Library Hours Six Months Later, part XI: Yet more governmental libraries

 Dear Diary,

In April I told you about many libraries in western Washington, owned by many levels of government, and divided by whether they were more or less local (this previous part) or state or national (this one), on the basis of this database of Washington libraries courtesy of the Washington State Library.  Last month I told you that I'd found three additional lists of libraries in western Washington, in the part before this one I added a fourth, and just today, when I thought I was about to finish writing this part, found a fifth.

1. The database's equivalent in book form, 2003 (151-page PDF).
2. Ditto, 2009 (190-page PDF).
3. English Wikipedia's List of libraries in Seattle.
4. American Library Directory (ALD).
5. Federal Library Directory (FLD), in two editions:  2014 (50-page PDF) and 2012 (63-page PDF).
   

This part is about governmental libraries in those five lists that the previous parts didn't cover, plus some whose previous coverage mentions confusions which the other sources help to clear up, and some whose hours or public access provisions have changed since April.  As before, each list is in order by distance from my house according to this distance calculator.  And as before, each list consists notionally of two parts, a list of libraries that are or were open to the public without fees or appointments, each with a separate header, and then a list of other libraries headed "The rest".

All added libraries are state or federal.  Confusions, and changes since April, are across the board.  However, I've been surprised by how few changes there've been since April.  A few tribal libraries have clarified their access and hours.  One or two county law libraries have returned to opening business hours, which seems to be their norm.  Both groups, however, also include libraries still in pandemic mode and for that matter libraries without websites.  Meanwhile, state and federal libraries have often hardened requests for appointments into requirements, thus removing their buildings from the network of public restrooms.

Libraries owned by municipalities

I noted previously that I remembered that a Seattle municipal law library had closed because UW's law library was available.  None of these added sources, in particular not the 2003 and 2009 books equivalent to the database, mentions such a law library, so it's now pretty obvious that my memory really did make the whole thing up.  My memory is now claiming that the basis for the confabulation was the closure of some Municipal Reference Library, probably Chicago's when I lived there in 1993.  Seattle had one of those too, but it closed long before I got here, in 1992 (32-page PDF, pages 13-16).

Libraries owned by school districts

The previous discussion mentioned the possibility that school districts, as opposed to individual schools, might have their own libraries.  Well, it's still possible, but none of these added sources document a real example.

Libraries owned by Indian tribes

Samish Indian Nation Library

I found four tribal libraries in western Washington whose websites showed that they'd been open to the general public without fees or appointments before the pandemic or that they currently were.  None of these four has changed access hours or terms according to its website.  But in April I couldn't find the pre-pandemic hours of this library.  I still can't, but long before the pandemic, the 2003 and 2009 books agree that the Samish Indian Nation Library used to be open Mondays through Fridays, 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.  Its hours open now, per the website, remain 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Elhwa Library

The Lower Elhwa Klallam Tribe's Elhwa Library has had its Web page rewritten.  (Yes, this is a real change, not a mistake on my part.)  It now links to a working catalogue, clearly states hours, and clearly invites non-tribal members to visit.  It's also advertising longer actually open hours than any of the four I singled out in April presently is.  It even says:  "We are currently also considering extending our hours to provide more afternoon and evening hours."  Way to go!

Nooksack Tribal Library

This library now has its own Web page which states its hours as 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. Monday through Friday.  The page warns adults not to show up when kids are present (i.e. holidays and summer) and ideally to call first.  It doesn't clearly say that non-members may enter, but doesn't in any way hint otherwise.  (I can't be certain this page didn't exist earlier.  But in April the tribal home page's list of departments to the left didn't list or link to the library under the Education Department, as it now does; and the Internet Archive's copies of the library page all date to August.)

The rest

• Four federally recognised tribes and two not federally recognised aren't in the current database.  Similarly, neither the 2003 nor the 2009 books show anything from the Chehalis Tribe (or the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation), the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe or the Snoqualmie Tribe, nor from the Chinook Indian Nation or the Duwamish Tribe.  The Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie have King County Library System branches, the Chehalis sort of have a Timberland Regional Library branch, and since the Duwamish are centred in Seattle, they have access to lots of libraries.  I have much less of a clue where the living Chinook actually are, but for their headquarters, Timberland Regional Library's South Bend (by land) or Shoalwater Bay (by sea) branches seem closest, but not close; the Warrenton Community Library is rather nearer their land in Warrenton, Oregon.  My standard search, e.g. "Muckleshoot Tribal Library", gets the KCLS branch for the Muckleshoot, as well as what seem to be references to a tribal library from before that branch opened; for the other four it gets nothing useful.
  
