Completing the Library

2026-01-25T00:00:00Z

I 100%-ed the library! By that I mean I visited every branch of the Seattle Public Library (SPL) system.

I love libraries. The books and librarians are enough of a draw, but it's also one of the few third places we have access to today and I try to do my best to make my visitation rounds. For me the library is often a place to do computer work — a place to get out of the house and into a new environment for a few hours when I don't have meetings.

When I moved to Seattle in early 2022 I was wrapping up my masters thesis and the sublease I was staying in was too small to work well in. I went looking for new places to pull some hair out while trying to understand quantum compilers, and quickly stumbled upon SPL's Montlake branch. The branch quickly became my homebase for writing when the weather was nice since it was a beautiful walk from my place through Interlaken park^[1]. The libraries beautiful wooden beams and ceiling light up the space when the sun pours in from the massive windows on the north side of the building. Much needed during Seattle's dark February/March.

Since wrapping up my thesis and moving to a new neighborhood, I quickly found myself visiting the branch nearest my new place Sure enough the Douglass-Truth branch is also a wonderful library and it left me wondering if all of Seattle's libraries were this nice. Shortly thereafter the idea was born to visit all 27 branches SPL has to offer. It took me just over 2 years to make the trip to all the branches (some are far away in parts of the city I never go to, okay!), and another year to figure out what to say about the experience, but it's here now.

The branches

Branch	Notes	Rating (x/5)
Central Library	The pinnacle of SPLs. Awesome building, great lighting—even during the big dark—and lots of quiet space despite the open concept. I recommend the 10th floor if you want to work.	5
Ballard	Nice space with good light and room to spread out, but there is a kids area near the "work" area which means you're either working or being distracted by screaming.	3
Beacon Hill	Awesome high ceilings with big exposed wooden beams and good lighting.	4
Broadview	Went here after my car got towed a near 2 hour journey from home by public transit. It's also the branch I got set up with an SPL account at. Despite the circumstance, it's a great library for working.	4
Capitol Hill	Quite an interesting building with some nice exposed brick and vines. Seating and working area is limited, however.	3
Columbia	Nice space, but I had the experience of being here after school got out and was packed with kids not quite respecting the "don't play music out loud in the library" rule.	3
Douglass-Truth	This review comes with more bias than others since it is the branch I live closest to. Always a spot to sit, good lighting, and relatively quiet.	4
Fremont	Even though I drove by this branch many times, I never knew it was a library until I visited it. A super cute older building tucked on the side of the road, but not much space to work.	3
Greenwood	Pretty standard good (but not great) library.	3
CID	Very small with limited space to work, especially when others are there. Helpful staff though!	2
Madrona-Sally Goldmark	Very small, but I get the feeling it's usually quiet since it's in a bougie neighborhood. Warning though, it does seem to be a kids-oriented library so there may be screaming.	3
Magnolia	Great neighborhood, okay library.	3
Montlake	Everything you want from a work library. Good lighting, light chatter, and good view out the window.	5
NewHolly	Small kids library in a kind of sad building, but basically no one there. Somehow didn't have any phone service and needed to make a call.	2
Northeast	The nice landscaping of the outside clashes with the boring interior. It does mean you get nice plants to look at while you work though.	4
Queen Anne	Cool building, but it was really busy (for a library) and it feels dark and dingy.	2
Wallingford	No desks, so unusable for work (still a functioning library).	1
West Seattle	Nice, open concept with some comfy seats facing the windows. Good for pondering.	4
University	Nice lighting, but not much space to work from. Kinda smells.	2
Lake City	Big library with lots of space, but they need to re-layout the place. Who put the desks are next to the bathrooms...	3
Green Lake	Really nice space with good natural light and brand new bathrooms, but not a ton of table space.	4
Northgate	Nothing to write home about. Worth stopping at if you're at the mall.	2
South Park	Had low expectations here since South Park seems kind of drab, but it pleasantly surprised me.	4
Southwest	Large open space with plenty of tables.	4
High Point	Nice, but limited desk space. Visited this library same day as Southwest since they were close and I didn't have meetings :). There were children here.	3
Delridge	Full of kids, and weird shaped desks.	2
Rainier Beach	Nice big space, but feels sterile. Not sure if it was the hospital lighting, or something else, but not the place I wanted to hang.	3

