White Center. Check again after annexation.) more ›

We've been trying to keep abreast of the latest strike news via the networks as well as our singular Canadian television channel down here but both the quantity and quality of coverage has been most unsatisfying. So we took matters into our own hands. (Confidential to Metroblogging Vancouver: If you don't provide any sort of contact address, we cannot reach you for guest/expert commentary.) We contacted The Vancouverite because we believe in their attractive tag line --"Hyper-Caffeinated Snarky News & Opinion". More importantly, following The Onion's precedent, we assign greater cultural credentials to sites employing the definite article. Here's what Editor Jackson reported about the strike: more ›

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