Library Hours Six Months Later, part VII: Other governmental libraries

Dear Diary,

How was your Easter?  Mine was fine.  I subsituted a box of cookies for an Easter basket, and listened to Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.

This part of this page is about roughly two dozen libraries owned by the state or  federal governments.  It's hard to be sure how many because some organisational structures are unclear - some places are branches according to one source, independent according to another - and because some organisational structures have, separately from that, recently changed.  Anyway, this part also covers two libraries owned by non-profits that draw their leadership entirely from governmental units.

As with the local governmental libraries the previous part was about, not all of these libraries are open to the public, and not all are well documented online.  So as before, the libraries covered in detail are followed by a list of libraries not covered in detail.  And as before, each set is in order by how far from my house the library is.

Libraries owned by public non-profits

Puget Sound Regional Council Information Center

The Puget Sound Regional Council represents itself as governed ultimately by an annual "general assembly" of its dues-paying members, which are King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties, municipalities, port districts, transit agencies, and tribes.  This body votes in an executive board of individuals, numbering in the double digits, which meet monthly.  PSRC's main job is to allocate federal funding for certain transportation projects, but it has its fingers in many other pies.

Anyway, though, it runs an Information Center which claims to be open to the public.  Its own web page says very little to encourage the public actually to show up, and was the same way in October 2019, but the Washington State Library database that told me about it has full details.  As of its last update at the database, it was at 1011 Western Ave, in Seattle, and was open Monday through Friday, 9 A.M. to 3 P.M.  Whether that information has changed since whenever the last update was, who knows?

The other

• The Washington State Historical Society is governed by a much smaller board of trustees who are all state-level elected officials.  It runs a museum that doesn't seem to have a single home page, which I glimpse every time I take a bus from Seattle to downtown Tacoma, but the museum charges admission (with usual exceptions and some weirder ones), so isn't on-topic for you, dear Diary.  Neither is the part of WSHS that's actually in the libraries database, the Research Center, because even in January 2020 it was open only by appointment.  It's about a mile north of the museum.
  

Libraries owned by the state

Most of these are in places where restrooms with longer hours are nearby, so few added meaningfully to restroom access for homeless people even before the pandemic.  In particular, the Timberland Regional Library's new West Olympia branch is near the main capitol campus, and has the latest hours TRL currently offers.

Washington State Library

The Washington State Library is kind of a vertical-integration thing, like Amazon:  it's both an actual library and a channel through which the state offers services to libraries, as witness the database I've been using throughout this page.  Well, but it isn't an actual library; it's a main library and a bunch of branches, including eight listed as branches by the database in western Washington.  (Its own list of branches includes several libraries the database sees as independent.)

Weirdly, in this case the branches are much less accessible to the public than the main library.  That's because one of the library-management jobs the state has given WSL is maintaining the libraries in the state's institutions of confinement, the prisons, mental hospitals, and so on.  The linked page puts the prettiest face on the work that it can (aren't you glad that some Washington prisons teach beekeeping, dear Diary?), but as part of doing so ("Look how open-minded we are!"), highlights anti-penal system works in an extensive recommended-reading and -viewing list at the bottom.  Anyway, I'm not discussing here the branches at (going alphabetically) Clallam Bay Corrections Center, Stafford Creek Corrections Center, Twin Rivers Corrections Center, Washington Corrections Center, Washington Corrections Center for Women, Washington State Reformatory and Western State Hospital.

One of the branches is not like the others, so there are two very different libraries to talk about here.

