Counties of Western Washington, part I: Introduction

Dear Diary,

Part of the reason I indicated the nearest restrooms to so many places in the nearly-finished "Library Hours Six Months Later" series is that I wanted to figure out how far each place for which I did that was from those restrooms.  I remembered (badly) a quote I read early in the pandemic:  Alison Eisinger saying her organisation, the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, recommended "everybody in the city be within a half a mile or less of a working toilet and a way to wash their hands".  (From "Seattle will reopen 5 library bathrooms during coronavirus pandemic", by Sydney Brownstone and Daniel Beekman, April 21, 2020.)  I wanted to see not just how well that held up in Seattle, but in general.

But then I thought of another approach that might be easier and would certainly be more entertaining.  Why not just examine and map the public restroom situation in each of the nineteen counties the library hours series covered?  As with the libraries, this would be essentially a desk activity, rather than a hiking one.  (And I'm really not up to hiking right now, being sick.)

Of course, King County, the only one in Washington in which I've lived, and the one that includes Seattle, your titular concern, dear Diary, is the most urgent of the nineteen from my perspective, and since it's much the most populous, probably from the most perspectives too.  But King County is a huge and complex place.  It's physically the second largest county in western Washington (though Okanogan County in eastern Washington is about twice as big), it has by far the most munipalities, to say nothing of additional districts relevant to the topic...  Not a good starting point.

I also remembered the failed series on Tacoma, and how important population density is with regard to the density of things like public restrooms.  So I decided I would figure out the raw population density of each county, and then, since King County is about twice as densely populated as the next in line, I'd start with the least densely populated.

I'm finishing up that county now, and hope to tell you about it within a few days, dear Diary.  But it's shown me that I can always count on projects I think of as fun to get bigger as I proceed with them.  So I thought I should tell you what I intend to do with each part.

Where this starts is that much of western Washington (28.6%, page numbered 8 of 28-page PDF) is federal land, and this is by no means equally distributed county by county.  This makes even population density an unreliable number.  That least densely populated county is probably much nearer the middle of the pack if I only count acreage not owned by the state or the nation.  But, see, that county's government has an incentive to publicise this fact; I'm not sure I can get such convenient numbers for every county.  And quite a few other counties, actually including King County, have vast tracts of federal or state land.

So I've allowed my interest in geography and history to contribute.  Things I've now researched for County A, and see no reason not to research for the rest:

Parks, of course, and libraries.

Airports.  (Because I don't know whether publicly owned airports have public restrooms.  County A, however, doesn't have any publicly owned airports.)

Schools, post offices and election turnout.  (Because of what they show about geography.)

Election results.  (Because, hey, who isn't interested in politics?)

Rivers.  (Because mapping at the county level with my resources is annoyingly hard, and the rivers can help.)

Government maps.  (Because I used to be a geography major.)

Settlements.  (I'd never appreciated before just how nebulous the concept of an unincorporated settlement can be.  Much more on this below.)

Park restrooms.  (Not just locally owned parks, mind.)

Transportation.  (Because I still want to know whether I can walk to Bellingham, but want to know alternatives in case I'm not equal to it.)

Cell phone coverage.

Private amenities like churches and supermarkets.

So I was right to start with an easier county.  This is turning into an enjoyably obsessive, but fairly huge, job.

Three things need more attention.

1. Maps and grids

Once upon a time, dear Diary, maps often had grids, usually showing latitude and longitude.  (A grid based on latitude and longitude is called a "graticule".)  This enabled people using the maps to do a couple of basic things:  identify a location with a couple of numbers; and make maps of their own.  But a lot of map users don't care about either of those things.  As far back as the 1980s, companies had started producing "atlases" whose maps omitted the graticule - here's looking at you, Dorling-Kindersley! - and by the 2000s, the majority of "atlases" published omitted it.  Nevertheless, the graticule was still considered conventional enough that both Google Maps and OpenStreetMap, which both, Wikipedia says, started in 2004, have offered ways to show it.  But now they don't.

Graticules can, of course, be carried much further down than they usually are on atlas maps.  I've owned maps whose grids represent minutes of latitude and longitude.  But in the majority of the US, it's also possible to use a different grid, whose ultimate unit is the mile, but which is much less regular.  This is the surveyors' grid on which descriptions of land title are based.

This grid starts with the section, which usually is one mile north to south and one mile east to west.  Sections have numbers which usually show their place within a township of 36 square miles.  (My home state of Wisconsin assigns governmental powers to this kind of township, but Washington doesn't.)  The numbering system is consistent, so the corners of a township are sections 1 (northeast), 6 (northwest), 31 (southwest), and 36 (southeast); some maps show numbers in only those squares, which is enough to identify that this is the kind of grid being shown.

Townships are located by four references:  A local meridian (north-south line) and base (east-west line), a range (how many townships from the meridian), and, um, this is stupid but it's never going to change because it's built into too many aspects of American life, a township (how many of the other kind of township from the base).  Usually people don't talk much about the 36-square-mile kind of township in Washington, and usually the other kind shows up like this:  T8N, R6E, S26 W.M.  (Where W.M., Willamette Meridian, implies also the Willamette Base Line.)

Because County A turns out to have so many federal and state lands in it, which Open Street Map quite simply doesn't handle all that well, I've turned instead to government maps that do a better job (and as an added advantage have sectional grids).  However, I expect to go back to OSM later on, in more settled counties.

Anyway, as a by-product of using US Geological Survey topographical maps, I re-learned this system, and adopted it.  It turns out Open Street Map allows downloads at a scale of one inch per mile up to about 220 sections.  So I've divided my maps, and County A, into nine regions of three townships by two ranges, which I originally meant to cover from Open Street Map.  Obviously, to the extent that I go back to OSM, I'll stick with this way of dividing counties up, though the exact shape of the divisions will probably vary.

2. Toilets and drinking water

It turns out that national and state parks and similar things often have something called a vault toilet.  (No, dear Diary, I did not know what that was either, until I started looking.  It's basically an outhouse except that it's designed to be emptied periodically like a "sanican", keeping human excretions separated from the surrounding area, which explains the purpose of building them in huge areas of land that's supposed to be somewhat conserved.)  Wikipedia has a long list of other things that can be considered forms of toilets; in County A's national lands, the composting toilet, which we've already encountered, dear Diary, in North Seattle's Picardo Farm, also appears in a few places.

Furthermore, looking closely at national and state parks has reminded me of childhood camping trips in Wisconsin parks (to be exact, one National Forest and one Wisconsin State Park), in which potable water usually came from pumps.  The agencies I'm looking at don't talk about their sources of drinking water the way they do about their toilets, but I bet when I call they'll say that most of them are pumps.  Now, nothing requires that we use potable water to wash our hands, but since the difference between potable and non-potable water can be understood as one of cleanness, and much of the point of washing hands is to get them clean enough to, for example, eat or touch our faces with, I'm not at all sure alternatives make much sense.  It's, um, relatively hard for a person alone to wash hands using a pump; how hard depends on how long that person wants to wash and how long the pump runs (if at all) after the person stops pumping it.

English Wikipedia doesn't seem to have even a footer, let alone an actual page, listing other forms sources of potable water can take.  (Though its articles "Pump" and "Drinking fountain" list lots of specific kinds of each.)  But one thing I've heard often enough to have some confidence in it is that running water is much safer than still water; given a choice, when drinking water in the wild (or for that matter getting cooking water), go for the river or creek rather than the lake.  Sadly, in North Seattle we don't have any rivers, and the surviving creeks are rather more still than running much of the year.  County A's creeks may be different, but even there, the most important agency strongly recommends boiling any water one drinks from the wild.

In County A, sources of potable water are much less common than vault toilets.  This strikes me as unnatural, since the first place where I really looked at this sort of thing was North Seattle, where the opposite is true.  On the other hand, Tacoma is the same way as County A, so I should probably just get over my prejudices.

Concretely, then, my maps of County A, and eventually, should I live so long (and retain map-making tools so long), of King County, need to account for multiple forms of what I've hitherto treated as more or less unitary categories.

3. Settlement types

Remember townships, dear Diary?  In the other states in which I've lived, Wisconsin and Illinois, these have governmental purposes.  As a result, those states' geography is relatively clearcut.  The townships aren't necessarily incorporated, so that's like Washington, but it's easy to specify where an unincorporated place is - "Oh, that's in the Town of Oconomowoc" - and the Census Bureau's choice of reporting areas becomes more predictable.  In County A I've more or less had to figure out my own methods.

I'd fumbled around for a while when I noticed something in the main map I used for County A:  At its highest magnification, the one that numbers all the sections in each 36-section township, it also shows a lot of small dots, and they seem to cluster around settlements.  I eventually concluded that those dots actually represent buildings, not people or residences.  At any rate, I then went over all of County A carefully noting which 36-section townships had dots, and how many and where.

(Unfortunately, the same map doesn't do this for other counties.  I guess the makers thought they could handle County A precisely because it really is pretty sparsely populated.)

I then went to Google Maps and got the satellite view, and looked at each of those dot locations.  (This is when I gave up the idea that the dots meant people.)  And largely on that basis, I classified the settlements of County A.

This classification has three criteria:

1. Official recognition.  Washington has two categories of incorporation, cities and towns.  (There aren't many towns.)  But there are other forms of official recognition.  In County A, there are two official cities, but the Census Bureau has also "designated" one "place".  Post offices are another form of official recognition; County A has four, one each in the Census Bureau's three plus one more.  This more or less merges into the next ground.
   
2. Centrality.  As you know, dear Diary, I used to be a geography major, and one thing that has stuck with me from that is the idea of Central Place Theory.  It hasn't stuck with me entirely favourably - I also remember some anthropological archæologists who took it as entirely too reliable a guide in their own work. [1]  But I agree with the basic idea that cities are central places because they offer things people are willing to travel for.  (For this purpose, the advertising built into Google Maps is actually extremely helpful, but for County A I also looked at a lot of other official and unofficial lists.)
   
3. Population density.  The parts of County A that aren't parks include a lot of roads, but in many cases what adjoins those roads is farms or surviving forest.  My eventual conclusion was that what I consider "dense housing" for this project's purposes is very much less than urbanists want:  here, dense housing means that houses are separated by streets (if that much) rather than by fields.

I ended up with, in County A, five settlement types.  Given that I have three criteria and don't quantify any of them, the dividing lines aren't entirely clear, but I think these capture what I'm interested in.

[1] The guy whose page I linked to invented a test that was widely adopted but that I think is blatantly too mechanical to work.  See, Central Place Theory is fundamentally hierarchical.  So what this guy did was say that the classifications of societies used by anthropologists could be detected archæologically by their settlement hierarchies.  Societies without a hierarchy were bands.  Societies with a two-level hierarchy were tribes.  Societies with a three-level hierarchy were chiefdoms, and societies with a four-level hierarchy were states.  I assume this means that Singapore has a four-level settlement hierarchy, but I sure don't know where it found room for that.

Cities

A city, in this scheme, scores high on all three criteria:  it gets a significant amount of official recognition, it offers a number of central services, and a significant chunk of its housing is dense housing.  County A has three of these, but one (despite being an official Washington city) is pretty close to the next category.

Suburbs

A suburb, in this scheme, gets some official recognition, may have a few central services, but has some dense housing.  It also has to be possible to get from a suburb to a city without going through clearly rural areas like farms or forests along the way.  (This is why that official Washington city isn't a suburb.)  County A has two suburbs.  I don't expect, in later counties, to change my opinion concerning settlements that, like that official city, meet the base criteria but not the continuity criterion, so haven't figured out yet what I'll do if some place convinces me to do so.  I do expect, in later counties, to classify some official Washington cities that do meet the continuity criterion as suburbs.

Hamlets

An isolated place that has a little dense housing but not much of anything else, I consider a hamlet.  County A has three of these.

Villages

A village is the opposite of a suburb:  it has a reasonable level of centrality, but not so much dense housing.  (It also usually has a little governmental recognition.)  County A has five of these.

Rural centres

I think there must be a better name for this kind of thing, but haven't found it; this is my work-around.  A rural centre is the opposite of a hamlet:  it has zero dense housing, but a little centrality.  County A has one of these, plus a set of three so close together they might as well count as one.

Conclusion

I don't know how soon I can tell you about County A, dear Diary.  First, it's Christmas time, so I don't know how soon the e-mails I haven't yet sent and phone calls I haven't yet made might be answered.  Second, I have a lot on my plate.  My landlord seems to think he can make me homeless again at the end of this month - I'd thought, given the winter eviction ban, I had until March, but if I squint really hard I can see why he might think that, which might affect his decisions even if he's wrong.  My storage unit is due for auction tomorrow.  I'm sick.  I'm actively job-hunting.  And whether I become homeless or get a job, either way, that'll seriously bite into my time.  But County A is, at this point, the county I'm most certain I can do.  We'll just have to see about the others.

Once I get better, whether or not I'm homeless by then, I do expect to start checking the North Seattle park restrooms, too.  And although I am, in fact, right now treating the private academic libraries as a lower priority, come January that'll change.  Finally, although it's much more fun to study County A than to write about what I've already studied in downtown Seattle, that remains to do, and if I do become homeless again in January (especially if I also lose my storage unit by then), that's sure to put me in the right frame of mind for the writing.

