Craig Seasholes is not only the new (as of about two months ago) school librarian at West Seattle’s Sanislo Elementary, he is also president of the Washington Library Media Association. Seasholes invited WSB to stop by the Sanislo library today, since it’s not just any old day in the school library – it’s Washington Library Snapshot Day, meant to capture one day in the life of libraries around the state. (Participants in West Seattle also include the Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School libraries.) Sanislo is uniquely laid out as an “open-concept” school, so the library, for example, shares the same large, airy space as the computer lab, where more than two dozen fifth-graders were working on a project during our visit, while a class of second-graders trooped in to browse and check out books. What’s the biggest challenge for school libraries right now? we asked Seasholes. Reply: Finding creative ways to maintain and grow their collections. He would also like to see more people come check out their school libraries (regardless of whether there’s a student in your family): “It’s not just the ‘book lady’ any more,” as he puts it.

(P.S. Sanislo, like many schools, is full of young writers as well as young readers – you’ll recall that along with Roxhill and Concord, they had a team in the recent Global Reading Challenge finals – and the writers “have a gig,” as Seasholes puts it, at Elliott Bay Books on June 4th.)