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The King County Library System
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Friday’s speakers, Jim King (L) and Bill Ptacek.
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Friday, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club took its Off-Site Road Show to the Bellevue Regional Library for a first-hand look at the King County Library System. Shepherded by Jeanne Thorsen, Director of the Library’s Foundation and member of the BBRC, nearly 90 members and guests crowded into the Library’s largest meeting room to hear about this important service to county residents.
Executive Director Bill Ptacek, Director of the County Library System and current President of the Bellevue Rotary Club, said if he could wave the magic wand to create new facilities, he’d wish for a “larger meeting room!”
Ptacek, arriving earlier in the week from Ethiopia, where he joined 85 other District 5030 Rotarians for a National Immunization Day on behalf of Rotary’s Polio Eradication Campaign, brought best wishes “from your three active members representing your club on this journey – President Kim Shrader, Treasurer Margie Burnett, and past president and District Annual Giving chair Jim Owens.” Ptacek unveiled a picture of the threesome “doing some heavy recruiting on a prospective member. It’ll take a while for the member to become assimilated into Rotary,” quipped Ptacek. The prospect was a huge turtle, obviously a pet at the Rotary PEC headquarters.
“Going door to door in Ethiopia to eradicate polio is a daunting task,” said Ptacek. “This method of canvassing doesn’t insure getting to all the people. In many cases, large groups of citizens and their families come to a central place to get the vaccine. This may be the first intervention of a health agency for many people. I’m so proud of Rotary for this project and was privileged to be on trip.” The entire volunteer group is due home early this week, and you can bet you’ll see Shrader, Burnett, and Owens back in the groove on Friday.
Director Ptacek thanked the Library Foundation for providing a reading diary and coffee cups, as a memento of the occasion. “The Bellevue Library is the most noted building in Bellevue. It is surely one of the busiest, to match King County’s fourth busiest library system in United States. We circulate 15 million items annually, a number exceeded only by the large metropolitan systems such as New York and Chicago. One measure of the use of our library system by citizens of King County is the fact that 75% of all people in the county were served in some way by the library in the past year.”
”Ninety percent of everybody has a library card in King County,” Ptacek observed. “It is so important that libraries become a partner in the education of the citizens of the county.”
What is the benefit of library service? “For every dollar spent, the library generated $4 in benefit. This was the result of a survey by an economic group to determine the Library’s impact. Our mission to provide ‘free and open access to the entire community.’ The Library is an intellectual focus for its users. The best reference material online is provided by the King County Library system – 22 million hits last year. This new technology will not replace the written word … it just adds to the resource.”
“Libraries provide a place for people to gather … and people are doing it.” A well-produced video reported the library system attracts 10,000 people daily, serving one million residents annually. Ptacek cited the need to continually upgrade their facilities. “We are talking to people to find out what they think the library should be and what services it should offer. We’re excited by the challenges of the future.”
Jim King, Director of the Bellevue Library, took the lectern and told his audience that the building opened in 1993. “It quickly became the center for the City. We’ve had tremendous support from the community – 1.2 million items are lent out each year. Lots of meetings take place in this building. We have 600,000 items in our collection and a door count of 800,000 people annually. We offer ‘libraries without walls … access from home through Internet.’ We also have PCs in the building, which have waiting lines of people wanting to use them. We serve all income levels and provide support for 35 different languages.”
Ptacek closed the presentation by saying “Our collection remains accessible to all. If I could wave my wand, here’s what I’d like for the Bellevue Library:
- A larger meeting room
- Improved parking
- Provide more study space – now have wireless access, but need more space to accommodate these new innovations
A tour of the facilities by Mr. King followed. Bill and Jim received a certificate noting the BBRC had donated 240 doses of polio vaccine in their name for Polio Eradication.
Thanks to Jeanne Thorsen for her introduction and her leadership in arranging, setting up and pulling off this most successful off-site meeting.
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