So I don't know at this point whether you'll hear from me before January, but probably not long after New Year's.  Until then, dear Diary, happy days and nights, happy Christmas, and happy New Year's.

Academic Library Hours One Year Later, part II: Public colleges

Dear Diary,

This part covers about 30 academic institutions directly funded by taxation districts of their own, and/or by states, counties, tribes or municipalities, with western Washington campuses where they offer associate's and/or bachelor's degrees, but not master's or doctoral degrees.  Most of these institutions used to have one of the traditional name elements "Community College" or "Technical College".  Most of the Technical Colleges still have that name, but only five of the Community Colleges still use the word "Community".  One of the distinctive features of Washington Community and Technical Colleges used to be that they didn't grant bachelor's degrees (let alone master's or doctoral degrees).  Again, five of the institutions listed below still have that feature.  Three institutions both still are "Community College"s and still don't offer bachelor's degrees.  Finally, five of the institutions aren't based in western Washington:  three that have long been universities, granting master's and doctoral degrees, on their home ground, but not in western Washington; two that don't grant those degrees even at home, so I'd call them colleges.

This part contains two lists:  libraries currently open to the public (32), and everything else (five libraries currently, but not normally, closed to the public; five campuses, probably without their own libraries, normally closed to the public).  As in all of this series so far, the libraries within each list are sorted by distance from my house.  Most of the libraries' official addresses are actually for the whole campus, so for multi-building campuses, which most of them are, the distances I give (according to this distance calculator) are probably a little bit off.  Four public institutions offer degrees at military bases; two of these don't provide addresses for their classrooms, but fortunately, each is at the same base as another university which does, so I've just assumed, maybe wrongly, that both are in the same place.

Many of these schools' websites list multiple campuses, more often than not within a single county.  Locations with libraries that are well documented online get their own entries.  I list other locations, some of which might have open doors, under whichever location with a library I think most appropriate.  These lists are again in order by distance from my house, but in some cases, my usual distance calculator giving implausible results, I turned to a competing distance calculator.  Satellite campuses, whether they have their own libraries or not, sometimes are limited to associate's degrees even though the main campus also confers bachelor's degrees.

I express a whole lot of ignorance in this part.  In both November and December, I've worked on both this part and the part about private colleges and universities.  I found myself e-mailing and even telephoning a lot of the private ones, mostly with the main question:  "Are your restroom doors open to the public?"  Here, in theory, I already knew the answer to that (but got some surprises along the way).  So I decided I would instead use this part to offer the people writing websites for these libraries and institutions a chance to evaluate how well they've done their jobs, and haven't contacted a single one of these places.

I formatted this part by putting each library's information into an HTML list with five paragraphs with bold-face headings.  Although I did this to make sure I wouldn't forget stuff, even after I started tracking rather more than five topics, I stuck with it.

Format

Hours

Most of these schools' relevant URLs have changed in recent years, by which I mean, specifically, since March 2020.  I think this is primarily because of two factors:  name changes (getting rid of "Community"), and changes in website vendors.  (Sometimes both.  Some colleges used to have domain names supplied by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, but no longer do.)  I can't guess to what extent this has been a one-time thing (primarily because of the name changes) or to what extent URL churn will continue going forward (primarily because of the website vendors).  Thanks to the Washington State Library's 2009 book (190-page PDF) listing Washington libraries, I was able more or less quickly to find pre-pandemic hours for all those libraries that existed before the pandemic, but not always from the 2019-2020 school year; as in the previous part, I only label hours "pre-pandemic" if they're from that year.

Some of these schools list "building hours" or some such online, sometimes prominently or at least easily found (for example, at the very bottom of the school home page).  In some cases these are stated for the institution, in others for the campus; I'm not referring here to a situation like the separate hours for many individual buildings at the University of Washington's Seattle campus.  I don't know what practical effect these hours have, whether, in particular, libraries shoo out their non-affiliated visitors when building hours end.  So, very late in my work on this part, I figured I'd better include them.

Also, since this work took me into December, I list in this paragraph when the winter break will start, when it will end, any announced dates for the entire campus to close, and whatever I can tell you, dear Diary, about library hours during the break.

Borrowing

This paragraph reports what the library website says.  All the (present or former) Washington community colleges listed in this part, except for Northwest Indian College, participate in a single reciprocal borrowing agreement; few advise their users of this fact on their main "borrowing", "get a card" or circulation pages.  A student or employee at any of the schools in question should be able to borrow from any of the rest, but may find it more or less difficult to convince librarians to allow such borrowing in practice.  This agreement is described in the pages numbered 23 and 24 of Renton Technical College Library Procedures (a 29-page PDF), which is also at the Internet Archive, and a document represented as the agreement itself can be read here.  Besides Northwest Indian College, Cascadia College, whose library is also UW - Bothell's and so was covered in part I, doesn't belong to the reciprocal borrowing agreement.  Neither do the branches of colleges and universities elsewhere.  Anyway, this paragraph only occasionally comments on the relationship between what the library website says and this reciprocal borrowing agreement.

Four libraries listed below, two each at two institutions (Pierce College and Clark College), specify that they lend to residents of their districts, but not to other members of the general public.  There is no map online of Pierce College's district, which I reached first, and I got onto a pretty high horse before I found out that there are maps of all the districts.  Unfortunately, none show both the boundaries and streets, so boundaries within urban areas (such as Pierce College's district's northern boundary, which broadly but not in detail follows the Tacoma city limits) remain a matter of guesswork.  (I'm picking less on Clark College because its boundaries are in less urban places, and it does provide a map.)  Anyway:  map, GIS, magnifiable (but not so as to show both boundaries and streets); map, PDF (1 page), not magnifiable.  It's entirely possible that other libraries listed below that offer to lend to "community members" without further specification actually mean district residents too.

This paragraph's main focus is what its heading says, but because whether an institution allows a visitor to use the campus computers and/or Wi-Fi is sometimes on the same page as borrowing rules, and in any event is still about the library's treatment of visitors, that's in this paragraph too.

Policies

As in the previous part of this page, and also a part of "Library Hours Six Months Later" about public libraries, I consistently pay attention to seven rules libraries often have, which I think homeless people are especially likely to violate.  I do this not to guide readers' misbehaviour in libraries, but as a rough estimate of the extent to which each library has dealt with homeless people over the years, and the extent of each library's hostility to them.  Many of these libraries' policy pages also refer to general campus rules; in those cases, I read those too.  (Fair warning:  Many of these campuses have something called a "Student Code of Conduct" online.  This usually consists entirely of a series of quotes from the Washington State Administrative Code, and is the same everywhere.  There are, however, exceptions to that sameness.)

The rules in question are:  hygiene rules; camping bans; sleeping bans; loitering bans; box rules (ostensible hard limits as to how much stuff a person is allowed to carry in); grooming bans; and, only added later, unattended property bans.  I take for granted that each library and each campus can in fact enforce each of these rules.  Loitering bans and box rules are usually, probably necessarily, very spottily enforced, which makes them "gotcha" rules whose primary purpose is to allow a staffer to manufacture a seemingly objective reason for ejecting someone; unattended property rules are also usually very spottily enforced, but in my (fairly copious) experience aren't used to eject people.  Anyway, what I'm interested in is whether the libraries or institutions have taken the trouble to write each one as an explicit policy, and why.

Eating

As in the previous part (but not in "Six Months Later"), I investigate where on each campus a visitor might be able to eat inside.  For multi-building campuses, this usually means looking for a student union; even campuses that don't call any building by that name often group food services with several other things (retail; student government; reservable space for meetings; student organisation offices) in ways strikingly reminiscent of the student union concept.  Because this is the first paragraph I research primarily at the institution's website rather than the library's (although I do report here the library's rules about eating), it's where I put the campus's location and distance from my house, and I also put here anything I find worth saying about the campus's academics, in cases where the next paragraph is missing.

Partners

Most of the (present or former) community colleges offer selected bachelor's degrees, but none offer those in anything like the range of topics their associate's degrees cover, nor in anything like the very different range of topics colleges and universities have traditionally offered.  So they have several ways to enable their students to transfer to traditional schools, mostly universities, after two years at the college.  I ignore "articulation agreements", the "Washington 45", and all other things which help students complete degrees physically at other campuses.

But a few of the colleges also or instead host programs offered by universities, usually Washington universities, whereby their graduates can earn bachelor's degrees physically primarily on the college's campus.  Since my focus is on the physical space of a campus, I consider these worth noting, as long as university personnel are actually teaching on the college campus (not just offering graduates of that campus online instruction).  As best I can tell without visiting each example, it's unusual for these programs to have their own libraries; I list two exceptions, libraries of Central Washington University, but otherwise just name the universities with appropriate links in this paragraph.  If I don't find any evidence of such universities, this paragraph is usually absent.

OK, now on to the libraries and campuses!

North Seattle College, Seattle

• Hours:  The North Seattle College Library is currently open 24 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In March 2015 it was open 64 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays and 1 P.M. Sundays, and closing at 9 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays, and 5 P.M. Sundays.  So it's 38% back to that schedule.  NSC's website lists "hours of operation" for every office, but doesn't have a compiled page or campus-wide "building hours" online.  Fall quarter ends December 15th; winter quarter begins January 3rd; campus will close at least December 17th, 18th, 20th to 22nd, 24th, 25th and 31st, and January 1st and 2nd; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the other eight days of the break.
• Borrowing:  This library considers itself a branch of the Seattle College Libraries, and allows students, faculty and staff of the Seattle Colleges to borrow, but not members of the general public.  Two of the library's eighteen computers are open to the public, with a one hour per day limit.  Campus Wi-Fi is available to the public only to reach Seattle Colleges pages (page 15 of 27-page PDF).
• Policies:  Their policies page doesn't clarify what constitutes "situations that present danger to the safety of persons or property, interfere with the rights of others, or constitute disturbing or inappropriate uses of the Library".  So they haven't chosen to enact explicit policies specifically problematic for homeless visitors.  I also didn't encounter any problems the one time I remember visiting while homeless.
• Eating:  Eating is allowed in the library.  The school, across I-5 from Northgate Mall, 1.64 miles from my house, definitely has a multi-building campus, but the only place to eat mentioned on a list of those buildings is a named dining room at the Health Sciences and Student Resources Building, and I don't know whether people on campus for the library may bring their own food and eat it there.
• Partners:  North Seattle College claims partnerships with Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, and Washington Technology University, but none of those universities' relevant, linked pages mention North Seattle College at this time.

Seattle Central College, Seattle

Main campus

• Hours:  The Seattle Central College Broadway Campus Library is currently open 34 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. Mondays through Thursdays and closing at 4 P.M. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6 P.M. Tuesdays.  In April 2019 it was open 61.75 hours per week, opening at 7:45 A.M. Mondays through Fridays, noon Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4:30 P.M. Fridays and 4 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 55% back to that schedule.  This campus has a compilation of individual buildings' hours; the building the library is in is first in the list, and I've used its restrooms earlier than the library's opening in the past, without incident.  Fall quarter ends December 15th; winter quarter begins January 3rd; campus is to close December 17th, 18th, 20th to 26th, and 31st, and January 1st and 2nd; the library appears to expect to be closed the remaining six days of break, but may just not have posted its hours yet.
• Borrowing:  The borrowing policy differs from NSC Library's, for all that they both understand themselves as branches of one system.  Again, students and "employees" of Seattle Colleges can borrow, but so can "Washington State community college students".  Still not the general public.  The facilities and access page says the public may use the computers for brief times for acceptable purposes; nothing is said about Wi-Fi, but more than one librarian over the years has told me that state law prohibits the school from offering Wi-Fi to the general public.  (I'm tolerably sure that isn't true, but it does suggest visitors aren't going to get Wi-Fi from librarians at this campus.)
• Policies:  Their policies page is clearer than NSC's:  "Disruptive behavior and conditions will not be permitted. Disruption includes disorderly conduct, noise or activity, offensive hygiene or appearance, whether intentional or inadvertent, that interferes with the rights of others, physical abuse, abusive or threatening language, and misuse of library resources and furnishings."  Offensive appearance?  I assume they actually mean things like clothing with too many holes in it, but it makes me wonder whether being really ugly would violate this policy. [1]  I visited this library fairly often early in my homelessness, when I lived on Capitol Hill where it is, although it wasn't one of my regular hangouts, because it didn't offer Wi-Fi and its book collection was inferior to those of Seattle Central Library and Seattle University's Lemieux Library, both of which did (and do) offer net access.  Back then I was usually cleaner than I usually was later, my clothes less ragged, but I visited several times later too (to this day it's near my storage unit), and was never upbraided.
• Eating:  Eating is forbidden in most of the library.  The school, 4.03 miles from my house, is significantly less sprawling than NSC, but still multi-building.  The building the library is in also hosts various food services, so I probably could've eaten there on my way to Central or Lemieux Libraries, but don't remember actually doing so, probably because the food services provide plates and napkins, and I normally didn't carry any.

[1] More seriously, that policy could be weaponised.  Most obviously in today's Seattle, a devout Muslim student with certain specific beliefs could complain that women's uncovered hair was offensive.

Elsewhere

See also the list late in this part labelled "The rest".