• The Suquamish Tribal Library is also not in the current database, but the relevant part of this page already linked to it in April.  It's fully present in the 2003 book and has a minimal entry in the 2009 one.  (It didn't get longer treatment in April, or this time, because the linked page implies that it isn't open to the general public.)
  
• The Port Gamble S'Klallam have been listing Kitsap Regional Library's Little Boston branch as their tribal library at least since 2003.
• The Tulalip Tribes' Hibulb Cultural Center Research Library's URL has changed, but the library's physical doors are still behind a paywall.
  
• The Squaxin Island Museum, Library and Research Center was, as promised, covered in a previous part.
• In April, I noted "I don't see a building there" of the address in the database for the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe Library.  The database currently gives one address, the 2003 book another, and both buildings are now clearly present on Open Street Map.  Maybe Open Street Map has been improved, but more likely I messed up.
• The Hoh Tribal Library's Facebook page currently gives its hours, at the bottom right of its September 2022 calendar.  They open at 1 P.M. Mondays through Fridays, and close at 6 P.M. Mondays, 7 P.M. the rest.  Those hours definitely and admirably swim against the western Washington tide.
  

Libraries owned by counties

Dear Diary, all of the following were open to the public before the pandemic, but I just can't bring myself to set up that many headings for so little gain.  This directory, whose information is obviously pre-pandemic, noted public hours for all libraries in western Washington except Grays Harbor, Mason, Pacific, Skamania, Thurston and Wahkiakum counties.  Grays Harbor County Law Library now has its own Web page and actually does open to the public; the other five don't have Web pages, and I don't know that they're open to the public.  Clallam, Jefferson and Lewis counties' law libraries also don't have their own Web pages, but have pre-pandemic hours (or for Clallam County uncertain hours) open to the public listed in the directory.

Snohomish County Law Library is currently open by appointment only.

Pierce County Law Library no longer states the hours of its Tacoma main library anywhere I can find on its website, and has added a branch in Pierce County Library System's Sumner branch to those I mentioned before in the Lakewood and Gig Harbor branches.

Skagit County Law Library is currently open to the public 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. weekdays, except from noon to 1 P.M.

Whatcom County Law Library is currently open to the public 10 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Wednesdays through Fridays.

Libraries owned by public non-profits

• Both libraries originally listed under this heading are now open to the public only by appointment.  Puget Sound Regional Council's Information Center (note changed URL) now explicitly says so; I doubt it was ever open to walk-in visitors, but it previously didn't say that clearly.
  

Libraries owned by the state

Remember, dear Diary, it isn't as important, for hygiene purposes, that libraries on the capitol campus be open to the public, because Timberland Regional Library's new West Olympia branch is right near there.

Washington State Law Library

The Temple of Justice, where the Washington State Law Library normally lives, is being renovated.  The library is currently offering in its temporary new home only "curbside" service, closer to what "curbside" means to me than what Seattle Public Library did.  But if I understand correctly, it expects to re-open fully there reasonably soon.  The temporary location is in Tumwater, near the Safety and Health Video Library, Timberland Regional Library's headquarters and Tumwater branch, and the airport.

The rest

• The Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team.  This agency reported a library in the 2003 book, with an address in Lacey on the St Martin's University campus, 48.86 miles from my house.  In 2007, according to a helpful Kent Reporter column, the agency was replaced by the Puget Sound Partnership, headquartered in Olympia.  I don't know what became of the library, but wouldn't be shocked either if PSP took it to Olympia, or if it had been joined to the existing Department of Ecology library in the same building.  Note, dear Diary:  "all Ecology buildings will be open to the public" as of March 21, 2022.  So whether or not the public can consult the Ecology library, they can probably use that building's restrooms.
  
