A quality book collection is absolutely necessary to the Library's mission of supporting an informed citizenry, offering materials for lifelong learning, and reading for pleasure. The barriers to developing these quality collections are almost entirely financial. While the cost of a best seller has increased dramatically, the Library's book budget has not kept up with the increased costs of the books, thus diminishing an already inadequate purchasing power. Between 1993 and 1997, the cost of books increased 38 percent while the Library's book budget increased only 3 percent.

In 1994, a consultant was hired to provide a limited evaluation of the Seattle Public Library print collections for breadth of coverage, age, condition, and suitability for accomplishing the Library's goals and objectives. Her conclusions will come as no surprise to anyone who has used the Seattle Public Library in the last decade. A first glance at the shelves registers a worn, old collection. Because there is little money for replacements of useful and important titles, damaged and out-of-date books are kept long after they should have been withdrawn and replaced.

A quality collection for Seattle Public Library should include enough copies of materials so that readers will not have to wait more than six months to check out a best seller. Users should be able to walk into any library in the system and expect to find, if not the particular book they were interested in, at least an up-to- date book on the subject. Science and health books should be current, while good collections of classic titles should be found in all subjects in all libraries. Young people coming to their neighborhood library to do their homework should be able to find current  materials that they can check out and take home. And finally, delivery services should be streamlined to ensure that books requested from other libraries are delivered to users quickly.