Redmond Ridge Library Express, King County Library System's first unstaffed limited-service library, opens on November 7, 2009.

  • By Michael Schein
  • Posted 12/02/2016
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 20221
See Additional Media

On November 7, 2009, the King County Library System's first unstaffed, automated "library express" opens at Redmond Ridge, with a special sneak-preview celebration. Redmond Ridge is not within the city limits of Redmond, but is a recently built master planned development located due east of the city. The Redmond Ridge Library Express will open for regular business on the following Monday, November 9, but the sneak preview is a chance for the community to celebrate the fruition of a joint project between KCLS and the Redmond Ridge Residential Owners Association (RRROA). The 300-square-foot-facility, housed in the RRROA office building, is primarily designed to provide a local place for ridge residents to pick up their library holds.

Request for Library Service

Redmond Ridge is a part of unincorporated King County bordered on the west by Union Hill, which drops down to the city of Redmond, on the east by the steep slope down to the Snoqualmie River Valley known as Novelty Hill, on the south by Union Hill Road, and extending on the north to encompass the Redmond Watershed Preserve and the Trilogy at Redmond Ridge development. It was historically known as Northridge, until the name was changed in 1998 by Quadrant Homes. Quadrant, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, was the owner/developer of a 1,000-acre tract developed as a master planned development under the name Redmond Ridge.

During the 15-year period from 1998 to 2013, three major developments were built out on Redmond Ridge: Quadrant's Redmond Ridge, Trilogy at Redmond Ridge, and Murray Franklyn's Redmond Ridge East. These developments included single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, apartments, a shopping center, an elementary school, a business park, playfields, and a golf course and clubhouse, resulting in a newly-settled combined population of nearly 19,000 inhabitants on the ridge.

In response to a request by the Redmond Ridge Residential Owners Association for local library service, KCLS staff surveyed ridge residents and learned that 95 percent preferred to pick up their library holds locally, instead of driving to existing KCLS libraries in Redmond or in Duvall, located to the northeast in the Snoqualmie River Valley below the ridge. Accordingly, in 2008 KCLS set aside operational funding to explore building an automated "library express" facility on Redmond Ridge, similar to the one that the library was considering for Woodinville. When the Woodinville plans fell through, the Redmond Ridge project became the only one of its kind in the library system.

The homeowners association cooperated with KCLS by offering to lease a portion of its primary office building on Cedar Park Crescent NE for the project. KCLS staff completed the design work, and renovation commenced in August 2009.

Opening the Library Express

Work on the 300-square-foot facility was completed in time for the sneak-preview opening on a cool, cloudy Saturday, November 7, 2009. Cider and doughnuts, provided by Friends of the Redmond Library, were served under canopies festooned with balloons set up in the parking lot. Bill Ptacek, the KCLS Director, spoke at the opening ceremony, and a ribbon was cut. The ceremony was well-attended, with many ridge residents touring the small facility.

Tours of the Redmond Ridge Library Express during the sneak preview showed residents a cozy book-lined room mainly dedicated to providing a place to pick up materials put on hold. Patrons could place a hold from any internet-connected device, and then after notification that it was ready, pick it up at the library express. Although "unstaffed" in the sense that no librarian or KCLS employee was on duty during most of the hours of operation, library operations staff visited the library express daily to shelve holds materials for pickup, or to pull expired holds. Library shipping staff also visited the library express daily to change out the drop boxes and deliver materials on hold.

Patrons who toured the library during the sneak preview also saw a small area of Choice Reads for browsing, which could be checked out. There was an automated self-checkout station, as well as a computer dedicated to the library catalog, and two red phones connected to the Redmond Library information desk. All these facilities remained in place in 2016.

When the Redmond Ridge Library Express opened, there was one library drop box out front, and the facility was open the same hours as the Redmond Library. There was a keypad and library-card scanner for obtaining entry, which were protected from rain by a small shelf. Later, after having only one drop box resulted in materials overflowing onto the pavement, a second drop box was added. The keypad/scanner box froze up several times in the first months of operations, and had to be encased in a metal box to protect it against the weather. The hours were changed to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the week -- except the facility closed during RRROA meetings.

Except for these changes, the Redmond Ridge Library Express has continued to serve the community as originally designed. Redmond Ridge residents have used the library express heavily enough that in 2015 it accounted for a circulation of nearly 90,000 items. Having their own library -- even an automated limited-service facility -- has helped to make the new master planned communities of Redmond Ridge feel more like an established city.


Sources:

"Redmond Ridge," King County Library System (KCLS) website accessed November 12, 2016 (http://kcls.org/locations/1559/); "About Redmond Ridge," KCLS website accessed November 12, 2016 (http://kcls.org/about-redmond-ridge/); "2015 Annual Report," KCLS website accessed November 13, 2016 (https://w3.kcls.org/annual_reports/2015%20YIR.pdf); "Redmond Regional Library 2009 Community Study," KCLS website accessed November 12, 2016 (https://w3.kcls.org/community_studies/Redmond%20Community%20Study.pdf ); "History of Redmond Ridge," Redmond Ridge Residential Owners Association (RRROA) website accessed 11/11/16 (http://redmondridgeroa.com/Page/13210~279605/History-of-Redmond-Ridge); "Library Express" RRROA website accessed November 4, 2016 (http://redmondridgeroa.com/page/13210~256991/Library-Express ); Suzanne Monson, "Novelty/Union Hills: A Rural Feel Remains Above Redmond," The Seattle Times, February 15, 2013 (www.seattletimes.com); Ashley Bach, "East Phase Begins for Redmond Ridge," Ibid., February 15, 2008; Brier Dudley, "Work Begins at Last on Huge Development: Access Road Now Being Built to Newly Named Redmond Ridge," The Seattle Times, April 8, 1998, p. B-1; Michael Schein interview with Myra Basden, KCLS Redmond Operations Manager, November 3, 2016, notes in possession of Michael Schein, Carnation, Washington; Michael Schein interview with Marian LaBeck, Redmond Supervising Librarian, and Dan Shaffer, Redmond Adult Services Librarian, November 5, 2016, notes in possession of Michael Schein; "Library Express: Expanding KCLS Library Services," undated information sheet, copy in possession of Michael Schein; "Coming Soon: The Redmond Ridge Library Express!," undated information sheet, copy in possession of Michael Schein; "Preview Event: Library Express @ Redmond Ridge," undated information sheet, copy in possession of Michael Schein; "2016/2015 Door Count by Branch," statistical report provided by Mary Comstock, KCLS NE Cluster Library Services Manager, to Michael Schein, copy in possession of Michael Schein.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You