The Seattle Public Library wants to hear from you

Everyone in Seattle is invited to take a brief community survey that will help shape the Library’s future

How do you feel about The Seattle Public Library’s spaces, collections, programs, and services? Take our brief survey and let us know! Not a Library user? We want to hear from you, too! 

The Seattle Public Library is conducting a survey from Monday, August 25 through Wednesday, Sept. 24 to hear from the community, including what is working well, what could use improvement, and what Seattle residents would like to see from the Library in the future.  

Visit www.spl.org/CommunitySurvey to learn more and take the survey.  

The survey is available in print and online, and it is available at all Library locations. To ensure the Library receives feedback from a statistically significant and representative sampling of Seattle residents, the survey has been mailed to 15,000 households and translated into six languages other than English, including Amharic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese.  

To thank participants for sharing their thoughts, Library consultant Olympic Research and Strategy (ORS) is offering a chance to win one of 20 $50 VISA gift cards. To enter the gift card raffle, participants can enter their email address, which will only be used for the raffle and not included as part of survey analysis.  

How the survey was developed

The Library hired ORS to provide support on survey development, delivery, and analysis of results. ORS also facilitated four community workshops held at the Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill and Greenwood branches. Over 30 community service providers participated to share direct feedback about Library spaces and services. These organizations represent many interests, ranging from youth, seniors, and low-income family services to literacy and education advocates, housing providers, and arts organizations. 

The Library also provided more informal feedback opportunities with patrons at more than a dozen locations. Patrons were encouraged to share how the Library makes them feel, what the Library could do to improve, and even what their dream library might look like.  

Feedback provided through the survey, workshops and engagement activities will help inform how the Library shapes its services and spaces to better serve our community.  

About The Seattle Public Library

The Seattle Public Library believes that the power of knowledge improves people's lives. With 27 locations and a Mobile Services unit, a digital and physical collection of 2.9 million items, and thousands of programs a year, we bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and empower community.

Contact the Library’s Ask Us service by phone at 206-386-4636 or by email or chat at spl.org/Ask. Staff are ready to answer questions and direct you to helpful resources and information. Find out more about our future plans at www.spl.org/StrategicPlan.