90 boxes
This has been annoying.
Seattle Public Library still reeling from May cyberattack
Three weeks ago, waist-high cardboard boxes filled to the brim with books cluttered every aisle of this industrial Georgetown warehouse. Stacked in rows, the still-to-be-processed books packed 90 boxes at its peak.
Now, two months after a ransomware attack shut down many of Seattle Public Library’s services, library workers are celebrating: They’ve finally finished sorting and processing a backlog of thousands of borrowed books.
We get to return books again. I did enjoy returning that book about Orwell v women after all these weeks. I felt rebuked every time I saw it sitting there waiting.
On Memorial Day weekend, the library was forced to shut down everything: from the internet and public computers to use of the library catalog and in-person book checkouts. Most of the services have been restored sporadically since then. The internet is back up, patrons can again receive new library cards in person and check out physical items. The online, searchable version of the library’s catalog is also up and running.
The library still has work to do: Borrowers still can’t register for new library cards online, and other services are also down, like online account login, self-checkout lanes, holds on physical books and other items like DVDs and CDs. Library pickup lockers, microfilm/microfiche and the use of public library computers are also unavailable.
Yes holds on physical books. I want that back!
The attack has cost the library hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the total growing every day as the work continues. This includes the costs of restoration programming, the consulting firms, data-mining efforts, overtime pay and more.
Which is enraging. So much money that could have been used for better things.
Be good to your libraries.
So much money that could have been used for better things.
books?
Books and other library materials and everything libraries do for the benefit of the people who use them.
Books, but also librarian salaries and database subscriptions. Magazines. There is SO MUCH libraries do!
Oh shit. That sucks. The exact same thing happened to the Toronto Public Library system. Cyberattack last October. Boxes of books piled up for months. Book lending shut down for months. Computer services for the public shut down for months.
It’s terrible that they’d attack libraries. They provide so many good services to the public in addition to book lending, like free Internet, special classes for adults as well as kids, and so much more. I live next door to the Central Reference Libary, a branch that doesn’t lend out its books so that there’s always a copy available onsite if you need it. It’s very handy. It was sad to see much of the place darkened during the cyberattack. I sometimes go there to get some quiet outside the house if I need to concentrate on work and I want a change of scenery from my little aerie. Plus, I can print things for free on their computers.
It’s a very pleasant space, too: big, bright and airy, with brash retro-’70s curves and red-orange carpeting absolutely everywhere. It’s not Dublin’s Trinity Library in terms of library-gorgeousness, but it’s distinct and it’s hard not to feel good when you’re in it.
It features prominently in this stylish pop video from The Weeknd. (The second half of the video, with the brutalist concrete, is somewhere else.)
https://youtu.be/eXDU9um19HM?si=JHbw3GzWDhLVGHLj&t=11
More pics:
https://libraryplanet.net/2019/01/15/toronto-reference-library/
And the British Library. Happened in October 2023 and still work ongoing to restore services:
https://blogs.bl.uk/living-knowledge/2024/07/restoring-our-services-30-july-2024-update-.html
I think libraries are seen as an easy target, and they might well be.
Argh!! Leave libraries alone!!