SPOKANE, Wash. – The Northtown Mall will be home to a new location for the Spokane Public Library in the new year.
The location, which will be titled, “To Be Continued: A Spokane Public Library,” will open its doors on Thursday, January 2, 2020. It will house a large collection of books, DVDs and other resources for library patrons.
To Be Continued will be located near the mall entrance by Buffalo Wild Wings and Blue Zoo. Patrons can choose Northtown as a hold pickup location, attend semiweekly story times, use internet computers and more, according to a release from Spokane Public Library.
The location will be a temporary replacement for the Shadle Library while renovations are taking place. Construction will begin early 2020. The Shadle Library will undergo a 30,000 square foot expansion with and improved children’s area, a quiet reading area and meeting space.
The Wenatchee branch for the North Central Regional Library has had a remodel underway and recently hit halfway mark for completion. Though no concrete date has been established, the goal is to be moved in by May.
“Now they’re actually starting to put things in and put things together which is exciting to see,” said Courtney Tiffany, senior branch manager. “We are set to be complete this spring. I hesitate to give a date because renovations can be tricky like that. But we’re hoping to be back in there by May.”
The renovations include a centralized information desk, quiet study areas and updated technology and restrooms. A new private meeting room and a social area are also new features.
“A lot of the layout changes will improve the use of the space. I think people will enjoy being there,” said Tiffany. “They’ll find what they need a little bit better.”
Families Flock to Tenino Library for ‘Gingerbread’ Houses
Library Event One of Many Aimed at Providing Place to for People to Grow
By Carrina Stanton / For The Chronicle
Ava Johnson, 4, of Yelm, celebrates the completion of her gingerbread house at the Tenino Timberland Regional Library’s gingerbread making event Saturday.
Ruby Stanton/For The Chronicle
s she added the finishing touches to her graham cracker, frosting and candy structure Saturday, Kate Pitkin, 8, of Olympia smiled as she licked a bit of frosting off her fingers. When asked what the secret to a good gingerbread house, she shrugged.
“I don’t know, this is my first time,” she said.
But when asked what her favorite part was, that was an easier answer.
Ernesto Duran of Olympia helps his daughter Erianna, 4, put the finishing touches on her gingerbread house during an event on at the Tenino Timberland Regional Library Saturday.
Carrina Stanton/For The Chronicle
“Eating the marshmallows,” she said.
Dozens of families packed the Tenino Timberland Regional Library Saturday for a gingerbread-making family activity that is sure to become an annual tradition, said youth services associate Samantha Pry. Pry, who plans the children and teens events for the branch of TRL, said while it looks like play, the event, like everything at the library, is intended to have a much deeper impact on children’s developing brains.
“Preferably things here are hands on and work on a skill,” Pry said. “Today, we’re working on engineering. We’re working on how to build something. And something might fall down the first time we try it so then how do we fix it and build again?”
Gretchen Pitkin of Olympia helps her son Johnathan, 5, and daughter Melissa, 8, build their gingerbread houses at the Tenino Timberland Regional Library Saturday.
Carrina Stanton/For The Chronicle
Which was exactly what grandparents Heather and Terry Cumberworth of Tenino experienced at the gingerbread house making event. They of Tenino brought their granddaughter Awnixx Roundtree, 2, for a little bonding time before Christmas. Terry said their first house fell down after Awnixx added a few too many candies to the roof. The second try seemed to be holding its shape but the trio seemed unflustered by the setback, especially Awnixx.
“I think she’s enjoying eating the candy more than sticking it on the house,” Terry said with a laugh.
Sarah Alvarez of Tenino helps her son Miles, 2, and daughter Paige, 5, with their gingerbread creations Saturday at the Tenino Timberland Regional Library.
Carrina Stanton/For The Chronicle
The Tenino TRL offered the gingerbread house making event for the first time last year and Pry said it was so popular they decided to bring it back. But it is just one of many events at TRL branches across the South Sound. Pry said she would estimate the Tenino TRL offers about 10 events each month geared toward kids and teens.
Tenino TRL lead library assistant Sirena Painter explained that their branch is making an effort to add more events that are intergenerational and create an environment that brings people together. One example is their crafternoons, which are geared toward people who are home during the day. The gatherings give people an opportunity to learn an artistic technique and create a piece of art to take home. Some events, like the gingerbread making, draw dozens, while others may draw just a handful. But they are all important, she noted, because they create space for the community to gather.
“So many people are engaged with computers and cell phones that it’s hard to connect,” Painter said. “In my opinion, that makes it even more important for libraries to be a place where people can learn new things and meet new people.”
For Tasha Johnson of Yelm, bringing her daughters Ava, 4, and Caia, 3, to the gingerbread making party was a fun way to get out of the house for the afternoon. Johnson said their family often visits Tenino to come to businesses like the Sandstone Café and come to the library for events.
