Seattle Public Library – Magnolia Branch

This is a pretty quiet library location. Lots of moms and kids during the day picking up books. The parking lot is cramped and hard to navigate — I’d recommend parking on the street and walking a half a block or so. The building is beautiful as well, lots of wood and clean lines. This is a laid back and relaxing location, good for hanging out and reading — it is actually quiet!

@Sonya… please! Librarians do not shelve books! Everyone who works in a library is NOT a librarian. I suspect you were dealing with an entry level clerk who apparently needed some customer service training. You should have reported her to the LIBRARIAN on duty.

I grew up coming to this library. In fact, this was the first library I ever went too. Now, it’s a better version of what I can remember. I won’t lie, I miss the old smell of all the crazy old wood that used to be in there, but the new stuff ain’t so bad. Fancy furniture? Check. All my old fav’s in the children’s section? Check. My real purpose for this review is to thank them for being a few blocks down from my place, so I could go print papers off and act scholarly when I’m really not. I’d rather hang out in the Magnolia library than UW’s Odegaard any day of the week. Thanks for saving me from the thousands of 18 year olds playing on the Nintendo DS’ while I’m trying to study. I appreciate you ten times more, Magnolia Library!

I never saw this library pre-​remodel, but the remodel, which reopened in early July, looks great. The library is definitely small, but it’s packed pretty full of books and has a really great children’s section.
However, I have had some difficulty finding books that the database says should be on the shelves. The librarians have scratched their heads, confused as to why the books aren’t there… but that unfortunately doesn’t really help me get the books I want to read.
Also, I had an odd «altercation» with a librarian who was reshelving books. I had spent 5 – 10 minutes in an aisle looking at books and all the while there had been a fancy-​looking stool sitting empty in the middle of the aisle. When I reached the point in the aisle where the stool was, I figured I’d sit down so I could better see the books on the lower shelves. Within a minute or two, a librarian showed up and made this very quiet, yet rude, comment that was essentially like «Guess we need another stool here, don’t we?!» She stormed off and came back with another stool before I had even figured out what she was talking about. Apparently she was using the stool to reshelf (makes perfect sense, although it had been sitting there unattended for quite some time) and I had stolen it from her or something. All she needed to do was ask me if she could have her stool back for reshelving… but instead she was totally rude. I got up and left the library after that, totally annoyed and slightly embarrassed I had used the damn stool even though it wasn’t even my fault.
I like this library, but I haven’t found much happiness here so far. Hopefully that will change at some point…

The library itself is fine. It’s a library. HOWEVER, as anyone who is a fan of mid century furniture might know — ALL the furniture in this branch of the Seattle Public Library was designed and built by the one and only GEORGE NAKASHIMA. This means that every single library table in this branch is probably worth $ 20,000−30,000 (or more), and every single chair is probably worth about $ 1500. From the perspective of a mid century furniture geek, it is absolutely incredible that all this amazing furniture is just sitting around, waiting to be sat on and written at. Good stuff.

Very small but cute and cozy, this branch of the Seattle Public Library System has a great section for young children that includes stuffed animals and puppets. The selection for adults is decent but not huge, of course — however, you can easily place a hold on a book from another branch and have it sent to this one. The building itself has a really cool-​looking design, and there’s a very cute little outside nook with a bench surrounded by trees. There’s also plenty of parking.