• The Office of the Attorney General under both Christine Gregoire and Rob McKenna reported institutions with the same head librarian - a law library in 2003, a research center in 2009.  I haven't found evidence of this library later than Bob Ferguson's arrival in 2013.  The 2009 address is in southeastern Lacey, 50.79 miles, in an area with few public restrooms, the nearest probably in Lacey's Rainier Vista Community Park, west.
• According to the 2003 and 2009 books, the Department of Natural Resources Building Library, mentioned previously, really is in the Department of Natural Resources Building on the capitol campus.
  
• The Computer Services Division of the Department of Information Services reported a library in both the 2003 and the 2009 books.  This library appears to have survived subsequent reorganisations, according to the LinkedIn page of the listed librarian.  The inheriting agency is in Olympia on the capitol campus, 51.62 miles, and what little evidence I've found of earlier addresses suggests similar locations.
• According to the 2003 and 2009 books, the Department of Labor and Industries Library, mentioned previously, is in fact in the department's main building in Tumwater (where the Safety and Health Video Library is too), near Timberland Regional Library's Tumwater branch etc.

Libraries owned by the nation

As I told you before, dear Diary, federal government websites love to change their URLs.  Don't expect the ones in this part to last any longer than the ones in the previous part have.

The FLD is a gold mine of information, but it can be hard to make sense of.  For example, it notes that the main NOAA library next to Magnuson Park supports only "Staff", but says the Joint Base Lewis-McChord libraries also serve the "Public".  I would've said the exact opposite; members of the public can make appointments to visit the NOAA library, but not the JBLM ones.

Much, but not all, of the difference the additional sources made for federal libraries was in starting to clarify the library systems at several military bases in western Washington.  However, FLD also added the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac to the list of prisons about whose libraries I'm not telling you, dear Diary.

But to start with:

US Courts Libraries

In April, I treated the library at the US Courthouse at 7th Ave and Stewart St downtown as undocumented, because I assumed it was the property of the district court that uses that courthouse, whose website doesn't document it.

FLD reminded me of another whole US Courthouse that I used to enjoy looking at from the 10th floor of Seattle Central Library early in my time of homelessness.  It's a gorgeous Art Deco building called the William Kenzo Nakamura US Courthouse, and according to Wikipedia it's only used these days by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, because everyone else in town (meaning, I think, the district court) uses the newer building at 7th & Stewart.

Well, it turns out the 9th Circuit considers the libraries in both buildings its property, and documents them.  At present it says both libraries are open to the public only by appointment, but in August 2017 it gave shorter hours at the new building, no specific hours at the old one, but for both "open to the public".

The new building itself is, as I said in April, open to the public reasonably generous hours, albeit with onerous restrictions.  It isn't even slightly clear to me, from a fair amount of looking at the 9th Circuit website, whether Nakamura is open to the public on any regular basis at all.  But then, like most other legal buildings in town, it's across the street from Seattle Central Library...

EPA Region 10 Library

The Environmental Protection Agency's Region 10 Library (note changed URL) has clarified its access since April:  It's "open to the public" (as before) "by appointment" (that's what's new).  Sigh.  Downtown Seattle, 4.58 miles from my house.

SBA Business Information Centers

There's astonishingly little information online about this Small Business Administration program considering that some of the few sites that mention it seem to think it's still operating.  A description dated 2002 makes it clear that these worked like libraries, and strongly suggests that the general public could visit them.  A description apparently written in 1996 claims the program was started in 1993, which suggests that it makes sense that its trail dies in the middle of George W. Bush's term as president.  Anyway, there were in 2002 BICs in downtown Seattle (listed in the 2003 book, 4.58 miles), Auburn and Mount Vernon (those two not listed).  The SBA's current Washington staff directory implies that they don't exist around here, at least, any more, and the Seattle office is currently visited by appointment only.

National Park Service libraries in Pioneer Square

A woman named Nancy Hori is attested as a Freedom of Information Act officer in Seattle, but also in a 2013 American Libraries Magazine article and on her own presumably current LinkedIn as a librarian, and in FLD she's given responsibility for the following:  Klondike Gold Rush Seattle Unit National Historical Park Library; Pacific West Regional Library Seattle; and Oakland Office Library / San Francisco Office Library.  With three different addresses.  Regional libraries with differing names and addresses but both with Hori as librarian are listed in the 2003 and the 2009 books.  No library in Seattle associated with Hori has its own Web page or is even named in a Park Service page, so I don't actually know the current physical address of any, assuming any still exist.  However, the magazine article says at least one regional one was open to the public in 2013.  Today, at a minimum, the Park Service has a visitor center in southern Pioneer Square, in the Cadillac Hotel building, which appears to offer restrooms to the general public.