• SCC's Seattle Maritime Academy is, you'll remember, dear Diary, adjacent to the alleged Ballard Bridge Street End, 2.41 miles.  At the Academy's home page it says a new building contains a library, but assuming this to be true, that library isn't at all well documented online.  Furthermore, a further page, while giving general hours of 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. weekdays, also suggests the "new" building (actually opened in 2016!) is available for rent.  I have no idea whether that or any other building at the Seattle Maritime Academy is open to the public, but will try to check next time I'm down there.
• SCC's Seattle Vocational Institute, east of downtown in the Central District, 5.31 miles, seems to have closed in 2019 (Facebook link).

Shoreline Community College, Shoreline

• Hours: The Ray Howard Library is currently open 52.5 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays and closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4:30 P.M. Fridays.  In December 2019 it was open 63 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and noon Sundays, and closing at 7:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4:30 P.M. Fridays and 6 P.M. Sundays.  So it's 5/6ths, 83%, back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  Campus "Hours of Operation" are opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, and closing at 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 4:30 P.M. Fridays.  Maybe next quarter I'll hike up there and find out what happens when "building hours" end before library hours do.  Fall quarter ends December 15th; winter quarter begins January 9th; campus is to close December 24th to January 2nd; the library will be open, it says, December 19th to 23rd and January 3rd to 6th, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, and to 4:30 P.M. Fridays.
• Borrowing:  The library website doesn't say anything about who can borrow, nor about borrowing terms.  Much of the website (including its WiFi page) assumes it's being read only by students; I'm not actually certain from the website that the library is open to the public, although I visited it in 2014 (to read this book, which I'm amazed the library still owns).
• Policies:  The only thing even vaguely resembling a policy at the library website is a page about plagiarism, which refers to the school's policies.  So I went and looked at those, and they don't say much about specific behaviours.  They do make it clear, though, that the school is open to the public (until and unless we're barred from it).
• Eating:  I can't now find the page again, but I saw a note that eating is allowed in the library building (?) and in the student union building.  (Map; the multi-building school is 5.18 miles from my house in western Shoreline, not on the waterfront but near Aurora Square.)  The union's food services are currently closed Fridays, but I don't see any evidence that the union itself is.
• Partners:  This is the first of the minority of the schools in this list that max out at associate's degrees, but I don't find anything about university partners to enable earning a bachelor's degree at this campus.  However, the University of Washington claims to have a bachelor's degree location in Shoreline, and I'm not sure where else it could mean but Shoreline Community College.

Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Kirkland

• Hours: The Library Learning Commons is currently open 47.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays, closing at 6 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 1 P.M. Fridays.  In June 2019 it listed regular school year hours as 65.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 11 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  So it's 73% back to that schedule.  "Campus hours" are at the bottom of the school's home page, and are currently 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  Fall quarter ends December 10th; winter quarter begins January 9th; campus is to close December 23rd to January 2nd; the library will be open December 12th-16th, December 19th-22nd and January 3rd-6th, 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 7:30 A.M. to 1 P.M. Fridays.  I'm pleased to report that during winter quarter the library expects to be open until 6:30 P.M., Mondays through Thursdays.
• Borrowing:  All the library's policies are on a single page.  LWTech-affiliated people, Washington community college students, and faculty from the Lake Washington School District's Washington Network for Innovative Careers may borrow, but the general public may not.  The school's policies include this, buried within the IT policy (specifically 8.P.05):  "Certain IT assets are designated as public use, including the “LWIT” wireless network and computers designated by the library, and are available for personal use but not for commercial or illegal purposes."
• Policies:  Neither the library's policies nor the Student Conduct Code (see 5.P.99) mention any of the specific policies I think homeless people are likeliest to trip over.
• Eating:  This campus, just southeast of Totem Lake [2], 7.70 miles, isn't all that multi-building; there are three main ones.  The library is in the second and third floors of the Technology Center; all the places it looks like LWTech wants people to eat are on the first floor of the East Building, the part of it closest to the library.
• Partners:  LWTech only mentions Central Washington University as offering a bachelor's degree on-campus; CWU doesn't mention LWTech.

[2] Several private libraries are more or less near this campus, but in Redmond.  So I mentioned it as offering the nearest public restrooms to this library or that, but usually not realistically reachable from the library's location because the roads don't go through.

South Seattle College, Seattle

Main campus

• Hours: The South Seattle College Library is currently open 24 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In November 2019, it was open 54 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, and closing at 7:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays.  So it's 44% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  This campus has compiled its office hours into one page, with no master hours.  Fall quarter ends December 15th; winter quarter begins January 3rd; campus is to close at least December 17th, 18th, 20th to 22nd, 24th, 25th and 31st, and January 1st and 2nd; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the other eight days of break.
• Borrowing:  The library's policies are "currently under review".  And the Internet Archive didn't capture the pre-review ones.
• Policies:  See above.
• Eating:  See above, but, believe it or not, "Snacking is encouraged!", and there's a "Designated Eating and Drinking Area".  The campus, in eastern West Seattle across the Duwamish from Georgetown, 8.55 miles, is multi-building.  A poorly documented building called the Brockey Student Center, or Jerry M. Brockey Student Center, is next to the library.  I assume it's not unlike a student union, but nothing allows me to say more.

Elsewhere

• SSC's Harbor Island Training Center, 6.27 miles, would be a godsend if it weren't on a private company's property and at the far end of the island from Spokane St.  Sorry, but hiking between West Seattle and the rest of the city remains doable only by those blest with infrequent need for restrooms.
• SSC's Georgetown Campus, 9.22 miles, currently has a longer schedule than the main campus.  But it has a pretty stripped-down map (2-page PDF) and sounds pretty crowded.  Although the shortage of public restrooms in Georgetown might make things urgent, I doubt it's a good idea to look for them on that campus.
• SSC's NewHolly Learning Center, 9.56 miles, is only open eleven hours per week, Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Monday and Thursday evenings, so is a silly place to add to a mental map of public restrooms, except for people who already visit it for other reasons.

Edmonds College, Lynnwood

Main campus

• Hours: Edmonds College's Library is currently open 66 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, 1 P.M. weekends, and closing at 9 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 2 P.M. Fridays, and 5 P.M. weekends.  In February 2020 it opened at 7:30 A.M. weekdays, so it was open 68.5 hours per week, and is now 96% re-opened.  At this time, visitors to campus in general, including the library, are expected to fill out a COVID-19 attestation.  This seems now to be poorly documented online, but I think it consists of attesting that one has been vaccinated.  The reason it's now poorly documented is that they've already replaced relevant pages with ones announcing that come January, this rule will go away.  Edmonds College has a compilation of office hours, but not "building hours".  Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter begins January 3rd; campus is to close at least December 21st to 23rd, 26th, and January 2nd, and probably also December 24th, 25th and 31st, and January 1st; the library is to close December 10th to January 2nd.
• Borrowing:  The library definitely lends to current students, whose circulation policies are here.  It doesn't say whether it lends to faculty, staff, alumni, other community colleges' students, etc., let alone what their circulation policies might be.  It does sell cards to members of the community with photo ID showing current address, for $15 per year; it doesn't define "community".  It also lends to students at Edmonds School District high schools.  It doesn't provide circulation policies online for either group.  The library apparently has public access computers, labelled "express" so they probably can't be used long; campus WiFi is available to invited guests, but not to the rest of the public.  However, it's been possible in the past for members of the public to buy access both to computers and Wi-Fi for $50 per quarter; the relevant page is marked as no longer current as of June 2021, with no indication whether the program is to revive in future.
• Policies:  Neither the library's "Rules of Conduct" nor the college's "Student Code of Conduct" contain any of the rules I've been tracking as especially problematic for homeless people.
• Eating:  It's allowed in the library.  The campus in southwestern Lynnwood (a short way from Edmonds), 9.70 miles, is multi-building (2-page PDF), and the building most like a student union is probably Brier Hall, but I can't guess to what extent it's open to the public.
• Partners:  Only Central Washington University seems to offer classes at this campus, and it has its own library, next.

Elsewhere

• Edmonds College has two programs with the same address, which is within what my map treats as Paine Field in Everett, 16.40 miles, just as the programs' home pages say.

Central Washington University, Lynnwood

• Hours: Central Washington University's Lynnwood Library is currently open 30 hours per week, 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  The linked page actually gives hours for all CWU libraries, with a selector.  The Internet Archive only captured the university's main library's hours, and those not as often as it may have thought it was doing.  But as it happens, the actual current page retains years' worth of data, so I can tell you, dear Diary, that in February 2020 this CWU library was open 50 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. weekdays, and thus it's now back to 60% of its pre-pandemic schedule.  Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter begins January 4th; to the extent that the selector's forward data can be trusted, the library will be open by appointment only, Mondays through Thursdays, from December 9th to January 3rd (and not December 26th), but is then projected to open next quarter from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., which, if it really happens, will be a huge leap, not only doubling its current hours but significantly expanding its pre-pandemic hours.
• Borrowing:  This library doesn't belong to a present or former community college, and is outside the reciprocal borrowing agreement mentioned above.  CWU lends to community borrowers, with a fee of $25 per six months, but setting up one's account requires a trip to Ellensburg.  (Also, I don't find documented online whether there are ID requirements, let alone what they are.)  The Lynnwood Library's home page shows an image of an impressive number of books, but I strongly suspect the card isn't worth it unless one has both means and reason to be in Ellensburg often.  CWU libraries also lend to CWU students, faculty, staff, paying members of the CWU Alumni Association, and family members of CWU faculty and staff.  On the library's home page, CWU directs "Questions about access" to computers and Wi-Fi to Edmonds College.
• Policies:  CWU's policies list doesn't include anything I can understand as a list of general behaviour rules.
• Eating: I don't know the rules re eating in CWU's building on Edmonds College's campus.  However, Brier Hall is almost as near that building as it is near the college library's building.

Bellevue College, Bellevue

Main campus

• Hours: Bellevue College's Library Media Center is currently open 45 hours per week, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  In October 2019 it was open 66 hours per week, opening at 7 A.M. weekdays and 1 P.M. Sundays, closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 P.M. Fridays and Sundays.  So it's 68% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  Bellevue College doesn't appear to do "building hours" online.  Fall quarter ends December 8th; winter quarter starts January 3rd; campus is to be closed December 21st to 27th and January 2nd; I think it'll probably also be closed December 31st and January 1st; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the remaining fifteen days of break.
  
• Borrowing:  The library lends only to students and staff.  On the other hand, at the bottom of a "Using the LMC" page, there's this about Wi-Fi:  "BC network: open & unsecured, no login required".  I haven't found anything about use of the library's computers.
  
• Policies:  The library's "Community Standards & Appropriate Use" (5-page PDF) includes, of the policies I consider likely to be problematic for homeless visitors, none, but this is what I imagine unattended property rules looked like everywhere, decades ago:  "Library users who choose to leave things behind while in the library do so at their own risk. The Bellevue College Library is not responsible for lost or stolen items."
• Eating:  Eating and drinking are allowed in the library, but on a "leave no trace" basis.  The campus, 10.46 miles, near the Eastgate cloverleaf, is multi-building.  The library is in the D building; in the adjacent C building, which appears somewhat student union-like, there's a cafeteria and other places to eat and drink.
• Partners:  A partnership with Eastern Washington University is acknowledged by both schools, but I'm not aware of this giving rise to additional libraries on campus.

Elsewhere

• My best guess is that North Campus, directly north of South Campus, near Overlake, 8.93 miles, is a single building, and I don't know whether it's open to the public.  It doesn't appear to include a library.

Olympic College, Bremerton

Main campus

• Hours: Olympic College's Haselwood Library is currently open 48 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays and closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and at 5 P.M. Fridays.  In January 2020 it was open 65.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and 4 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's back to 73% of its pre-pandemic schedule.  Campus hours are 6 A.M. to 11 P.M. "seven days per week except for state holidays and emergency closures".  Fall term ends (1-page PDF) December 9th; winter term begins January 3rd; no closure dates have been announced, but December 25th and 26th and January 1st and 2nd can be interpreted as state holidays; the library hasn't posted hours or closure notice for break.
• Borrowing:  Olympic College lends to current Olympic College students, faculty and staff, and offers "Community Patron accounts", with borrowing privileges, to residents of Kitsap and Mason counties, students at other Washington community colleges (even mentioning the "reciprocal agreement"), enlisted military stationed in Kitsap County, or students "enrolled with one of our university partners".  All of these people can get a computer account with a photo ID, but must also prove a "current physical address" to get borrowing privileges.  Either way, they don't get access to the Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  The Conduct in the Library page includes no rules homeless people are especially likely to have problems with.
• Eating:  Eating in the library is prohibited.  This is a multi-building campus, northwest of the ferry landing and Kitsap Regional Library's Downtown Bremerton branch, 15.92 miles.  The Bremer Student Center is a short walk away from the library.
• Partners:  Olympic College lists four university partners, two of which offer physical classes in Bremerton:  Western Washington University and Washington State University (the links are to specific programs whose pages at the universities' sites mention classes in Bremerton).  WWU actually also offers a master's degree in Bremerton.  Neither supports those programs with a library documented online.

