Ready, set, read Apr 8, 2019

Ready, set, read

In honor of National Library Week, we’re visiting Seattle Public Library’s Central Library. With its innovative glass and steel design, you could say we’ve come a long way from the world’s first libraries that housed archives of clay tablets and papyrus scrolls. Downtown Seattle’s 11-story flagship public library has lots of open spaces like this one that allow patrons to meet, study, search the web, or read in comfortable, light-filled rooms. It can house more than 1.5 million books, many of which are stored in an innovative "Books Spiral," which displays the volumes in a continuous helix of bookshelves over 3.5 stories without breaking the Dewey Decimal System onto different floors or sections. The library, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, moves all those books around by using a sorting system that resembles an airport’s luggage conveyor belt. How’s that for high-tech?

© Ron Buskirk/Alamy

palette

Today in History

Apr 8, 2018It’s Draw a Bird Day
Apr 8, 2020Santorini through the clouds
Apr 8, 2021I m here! Take a look at me!
Apr 8, 2022Ponta Delgada
Apr 8, 2023The Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland
Apr 8, 2024Total solar eclipse
Apr 8, 2025Paro Tsechu Festival in Bhutan

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Nov 25, 2022Native American Heritage Day
Jun 4, 2019Breaking the fast for Eid
Dec 29, 2018When science looks like magic
Jun 24, 2023Nha Phu Bay, Nha Trang, Vietnam
Sep 16, 2023Oktoberfest begins
Jul 20, 2023International Moon Day
Nov 17, 2021Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
Oct 26, 2018A notorious gunfight that was incorrectly named
Jul 24, 2025Happy Cousins Day!
Jun 8, 2023World Oceans Day
Feb 6, 2023Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
May 11, 2020A tree amid the Tetons
Feb 3, 2021The mountaintop of toppled gods
Jun 5, 2023World Environment Day
Feb 10, 2020This park is Superkilen
Sep 17, 2020Citizenship Day and Constitution Day
May 25, 2022The Alhambra in Granada, Spain
Nov 16, 2021Glenfinnan Viaduct
Feb 1, 2018Stuben am Arlberg, Austria
May 20, 2019The island fox’s incredible comeback
Jul 6, 2023International Kissing Day
Jul 23, 2018Tokyo welcomes a futuristic new art museum
Feb 17, 2021The persistence of Perito Moreno
Jan 14, 2022Road to Sa Calobra, Majorca, Spain
Jul 22, 2019Let’s go mothing
Oct 29, 2023Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia
Jun 6, 2021On this shore, history was made
Jun 12, 2021In Texas, even the riverbend is big
Sep 15, 2021It s National Hispanic Heritage Month
Jun 17, 2020Don t go chasing waterfalls