Washington Talking Book & Braille Library

I've seen this library's building, on 9th Ave just south of Lenora St, kitty-corner from Urban Triangle Park, any number of times, riding buses between North and downtown Seattle.  Nevertheless, I've never tried to go inside.  They say "We are always happy to have people visit and tour our library." but that doesn't necessarily mean they're happy to have homeless people show up without an appointment, looking for a restroom.  However, this is a pretty restroom-deprived part of downtown (except for homeless people, whose Urban Rest Stop is two blocks south), so it might be worth a try.  They're open, to whatever extent they are open, business hours, 8:30 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Washington State Library

They explicitly accept "walk-in customers".  They're in the legislative building in Olympia, currently (and also in January 2019) open 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.  They offer library cards to Washington residents, but seem relatively picky about proving residence; probably a Washington driver license or state ID is the easiest way for a homeless person to do so.  (They specify that recent mail must show a "residence address".)  The library's strengths as a library strike me, at first glance, as similar to Seattle Central Library's, only statewide instead of citywide:  genealogy, newspapers, authors, etc.

Washington Department of Transportation Libraries

In November 2017, the Washington Department of Transportation ran four libraries; three were open to the public, although the Vessel Engineering Library was not, for security reasons.  Today, only two are open to the public and only by appointment; the Terminal Engineering Library is now also closed to us.  Both these Washington State Ferries libraries are at 3rd Ave and Broad St, just a hair further from my house than the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library, and not far from Olympic Sculpture Park, whose (indoor) restrooms should be open by now.  The two that are still open by appointment are the main library on the capitol campus, and the materials research library in Tumwater, which isn't especially close to any other library (or public restrooms) known to me.  Both of these are listed as branches by the Washington State Library.

Washington State Archives

The Washington State Archives has five locations, three of which are in western Washington, and each of which appears to have re-opened to the public.  The Internet Archive doesn't have records of pre-pandemic hours later than 2017, at which time the Puget Sound branch at Bellevue College was open by appointment only and only three days per week (the Northwest branch at Western Washington University in Bellingham is that way even now).  So the Puget Sound branch has become more open to the public since the lockdowns.  The state archives proper and the southwest regional branch are at the same address in Olympia on the main capitol campus.

Washington Geology Library

The Washington Department of Natural Resources runs a Washington Geology Library in its building on the main capitol campus.   In May 2019 it was open to the public, 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays.  Now, only by appointment, and only 9 A.M. to noon Mondays and Wednesdays, 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I would very much like, dear Diary, to revive the failed series "Land and Water in North Seattle" from 2020-2021, and put it on a firmer footing by reading about the geology of Seattle, so this library interests me specifically in relation to you.

Washington State Law Library

The Washington State Law Library was open to the public in February 2020 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays through Fridays.  It is in the "Temple of Justice", where the Washington Supreme Court meets, on the main capitol campus.  That building has not re-opened; assuming it ever does, the library will probably again offer library cards, though I'm not sure how easy they'll be for homeless people to get; this law library lends to the general public. 

Safety and Health Video Library

The Washington Department of Labor and Industries offers Washington individuals a library of safety and health videos.  (It's expected that most of the individuals patronising it will be business people or others with a specific interest in the topic; but it doesn't lend directly to businesses, unions, etc., just individuals.)  It's clearly primarily intended for remote access - whether borrowing physical materials or getting access to limited streaming - but its policies say "Olympia area residents must pick up and return videos in person", so in some form it's open to the public.  (Yes, returns could be through a drop, but pickups probably aren't; this library sets a high value on its materials.)  It's in Tumwater, near the airport and both TRL's headquarters and its Tumwater branch, and is currently open 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

The rest

• The libraries database says that the Washington State Patrol's Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau has a library in Seattle.  And so it may still, but its web page hasn't been available outside the Internet Archive since the beginning of 2018, and didn't give any hint that the general public was welcome to visit even while it was up.  (It also had a different URL from the one in the database; I have to wonder how current that database can be assumed to be.)  On the other hand, a member of the public interested in criminology might want the research guide (PDF) the librarian made available, even though it was last updated seven years ago.
• The database says the Department of Ecology has a library with two locations:  a main library in Lacey on the east side of the St Martin's College campus, and a branch concerned with nuclear waste in Richland, in eastern Washington.  The department's website doesn't mention this, not even in its site map, but the addresses do match.
• Washington State Library's list of branches says the Utilities and Transportation Commission has a library that's a WSL branch.  The commission's website admits nothing, but their building, currently open by appointment only, is in Lacey just west of St Martin's College.
  
