For a place that’s traditionally supposed to be quiet, the Broadview branch of the Seattle Public Library was exceptionally so on Wednesday.
After a cyberattack knocked out much of the technology required to run a modern library system, Broadview was decidedly slow and empty.
The tap-tapping normally occurring on numerous computers hooked to free Wi-Fi was nonexistent. There was no whirring sound of tech in action in the corner dedicated to a copy machine, printer, scanner and fax machine.
Signs at the entrances and on all machines that rely on tech warned patrons that most systems were no-go. But I entered the branch in North Seattle to see just what it’s like to use the library and check out a book in 2024 without the assistance of barcodes or a computer system.
Talking to librarians at the main desk, I said I should probably read something about cybersecurity or unplugging from technology. It took one of the librarians about 7 seconds to return with “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends,” New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth’s thriller about the global cyberarms race. The book even had a library bookmark sticking out of it tagged with a helpful guide: “Something that scares you.”
The ransomware attack on SPL has certainly been a scary ordeal for several days. Access to staff and public computers, online catalog and loaning systems, e-books and e-audiobooks, in-building Wi-Fi, and the library website has all been affected as library staff worked to “navigate this difficult situation.”
But there was nothing frightening about checking out my book by dealing with a human librarian armed with a pen and a pad of paper. Even if his cramped hand might beg to differ.
Rather than the modern process of scanning books, DVDs, CDs or any other physical media with a barcode reader, I instead handed my book to the librarian where he opened to the back page and then manually wrote down the 13-digit number in a spiral notepad. He repeated that process for the 13-digit number on my library card, and I was good to go.
Another librarian told me a family checked out 30 books on Tuesday — 403 digits he had to write by hand and doublecheck. He said he told them to “take a little walk; it’s gonna be a minute.”
The librarians and other staff across Seattle’s 27 branch locations will be skilled in data entry as the cyber incident drags on; they’ll also have to manually enter all of the numbers into the library’s system to track when books are returned.
The Seattle Public Library had a record 293,000 active patrons in 2023, which counts any individual who used their library card in some way over the year (including to access digital services, check out books, etc.).
Other key numbers for the system include:
- Digital and physical checkouts: In 2023, the Library had 13.4 million total checkouts, including 6 million print checkouts and 7.4 million digital checkouts (which included 5.5 million checkouts of e-books and e-audiobooks). According to OverDrive, SPL’s digital book platform, Seattle is the eighth busiest library for digital checkouts in the world.
- Patron visits: Central Library in downtown Seattle is biggest and busiest location, with 1,500 to 2,000 patron visits per day.
With the majority of tables, study rooms and other nooks vacant at Broadview, I caught up with Hans Teuber of Seattle, holding an armload of books as he browsed an aisle of the library. The tech outage was not impacting his normal routine.
“I come in about once a week,” he said. “One book is for myself and three are for my mom.”
Calling himself a “low tech” Baby Boomer with no car, Teuber walks a few miles from his house to visit his mom near the library.
“I’m comfortable with no tech,” Teuber said, shrugging at how he’s constantly hearing how “easy” things would be if he just downloaded an app.
Lise Glaser of Seattle was in another aisle holding a book and looking for another. She was semi aware that the library had suffered a tech outage because she couldn’t access an audio book she had downloaded. A librarian told me e-books are the system’s hottest item and he spent much of Tuesday answering calls from people about why they couldn’t read theirs.
“I’m scanning for a book for book club,” Glaser said. “I just love books, so I just come in.”
Seattle Public Library has only said that it is continuing to investigate the source of the disruption which began over the Memorial Day weekend. There’s no word on when full functionality to all systems will be restored.
Laura Gentry, head of communications for Seattle Public Library, said that due to the nature of the ongoing investigation into the attack, the library was limited in what could be shared beyond operational updates being posted on the Shelf Talk blog.