Elsewhere

• Olympic College's map has a tab that shows seven "Other Locations".  One is a "Naval Apprenticeship Program" apparently not documented at the school's website, so I don't have its address.  It's at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, part of Naval Base Kitsap in downtown Bremerton, probably a little closer than 15.92 miles.
• Five of the "Other Locations" are "Cooperative Preschool"s also not documented at Olympic's website.  Four are actually closer to the Poulsbo campus, one to the Shelton one, but I don't figure there are actually public restrooms at any of them, and I do figure the program's headquarters are more likely to be in Bremerton than in Poulsbo.

Olympic College, Poulsbo

Main campus

• Hours: Olympic College's Poulsbo Library doesn't have distinctive pages of its own (except a page about the library's history).  It's currently open 52.5 hours per week, 8 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. weekdays.  Olympic College has for several years now offered its library hours through a selector which the Internet Archive does a poor job of capturing, so I can only compare those hours with ones from March 2015, when it was open 71.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays, 8 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 9 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and 4 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 73% back to that schedule.  (The hours are for the "computer lab".  As we've seen, homeless people with photo IDs can get computer accounts, so they can use that lab, but also, any time the lab is open, presumably the restrooms are too.  Library staff hours, which may also be the hours for book access and may conceivably be the only hours open to the public, have always been shorter, 12 per week now, 27.5 in 2015, so 44% back.)  The Poulsbo campus hours are on the campus's home page:  7:30 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, to 5 P.M. Fridays.  The academic calendar is as for the Bremerton campus just above.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for the Bremerton location above.
• Eating:  This is a two-building campus in northwestern Poulsbo, 16.51 miles, and the building the library is in is much the larger, so it also holds the "Student Commons", which I'm guessing is the indoor place to eat on that campus.
• Partners:  Only Western Washington University, of Olympic College's partners, actually teaches classes at the Poulsbo campus; the first link is to a WWU class timetable page for the current quarter showing specific classes being taught there.  I made a note (probably based on the college's about page, which implies that Olympic College's bachelor's degrees are only available at the Bremerton campus) that Poulsbo only offers associate's degrees, but this quarter's class schedule includes so many online classes that I'm really not confident saying that.  Regardless, bachelor's degrees can certainly be earned at Poulsbo by transferring to WWU there.

Elsewhere

• The Olympic College map lists among "Other Locations" a "Physical Therapist Assistant Classroom" in southern Poulsbo, 15.14 miles, a block from Kitsap Regional Library's Poulsbo branch, which probably has the nearest public restrooms if the "classroom" isn't open to the public. 

Highline College, Des Moines

Main campus

• Hours: Highline College's Library is currently open 45 hours per week, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  In September 2015 it was open 84 hours per week, opening at 7 A.M. weekdays, 9 A.M. Saturdays and 2 P.M. Sundays, and closing at 9 P.M. Sundays through Fridays and 4 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 54% re-opened to that schedule.  Highline doesn't seem to have "building hours" online.  Fall quarter ends December 16th; winter quarter begins January 9th; I'm not sure when campus is to close, but certainly December 26th, at least; the library will close from December 17th to January 2nd, and then resume its current schedule.
• Borrowing:  The library keeps all its policies on one page.  Members of the public with "current photo identification" may get a Public Borrower's card and borrow items, but may only hang onto those items for three days.  (It's three weeks for Highline-affiliated people.)  Card holders may also use the computers.  I don't know whether members of the public, with or without cards, may use the Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  Again, nothing I see as meant to trip homeless people.  (See the part of the policies page labelled "Library Disruptions".)
• Eating:  Allowed.  The multi-building campus (2-page PDF) in central Des Moines, 19.88 miles, does have a student union, not far from the library, but most of its eateries are closed.
• Partners:  Only Central Washington University seems to offer classes at this campus, and it has its own library, next.

Elsewhere

• Highline's Marine Science and Technology Center is at the southern tip of Des Moines, 22.55 miles.  The single building includes an aquarium open from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. Saturdays, free.  I'm not sure whether the building is open the rest of the week, but there are public restrooms at Redondo Beach, a short way southwest along the water.
• Highline, UW-Tacoma, the City of Federal Way, and the Federal Way Public Schools jointly support a single-building campus in Federal Way, just south of the Federal Way Commons mall, 25.21 miles, called The Hub.  It's currently open 32 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays, closing at 4 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 1 P.M. Fridays.

Central Washington University, Des Moines

• Hours: Central Washington University's Des Moines Library, on Highline College's campus, is currently open 28 hours per week, 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In February 2020 (again, CWU libraries' pre-pandemic hours can be reached just by clicking back from current hours) it was open 50 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. weekdays, so it's 56% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter begins January 4th; to the extent that the selector's forward data can be trusted, the library will be open by appointment only, Mondays through Thursdays, from December 9th to January 3rd (and not December 26th), but in winter quarter will return to the schedule from fall quarter.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for Central Washington University's Lynnwood Library, up this page.
• Eating:  One of the eateries closed on Highline College's main campus is in this building, so I'm quite sure there's a space in it where it's acceptable to eat.  It's also only a little farther from Highline College's student union than Highline's library is.

Everett Community College, Everett

Main campus

• Hours: The Everett Community College John Terrey Library Media Center is currently open 43 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 6 P.M. Mondays, 4:30 P.M. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 2 P.M. Saturdays.  In October 2019 it was open 62.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays, and 2 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 69% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  I don't find EvCC doing "building hours".  Fall quarter appears to end (2-page PDF) December 8th; winter quarter appears to begin January 3rd; campus is to close December 19th to 26th and January 2nd; the library says on its home page that it closes for all breaks.
• Borrowing:  The library lends to current students, current and retired employees, some current contractors and volunteers, and current students at other Washington community colleges except Cascadia College.  It also lends to "community members", without defining that term, who register for a Borrower's Card by paying $22 per year and showing driver license, ID or passport.  The policy for community borrowers notes that they don't get access to additional computers beyond the "stand-up internet stations", which I take as implying that those are available for the general public too.  I don't find anything about Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  The library itself doesn't have any behaviour-related policies; that page also links to school policies, of which I read "Prohibited Student Conduct" (8-page PDF), which lists none of the rules I've been following, although at the very least sleeping and grooming rules could be justified on the basis of less-specific rules in the document.  However, it appears that students can get into trouble for doing Number One in public, so it's possible that others known to do that (probably a substantial percentage of homeless men in the area) could be in trouble with the school (and hence the library) too.  (See page 2, item 8a.)
• Eating:  Since the library doesn't have any behaviour-related policies, it doesn't say one way or the other whether eating inside it is OK, but, I mean, really:  the library is on the first floor of the student union, so why bother eating inside the library?  And yes, that means the campus, in northern Everett, 23.58 miles, is multi-building.
• Partners:  Everett Community College still offers only associate's degrees, and unlike Shoreline Community College, isn't within the same county as a raft of traditional schools.  So EvCC imports them.  The Everett University Center on the periphery of campus, which I mentioned already in part I of this page, currently advertises four universities on its home page:  Washington State University and Western Washington University, each with a bunch of programs; and Eastern Washington University and the University of Washington, each with one program.  WWU and EWU are currently listed as offering master's degrees there.  WSU, WWU, EWU and UW all confirm these claims, too.  I'm not aware of any of these schools keeping a library there, though.  Also, although EUC now has a banner at the top of its home page saying "In-person learning is back!", the bottom of the page still says "The physical campus is currently closed to in-person visits as a precaution during the pandemic."  That sounds like the building is only open to those affiliated with the schools within it, and it's likely to remain so indefinitely, but maybe I'm wrong.

Elsewhere

Everett Community College has eight off-campus locations, plus one more recently closed.  So I'm partly grouping them, geographically.  Four, inside high schools, probably don't provide public restrooms.  All the distances are from the alternate distance calculator.

• The biggest group is three in southwestern Everett, near Paine Field.  EvCC's Aviation Maintenance Technology two-building campus is on Paine Field, a few blocks further in than Edmonds College's location there, 16.33 miles.  EvCC apparently uses the building of Sno-Isle Tech High School, off the field northeast of there, 17.00 miles; the school is adjacent to Everett's Kasch Memorial Park, which has public restrooms.  Finally, EvCC's Corporate and Continuing Education Center building is still further north, 17.84 miles.
• EvCC's East County Campus hasn't re-opened yet from the pandemic, according to a May 2022 story in EvCC's student newspaper, which said that even though it was just part of a single building, it offered nearly full educational opportunities (no labs).  EvCC says it's evaluating its options; maybe its lease has expired (the campus opened in 2010) and it hopes to get its own building.  Northwest Monroe, 20.02 miles, nearest public restrooms Monroe's Lake Tye Park, south.
• EvCC's Ocean Research College Academy is a combined high school and community college in a building on Everett's north waterfront, 21.75 miles.  The whole area around there (including that building) seems to be owned by the Port of Everett, so there's a decent chance of public restrooms somewhere, but if all else fails, EvCC's main campus probably has the next nearest.
• EvCC has some sort of presence in the Tulalip Tribes Higher Education buildings, in a cluster of Tulalip government buildings on the north shore of Tulalip Bay, 27.07 miles.  If there isn't a public restroom among those, I have no clue where to find one anywhere near there.
• EvCC has two locations near the eastern edge of the reservation.  One is in at least one building in an area on the reservation where at least four names for high schools are attested.  EvCC thinks it's in the "Marysville Arts and Technology High School".  Google swears I should be looking for "Marysville Mountain View High School".  Marysville School District 25 actually has pages for Legacy High School and for Tulalip Heritage High School.  They all have the same address, 27.21 miles, nearest public restrooms maybe Marysville's Comeford Park, southeast across I-5.  The other location, in Marysville proper, is probably more public, EvCC's School of Cosmetology building, rather further north, 28.89 miles.
• EvCC offers manufacturing-related classes at Weston High School, in southern Arlington, 33.73 miles.  It's apparently meant as a starting point for a real North County Campus.  Nearest public restrooms, probably Arlington Municipal Airport, northeast; if not, Arlington's Bill Quake Memorial Park, further northeast.

Green River College, Auburn

Main campus

• Hours:  Green River College's Holman Library is currently open 72.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 2 P.M. weekends, and closing at 9 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 6 P.M. Fridays through Sundays.  In December 2019 it was open 79 hours per week, opening at 7 A.M. weekdays and closing at 10 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  So it's 92% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  Auburn Center building hours are 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  Fall quarter ends December 8th; winter quarter appears to begin January 3rd; campus is to close December 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 24th-26th, and 31st-January 2nd; the library expects to close the entire break (see the bottom of this page).
• Borrowing:  Holman Library has a long page about circulation that other college libraries should emulate.  Students, staff and faculty may borrow, and so may community members ("community" undefined) who pay $5 once to get their library cards made.  Students and the public have more restrictive terms than faculty and staff.  The public may use "library research computers" which appear to have a pretty crippling, possibly .edu-only, firewall.  The GRCWIFI page says "Guests" can use it, but I don't see anything specific to them, so am pretty sure that doesn't mean the whole public.
• Policies:  I don't see anything in the library's policies about behaviour, and in the Student Code of Conduct (33-page PDF) nothing about the specific behaviours that I think get homeless people in trouble with librarians.
• Eating:  Again, I don't know the library's official policy, if there is one.  But the campus in eastern Auburn, 25.85 miles, is multi-building, and Holman Library is across a street from Mel Lindbloom Student Union.

Elsewhere

• Green River's Kent Campus, although only part of a large building in downtown Kent, 20.53 miles, is billed as offering credit classes towards associate's, and one bachelor's, degrees.  I don't know whether any degrees can be earned entirely at this campus, though.  Its "Hours of Operation" are weekdays 7:30 A.M. to 5 P.M.  Holman Library offers delivery to it, so I'm betting it doesn't have its own library.
• Green River's Enumclaw Campus is much less seriously described, more as a showing of the flag of higher education than as a place for pursuing a degree.  Its "Hours of Operation" are Mondays to Thursdays, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.  It's one building on its own block, kitty-corner from Enumclaw City Hall, 36.11 miles, and it also gets deliveries from Holman Library.

Bates Technical College, Tacoma

• Hours: The Bates Technical College Library's Downtown branch is currently open 40 hours per week, 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. weekdays.  In June 2019 it was open 33.5 hours per week, open 8:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. and 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, and 10 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. and 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. Fridays.  So it's re-opened to 119% of that schedule.  I'm not sure whether a page giving college business hours as 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. is actually stating "building" or "campus hours" or not.  Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter starts January 3rd; I have no idea when the campus is to close, except December 25th and January 1st; the library says it closes for all breaks.
• Borrowing:  Bates Technical College Library is the first library in this part to acknowledge that staff as well as students of reciprocal borrowing agreement institutions are allowed to borrow from it; in other words, the first one whose online descriptions of its circulation policies get the agreement exactly right.  (Modulo Cascadia College, anyway.)  The public, however, is not allowed to borrow.  I don't find anything about public access to computers or Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  Library policies are on the last pages of a 107-page PDF, and include nothing explicit about user behaviour, except to say that "The use of the library or its services may be denied for due cause. Such causes may include failure to comply with library policies, procedures and rules, the loss or destruction of library property, disturbance of other library users, or any objectionable conduct in the library."  (Emphasis added.)  The other chapters of the policy PDF mention all kinds of unacceptable behaviours - harassment, discrimination, smoking, you name it - but not those I see homeless people as especially likely to engage in.
• Eating:  The library policies don't say anything about it.  The campus is a single large building, on its own block in downtown Tacoma, 29.80 miles.  Unfortunately, the maps and directions page offers only parking maps of two of the three campuses.  The Cascade Room and the Culinary Arts Innovation Café at this campus's address appear to be restaurants, but maybe there are humbler eating spaces too, where a bag lunch wouldn't be out of place.  Wikipedia told me the campuses specialise in different things, and so it is:  This campus mainly offers office and medical programs, though with a scattering of others (including Culinary Arts).  The entire college maxes out at associate's degrees.