• The database and Washington State Library's list of branches both offer the same information on something called the Department of Natural Resources Building Library.  It's documented enough elsewhere that I believe it exists, but not much more than that.  It should be in the same building as the Washington Geology Library, on the capitol campus, but weirdly, considering that it's named after a specific building, its physical address isn't reported.
• Washington State Library's list of branches says another one is at the Department of Labor & Industries.  I don't know whether they mean the Safety and Health Video Library or a more conventional departmental library, but the video library and the alleged WSL branch have different e-mail addresses.  Anyway, the department's main building is in the same place as the video library, in Tumwater near the airport and libraries.
  
• The database includes the libraries of the Washington State School for the Blind and the Washington School for the Deaf, saying that the former isn't open to the public, and I daresay the latter shouldn't be either.  Both are in Vancouver, east of downtown.

Libraries owned by the nation

Western Washington is home to a lot of libraries owned by the United States of America's various governmental bodies; about half of them are in Seattle.  Not many have ever been open to most individual Americans, which is a pity, because most, unlike most state libraries, are in locations ill-served by other public restrooms.  However, federal security often doesn't allow food or liquids in, which would probably make using those federal restrooms inconvenient for many homeless people anyway.

The federal government seems to be given to frequent revision of its Web domain names and directory structures.  Of the libraries in these lists that have Web pages, most have changed URLs since their last update in the libraries database.  You should warn readers of this page, dear Diary, that if they read it more than a few weeks after writing, some of the links will probably have gone bad.

The National Archives at Seattle

The National Archives at Seattle was, in December 2019, open to the public 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. weekdays.  Its web site at that time included useful pages about visiting - FAQs, Plan Your Visit.  It's 2.78 miles from my house, a few blocks southwest of Magnuson Park, which presumably made it a valuable, if limited-hours, addition to the public restrooms available along Sand Point Way (and even near southern Magnuson Park).  Now, however, it's open by appointment only, and its web page links to none of those useful pages (though the footer links to national versions).  As you may have heard, dear Diary, the relevant agency wants to close this location, so even if the pandemic ever ends as far as the National Archives are concerned, the building may not re-open.

Region 10 Library

The US Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Library is at 1200 6th Ave, downtown, 4.58 miles, halfway between the Convention Center and Seattle Central Library, so the fact that it's only open 8:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays (as in February 2020) doesn't matter so much.  It matters even less now, because the whole office is still closed to the public.

