Bill Ptacek has always believed in the power of libraries.
Growing up in Chicago, the long-time director of the King County Library System wanted to make a difference, to disseminate knowledge. Unlike others, he looked past the education field and targeted libraries as a key piece of information sharing.
This passion and confidence in the potential of libraries took Ptacek all over the country, from Chicago to Idaho to Kentucky and finally to the Puget Sound area, where he has helped establish KCLS as the busiest library system in the nation.
“This area’s support for libraries is incredible,” he said. “People here get it.”
Since Ptacek was named the director of the system in 1989, KCLS has expanded from 30 libraries to 46, and the number of employees has quadrupled. In other states, Ptacek said, there is tenor of anti-intellectualism that can sometimes hold libraries back, financially.
In Washington, voters have agreed to tax raises, and annexations of cities into KCLS, an independent taxing district, a number of times. The most recent example occurred in 2010, when voters approved a levy lift for KCLS in the midst of the economic downturn.
But Ptacek’s time hasn’t been free of controversy. He’s had run-ins with the library unions over the clustering of branches that forced employees to work at several different libraries. And he’s recently been involved in a controversy over a decision to remove security cameras from the facilities over privacy issues when police wanted to use them to investigate a mugging outside a branch.
When Ptacek took over the system in 1989, KCLS had recently won an election for a large bond issue. A rural system for much of its existence, KCLS now had to keep up with the growth of suburban cities in King County. With the increased popularity, it became difficult to move from place to place, and the need for superior local libraries became clear.
The success of the system has been largely predicated on the ability to look forward. When asked about what he’s learned working in different areas of the country, Ptacek said it was so long ago that much of it isn’t relevant anymore. Libraries are ever-changing, evolving systems, he said. Rather than simply trying to keep up, KCLS has attempted to stay on the cutting edge.
Ptacek said the library is no longer the be-all-end-all for research. So he adjusted to make the library a sort of community center with a variety of services, including tax help and resources for job hunters.
“The nature of what we do, the kind of information we provide has changed.”
Ptacek’s work in the libraries fits with his personality, said Jeanne Thorsen, director of the KCLS Foundation. She points to his avid cycling habit as an example. A long-time bicyclist, Ptacek recently joined the Cascade Bicycle Club Board. This passion for whatever he is involved in has served Ptacek. Even now, 22 years in to his time with KCLS, Ptacek works at a library one night a week to get a hands-on feel of how things are going.
“Whenever Bill gets involved in something, he does so with full energy,” Thorsen said.
Nat Levy can be reached at (425) 453-4290
5 things you may not know about KCLS
1. KCLS has never used a card catalog.
2. 25 percent of items checked out by KCLS customers are sent from one of the branch libraries to another.
3. KCLS was one of the first library systems to provide internet access.
4. KCLS circulated 22.4 million items in 2010, enough to make it the busiest system in the country.
5. Last year KCLS received 31 million web hits, and 10,199,150 visits.