Bates Technical College, Tacoma

• Hours: The Bates Technical College Library's Central branch seems not to have existed before the pandemic, or indeed until fall quarter 2021.  It's currently open 32 hours per week, 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  Building hours and academic calendar are as for the Downtown campus above.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for the Downtown branch immediately above.
• Eating:  The college's Central (or Mohler) Campus is at least two buildings in central Tacoma, 30.60 miles.  It only opened in 2016 (YouTube link).  I assume there's at least one place to eat in however many buildings there are, but my Google fu isn't good enough to find it.  This campus's specialty ranges from engineering through IT to broadcasting and video; the college's radio station is based there.

Tacoma Community College, Tacoma

Main campus

• Hours: Tacoma Community College's TCC Library is currently open 48.75 hours per week, 7:15 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  In January 2020, it was open 67.75 hours per week, opening at 7:15 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  So it's re-opened to 72% of its pre-pandemic schedule.  I don't find "building hours" or the like for this school.  Fall quarter ends December 15th; winter quarter starts January 4th; supposedly campus is only closed December 23rd and 26th and January 2nd, but I doubt it'll be open those two weekends either; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the remaining twelve days of break.
• Borrowing:  TCC Library lends to students and, as part of a giant policy page, notes that it lends to community members.  I'm not sure what faculty and staff are supposed to do; the reciprocal borrowing agreement isn't mentioned.  Borrowers' cards are $5 per quarter or $20 per year, and appear to be specifically for books, not the other things the library lends.  Lending terms are described on another tab of the students' borrowing page and appear not to be differentiated by category of borrower.  Visitors may use the computers after 2 P.M. and may use the Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  Nothing the giant policy page mentions has to do with the topics I've been tracking.
• Eating:  Only "light snacks" are allowed in the library, not "Meals or messier foods".  Pierce Transit routes many buses from downtown Tacoma to the west Pierce County cities through this campus in western Tacoma, 30.91 miles.  It has a multitude of buildings (1-page PDF), of which the only one that seems to have indoor eating is building 11, essentially a student union, adjacent to the library's building 7; note that both sources of food mentioned are currently closed Fridays.

Elsewhere

• TCC appears to have only one outpost, in south central Gig Harbor, 27.52 miles.  The linked page suggests that students can complete associate's, but not bachelor's, degrees there.  The borrowing page linked above says (tab labelled "Gig Harbor") TCC Library delivers materials there, which implies the single-building campus doesn't have its own library.

Bates Technical College, Tacoma

• Hours:  The Bates Technical College Library's South branch is currently open 35 hours per week, 10:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. weekdays.  In June 2019 it was open 35 hours per week, open 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. and 1:30 P.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, and 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. Fridays.  So it's re-opened to 100% of that schedule, though to very different hours.  Building hours and calendar are as for the Downtown campus above.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for the Downtown branch not far above.
• Eating: The campus is in southwestern Tacoma, a couple of blocks from Lakewood, 34.37 miles.  It has five lettered buildings and a bunch of smaller ones, but I don't find anywhere to eat.  This campus's programs are mostly blue collar, though with firefighter training and education/child care training mixed in.

Clover Park Technical College, Lakewood

Main campus

• Hours: Clover Park Technical College's CPTC Library/Learning Resource Center is currently open 45 hours per week, 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. weekdays.  In February 2020 it was open 47.5 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. Mondays and Tuesdays and 7:30 A.M. Wednesdays through Fridays, and closing at 4:30 P.M. weekdays except Wednesdays and 8 P.M. Wednesdays.  So it's 95% back to its pre-pandemic total hours. CPTC has a compilation of office hours but not "building hours". Fall quarter classes end December 12th, and break appears to begin December 14th; winter quarter starts January 3rd; the college is closed December 23rd to January 2nd; the library treats fall quarter as ending December 15th, but hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the remaining five weekdays between the end of classes and the beginning of the next quarter.
• Borrowing:  CPTC Library's borrowing page clearly enunciates the reciprocal borrowing agreement, including faculty and staff, so it's the second library in this part to get that right.  But the fact that members of the public are allowed to borrow materials is hidden on page 5 of the library's Policy Manual (15-page PDF).  There's no charge, but ID and proof of current address are required.  Students are allowed use of the library's Wi-Fi; the public is not; no word about faculty and staff (page 7). Apparently the public may use pretty much any computers, but I'm only inferring this from negative statements: "Public users who fail to return items...will lose all Library privileges including computer use" (page 5) and "CPTC students, faculty and staff have priority for computer use over public users." (page 7)
• Policies:  "Library staff is not responsible for the security of personal belongings. Personal items must not impede movement of others or be a safety hazard."  (Policy Manual page 11.)  Unattended property rule and box rule in their ancestral, not so clearly anti-homeless, forms.  I didn't find anything else even remotely like the rules of concern to me in the Code of Student Conduct or the college's policies and procedures page.
• Eating:  Snacks aren't allowed in substantial parts of the library, and meals aren't allowed in any of it.  (Policy Manual page 11.)  The campus in eastern Lakewood is multi-building (1-page PDF); the library is in building 15, northeast of building 23, which holds a café among other signs that it's the equivalent of a student union.  (There's also an "upscale" restaurant in building 31, further west.  But I'm pretty sure bag lunches are more likely to be welcome in building 23.)

Elsewhere

• CPTC has a campus in unincorporated South Hill, Pierce County, just south of Pierce County Airport (Thun Field), 38.88 miles.  The single-building campus's map (1-page PDF) is all business, making me dubious whether much of the campus, devoted to the college's School of Aerospace and Aviation, is actually open to the public.  A small room far from the building's lobby is mapped as "Technical Library".  I find no more information about this library online.  Near it is a single restroom; in another area also deep within the building are two gendered restrooms.  If all else fails, the airport is public, and may have public restrooms.

Pierce College, Puyallup

Main campus

• Hours: Pierce College's Library in Puyallup is currently open 47 hours per week, opening at 8:30 A.M. weekdays, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 1:30 P.M. Fridays.  In November 2019 it was open 64.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 3 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  So it's 73% back to its pre-pandemic schedule. Campus hours are given on the maps page as 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays. Fall quarter appears to end December 14th; winter quarter appears to start January 4th; campus is closed December 17th, 18th, 21st-26th, and 31st, and January 1st and 2nd; the library expects to close December 16th to January 3rd, according not to its hours page but an old borrowing page.
• Borrowing:  Pierce College Library's new borrowing page is long, copiously detailed, and nevertheless manages not to be comprehensive.  It has a definitions section so precise that it contradicts the community colleges' reciprocal borrowing agreement, but it ends that section by saying that it doesn't mean to break its agreements.  It neither states how many items Pierce College staff may check out, nor states that there is no limit.  It doesn't mention the reciprocal borrowing agreement Pierce College elsewhere claims to have with Evergreen State College.  I like pages that are informative and carefully written, but not when the careful writing ties the writer in knots and the information is flagrantly incomplete; so I found this page extremely annoying.  But it does cover completely the terms under which it lends to "Residents of the Pierce College District 11 service area", which requires a photo ID. The "Procedure for Acceptable Use of Computer Information System Resources" says "Users are granted access and privileges to CISR according to their role", and one of the roles it names is "community member/guest". So there may be computers on campus, possibly even at the library, that members of the public are allowed to use. I'm not sure any member of the public has ever asked to use Wi-Fi at Pierce College, to judge by the pages my searches found.
• Policies:  The Puyallup branch Code of Conduct includes, of the rules I track, only an unattended property rule:  "Personal belongings: Keep items with you at all times! The library is not responsible for lost or stolen items and will take unattended items to Campus Safety. If it’s valuable to you, it’s valuable to others."  Relatively aggressive by the standards of these colleges, but not as bad as the Puyallup Public Library's.
• Eating:  Allowed "only at the tables near the library entrance."  The campus, in southeastern Puyallup, 35.85 miles, is multi-building (1-page PDF).  The College Center building, across a courtyard from the library's Brouillet Building, includes a "dining commons" which may be large enough that one can eat a bag lunch there and not have to buy from the cafeteria.

Elsewhere

Pierce College has four outposts, none of which strike me as likely to have public restrooms.  Both of those in high schools are closer to the Puyallup campus.

• Pierce College teaches general education classes in a "portable" on the campus of Spanaway Lake High School, in unincorporated Spanaway, Pierce County, 39.64 miles.  Nearest public restrooms, probably Pierce County's Spanaway Park, northwest.
• It also teaches similar courses in Graham-Kapowsin High School, in unincorporated Graham, Pierce County, 42.92 miles.  Nearest public restrooms, probably Pierce County's Frontier Park, west.

Pierce College, Lakewood

Main campus

• Hours: Pierce College's Fort Steilacoom Library in Lakewood is currently open 47 hours per week, opening at 8:30 A.M. weekdays, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 1:30 P.M. Fridays.  In November 2019 it was open 65.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays and 3 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 72% back to its pre-pandemic schedule.  Campus hours and academic calendar are as for the Puyallup campus above.
  
• Borrowing:  As for the Puyallup branch just above.
• Policies:  This library has its own policy page, but the only policy I track that it includes is the same unattended property ban as at the Puyallup campus's library.
• Eating:  Allowed "only on the non-carpeted areas of the library". The campus, in western Lakewood, 36.62 miles, is multi-building (1-page PDF), but the Oppelt Student Center is attached to the library's Cascade building, and the cafeteria is in the Cascade building.
• Partners:  The library's awful borrowing page specifies that "students currently registered at ... Central Washington University at Pierce College" have student borrowing privileges.  That's considerably kinder than the page the college has on CWU, which is a bare list of links.  CWU, on the other hand, seems to think this partnership is going great.  Beats me.

Elsewhere 

Pierce College has two outposts at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, both of which are at familiar addresses, and neither of which, I trust, offer public restrooms.

• One is in McChord Field, at the address of the McChord Library, 38.81 miles.
• The other is at the address of the Grandstaff and Book Patch Children's libraries, on Fort Lewis, 42.01 miles.

Skagit Valley College, Oak Harbor

Main campus

• Hours:  Skagit Valley College's SVC Libraries' Whidbey Island Campus branch is currently open 35 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays, closing at 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and noon Fridays.  In February 2020, it was open 44 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 A.M. Fridays, closing at 6 P.M. Mondays and Wednesdays, 8 P.M. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 2 P.M. Fridays.  So it's now open 80% as many hours as before the pandemic. SVC has a compilation of links to offices rather than "building hours". Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter starts January 4th; I haven't found any planned campus closure dates; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the break.
• Borrowing:  SVC Libraries lend to students, faculty and staff, and to "Students at other Washington State community & technical colleges and Western Washington University".  Their reciprocal borrowing page, though also student-specific, adds Northwest Indian College.  They also lend, for an annual fee of $20, to community members "in Skagit, Island, or San Juan Counties".  I can't tell whether "in" stands for "residing in", or is deliberately vague so as to bring in other criteria public libraries use, such as working in or owning property in the area. I can't find anything about public use of the computers or Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  None of those I see as specifically problematic for homeless visitors.
• Eating:  Not allowed in the library.  The campus is in southeastern Oak Harbor, in a small coastal carve-out from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, 44.76 miles.  The campus is multi-building but not vast, and part of it is occupied by Sno-Isle Libraries' Oak Harbor branch.  To judge by the college's website, my Google searches on the names of each building, and Google Maps on the area, Skagit Valley students don't actually eat (unlike all other college students I've ever heard of), so I'm having trouble finding out whether visitors to the Whidbey Island campus can eat inside anywhere on or near campus.  Even on Google Maps, the campus is pretty isolated not only from restaurants but from practically all other advertisers, but I gather Whidbey Island does have food in some places, far enough away from the campus to avoid offending the students' noses.

