Daily visits have doubled, circulation is up more than 50 percent, and 26,000 people have lined up just to tour Seattle's new flagship library since it opened a year ago tomorrow.

By almost any measure, it's a huge hit. The building has won an array of architectural awards, including the American Institute of Architects' 2005 Honor Award for Outstanding Architecture.

One-third of those 8,000 daily visitors are from outside Seattle. This summer, when tourists come to town, officials are expecting as many as 15,000 visitors each day. The library has even embarked on a study to gauge how much money visitors spend in the city.

In April, publisher Condé Nast's list of the "new seven wonders of the world" included the Seattle Public Library, calling it "a light-filled glass cathedral."

"This is my hot library," said city librarian Deborah Jacobs, admitting that the hoopla surrounding the library has kept her phone ringing with job inquiries. But she's staying put. "I've been asked to apply for other jobs, but I haven't," she said. "What bigger bang is there than this?"

Judy Flanagan of Snohomish made her first trip to the library this month, took a tour, and was floored. "It's unbelievable," she said. "The best part is how they made their decisions in designing it, by consulting with the librarians."

Mickey Bambrick lives in La Conner, Skagit County, yet drives to Seattle every two weeks with her son, Kaleb Slaatthaug, 6, to check books out of the library at 1000 Fourth Ave., between Spring and Madison streets. Each trip, she goes home with her limit of 100 books because her son is such a voracious reader.

Bambrick has a library card because she owns property in Seattle.

"We've read all the books in our county," said Bambrick, who knows a trip to the new downtown library will be a three-hour adventure because Kaleb loves books so much.

"We go through 80-100 books a week," she said of her son, who is a kindergartner but reads at the fifth-grade level. "We can't afford to buy them, but it's worth the price of gas."

The $165.5 million glass and steel library, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, is filled with light and equipped with the latest technology, including wireless headsets, a revolving book-return spiral and more than 400 public computers.

But as with all buildings, the newness is wearing off:

• The floor on the Fifth Avenue entrance needs to be refinished because so many feet have trampled it.

• The elevator floors, bathroom floors and the green painted floors have to be redone because the paint is wearing thin.

• The penned direction signs on pieces of construction paper have to go; a new sign contract is out for bid.

• The acoustics are poor in the cavernous children's area, with its concrete ceilings. The library is looking into it.

Jacobs said there are three problems that she intentionally caused by construction decisions — issues that wouldn't be problems if the library weren't so popular.

The elevators are slow; she said she's trying to redirect patrons onto the building escalators.

There are bathrooms on only three floors, rather than the five that had been suggested, which Jacobs said was a conscious decision to cut down on maintenance and monitoring costs.

There is no stairway between the fifth and sixth floors, except for the emergency staircase. Visitors can take the escalator to the seventh floor and walk down the book spiral to the sixth floor, but that route is complicated by poor signage.

Other librarians say the library needs more staffing, but Jacobs pointed to the system where patrons can check out books by themselves, freeing up staff time.

Despite the problems, Jacobs said the public response to the new library has been beyond her expectations.

From May through December, the library issued 37,000 new library cards from its downtown branch.

The library has been praised in trade magazines.

Wrote Lawrence W. Cheek in Architecture Magazine: "It's instantly apparent that what designers Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Ramus [the primary local architect] have done here is nothing less than reinvent the public library on at least three fronts — form, function and spirit. And it's that last quality, spirit, that is the most resounding achievement."

He said the free-form glossy red walls of the fourth level, which houses meeting rooms, "suggests the digestive tract of a huge sea mammal or a convention center on the planet Mongo."

"Who would think that a library, a public building open to anyone, would be considered the finest building in the world open this year?" Jacobs said.

Added library spokeswoman Andra Addison, "We're a destination spot. Almost overnight."

Construction on the 11-story library began in August 2001. The project is part of a $196 million bond issue approved by Seattle voters in 1998 that also is paying for construction and renovation of branch libraries.

Since the new downtown library opened, new and renovated libraries have opened at High Point, Northeast Seattle, Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Greenwood, Fremont, and Ballard. In all, 14 branch libraries have been built or remodeled.

A new International District library opens next month, and Lake City's will open this fall.

The Northgate library is under construction; the Douglass-Truth library is closing today for renovation and expansion; the Southwest, Montlake and South Park libraries are going out to bid.

Four remaining libraries are in the design phase: University, Queen Anne, Broadview and Magnolia. All are to be completed by the end of 2007, including interior renovations to the Madrona-Sally Goldmark branch.

Earlier this year, the library settled a dispute with Hoffman Construction Co. and its subcontractors over problems that led to a seven-month delay in finishing the work on the downtown library. The city's insurance company agreed to pay $14.5 million for added excavation, shoring and other costs.

Asked whether any other job could tempt her to leave Seattle, Jacobs shook her head, but paused. "Orcas Island, maybe?"

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com