Naval Undersea Museum Library

In 2003, the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, a ways north of Bremerton, 13.94 miles, listed a library across the street from it, with the museum's curator listed as librarian; the 2009 listing was much less clear and named a different librarian.  It was open to the public.  Although the museum's current main exhibit is about submarines, the library is best remembered because a retiree did research on diving there; "undersea" is meant literally, not as code for submarines.  Until March 2014, the museum's home page linked to a page generated by the library's cataloguing software; the long silence since leaves room for doubt that the library still operates.  Regardless, the museum itself is free of charge, though closed on Tuesdays.

Puget Sound Navy Museum's Frank and Louise Reh Research Center

This library in Bremerton, 15.93 miles, definitely is still operating, but by appointment only.  (It was the same way in February 2018.)  However, again, the museum is free, though closed on Tuesdays.  The research center isn't in any of my sources; the 2009 listing for the Naval Undersea Museum Library uses the name "Navy Museum Northwest Library", and when I put "Navy Museum Northwest" into Google, it sent me to this museum instead.

National Park Service library in Vancouver

National Park Service Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Library.  Found in ALD and FLD.  One page I found in half an hour of searching the website mentions the library, by saying it's only available by appointment.  As in Seattle, but here much nearer the putative library, there's a Visitor Center which is free to visit.  But actually most of the site is free to visit, and this map (1-page PDF) shows restrooms all over the place (though perhaps some are "sanican"s).  East, across I-5, from downtown Vancouver, 142.58 miles.

The rest

• NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Marine Mammal Laboratory Library.  From the American Library Directory and the Federal Library Directory.  It's a lab because scientists work there, not because they're dissecting orcas or any other critters; apparently they mainly study migration patterns, feeding and the like.  This has a Sand Point Way address, 3.37 miles from my house, and I'm pretty sure it's actually in the fenced and guarded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration area northeast of Magnuson Park.  It isn't at all clear to me from the website whether visitors are allowed (and they were taking a survey when I visited, so I told them so).  As with the other NOAA library (or libraries) there, the obvious alternatives are the beach and central restrooms in Magnuson Park.
  
• OSHA Region 10 Library.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Region 10 office listed a library in both the 2003 and 2009 books, in downtown Seattle, 4.75 miles, but I can't find much trace of this library today, and the Region 10 office's role seems to have shrunk.
• Libraries associated with Naval Base Kitsap:
  • Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility Command Library.  This is the name as given both at the libraries database and at ALD of the library I referred to as "naval engineering" (note lowercase) in April.  (In the 2003 book it's called "Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Engineering Library", but I definitely hadn't seen that book by then.)  I'm not confident I've found the "Command Library" name anywhere else; "Engineering Library" seems more common, but not more authoritative.  By whatever actual name, the library is on the main base that fronts on Sinclair Inlet, 16.56 miles.
    
  • Naval Base Bremerton Recreation Center.  An ALD find.  Also on the main base but a bit further inland, 16.80 miles.  Definitely not open to the public.
    
  • Naval Hospital Bremerton's Knowledge Management Department.  Another ALD find, also attested in a 2012 Kitsap Sun article (which makes it clear that this wasn't then just a medical library) and in the 2003 and 2009 books.  In a different naval area in Bremerton, facing Ostrich Bay, 17.76 miles.  Although I don't have any evidence, I suspect there's still some sort of not exclusively medical library on this part of the base.
  • Naval Submarine Base Bangor Liberty Center.  In the southern part of that base, but well north of Bremerton, coincidentally also 17.76 miles.  Listed in the 2003 and 2009 books.  Definitely not open to the public, and not even to all sailors, near as I can tell.
• Naval Station Everett Resource Center.  Not in any of my sources; found by poking around in the sites ALD pointed me to for the previous listings.  Open to all who have US Department of Defense cards.  22.32 miles.
• The additional sources made the physical locations of the Joint Base Lewis-McChord libraries much clearer to me.  They're all relatively close to northern borders of the immense base area.  (It's reputedly smaller than Washington's smallest county, but I don't believe that.)  Remember, dear Diary, as I told you in April, visiting the Joint Base isn't easy; perhaps as a result, the individual libraries' pages don't specify who has access the way the naval ones earlier in this list do. 
  • The base library nearest my house is the VA Hospital's medical library, on the northern side of American Lake not far from a part of Lakewood also on the northern shore, 38.44 miles.  The visitor's page calls that part of the base Lewis North.
    
