Editing Seattle Public Library (section)

===Mid 20th century stagnation===
[[File:Seattle - Northeast Library 01.jpg|thumb|The [[Paul Thiry (architect)|Paul Thiry]]-designed North East branch (opened 1954) stood in sharp architectural contrast to the older branch libraries.]]
Seattle suffered heavily in the [[Great Depression]]. The Library's official website describes the Library as having been "pummeled" in this period of "soaring demands and evaporating resources".<ref name=SPL-hist /> In 1930, a 10-year-plan announced an "urgent" need for a $1.2 million bond issue to expand the Central Library. In the event, nothing of the sort happened. During the Depression, the Central Library became a refuge for the jobless. Library circulation hit record heights, passing 4 million in 1932. Meanwhile, budgets were cut, employees were laid off, and programs were terminated. The Library's 1939 budget was $40,000 less than its 1931 budget.<ref name=SPL-hist />

The Library's 50th anniversary in 1941 occasioned the foundation of Friends of The Seattle Public Library. The economic revival brought about by [[World War II]], and the post-war prosperity, began to bring the library out of its institutional stagnation. Seattle spent $400,000 on a book stack addition to the Central Library in 1949, and three modern new branch libraries were built in 1954.<ref name=SPL-hist /> Nonetheless, the library was simply not used nearly as much in this era as in the Depression years. While the city's population had grown from 368,000 to 463,000 since 1932, only 2.4 million books were being borrowed annually, as against over 4 million.<ref>{{Harvnb|Peterson|Davenport|1950|p=182}}</ref> Bond issue votes to build a more modern central library failed in 1950 and 1952.<ref name=SPL-hist />

At mid-century, The Seattle Public Library had numerous "book stations" for areas with no branch as such, in locations such as a "rented shop space, clubhouse, or hospital," each with a small, frequently changing collection of books. These book stations were open half-time, and serves one-sixth as many readers as the branch libraries. A [[bookmobile]] with 2,500 books serviced two dozen other locations. Also, at this time The Seattle Public Library was a mainstay of the [[King County Library System]] (then known as the King County Rural Library District), with 70,000 book loans in 1948 to [[King County, Washington|King County]] patrons outside the city.<ref name="Peterson 1950 p=181">{{Harvnb|Peterson|Davenport|1950|p=181}}</ref>

By mid-century, The Seattle Public Library circulated a lot more than books. Even in its early years, the library collection had included items such as sheet music. By 1948, the circulating collection included 3,500 phonograph records, which were borrowed a total of 53,000 times that year, as well as 6,000 pieces of sheet music, 6,000 song books and piano albums, 200 reproductions of famous paintings, and 27,000 other pictures. In 1950, the library subscribed to 200 newspapers (mostly from Washington State) and 1,700 periodicals.<ref name="Peterson 1950 p=181"/>