The rest

• The Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Science Centers Library was in the Northwest Fisheries Science Center building on Montlake, 2.34 miles from my house according to this distance calculator.  I'm not sure whether it was open to the public in any way; its web page's footer said to call ahead because the building was locked, which suggests it may have been open to the public, but certainly wasn't open for homeless people to use its restrooms.  The Northwest Fisheries Science Center is still there, but in June 2021 its library was announcing that it was "transitioning to a virtual library", by September 2021 its old URL redirected to that of the main NOAA library in Seattle (next), and today I couldn't find any sign of a library at the current Northwest Fisheries Science Center page.
• The NOAA Seattle Library (that's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is surrounded on three sides by Magnuson Park, 3.37 miles.  Since it's in the north end of the park, where all the public restrooms are, it's not as big a deal that members of the public have to make appointments to visit, just as in May 2017.  That's because NOAA is the human half of what's in that big closed area along the north edge of the park, whose gate is guarded by unsmiling men.  Creeks and ducks are the non-human half.
• The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington has a law library (named US Courts Library both in the database and in a couple of documents at the website).  It's in the Seattle courthouse, at 7th & Stewart, 4.18 miles, and it doesn't have its own web page, so I don't know whether it's open to the public.  However, the courthouse itself is open (with ID, and no food or liquids), which probably means its restrooms are too, with generous hours, 7 A.M. to 5 P.M.  (For homeless people, again, this is no big deal because the Urban Rest Stop is a couple of blocks away.  I used to sit on benches in front of the courthouse, on Stewart, while waiting to shower.)  I have no evidence of a law library in the downtown Tacoma courthouse, though presumably individual judges keep books for their personal use there.
• The libraries database says there are medical libraries at the three VA hospitals in Seattle (7.83 miles), Fort Lewis, and Vancouver.  (It also says they're parts of a single library system headquartered in the Fort Lewis one.)  I found no evidence of a library at the Seattle location's site, which doesn't prove much.  Now, I'm used to thinking of VA hospitals as immense, entire neighbourhoods unto themselves, but actually, Jefferson Park is adjacent to the Seattle one, so the fact that visitors are still limited at the VA hospitals doesn't matter to people roaming Seattle.  Fort Lewis is, as we'll see, off-limits to the casual visitor anyway.  And the Vancouver one is across the street, so to speak, from Clark College.
• The US Army Corps of Engineers has a Seattle District Library.  At 8.15 miles, it's north of Georgetown in a real dead zone; it could be very helpful indeed to a hiker nearby.  But it plays coy with the visitor to its so-called Web page:  "Some of the USACE libraries are open to the public, although hours and services provided vary from library to library. In some cases, making an appointment may be required. Please contact the library in your area to find out what access you might have to the collection."  I actually did call (something I've until now sedulously avoided in my work on this page), but got a recorded message saying the librarian wasn't available.  The page was just as uninformative, and just as clearly inadequately edited from a national template, in April 2017.
• The libraries database says there's a naval engineering library at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, 16.56 miles.  A librarian there is on LinkedIn, so the database must be right, but I found nothing resembling a Web page for this library, let alone evidence that it's open to the public.
• Finally, the database knows of four libraries at Joint Base Lewis-McChord:  Book Patch Children's Library, Grandstaff Library, McChord Library, and The Madigan Medical Library.  (It sees the first three of those as belonging to a single library system.)  Most of their physical locations aren't documented where I've looked, but JBLM in general is about 38 miles from my house.  Visiting JBLM by car requires "an adult, authorized DOD sponsor", and I have actually personally encountered JBLM on foot as a homeless man, which did not lead to any restrooms I was allowed access to.  I don't know about bicycling or paragliding, but suspect neither would be a good idea.

So, dear Diary, this is a pretty sad haul.  Libraries open to the public without a fee and without an appointment, that is, for emergency restroom access, in this part:  the main Washington State Library, the main and Puget Sound Washington State Archives, the Safety and Health Video Library.  Also the federal courthouses in Seattle and Tacoma.  Possibly the Puget Sound Regional Council Information Center, the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, or the US Army Corps of Engineers Seattle District Library.  Some or (my bet) none of the poorly documented libraries.

I felt guilty listing all those poorly documented tribal libraries, but not very.  Keep in mind, dear Diary, that most of the tribes consist of rather few members.  A few have more population than Wahkiakum County, but none so many as, say, Clallam County, which hasn't documented its Law Library.  (Leaving aside the Thurston County Law Library as a freak case.)  And now we find that even the feds, with a third of a billion people to draw on, can't document all their libraries.  So the tribes look a lot better after all.  But it makes me wonder how public and academic libraries do this job that nobody else seems able to.

But maybe I'm being hasty in judgement.  After all, there are also privately owned libraries that are neither "public libraries" nor academic ones.  Private companies are supposedly better at everything than governments, so maybe private libraries are better at websites?  The libraries database lists fifty-two of them, which are the subject of the next part or two, before I go home to academe.  (I've already taken a first look at or for all of them.  Spoiler:  No, private libraries are not better at websites.)  It'll probably be another day or two, so happy days and nights until we meet again, dear Diary.