  • Next comes McChord Library, actually relatively far from the local northern border of the base, in the southwestern part of McChord Field, with McChord Air Museum not too far to the east, and a salient of Lakewood's Tillicum neighbourhood not too far to the west.  38.81 miles.
    
  • Then Madigan Army Medical Center's Medical Library.  But the 2003 book also listed a "Madigan Community Library" as a branch of the base library system.  It's described as relatively medically focused anyway, but its purpose was to get books and magazines to patients.  It clearly no longer exists, but I don't know whether that's because delivery methods improved, because the hospital needed the space, or because of random bureaucratic changes.  Anyway, Madigan is south of Tillicum, 40.51 miles.
  • Book Patch Children's Library and Grandstaff Library are in the same building, southeast of DuPont, 42.01 miles.
  • Finally, both the 2003 and 2009 books listed a Crittenberger Library, which apparently specialised in non-English materials.  At both times, Grandstaff was reputed to contain a Career Information Center.  Now Google, handed the word Crittenberger, immediately suggests that building's Career Center.  The closure of the Crittenberger Library was reported as imminent in 2010.  The location is as deep in the base as these libraries go, just east of Gray Army Airfield, 42.05 miles.
• Naval Air Station Whidbey Island's Convergence Zone Recreation Center is listed in the ALD, but doesn't mention books in its Web page as the naval centers listed above do in theirs.  It also doesn't list qualifications required to enter as those do, but I'd be pretty astonished to learn that a homeless person could use its restrooms.  It's near Ault Field, north of Oak Harbor, 48.98 miles.
• National Park Service libraries in Olympic National Park.  FLD lists two, an Olympic National Park Collection Library and an Olympic National Park Visitor Center Library, both with mailing address in Port Angeles, and so, I presume, to be identified with the Park Headquarters actually at that address (59.09 miles), and the Visitor Center (and Wilderness Information Center) nearby (58.72 miles).  Unlike the locations in Seattle and Vancouver, however, this park (which is bigger than nine of the nineteen counties in western Washington) charges admission, so I can't really assume its visitor center (let alone its headquarters) can help with homeless people's needs.
• Possibly a National Park Service library in North Cascades National Park, which is bigger than eight counties in western Washington.  The reason this library isn't singled out above is that FLD considers it the work, not of a park bigwig (as in Olympic), but of a summer ranger and year-round artist who lives in Chelan County near the park.  In other words, I don't have a clue whether this library, as undocumented as all the National Parks libraries, is in western Washington as I've defined it throughout this page.  At any rate, since this park is free to enter (though not to camp in), I should note that the visitor centers listed in the linked page sort thus by county: 
  • Whatcom: North Cascades Visitor Center (near Newhalem), Glacier Public Service Center (near Glacier, 85.72 miles) and Skagit Information Center (in Newhalem, about 85 miles). 
  • Skagit: Park and Forest Information Center (in Sedro-Woolley, nowhere near the actual park, 57.62 miles) and Wilderness Information Center (near Marblemount, 72.08 miles). 
  • Chelan: Golden West Visitor Center (Stehekin, about 87 miles).
  • Okanogan: Methow Valley Ranger Station (Winthrop, 114.68 miles). 
  I assume, but do not know, that all have publicly accessible restrooms when staffed.  Not all are staffed during the winter.  It isn't at all clear to me whether the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center near Diablo, about 91 miles, which professes to have a "research library" that doesn't get its own page, and which appears to be open from March to November each year, would allow use of either its books or its restrooms without payment.
  
• The medical library of the VA Hospital in Vancouver.  As noted previously, it's across the street from Clark College, northeast, across I-5, from downtown Vancouver, 141.64 miles.

Whew.  Dear Diary, I hope within a day or two to finish a comparable, but much longer, part catching up with private libraries, but trust this will be enough for now.  I foresee that being the last part of "Library Hours Six Months Later", but intend then to do some mapping and analysis if time allows.  Happy days and/or nights until we meet again.