As you might have noticed, a theme I ran into is that libraries that cater towards kids generally don't function as well for working. With the potential exception of visiting during times when those kids are in school

Visiting all these libraries left me thinking about what I like, and dislike about the library. I love that it's free, that I can browse books or walk around as I please, that I can stare out the window, that there are librarians to help me find information, that there's free Wi-Fi and water, and that there's no expectation to do much of anything while there besides not disrupt others.

There are, however, some ways in which I wish the library served me even better. Most libraries have relatively limited hours, and sometimes I want to code at 10pm at places other than my home. I wish the library had more resources focused beyond that of the written word. Last year I had the pleasure of visiting Helsinki's Oodi library which offered access to video games, 3d printers, instruments, sewing machines, laser cutters, and more. America is not quite ready, in my mind, for that level of supporting neighbors, but I do see the desire among others to have resources like this. Take the many versions of the tool library that have popped up in Seattle (and I hope other cities), where folks can rent power tools for no cost to themselves^[2]. I've found myself on multiple occasions wanting to use a typewriter for a specific project, but never wanting to bite the bullet and buy (and then store) one. After much hemming and hawing I did eventually buy one and used it thoroughly for a months time. Since then it has mostly just taken up space. Well run libraries can help solve the problem of massive waste generation from everyone buying items we only temporarily need! Whether or not we continue to call them libraries as the progress on to their next generation of support is another question.

While I am not planning on 100%-ing the libraries (book and otherwise) in King County, I do still love visiting new libraries when the opportunity arises. E.g. the Bellevue library is a great library, even if placed in one of the most despicable cities imaginable. I hope this inspires you to check out your local library(s), even if you're not a completionist!

Seattle's parks are truly unmatched by anywhere else I've lived. It's easy to feel like you're miles away from the city despite being squarely in it. ↩︎
There is an optional donation/membership fee for those who can afford. ↩︎

Writing in public

2025-10-19T00:00:00Z

In 2020 I started a PhD program after 3 years of being outside a formal educational institution. It felt like a big change in my life, and it prompted me to attempt blogging for the first time. I had a feeling that the moment in time was one where significant change was coming, and I wanted to document some of it.

It coincided with the pandemic, and the practice fell into place with relative ease. I still had to sit myself down and write, but there was a lot less stopping me when 50% of my normal life was put on hold. Living in Vermont at the time the only people I interacted with were my parents, Diane, and the person who put groceries in the truck. So much of "everyday-life" was culled, and as a result I found new ways to take up that space.

Writing on a regular basis was going well. Whether it was details about a topic I was studying, or difficulties navigating graduate school, the practice helped me process. It was basically a version of a journal that I was willing to share publicly.

It also provided a record of what I was struggling with, which not only I could look back on, but also captured my naive understanding of concepts I was learning. I try to capture early confusion not just because it’s fun to document learning, but because when we teach others, we forget that clumsy feeling of misunderstand, and the associated misconceptions that come with it. Even if I'm not actively teaching a course, I believe a huge part of being a great friend/community member/coworker/partner is understanding where someone is coming from, and meeting them there (i.e. what good teachers do).

One very real downside to writing in public is the excruciating cringe-factor that can come with documenting your learning. Looking back on the posts I wrote during graduate school, it's hard to want to finish reading them sometimes.

"I actually wrote that down for people on the internet to see?!"

Yes, and while I strive to not embarrass myself too much, moderate embarrassment about previous understandings of the world isn't a crime. I have to actively remind myself that asking dumb questions is okay, and being moderately ignorant online is a way to become less so.

After a few months of consistently writing in grad school, my program got turned on its head with the departure of my advisor. I stopped writing while scrambling to figure out what was next, and never picked the practice up again. The dust has settled now (3 years later), and I feel that I am in a good place to start again. I am learning a lot every day, and I want to share that with others.

💌 n

place: internate

Completing the Library

The branches

Writing in public

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