Seattle Joins the Library. Librarian Joins Teenagers For A Free Meal. Sweet.

So. We have been installed at the raucous, righteous Richard Hugo House these last few days.

Raucous, cos the House is hosting its annual teen scribe event, which has meant a gaggle or group or we thinks cacophony of teenagers, hanging out round the corner from us and scribbling away all week in their notebooks a series of words which appear to be shock horror awfully like poetry. Ye gads. It's infecting us all! We had nothing to do with it . . . honest guv'nor. Mostly we've been ignored by the posse, except for the lovely young lady called Marcy who wandered over finally today to check out what this weird thing in the corner might be. So we promptly signed her up. She then dug the library enough to go off and find her own chair, which she then pulled over to us, borrowed an item from today's selection out on our table, and proceeded to sit and read. And since these guys get fed everyday our librarian has been getting a feed too. Alright! Four members on Friday makes it a medium day, except for what happened next:

Richard Hugo House also houses . . .



. . ZAPP the awesome zine library, which means that it's the kind of place our highly irregularly regular library member, Simone from Leipzig (who joined in Portland last month - see our previous blog posts for details) would more than likely want to check out. And just as we're packing up and telling Jesse on reception about our biggest library fan, who should walk in the door . . . but Simone. All the way from Portland. Who decided to visit ZAPP and then happened to check our blog on her way over to the House and discovered . . . her favourite library was also there! That's what we call Library Karma. And we love it. Nice one Simone.

Wednesday & Thursday at the House were much more chaotic, and saw us sign up 9 and 8 members respectively to the library, including a good number of the good folks who work there, as well as acquisitioning a new library item, after running through our Acquisition Policy with the chap who donated the item, while informing him that the Library's "Policies of selection, retention, disposal, misplacement and deterioration reflect the current state of the world."

Both days also caught us dealing with one of the basic ByeByeLaws of the library, namely #5a, which we'll take the opportunity to quote from ourselves here:
"5. Except with the consent of a library officer, no person shall:

a) who is offensively clean in person or in dress, or who is suffering from an offensive disease or hairstyle, enter or use the library."

It seems that Seattle does appear to suffer from an overpreponderance of offensive hairstyles.

We've caught two of you, blatantly out and about in the open, and attempting to gain library membership, which was given and then immediately withdrawn on the basis of said offensive hair. We then made you alter your hairstyles to what we deemed were mildly inoffensive variations upon the follicle theme, rescinded the ban and re-admitted you to the library. We're quite worried as we have a WHOLE ANOTHER WEEK to go in Seattle, and at this rate. Well. To put it mildly. That's potentially a whole lotta more offensive hair to go. Indeed.

Anyway. 72 hours of library mayhem equals =

Yay Seattle! You could slide into third place in the Library charts at this rate!

Meanwhile. Inbetween installing our library . . .







We squeezed in a spot of flyposting . . .


And

Saw

A lot

Of the Water

Around here



while remembering the cyclists of Portland . . .

Where's the Library in Seattle?

By the power of rideshares (thanks Amy!), the power of couchsurfing.com (thanks Marta!) and the power invoked by Librarians Upon High who enable us to function (er, thanks Librarian Upon High Wherever Ye Might Be Currently ELevated!) the Library & Itinerant Poetry Librarian have made it to Seattle and we're Good To Go with the Library Programme. So.

Where's the Library at?

First up, the wonderful . . .



Richard Hugo House, located at 1634 11th Ave, Seattle.

We'll be installing our Library & Librarian on: Wednesday 8th, Thursday 9th, Friday 10th, Tuesday 14th & Thursday 16th Aug 2007 from 11am - 6pm.

Here's a map to get you to us.

Richard Hugo House is "...a 16,206-square-foot Victorian house that dates to 1902. Before the organization bought it in August 1997, the house was the New City Theater, and before that the Bonney-Watson mortuary and funeral home. Originally, it was an apartment house. In addition to administrative offices, the House includes:

* an 92-seat theater (that can be reconfigured to hold 148);
* a café with a cabaret stage;
* a Member Library with computers;
* the 'Zine Archive and Publishing Project (facilities for independent magazine publishers);
* two multi-purpose rooms;
* a conference room;
* an art gallery."

How cool is that? Their Zine Library is probably the most extensive in the entire United States of America, holding over 17, 000 titles . . . somehow we don't think our Librarian will run outta reading material these next two weeks! YIPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Where's the Library in Seattle 2.0?

We are also installing our Library & Librarian in . . .



The Travel Loft of the Elliott Bay Book Company, which is located at 101 South Main Street, Seattle, Washington 98104, U S of A indeedy.

We'll be installing our Library & Librarian on: Wednesday 15th & Friday 17th August 2007 from 10am - 7pm.

Here's a map to get you to us.

We've also got some installations planned for the library outside the back of Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers,



...who are niftily located just a few doors down from Elliott Bay Books, and have a back entrance they're more than happy for our Librarian to gather in, apparently! It takes a brave man or woman indeed . . . hee hee . . . so look out for us by walking through their awesome antiquarian bookshop or approach us from behind via Occidental Square! We'll post up days and times ASAP.

In the meantime, while we're on Johan-the-wunderkid- from-vaguely-nr-Hamburg's computer, we'd also like to officially thank our awesome, excellent, extraordinary, awe-inspiring, and finally, outstandingly wonderful Portland hosts: Ariana & Jeffrey who made our Portland and month of July visit so darn frickin' lickin' goooooooood. Thanks from a well-fed Librarian folks!

We also know we have Library Statistics to fill you in on, final Portland membership numbers, as well all our exciting itinerary stops and starts, which we will do once we get better computer access.

Alrighty! To the Library and Beyond Boys & Girls! Let's go!