The library system began in 1942 when voters in King County established the King County Rural Library District in order to provide library services to people in rural areas with no easy access to city libraries. Funding for the library system is provided from property taxes. Funding measures for the system passed in 1966, 1977, 1980, 1988, 2002, 2004, and 2010. Property taxes account for 94% of revenue today. The name of the organization was changed from the King County Rural Library District to the present-day King County Library System in 1978, although the previous name of "Rural Library District" is still part of the organization's legal name. The system received a $172 million capital bond in 2004 to rebuild, renovate, and expand most of its existing libraries, as well as building new libraries. KCLS extends access privileges to residents of its service area, which includes all unincorporated areas of King County as well as residents of every city in the county except
Hunts Point and
Yarrow Point, which do not offer any library service at all. Residents of Seattle—which maintains its
own library system—are allowed access to KCLS collections under reciprocal borrowing agreements between KCLS and Seattle's libraries. KCLS also extends reciprocal borrowing privileges to residents of many other library systems in Western and North Central Washington. KCLS annexed
Renton's public library system in 2010 following a vote by the city's residents. In 2011, KCLS won the Gale/Library Journal "Library of the Year" award. ==Facilities==