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
Apr 8, 2026Seattle, Washington

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Sep 30, 2023Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Nov 24, 2021Chocolate Hills
Apr 24, 2022Dark Sky Week
Nov 3, 2022International Day for Biosphere Reserves
Nov 4, 2019Stepping stones in Tollymore Forest Park, Northern Ireland
Apr 21, 2020Where do those colors come from?
Jun 24, 2021The call of the wild in Alaska
Jan 16, 2020In the valley of the doll
Jul 21, 2021An octagonal architectural treasure
Sep 8, 2022Seville, Spain
Feb 19, 2022Mount Logan in Yukon, Canada
Mar 21, 2023International Day of Color
Jul 1, 2022Tour de France
Oct 23, 2019Polar bear capital of the world
Sep 2, 2022Seitan Limania Beach, Crete
Nov 1, 2025National Bison Day
Jun 11, 2023Goliath heron in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Nov 7, 2023Kirkilai lakes, Biržai Regional Park, Lithuania
Aug 26, 2020Spotted Lake emerges
Dec 7, 2020In memory of those lost
Apr 18, 2021In Sicily, history is everywhere
Jan 31, 2021A glittering diamond in the rough
Jul 7, 2019Traffic jam on the caribou highway
Aug 7, 2024St. Joseph North Pier Inner and Outer Lights, Michigan
Oct 10, 2023Mount Sopris, Colorado
Jul 29, 2025International Tiger Day
Oct 28, 2018Do spirits haunt the Gardens of Versailles?
Aug 18, 2020Women s suffrage at 100
Jul 23, 2022National Moth Week
Nov 18, 2018An inland ocean