It's a kind of Super Bowl of library systems. Once a year, King County goes head-to-head with New York and Brooklyn Public in a sorting smackdown.
Each side has one hour to sort as many books as they can, something the King County Library System trains for all year at the Materials Handling Distribution Center in Preston.
"This is the central hub for the circulation of the library collection between the 49 branches," says manager Tony Miranda. "All the items come into us. We will sort them and then the very next day get them out to the appropriate branches."
The rivalry is a few years old with hometown favorites King County up 3 to 2.
"There's a myth about the library profession," says executive director Lisa Rosenblum. "That we're passive and introverted. We're competitive."
This is Lisa Rosenblum's first year with the King County Library System. She was actually recruited from rival Brooklyn.
"They call me a traitor because I came here." says Rosenblum. "They think we're flannel wearing, tree hugging softies. We are the best library system in the country and we're the best sorting team."
The handlers are fed bins of books by the library's automated sorting machine known as the Tin Man. The books are placed on a conveyor belt, scanned and dropped into a new bin.
But despite the hard work and trash talk, King County fell short. New York and Brooklyn Public managed to sort more than 2,000 more books to even the score 3 to 3.
