Middle-school students sit transfixed around computer monitors. A handful of carefree toddlers cavort back and forth throughout the labyrinthine book aisles.

Serious-looking men and women from all walks of life sit cheek by jowl around study tables, comforted by calming fluorescent lights overhead, while seasoned employees field questions and oblige patrons with much alacrity and winning smiles.

Jot down one more good thing happening in our community: The full-service state-of-the-art edifice, the Federal Way 320th Street Library. Since the Regional Library’s closing for expansion a few months ago, the 320th branch has taken on the lion’s share of workload for Federal Way.

First, I was nervous as to how the staff was going to pull it off, along with the paucity of space. But I would say the service has gotten even better.

Gone are the days when you could pick out the children in a lineup who visit libraries; nowadays, it is very hard to do so. Not to mention your stereotypical librarian.

“When I was a kid you couldn’t pay me to go to the library,” said Claudette, a grandmother and a habitué at the 320th Street branch. “But today, everybody and then some are finding their way to the library as if it’s the coolest thing to do.”

Cool is the operative word here. Much kudos to the King County Library System (KCLS) for making our libraries practical meccas. Thanks, too, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their largesse in helping to fund the system.

I am not going to jump ahead of myself reeling off statistics and comparing library systems around the country, but I would bet that our system is way up there in terms of innovation, public relations, modernity and generosity, just to name a few.

Having lived in various parts of the United States, I am at liberty to say that KCLS is light years ahead of many other systems in a lot of ways. As soon as there is a change in operating systems, it is readily implemented within the various branches.

There’s always something new one can expect to see or experience, whether it’s with new lighting, chairs or décor. One thing remains constant, however: The professional yet caring treatment from staff to the public. I look forward to going to our local branch, as I have always felt so welcomed being there.

The KCLS has done everything humanly possible to make our lives more meaningful. It keeps abreast of the trends and passes on technical yet simple solutions to us.

In a time of much belt-tightening, the library is a godsend to countless families who are forced to give up the luxury of an Internet connection at home. But all is not lost as that discomfort can be remedied at the library. You can choose from desktop or laptop computer, if that be your wish.

Where else in the country could each library card holder get 75 printed pages of free copies per week? One woman said that her respect for the library grew when the system tracked down and borrowed a 200-year-old book in England for her research some years ago.

Recently in a campaign dubbed “Look to Your Library for Information,” 41 branches opened their doors one hour early so that the public could glean a ton of knowledge about resources in the system and beyond.

This included resume workshops, technical labs to make users more resourceful and computer savvy; how to think like an interviewer; Multi-Service Center personnel on hand to share need-based information and employment services; and “Dial 211 for Legal Referral,” where people facing evictions, foreclosures, family law issues, bankruptcy and immigration problems can find positive breakthroughs for their situations.

Whenever my boys complain about a particular class or subject, I never fail to drum home my point to them. I perhaps sound like a scratched record — er, CD — with my constantly telling them how I covet them for going to school now.

I would trade places with them any day, sans the peer pressure. Frankly, I believe that any student without learning disability today, with the use of a computer or access to a library, should not get any grade below a B.

I recall the days of simultaneously attending college and working full time. As soon as the lights in the library would go dim, the security guard would make his way over to me without saying a word, a presence that told me it was time to leave.

I would hang on to every word from those sacrosanct reference volumes, and when I did get some books to check out, I was bound to find missing pages ripped out by students. There was no cut and paste from your favorite Web site to clean up for your research papers. Wiki who? No saving text on diskettes and working on it tomorrow.

Today, you can take a virtual tour of the Louvre in France or the Hermitage in Russia. You have every kind of information under the sun at your fingertips.

Boy, how libraries have changed! I am glad that those changes are for the better. Here’s hoping that a lot of middle school boys will avoid those computer games and every now and then, pick up a copy of Time magazine. Or Hardy Boys. Or read from Walt Whitman, James Joyce, Flannery O’Connor or James Baldwin.

There is a subtle kind of hint for you to go, too, come closing time at the 320th Library: The serenading song wafting over the airwaves from “The Sound of Music:”

“So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye…” With a chuckle and a good night’s dream, I long to get back to this wonderful place.