By Janis Siegel , JTNews Correspondent
Seattle’s City Librarian, Deborah Jacobs, is living out her childhood dream-although it’s not the one where she marries Sandy Koufax or is appointed the first Jewish female Supreme Court justice.
This 2003 honorary member of the Seattle American Institute of Architects can be seen walking around the new $165 million downtown Seattle Public Library with the unmistakable sheen of pure bliss usually assigned to mystics and sages.
“It’s truly amazing,” said Jacobs, drifting between the philosophical and the poetic as she talked about the building below from her yet-to-be-decorated office on the 11th floor. The administrative level is the only floor that is restricted to the public.
“And the thing that makes me proudest,” added Jacobs, “besides the fact that it’s designed to be a functional library, is that people all over the world right now are talking about this building. It’s a library. It’s a public library and it’s the hot thing.”
On opening day in late May, 28,000 visitors showed up to view this new urban jewel. Jacobs and her staff only expected about 8,000 people. Somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors a day are still coming through.
“If the rate continues through the summer, we’re going to have to get more staff and volunteers and help people navigate through the building,” said Jacobs.
By day, the spectacular 11-story high-tech and high-art public space designed by the award-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is drenched in the usual cool gray light of Seattle and offers expansive skyline views of downtown and Elliott Bay.
“We’ve got tours being scheduled from all over the world. Every time my phone rings it’s generally a journalist inviting me to speak. In a week I’ve already been invited to speak in Singapore, Australia, Newcastle and Minneapolis.”
One of Jacobs’ favorite places is the 400-seat Reading Room on the 10th floor.
Floors six through nine employ a book spiral system that navigates the library patron on a gently downward spiraling pathway floor while Dewey Decimal System numbers printed on rubber mats guide patrons through the book collection.
The fifth floor Mixing Chamber is where library users can go to ask questions, do research and access librarians.
Public meeting rooms on the fourth floor give way to the café, public reading space, coffee cart, the teen collection and periodicals located on the third floor.
The second floor houses more library staff and the first floor holds a Children’s Center, 275-seat auditorium and Language Center.
In 1998, when Seattle voters approved the $196 million bond measure it was the largest ever passed for libraries in the country. In addition, Jacobs raised $82 million and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $20 million. The record-setting $256 million Libraries For All capital construction program became a reality.
“What this says is that the city is willing to invest in itself,” said Jacobs. “It says that Seattle considers the library a central part of the community they live in and that they are willing to pay to insure a strong infrastructure.”
The 52-year-old former children’s librarian is well on her way to completing the 28 planned construction projects that include all of the Seattle Public Library branches either being rebuilt, renovated or replaced in the library system.
Jacobs is responsible for a $34.8 million budget, 600 library employees, the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library, 23 community libraries, and four mobile units.
The standout building was a gift that citizens of Seattle ultimately gave to themselves, but it allowed the California native, a leader in public information for 29 years, to marry her professional vision to her long-held, deeply ingrained Jewish values.
“I was raised by a left-wing Jewish mother and she taught me to do good work,” said Jacobs. “My intent was to be an attorney but I decided that if I wanted to make the world a better place, which is what I was raised to do, that it would happen more quickly through a public library than through being an attorney.”
The daughter of a 50s-era social activist, Jacobs was born in the Watts district of Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley of California.
“My mom is an atheist but I was such a little nerd that I decided to go to Hebrew school in addition to Sunday school,” Jacobs laughed. “So my mom had to accept that she had this little Jewish daughter. I was among the first wave of women who had Bat Mitzvahs.”
Jacobs’ 21-year-old son, Jacob Benjamin Brogan, will be starting his senior year at Yale University majoring in Religious Studies. Her love of books and reading must have made an impression on the young boy because now, she says, he is a voracious reader.
Jacobs recalls some the earliest lessons she learned from her childhood.
“My mom took me to libraries from the time I was a little girl,” said Jacobs. “I knew what they did. They gave you books and they were free. They were for everybody.”
Learning to love libraries also taught her compassion for some of the most vulnerable in society-immigrants and the poor.
“There is no finer institution than libraries because they are a segue into society,” Jacobs said. “It’s what they represent to the American dream. Everybody goes to the library to become a successful citizen. We all grew up reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. We all thought about our relatives coming to Brooklyn.”
But with all the accolades and rave reviews, she is baffled by a missing piece-a Jewish investment of both time and money to the library.
“I think the thing that the Jewish community has not, by and large, connected to in a overt philanthropic or volunteer way is the Seattle Public Library,” said Jacobs. “The connections of Jews to learning is so huge. Why that hasn’t happened here? People donate to the art museum, the symphony and the opera. Why are halls in town named after Jewish people but Jewish donors to the Seattle Public Library are minimal?”
Jacobs can only hope that in the future the Jewish community will eventually send some of its resources her way. For now, however, she is savoring the moment and wouldn’t have it any other way.
“As the leader of this institution, I am honored at the attention it’s receiving,” admitted Jacobs. “I’m thrilled that people will be coming to this building from all over the world. But in the end, we’re a public library and our job is to serve the people of Seattle.”