Elsewhere

• Skagit Valley College has a Web page devoted to the Early Childhood Education & Assistance Program, which appears to be a chain of child care facilities, three on Whidbey Island (Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley) and one on Fidalgo Island (Anacortes).  The headquarters north of the Whidbey Island Campus, 45.55 miles, is shown on the Whidbey Island Campus map.  (Maps seem to conflict over whether those headquarters are in Oak Harbor or in unincorporated Island County.)  I think it's a safe bet there aren't any public restrooms associated with this program.  There are reputedly public restrooms at the North Whidbey Pool, Park, and Recreation District's Clover Valley Park, northwest, but NWPPRD neglected to mention them, so I think someone who's near those headquarters should instead try to hold it until they reach the Whidbey Island Campus, much further southeast.
• Also mapped on the Whidbey Island map, a location that's actually slightly nearer the Mount Vernon campus:  the Marine Technology Center, which doesn't seem to have a Web page of its own.  It's in the same building as the Northwest Career and Technical Academy high school in Anacortes, 59.08 miles, so I'm not at all confident there are any public restrooms there either.  Nearest public restrooms, quite possibly the Anacortes Public Library, some ways northwest.
• The place listed third on SVC's locations page, presumably because it's the next place to get a full campus whenever that's possible, is the San Juan Center.  Two of SVC's three bachelor's degrees are primarily online programs, so I'm not sure why SVC claims associate's degrees are as high as students can go at this site.  It's co-located with the Washington State University Extension for San Juan County, in what I gather [3] is southwestern Friday Harbor near the airport, 66.87 miles, so I don't see any child-related reason there shouldn't be public restrooms there; but in case I'm wrong, the airport, northeast, is public.

[3] The only western Washington county my current set of maps, all in one series, shows none of is San Juan.  I suspect I'd need to buy the Victoria, B.C. map from that series to get a map of those islands.

Olympic College, Shelton

• Hours: Olympic College's Johnson Library doesn't have distinctive pages of its own (except a page about the library's history).  It's currently open 15 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. Mondays through Wednesdays.  Olympic College has for several years now offered its library hours through a selector which the Internet Archive does a poor job of capturing, so I can only compare those hours with ones from March 2015, when it was open 29.5 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays, and closing at 4 P.M. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 P.M. Wednesdays, and 1 P.M. Fridays.  So it's 51% back to the number of hours it was open then.  The Shelton campus hours are on the campus's home page:  7 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  The academic calendar is as for the Bremerton campus way above.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for the Bremerton branch way above.
  
• Eating:  The campus in northern Shelton, 47.78 miles, is multi-building but not large, and hosts a child care center and a high school too.  However, the Palmer Student Center isn't far from Johnson Library.
• Partners:  None of Olympic College's university partners teach in Shelton, and the campus's home page strongly suggests that associate's degrees are the limit there.

Skagit Valley College, Mount Vernon

Main campus

• Hours:  Skagit Valley College's SVC Libraries' Mount Vernon Campus Norwood Cole branch is currently open 37 hours per week, opening at 9 A.M. weekdays, closing at 4 P.M. Mondays and Thursdays, 7 P.M. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and noon Fridays.  In February 2020 (click on the tab labelled "MV hours") it was open 57 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 P.M. Fridays.  So it's re-opened to 65% of its pre-pandemic schedule. "Building hours" and academic calendar are as for the Whidbey Island Campus above.
• Borrowing and Policies:  As for the Whidbey Island Campus branch above.
• Eating:  Not allowed in the library, but out of consideration for non-Skagit Valley people who actually eat, it's allowed in the building lobby.  The campus in northern Mount Vernon, 52.55 miles, is rather more multi-building (1-page PDF) than the Whidbey Island one, and the Knutzen Cardinal Center, near the library building, has a café, too, one of several elements that lead me to see it as sort of a student union.

Elsewhere

• The Cardinal Craft Brewing Academy is in unincorporated Skagit County, near the Skagit Regional Airport, 55.22 miles, and since the SVC locations page indicates that it's only open four hours per week, the (public) airport is probably a much better place to look for restrooms (as well as a place less likely to make the visitor need a restroom).

South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia

Main campus

• Hours: South Puget Sound Community College's SPSCC Library is currently open 47.5 hours per week, 7:30 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  A July 2017 capture appears to show regular year hours, 63.5 per week:  opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and 2 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 75% re-opened to that schedule. SPSCC has a compilation of building hours rather than "campus hours". Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter begins January 9th; the only announced campus closure date is December 26th; the library expects to close December 8th to January 8th.
• Borrowing:  The library lends to SPSCC students, faculty and staff.  "Community members", not otherwise defined, may borrow books and magazines by showing a "photo ID with current address". "Community users" may also use the computers, when no students want them; the library says this is most common after 2 P.M., but unused computers may be used at any time. I don't find anything about public use of the Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  The library doesn't have a lot of behavioural policies; it points to college policies, but I didn't find there, either, any of the policies I consider homeless people especially likely to have problems with.
• Eating:  "Neat snacks" are allowed, but not "smelly food"; "leave no trace".  The campus in southwest Olympia, 53.00 miles, which maxes out at associate's degrees, is multi-building, there's a coffee shop in the library's building, and the student union isn't far south.

Elsewhere

SPSCC offers, without itemisation, college credit programs "at high schools all over Thurston County", and without addresses, high school completion programs "on the Nisqually, Squaxin Island and Skokomish reservations" and (again without itemisation) elsewhere.  It also has three more fully described outlying locations:

• The Lacey campus is at the western edge of Lacey, 49.64 miles.  It's described as a "full service campus", but only gets library service by delivery.  Its map looks like it's all business; nearest public restrooms, probably Timberland Regional Library's Lacey branch, east.
• The Craft Brewing and Distilling Center in northeast Tumwater, 54.39 miles, isn't clearly open to the public, though it shares its building with Heritage Distilling Company which clearly is.  Nearest open restrooms, Olympia Tumwater Foundation's Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls, north.
• Evening programs at Yelm High School in northwest Yelm, 55.88 miles, are meant to become the beginning of a real campus in southeast Thurston County.  In the meantime, nearest public restrooms, probably Yelm City Hall, southeast; if that isn't open, Yelm City Park and the Timberland Regional Library's Yelm branch aren't much further in that direction.

Peninsula College, Port Angeles

Main campus

• Hours:  The Peninsula College Library (which the 2009 book calls the John D. Glann Library) is currently open 43 hours per week, opening at 10 A.M. Mondays and 8 A.M. Tuesdays through Fridays, and closing at 5 P.M. weekdays.  In March 2017 it was open 50 hours per week, opening at 11 A.M. Mondays and 8 A.M. Tuesdays through Fridays, and closing at 5 P.M. Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 9 P.M. Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So it's re-opened to 86% as many hours as that schedule. The campus doesn't appear to have "building hours" online. Fall quarter ends December 14th; winter quarter begins January 4th; no campus closure dates are announced on either the academic or the event calendars; the library hasn't yet posted either hours or closure notice for the break.
• Borrowing:  I can't find a page online now, and also haven't found one preserved in the Internet Archive, that says to whom this library lends; at least since 2013, the only thing sometimes available is a page about due dates.  Nope, that's not quite correct, there's also a little gem of a 1-page PDF that says instructors at the other campuses can only borrow video materials as long as no faculty at the Port Angeles campus want them.  Neither the Jefferson County Library nor the North Olympic Library System claims a reciprocal borrowing agreement with Peninsula College. The acceptable use policies appear to assume that community members might use the computers; there's even less information about Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  This is buried on the third page of a policy document called "Teaching and Learning Spaces":  "The LMC is not responsible for materials or equipment brought to or left unattended in the rooms by users. The LMC is a public space, and personal items must not be left unattended.  Unattended items will be removed by library staff and turned over to Campus Security.  The Library is not able to provide storage space for personal materials or equipment, and is not responsible for lost or stolen items."
• Eating:  The second page of that document says "dry or individually-wrapped snacks" are allowed.  The campus, in eastern Port Angeles, 58.26 miles, is multi-building, and the Pirate Union Building is near the library.

Elsewhere

Neither of Peninsula College's other campuses has a library.  Instead, each has a "Learning Center/Computer Lab", whose hours are given on the campus's home page, and which is otherwise not much documented.  In particular, I don't know whether either is open to the public, though each campus is at least partly open.  Both campuses appear (from their home pages) to max out at associate's degrees.

• Peninsula College has a single-building campus in Port Townsend, within Fort Worden State Park at the city's northeastern tip, 37.69 miles.  Its Learning Center/Computer Lab is currently open 30 hours per week, 11 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In May 2012 it was open 37 hours per week, 9:30 A.M. to 6:45 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  So it's re-opened to 81% of that schedule.  But for anyone there on an evening or weekend, Fort Worden has multiple restrooms with doors opening to the outdoors, as well as in various other buildings. The home page also indicates "Office Hours", currently Mondays through Thursdays 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.; I don't know whether those are the only public hours.
• The campus in downtown Forks is also single-building, 97.30 miles.  Its Learning Center/Computer Lab is currently open 27 hours per week, opening at 11 A.M. Mondays, 10 A.M. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and noon Wednesdays, and closing at 5:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In May 2012 it was open 36 hours per week, 11 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  So it's now open 75% as many hours as that schedule.  The home page gives "Business Hours", which sounds more obviously like "public hours", as Mondays through Thursdays 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. North Olympic Library System's Forks branch, north, is open Fridays and Saturdays, but I'm not sure what to suggest for Sundays or evenings.

Centralia College, Centralia

Main campus

• Hours:  Centralia College's Kirk Library is currently open 46 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, and closing at 5 P.M. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 P.M. Tuesdays and 4 P.M. Fridays.  In September 2019 it was open 57 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 P.M. Fridays.  So it's re-opened to 81% of its pre-pandemic schedule. Centralia has an office hours compilation rather than "building hours", but does note on that page that campus is only open weekdays. Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter starts January 3rd; campus is to close December 24th to 26th and January 1st and 2nd; the library is to close December 10th through January 2nd.
• Borrowing:  Only "Current students and employees" may borrow.  At least, phrased that way, it doesn't actually deny the reciprocal borrowing agreement. The policy page, linked next paragraph, says the computer lab is only for students; I don't know whether other computers are open to the public. As for Wi-Fi, "BlazerNET is intended for students on campus", the IT department says, and then gives a password right there on the open Web, so you tell me, dear Diary, how open to the public that is.
• Policies:  The policy page includes none of the rules I'm concerned with.
• Eating:  OK if it's not "messy, smelly, greasy, or noisy when eaten", "except near the bookshelves and in the library computer lab."  The campus, in downtown Centralia, 72.61 miles, is multi-building (1-page PDF), and the library is adjacent to TransAlta Commons, the nearest thing to a student union on campus.

Elsewhere

• Centralia College East is in Morton, 77.64 miles, and is a single-building campus which offers associate's degrees but not bachelor's.  I didn't find much information about it at Centralia's website; in particular, no map to indicate whether there are restrooms or places to eat in the building and, if so, whether they're public, and no indication that the library delivers materials there.  In the worst case, nearest public restrooms, Morton's Jubilee Park, northeast.

Whatcom Community College, Bellingham

• Hours: Whatcom Community College's WCC Library is currently open 65 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays and 5 P.M. Sundays, and closing at 9 P.M. Sundays through Thursdays and at 5 P.M. Fridays.  In May 2019 it was open the same hours except instead of Sundays, it was open Saturdays, noon to 4 P.M.  So it's re-opened to 100% of the hours it was open then.  WCC doesn't have "building hours" online.  Fall term ends December 9th; winter term starts January 4th; campus is to close December 23rd to 26th and January 1st to 2nd; "the library is closed during intercession".
  
• Borrowing:  Another Whatcom County borrowing policy, more or less.  "Community members without another local library card need to show picture ID."  Their policies page is less sweeping about that, but is the first since Clover Park Technical College, third total in this page, to describe the community colleges' reciprocal borrowing agreement correctly.  All campus computers and Wi-Fi are for students only, according to this page.
• Policies:  The bottom of the policies page gives examples of disruptive behaviour, but none are homeless-specific.
  
• Eating:  Again from the policies page:  "Food and beverages are allowed in all areas of the library."  But not pizza, or other smelly or messy foods.  The campus in northern Bellingham, 77.71 miles, is of course multi-building, but the "learning commons" the library is in is also where the cafeteria is.

The school lists as other locations only three sites for continuing education classes, two private businesses in Bellingham - a downtown gallery and a bookstore in the southern neighbourhood Fairhaven (each in the same neighbourhood as a branch of the Bellingham Public Library) - and a non-profit art center in Lynden (which also has a branch of the Whatcom County Library System).  I don't think it's appropriate to list those as campuses.

Northwest Indian College, Bellingham

Main campus

• Hours: Northwest Indian College's Lummi Library is currently open 49 hours per week, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays.  In November 2016 it was open 61 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Sundays, and closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and 6 P.M. Sundays.  So it's 80% re-opened to that schedule.  NWIC doesn't have "building hours" online.  Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter begins January 5th; no campus closure dates are indicated on any calendar I can find; the library hasn't yet posted hours or a closure notice for the break.
• Borrowing:  Lummi Library circulation policies are in the Library Use Procedure (pages 2 and 4 of 7-page PDF).  The library participates in Whatcom Collaborates, so just about anyone in Whatcom County can borrow from it, and thanks to the Bellingham Public Library's and Whatcom County Library System's generous card policies, so can most Washington residents.  Also, the library's home page says "Computers with internet access, Microsoft Office software, and printing capacity are available to the college and community. There is also wireless access throughout the building."  The use policy (4-page PDF) and procedure clarify that there are separate computers for students and for community members.
• Policies:  The few behaviour rules in the library use procedure (pages 3 and 4) don't include any of those that concern me regarding homeless users.
• Eating: "Food" is allowed "in designated areas"; I suspect that means eating, but am not sure; it shouldn't have "strong odor".  The campus, in the northeast of the Lummi Reservation, not far east of several Lummi governmental buildings, is multi-building, and the library (building 23) isn't particularly near the student union (building 14) or bookstore/student activity center (building 13), which are adjacent to each other.  The student life page doesn't mention any restaurants, but a place called Eagle's Market advertises NWIC physical and e-mail addresses on Facebook.

