The King County Rural Library District, doing business as the King County Library System (KCLS), is a public library system serving King County, Washington, United States. It has 49 locations in the areas of the county around Seattle, which has a separate city library system. KCLS is headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, and was the busiest library system in the United States in 2010 with a circulation of 22.4 million items. , the library system serves a population of 1.6million residents and has 3.7 million items in its collection, which includes books, periodicals, audio and videotapes, films, disc media, and online resources.

History The library system began in 1942 when voters in King County established the King County Rural Library District in order to provide library services to people in rural areas with no easy access to city libraries. Funding for the library system is provided from property taxes. Funding measures for the system passed in 1966, 1977, 1980, 1988, 2002, 2004, and 2010. Property taxes account for 94% of revenue today. The name of the organization was changed from the King County Rural Library District to the present-day King County Library System in 1978, although the previous name of "Rural Library District" is still part of the organization's legal name. The system received a $172 million capital bond in 2004 to rebuild, renovate, and expand most of its existing libraries, as well as building new libraries.

KCLS extends access privileges to residents of its service area, which includes all unincorporated areas of King County as well as residents of every city in the county except Hunts Point and Yarrow Point, which do not offer any library service at all. Residents of Seattle—which maintains its own library system—are allowed access to KCLS collections under reciprocal borrowing agreements between KCLS and Seattle's libraries. KCLS also extends reciprocal borrowing privileges to residents of many other library systems in Western and North Central Washington. KCLS annexed Renton's public library system in 2010 following a vote by the city's residents.

In 2011, KCLS won the Gale/Library Journal "Library of the Year" award. The library eliminated its late fines in 2023 after finding it discouraged borrowing and cost more to collect and process. Replacement fees were instead levied for lost items.

Facilities

KCLS consists of 49 branches, one standalone book locker, the Traveling Library Center, ABC Express Vans, a mobile TechLab, and 11 bookmobiles. A service center located in Issaquah also houses the library's administrative offices. A program to build 17 new libraries and renovate or expand 26 other libraries was completed in 2019 with the opening of the Panther Lake Library in Kent. The system's Renton sorting facility and warehouse opened in June 2026 and is able to handle up to 8,000 items per hour.

Branches

+ Image Branch Name Square Footage More images Algona-Pacific Library 5,250 More images Auburn Library 20,000 More images Bellevue Regional Library (largest) 80,000 Black Diamond Library 5,000 More images Bothell Regional Library 22,500 Boulevard Park Library 6,536 Burien Library 32,000 Carnation Library 5,000 Covington Library 23,000 Des Moines Library 10,320 Duvall Library 8,000 Fairwood Library 10,541 More images Enumclaw Library 20,000 Fall City Library 5,000 More images Federal Way Regional Library 34,500 More images Federal Way 320th Library 15,000 Greenbridge Library (White Center) 2,300 More images Issaquah Library 15,000 Kenmore Library 10,000 More images Kent Regional Library 22,600 Kent Panther Lake Library 5,000 Kingsgate Library (Kirkland) 10,235 Kirkland Library 19,500 Lake Forest Park Library 5,840 Lake Hills Library (Bellevue) 10,000 Library Connection at Crossroads (Bellevue) 3,740 Library Connection at Southcenter (Tukwila) 5,085 Library Express at Redmond Ridge (Redmond) 300 Maple Valley Library 10,000 Mercer Island Library 14,886 Muckleshoot Library 6,000 Newcastle Library 11,000 Newport Way Library (Bellevue) 8,690 North Bend Library 9,600 Redmond Regional Library 30,000 More images Renton Public Library 19,500 Renton Highlands Library 15,000 Richmond Beach Library (Shoreline) 5,250 Sammamish Library 19,500 Shoreline Library 20,954 Skykomish Library 1,042 Skyway Library 8,000 Snoqualmie Library 6,000 Tukwila Library 10,000 Valley View Library (SeaTac) 6,558 Vashon Library 10,000 White Center Library 10,000 Woodinville Library 15,000 Woodmont Library (Des Moines) 9,850

Mobile services

ABC Express Traveling Library Center Techlab Library2Go

Services

In 2016, KCLS circulated 20.8 million items, the third-most in the United States. The KCLS budget for 2025 is $164.4 million.

KCLS is subscribed to OverDrive, an online service that offers digital e-book, audiobook, and magazine checkouts for library patrons. In 2023, the library system had 8.8 million digital checkouts—the third most of any system in OverDrive worldwide.

References

External links