Unofficial Seattle Public Library Stamp Rally
I have an affinity for stamp rallies—little booklets with spaces to gather stamps by visiting different locations.
I always needed a reason to visit every branch of the Seattle Public Library, and a friend suggested we ask librarians to stamp it with stamps they already use for new books. So I made a free PDF booklet you can print at the first library you start with.
Since they already have the stamps, this rally can be done any time with no time limit and with no coordination from the Seattle Public Library system.
Download the PDF and check out the printing instructions!
Download
Download the PDF file and copy it to a USB drive, or view it on a library computer.
Open the PDF in Acrobat or other program on a library computer and select “Print”. Make sure it’s printing on both sides and along the short side. Print in black & white.
Stamp!1!
Fold the papers in half and optionally staple together. Then you’re ready to collect stamps!
How do I get stamps?
Bring your booklet up to the desk marked “Circulation”, or where you see several library staff members working.
Politely ask something like…
- “Could you please stamp this for me with the stamp this branch uses on new books?”
- “Do you still use stamps with today’s date on it? Could you use that stamp on this booklet for me?”
Please note that since this is an unofficial, fan-made stamp rally, library staff might not be aware of it.
If you’re comfortable, you can share more information about this project and send them to this site.
If they decline to give you a stamp, you can always write the date in the space instead.
How I made this!
I’ve always wanted to visit every Seattle Public Library, not only to admire the unique architecture but to see each neighborhood and find some new books to read along the way.
So I thought about making a stamp rally booklet. The original specifications I put on myself were:
- It must have a spot for every library in Seattle.
- It has to be printable at the library (since I don’t own a printer).
- It should look “cool”.
- It will be given away for free as digital copies (so no copyrighted material allowed).
- I should finish soon, so I can still get stamps while the weather is nice
I spent a whole evening laying out the book in Affinity Publisher 2, leaving space for a front page. I copied the names, addresses, and phone numbers from the Seattle Public Library website because Seattle Independent Bookstore Day taught me that you’ll never know when you need to call! (Mostly to see how late they’re open, and if you can please still get a stamp a few minutes after closing?)
I also made sure everything fit in 10 black and white pages or less—the current allocation of free printing at Seattle Public Library ($1.50 per week).
Then I started working on the illustrations myself to keep everything royalty free, outlining images I found on the SPL site, Google maps, or in public domain.
After a few weeks of drawing, I finally had a first draft! But when I tried to print it to the library, I ran into several issues:
1. I can’t print from my personal computer to a library computer with “double sided” settings on.
2. Whenever I tried to “print to PDF”, it kept saving as an “XPS” file (even when I was definitely using the ‘Print to PDF’ feature which has always worked).
3. I can’t print an XPS file easily.
4. “Print to PDF” is different than “Export to PDF”.
I learned that the “print” function does some fancy math with the spreads, determining which pages should actually get printed on what piece of paper to make sure the booklet folds correctly.
But I learned that the hard way. When I printed it out at the library (and it cost below the $1.50 allowance! Success!) and started folding the sheets, the numbers were way out of order.
The first copy of the booklet with hand written edits.
Print a real copy early in the design process to get a feel for how the final version will look.
Try it out to see if there are any improvements that can be made. For example, I intended for the libraries to stamp on top of the illustrations, but in practice none of the libraries wanted to stamp on top of the art, and instead stamped underneath the illustrations.
“Print” and “Export” do significantly different things.
“XPS” files are booklets / ebooks!
Lines that are 1 pixel in width are often difficult to print.
Some fonts are designed to be digital-first, and not necessarily printed.