Elsewhere

Northwest Indian College has locations with six federally recognised tribes, five of which are in western Washington.  All six offer bachelor's degrees, but the page admits that many student services aren't available on these satellite campuses.

• Their Port Gamble S'Klallam location has the same address as the tribal government, in the reservation's west where Kitsap Regional Library's Little Boston branch also is, 16.64 miles, and the linked page provides a phone number for NWIC-Port Gamble S'Klallam.
• Their Tulalip location is in the same building complex as Everett Community College's, north of Tulalip Bay in the reservation's southwest, 27.08 miles; the Hibulb Cultural Center, where the Tulalip library is, is quite far away; the tribe's website seems not to take much notice of either program.
• Their Muckleshoot location is integral to what the Muckleshoot call Muckleshoot Tribal College, a couple of blocks from King County Library System's Muckleshoot branch in the southeastern part of the reservation, 31.35 miles.  MTC is well known to the agency which regulates degree-granting institutions in Washington, the Washington Student Achievement Council, but isn't in its own right yet authorised to grant degrees.  So its website lists a plethora of other schools that have run degree-granting programs there, but of those, I see only programs of Green River College and Northwest Indian College actually listed now; and of those, NWIC lists this as one of its campuses, which Green River does not.
• Their Swinomish location is at the north end of what Open Street Map calls "Swinomish Village" in the southeast of the reservation a few blocks from the putative Swinomish Tribal Library, just across Swinomish Channel from La Conner, 50.47 miles.  It's recognised by the tribe's Education Department only rather back-handedly, for helping support a GED program, but the tribe's publications mention it often.  In other Swinomish news, the tribe donated three quarters of a million dollars to building a new La Conner library building, which has now opened as the La Conner-Swinomish Library, but the La Conner Regional Library home page remains as cranky as ever.
• Their Nisqually location is in the village area in the southwest corner of the reservation, a few blocks from the Nisqually Library, 53.08 miles.  The tribe's Community Resources and Related Links list links not to NWIC's home page, but specifically to the part of their locations page that covers the Nisqually location.

Grays Harbor College, Aberdeen

Main campus

• Hours: Grays Harbor College's John Spellman Library is currently open 38 hours per week, 7:30 A.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In October 2016, it was open 62 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Wednesdays, 6 P.M. Thursdays, 4:30 P.M. Fridays, and 3 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 61% back to that schedule.  GHC doesn't appear to have "building hours" for its main campus (or even actual building hours) online.  Fall quarter appears to end December 8th; winter quarter appears to start January 4th; campus is to close (1-page PDF) at least December 26th and January 2nd (and probably at least one day before each of those); the library is to open 9 A.M. to noon December 9th and then close December 10th to January 2nd.
• Borrowing:  The library's borrowing page says students and staff are automatically "registered", while community users register by providing "picture ID and proof of residence within Grays Harbor or Pacific Counties".  (Students and staff are presumably also de-registered automatically; community users' registration lasts to the end of the fiscal year.)  Seems to me "proof of residence", depending on the criteria, could be within reach for some homeless people, whereas "proof of address", almost by definition, isn't.  The page also says "a limited number of [computers] are set up for general access", limited to a half-hour's use.  I don't find anything about public use of the Wi-Fi.
• Policies:  Their conduct page includes none of the rules I see as specifically problematic for homeless visitors.
• Eating:  That page also says "snacks, not meals, are allowed."  The campus, in southern Aberdeen, 85.09 miles, is multi-building.  There used to be a student union, the Hillier Union Building; the construction project replacing it fills most of the vacant land on campus, and is expected to continue into 2024.  Also, renovations are going on in the library building, but those are due to finish this month, December 2022.  Anyway, visitors in 2023 would probably benefit from having the skill of eating in the rain.

Elsewhere

Grays Harbor College has two locations in Pacific County.  Both appear to be single-building campuses and have "hours of operation".  I don't actually know associate's degrees can be entirely earned at these campuses, and strongly doubt that the bachelor's degree programs can be completed at them.

• The nearer, the Riverview Education Center in Raymond, across the South Fork of the Willapa River from downtown Raymond, 95.72 miles, is open 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  To get to public restrooms the rest of the time, one has to cross to downtown, where several parks, the Timberland Regional Library branch, and so on, have them, to whatever extent those are open outside business hours.
• The further, the Columbia Education Center in Ilwaco, 124.20 miles, is open 8:30 A.M. to 2 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  Nearest public restrooms for some of the remaining 144 hours per week, Ilwaco's waterfront's parking lot, southeast.  The TRL Ilwaco branch is about a mile northwest.

Lower Columbia College, Longview

• Hours:  Lower Columbia College's Alan Thompson Library and Learning Commons is currently open 48 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays, closing at 6 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays.  In May 2017 it was open 58.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays and 10 A.M. Saturdays, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 4 P.M. Fridays and 2 P.M. Saturdays.  So it's 82% back to that schedule.  "Campus hours" are stated in a banner across the school's home page as weekdays, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.  Fall quarter appears to end December 8th; winter quarter appears to start January 4th; campus is to close December 20th to 23rd, 25th, 26th, and January 2nd; I think that list is short by some days, but anyway, the library hasn't posted hours or a closure notice for the remaining nineteen days of break.  However, in 2017 the hours were followed by a notice:  "Closed between quarters and on holidays."  I'd be surprised if things were different now.
• Borrowing:  The library lends to students, employees, students and faculty of Washington community colleges (coming closer than most to getting the reciprocal borrowing agreement right [4]), and community members.  Those last must show, I am not making this up, "two pieces of currently dated identification with current address, one of which must be a photo ID." (Emphasis in original.  My best guess is that I might have that because I think I have a voter registration card with my current address.  If that counts as currently dated ID, and assuming I can find it.)  Community borrowers get no renewal privileges and are limited to five items.  Also, any borrower, affiliated with LCC or not, who's more than an hour late on the three-day checkout period for DVDs has to pay to replace it.  They have a computer use policy which doesn't clarify whether the public is allowed to use any of them; but Wi-Fi is available to everyone.
• Policies:  Their policies page includes nothing behavioural, and therefore nothing specifically problematic for the homeless, unless...
• Eating:  the food and drink policy is behavioural.  Here's the whole of it:  "Clean snacks and covered beverages are allowed in areas other than computer stations. Messy, smelly, noisy foods are to be eaten in the lobby."  Which pretty much obviates the rest of this paragraph, but anyway, the campus, in downtown Longview just north of the Longview Public Library, 109.86 miles, is multi-building, and the Student Center, which includes a cafeteria, is due east, across the Quad, from the library building.
• Partners:  LCC confers bachelor's in its own right, but also lists five other schools' offerings as offered by the University Center, which is located inside the library building.  Three are distant and offer no in-person classes there, but two are local:  Warner Pacific University, which actually taught there (but now mentions Longview only in historical contexts), and Washington State University Vancouver, which had one required in-person session per semester, and which doesn't confirm the link.

[4] They get it completely right in the other direction, telling their own students and staff that they can borrow from other community colleges.

Clark College, Vancouver

Main campus

• Hours: Clark College Libraries' Cannell Library is currently open ... Well, hmmm.  I'd better let them tell it:  "Cannell Library is open from 10:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Monday - Thursday.  Walk-ins and appointments are also available from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday.  Fridays are by appointment only from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m."  Is that all clear?  Their hours page clarifies:  "appointments encouraged, walk-ins welcome" during the additional hours.  So let's say they're open 28 hours per week, plus 7 by appointment only.  In February 2020 they were open 61 hours per week, opening at 8 A.M. weekdays and 1 P.M. Saturdays, and closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  So depending on whether the appointment hours count, they've reopened to 46% or 57% of their pre-pandemic schedule.  Clark College has a compilation of office hours, but not "building hours", online.  Fall term appears to end December 8th; winter term appears to begin January 3rd; campus is to close December 17th to 26th, at least; the library has not yet posted hours or a closure notice for the remaining fifteen days of break, although the hours page says "Clark College Libraries are open during the hours listed below except during holidays and quarter breaks", which they may understand as a closure notice.
• Borrowing:  They lend to students, staff, faculty, a bunch of differently affiliated people, people who qualify for their reciprocal borrowing agreements, and community patrons.  Alumni are included in that last category.  Community patrons must show photo ID and must provide proof of current residence in Washington college district 14.  A link is provided to a map that sort of suggests that district 14 equals Clark, Skamania and half of Klickitat counties - or, at least, that Clark College librarians think it does.  (As best I can guess, they're right, too.)  I specified their "reciprocal borrowing agreementS" because, like the Whatcom County public colleges, they belong to two.  Clark College is very proud of being the only college in this list, in this part, to belong to the Orbis Cascade Alliance like most of the universities.  So every time it wants to refer to reciprocal borrowers, it mentions Orbis Cascade (excuse me, they usually spell it Orbis/Cascade, unlike the Alliance itself), and someone from another community college in Washington just has to figure out for themselves that those rules apply to them too.  They also have a really detailed borrowing policy which catches its few omissions its own self.  Their computer use policy says that the only people not affiliated with Clark College who may use the computers are people with library cards or reciprocal borrowers (that is, "Orbis/Cascade" people), and nobody not affiliated with Clark College gets to use the Wi-Fi.  (However, one of the links in the conduct policy, linked next paragraph, takes one directly to a campus IT page with the Wi-Fi password in clear.  I do not understand these cognitive dissonances, dear Diary.  It's as if the Seattle parks put up "No camping" signs only adjacent to vacant, pitched, well-made all-weather tents.)
• Policies:  The libraries' own conduct policy is entirely concerned with noise, which is why I was clicking on its links.  There's almost a complete camping ban in policies 510.056 and 510.57:  "No person shall remain overnight on College property or in College facilities without the express written permission of the President or designee." and "The erection of tents, awnings, canopies, or similar structures must be cleared with Security/Safety."  I'm just imagining the correspondence between Homeless Man and College President.  But Clark College doesn't appear to have written any policies in the other areas I see as problematic for homeless visitors.
• Eating:  Only referred to in that massive policy document in regard to the computer equipment.  No permission, no prohibition.  Should the visitor wish not to take chances, this campus, in western Vancouver just northeast of downtown, 141.76 miles, is multi-building, but Cannell Library appears to be connected to Gaiser Hall and the Penguin Union Building (2-page PDF).
• Partners:  Clark College claims to have Eastern Washington University teaching onsite, and indeed when I search for "Vancouver" at EWU's website, that program's sites come up, but they no longer include Vancouver.

Elsewhere

See also the list coming up next labelled "The rest".

• Clark College has a single-building campus on the campus of Washington State University Vancouver, north of Vancouver in unincorporated Salmon Creek, Clark County, roughly 135 miles.  It isn't especially close (1-page PDF) to that campus's library, but it isn't especially far, either, and the Clark College Libraries don't profess to have a site there.

