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?
Ready, set, read
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Dark Sky Week
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Join us in celebrating World Water Day
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A rest stop for the birds
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Celebrating the first day of spring
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It s harvest time on World Food Day
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A hint of spring
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A Welsh wonder turns 70
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The wild heart of Tasmania
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Glacial spires in the fog
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Paris is photo-ready this week
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Mexican giant cardon cactus
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Ring of fire
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There once was a lighthouse from...
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Where the bearded reedling sings
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Fall comes to the Last Frontier
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Cenote near Puerto Aventuras, Mexico
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How Quảng Ngãi got its grove back
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In the Navajo Nation for Code Talkers Day
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A gentle wind fills this sail
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Joan charges Riverside Park