The rest

• Seattle Central College's Wood Technology Center, south and east of downtown near Judkins Park, 5.52 miles, doesn't post hours online, but SCC's compilation of buildings' hours says it's open Mondays through Thursdays, 7 A.M. to 9 P.M.  SCC's Library's home page claims a library branch there is closed.
• Seattle Central College's Health Education Center is just southeast of downtown, 5.71 miles, in an area with lots of parks, but not lots of park restrooms.  It's currently claiming to be open 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. weekdays, but the building hours compilation says weekdays 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., except closing at 6 P.M. Fridays.  SCC's Library's home page claims a library branch there is closed.
• Renton Technical College claims, in a document about RTC's fall quarter 2022 office hours, "The Library’s spaces/technology will be open for RTC students, faculty, and staff only. RTC ID or student schedule required for entry."  Putting it mildly, there's nothing like that in the library's own pages.  It's one of two public technical colleges in western Washington whose libraries are playing peek-a-boo with their openness to the public, but RTC makes far fewer claims than the other one to be generous to the public in general, so I'm not at all certain this one is a mistake.  Just in case, however, here's the set of paragraphs I mostly wrote before stumbling on that grenade:
  • Hours: Renton Technical College's Library is currently open 44 hours per week, 8 A.M. to 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  In April 2017 it was open 61.5 hours per week, opening at 7 A.M. weekdays, closing at 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 4:30 P.M. Fridays.  So it's 72% back to that schedule.  As cited above, RTC has a catalogue of office hours, but not prominently displayed building hours, online.  Fall quarter ends December 8th; winter quarter begins January 3rd; campus is to be closed December 26th, and for all I know all long weekends (December 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 30th and 31st; January 1st); the library announced today that it'll be open 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. December 12th and December 27th-30th.
  • Borrowing:  The hours page also includes circulation policies.  Current students, faculty and staff only.  According to the policy document linked in the next paragraph, page 4, there are "designated public computer terminals".  An announcement in fall 2020 suggests that at least then, RTC Wi-Fi was available to some of the public, but I find nothing more definite.
  • Policies:  The library's policy document is a 29-page PDF that includes none of the policies homeless people are likely to trip over.  (It does include the reciprocal borrowing agreement that few colleges fully mention on their borrowing-related pages.)
  • Eating:  Food is not allowed in the library, policy document page 4.  (Huh.  This policy can be problematic for homeless people, many of whom have to carry their food with them, as well as for anyone else who carries a bag lunch.  I suspect they meant to say "eating", but am not sure.)  The campus, northeast of downtown Renton across I-405, 14.56 miles, is multi-building (two-page PDF) and its main axis is north-south.  The library is in building C at the south end; the "Campus Center" is building I towards the middle.
• Vincennes University, a public college in Indiana, has a location within Naval Base Bremerton in downtown Bremerton, 16.80 miles.  I don't know that it has a library separate from those on the base, and doubt it's a wise place for homeless people or other members of the public to seek restrooms.
• Vincennes University also has a location (same link) within Naval Submarine Base Bangor, 17.95 miles.  I don't know that it has a library separate from that on the base, and it's in a pretty isolated place members of the public have little reason to visit, entirely aside from its location on a military base.
• Southern Illinois University, a public university system in Illinois, also has a location at Naval Submarine Base Bangor.
• The University of Maryland Global Campus is a "member" of a public university system in Maryland.  It has a location within Joint Base Lewis-McChord, same building as Grandstaff Library, Book Patch Children's Library, and Pierce College's Fort Lewis location, 42.01 miles.  I don't know that it has a library separate from those, and know from experience that it isn't a place where members of the public can seek restrooms.
• Central Texas College, a public college in Texas, also has a location at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  Unlike the other schools on bases listed above, it maxes out at associate's degrees as far as programs actually taught on-base are concerned.  Also unlike those others, this one offers online to admit non-military students living off-base, as do most of the private colleges and universities with locations on bases.
• Bellingham Technical College claims that "The BTC Library is currently open only to BTC students, staff, and faculty."  This is, oddly, in response to the question "Can I check out a book if I am not a student?"  So is it meant to reassure staff that they can check out books, or is it meant to tell the public to keep out?  Even more oddly, a little later in the page, the school claims to belong to something called Whatcom Collaborates which seems to be a bit more than a reciprocal borrowing agreement, and while that may not include the whole public, it certainly includes lots of non-BTC people.  In May 2022 the page said the same things.  On the chance that Bellingham Technical College's library just made a big old technical mistake, here, as for Renton Technical College above, are the paragraphs I've used for libraries open to the public:
  • Hours: Bellingham Technical College's Library is currently open 46.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays, closing at 5 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 4 P.M. Fridays.  In December 2019 it was open 54.5 hours per week, opening at 7:30 A.M. weekdays, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 4 P.M. Fridays.  So it's re-opened 85% to its pre-pandemic schedule. BTC doesn't have "building hours" online. Fall quarter ends December 9th; winter quarter starts January 4th; campus is to close December 17th to 26th; the library is to close the entire break.
  • Borrowing:  The public who aren't allowed to enter are nevertheless allowed to borrow (with "Proof of current address"); see section I. of the linked page, and ignore the reference to Appendix C, which isn't online.  BTC also acknowledges (section J of the first linked page in this paragraph) reciprocal borrowing agreements with Western Washington University, Whatcom Community College, Northwest Indian College, and "All of the Washington state community and technical colleges".  (Appendix D, cited there, also isn't online; the rest of the appendices are.) I can't tell whether BTC's library has computers the public may use, but it certainly looks like their Wi-Fi is public (see the question "How do I access BTC's wifi?").
  • Policies:  There's a Code of Behavior that just lays out general principles, but also a document titled "Examples of Disruptive Behavior" (1-page .doc), of which one example is "Excessively strong or offensive odor" - that is, a hygiene rule.  But the library doesn't have the complete sets of anti-homeless rules that the nearby public libraries have.  Maybe because the only homeless people allowed in are students, faculty and staff?
  • Eating:  Only "small snacks" are allowed.  The campus, not far northwest of downtown Bellingham but near the city's western border, 75.83 miles, is multi-building (2-page PDF), but the library is in the "Campus Center", which also holds the Culinary Arts and Pastry Arts programs (as well as some unrelated programs), and building G, adjacent if not connected, has the cafeteria.
  BTC has six off-campus locations, but three are in downtown Bellingham (near Bellingham's Central Library and about a mile from BTC's) while the other three are grouped just north of it (within a mile of Bellingham's Central Library and two miles of BTC's), so I don't see much need to make this part of your HTML, dear Diary, even more complicated by listing them here.
• Clark College Libraries do have a site at Clark College's other single-building campus, adjacent to the Columbia Tech Center in far eastern Vancouver, 142.45 miles.  Nearest public restrooms, Vancouver's Fisher Basin Park, east, but they close November to March.  So during those months, Clark County's Pacific Community Park, northwest.   The building appears still to be mired in the lockdowns, so of course its library is closed.  That library is the Information Commons, usually abbreviated iCommons, and it was mainly a place to study but had some books.
  

Perhaps I'm using the past tense unwisely there, but I'm seeing too many changes from the lockdowns become what seems to me permanent to hold my breath waiting for them to change back.

Anyway...

Summing up

I'm not ending this part with a table of hours as I did with "Public Library Hours One Year Later"; that would be unfair, since I still haven't finished the private schools' libraries.  And since I won't finish them, probably, until January, I'll then have to get updated hours for winter quarter for the public schools' libraries.  I'll do that; just don't expect it this month, dear Diary.

However, I've covered a lot of topics here besides library hours.  Let's go over those.

Hours

Twelve of the libraries are subject to campus- or institution-wide "building hours", "campus hours", "hours of operation", or some such:  at Shoreline Community College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Olympic College (three libraries), Green River College, Bates Technical College (three libraries), Pierce College (two libraries), and Lower Columbia College.  At Shoreline, Lake Washington, Green River, Bates (South), Pierce (both), and Lower Columbia, campus hours end earlier than library hours do.  At others, notably Olympic (Bremerton), campus hours are significantly longer than library hours.

Of the colleges whose fall quarters, terms, or whatever end this week, Bellevue College, Olympic College, Skagit Valley College, Northwest Indian College, Lower Columbia College and Clark College all have libraries which haven't announced yet what they'll do over break.  Only five libraries have announced that they'll be open during their breaks:  Shoreline Community College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology and Central Washington University (both, but only by appointment), and Renton Technical College.

Borrowing

General public

The libraries that explicitly don't lend to the general public are North Seattle College, Seattle Central College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Bellevue College, Bates Technical College, Centralia College and Renton Technical College.  Those that don't say one way or the other are Shoreline Community College, South Seattle College and Peninsula College.  Everyone else does lend to the general public.

Of those that lend to the general public, Edmonds College, Central Washington University, Everett Community College, Tacoma Community College, and Skagit Valley College all charge periodic fees; the rest don't say they do, and probably actually don't.  (I think periodic fees are the kind of thing community pressure would pretty much compel libraries to disclose.)  Green River warns of a small ID-making fee; nobody else says anything about that, but I have no idea whether anyone else actually charges such a fee.  (I should hope, though, that the libraries that charge periodic fees would eat the ID cost.)

Most of those that lend to the general public say they want photo ID (sometimes referred to as "picture ID").  However, there are five exceptions.  Clover Park Technical College wants "valid" ID.  Central Washington University, Tacoma Community College, and Skagit Valley College don't say anything about ID; notice, dear Diary, that these all charge periodic fees.

And then there's Whatcom County.  Whatcom Community College wants photo ID.  Northwest Indian College wants photo ID and proof of address.  And Bellingham Technical College wants proof of address.  The way Whatcom Collaborates works is, as I said above, a bit more than a reciprocal borrowing agreement.  I have separate cards for Seattle Public Library, King County Library System, and Pierce County Library System; separate cards are the norm with reciprocal borrowing agreements.  But under Whatcom Collaborates, someone who gets one card gets to use it at any of those libraries.  Residents of Whatcom County with unusual situations, obviously including homelessness, but probably not limited to that, should choose carefully which library card to try to get on the basis of considerations such as which libraries want what documentation.

So how does everyone else do on the address front?  Olympic College, Pierce College, Grays Harbor College and Clark College all restrict their lending on the basis of county lines, college district boundaries, or both.  Grays Harbor, Pierce and Clark want proof of residence, however; Olympic wants proof of address.  Now, here's the thing:  Nobody else defines where borrowers may live.  So while on the one hand that may be evidence they don't care, it also may be incompetent rules-writing.  I'll probably try to get a Highline College library card sometime before next October to see which it is, in their case at least.

If I'm homeless by next October, I won't be getting a card at any of Edmonds College, Clover Park Technical College, South Puget Sound Community College, or Lower Columbia College, all of which also want proof of current address.

Reciprocal borrowing agreements

Only a few libraries actually mention the reciprocal borrowing agreement most of them are parties to on their front borrowing page:  Seattle Central College (students only), Olympic College (students), Everett Community College (students except from Cascadia College), Bates Technical College (students, faculty and staff), Clover Park Technical College (students, faculty and staff), Pierce College (students), Skagit Valley College (students), Whatcom Community College (students, faculty and staff), Lower Columbia College (students and faculty one way; students, faculty and staff the other), and Bellingham Technical College (not specified).  Clark College mentions its much shinier reciprocal borrowing agreement with all the big schools, but hides the one with its fellow colleges pretty thoroughly.

We saw in spring, dear Diary, that lots of public libraries hide their reciprocal borrowing agreements, and in those cases I speculated that it was because they feared the financial consequences if residents of their service areas went flocking to other library systems.  Well, this agreement supplies people affiliated with colleges in King and Pierce counties with potentially dozens of cards, but makes much less practical difference to people affiliated with colleges elsewhere in western Washington.  So if money were the issue, why would Seattle Central, Bates, Clover Park and Pierce all bring the agreement up, and Bates and Clover Park even get it right?  I think the frequency of the mistaken limitation of the agreement to students (as well as the mistaken claim "all Washington state community and technical colleges", ignoring Cascadia College and Northwest Indian College) strongly suggests that the people writing borrowing pages just haven't bothered to read the (two-page) agreement in the first place; it's about ignorance, not money.

Technology

These are all over the map.  I found that there are theoretically twelve buckets here.  1) A library can explicitly allow use of at least some computers to the general public; 2) it can explicitly allow use of at least some computers to people with library cards and/or photo ID; 3) it can explicitly disallow use of any computers; or 4) it can be silent on the matter.  Similarly, it can a) explicitly allow public use of its Wi-Fi, b) explicitly disallow it, or c) be silent.  (This classification wouldn't work at the public universities.  UW wants ID for Wi-Fi, but not for computer use.)

The twenty-seven schools with libraries fall into nine of these buckets.  The most common positions were:  4c) saying nothing about either (seven schools), and 1c) allowing use of at least some computers to the general public, but saying nothing about Wi-Fi (six schools).  Three schools each adopted positions 1a), 1b) and 4a).  Two adopted 2b), and one each 2c), 3b) and 4b).

So first of all, six libraries and/or institutions allow use of their Wi-Fi to the public.  Bellevue College, Lower Columbia College and Bellingham Technical College don't say whether they also allow public use of their computers.  Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Tacoma Community College and Northwest Indian College allow both.  I submit that it isn't even remotely plausible, given these facts, that any law forbids Seattle Central College to offer Wi-Fi to the public.  ("What about a Seattle law?", I hear someone ask.  Um, yeah, right.)  There may be practical reasons for Seattle Central to bar the public from its Wi-Fi, but if so, they should admit up front that that's the issue, not invent laws.

Six more allow public use of computers, but don't say whether they allow public use of Wi-Fi:  Seattle Central College, Everett Community College, Green River College, South Puget Sound Community College, Grays Harbor College, Renton Technical College.

Policies

This is the unambiguous bit of good news here.  Seattle Central College and Bellingham Technical College have hygiene rules.  Clark College has a camping ban.  And Pierce College and Peninsula College have unattended property bans.  All this is basically a drop in the ocean compared to the public libraries.

Conclusion

I don't particularly think it's my place to summarise here anything from the remaining two paragraphs, but I think it's a pity that partnerships bringing university faculty to Washington's public colleges are in such poor shape.  I hope that's just because of the pandemic, and not because the idea actually proved to be a bad one in practice.

Dear Diary, I'll probably take the remaining private schools much slower, because of the thirty-three remaining, twenty-two are religious, and only two have well-documented libraries.  (That is, two out of the thirty-three; but as it happens, both schools are in fact religious.)  Basically, I can't imagine finishing work on them before winter break is really here, so I'm going to have to wait until January to tell you about them, and then sum up the trends in academic library hours on the basis of their state then, not as of October-December.  On a related topic, I may get to the parks and buildings of UW's South Campus this week, and expect to photograph the parks of Central and East campuses over the break, but don't expect to get to the buildings of those campuses before next quarter (i.e., January).

On the other hand, in a few days I can get started hiking North Seattle parks to see how the closures actually went; and there's always downtown to think about.

So happy days and night until we meet again, dear Diary; I doubt it'll be very long.