Whitney Ricca, 7, of Tenino, adds frosting to a graham cracker “wall” to make her gingerbread house at an event offered by the Tenino Timberland Regional Library Saturday.
Carrina Stanton/For The Chronicle
“I think it’s awesome the fact that it’s creating fun for the kids and they’re out of school right now so we were going to go a little stir crazy otherwise,” Johnson said of the event.
Terry and Heather Cumberworth of Tenino help their granddaughter Awnixx Roundtree, 2, build a gingerbread house at the Tenino Timberland Regional Library Saturday.
The top ten books of the decade, according to our two favorite librarians
Take a note from the book experts and check out their favorites from this decade!
Author: Gracie Flowers (KING 5), New Day Northwest
Published: 10:45 AM PST December 19, 2019
Updated: 11:56 AM PST December 19, 2019
SEATTLE — Whether you’re looking for your next commute book or in need of a gift for a book-worm, our two favorite librarians are here with their top recommendations from the past decade.
The saying, “If she can’t see it, she can’t be it,” speaks to the importance of introducing girls to female role models, especially in areas where women’s accomplishments were often overlooked or minimized such as in science, mathematics, and technology. A new poster collection aims to bring more of these women’s stories to light — and inspire today’s Mighty Girls with the knowledge that she can be whatever she aspires to be!
The free downloadable posters, created by Nevertheless, feature eight trailblazing women who have made an impact in STEM fields. Each poster is also uniquely designed by a different female artist from around the world. Nevertheless, a podcast which celebrates women transforming teaching and learning through technology, hopes that you will download the posters and print them out for your school, home, or workplace. Below, you’ll find links to download each poster, as well as a description of the scientist featured and recommended reading for both kids and adults to help you explore her story in more depth.
Of course, one of the best ways to encourage kids’ interest in science is through stories, and there are fortunately an ever-growing number of high-quality books about female scientists, engineers, and mathematicians being written for children and teens!
To learn about the the best new books for all ages, you can find both books about real-life female scientists and fictional stories about curious Mighty Girls who love science in our blog post, Ignite Her Curiosity: Books to Inspire Science-Loving Mighty Girls. You can also browse A Mighty Girl’s entire collection of books about pioneering female scientists for children and teens in our Science Book Collection, which is sortable by reader age using the left menu filter.
From beautifully illustrated picture books to fascinating teen biographies, the growing numbers of great books about female scientists for children and teens show our girls how women have made critical contributions to science throughout history. And, of course, these titles are just as important to share with boys because all kids need to know that science is for girls!
Dr. Cynthia Breazeal is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she founded and directs the Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab. She is also founder and Chief Scientist of Jibo, Inc. She is a pioneer of Social Robotics and Human Robot Interaction. She authored the book Designing Sociable Robots, and she has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals and conferences on the topics of Autonomous Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Human Robot Interaction, and Robot Learning.
Artist: Joana Neves is a digital artist from Portugal who loves drawing and started teaching herself how to digitally paint in 2014. She is driven by her longtime interest for fashion, folk tales, burlesque and animation.
Rosalind Franklin was a pioneer of the study of molecular structures receiving recognition among scientists for her research on the molecular structure of coal, viruses, and DNA. Her X-ray diffraction images of DNA enabled the University of Cambridge’s Francis Crick and James Watson to identify the molecule’s double helix structure. For years her work on the structure went unnoticed as only Crick, Watson and Franklin’s colleague Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 1962. In 2003 The Royal Society established the Rosalind Franklin Award to bring attention to outstanding work of women in STEM.
Artist: Juliette Brocal is an animation student & illustrator from France who likes to draw seaside places, folk stuff and people playing music.
Mae C. Jemison is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. She resigned from NASA in 1993 to found a company researching the application of technology to daily life. She has appeared on television several times, including as an actress in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She is a dancer and holds nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities. She is the current principal of the 100 Year Starship organization.
Artist: Karina Perez is a Mexican American Illustrator/Designer. She’s always interested in exploring storytelling through design and color to visually communicate the love and acceptance she receives from those around her.
Maria da Penha is a Brazilian biopharmacist and human rights defender. She advocates for women rights, particularly against domestic violence. When Maria da Penha was almost killed by her husband, there wasn’t a single police station she could go to in Brazil that specialized in violence against women. The case Maria filed languished in court for two decades, while her husband remained free. Years later, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Human Rights criticized the Brazilian government for not taking effective measures to prosecute and convict perpetrators of domestic violence. In response to this, the Brazilian government in 2006 enacted a law now known as the Maria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence, which increased the severity of punishment for domestic violence against women, whenever it occurred in a domestic or family environment.
Artist: Camila Rosa. Camila is a freelance illustrator and designer from Brazil. Her work translates women from an alternative perspective: Latin-American, brave, powerful, and not fitted to mainstream beauty standards. Camila believes it’s important that her work can be used to support and educate girls and women around the world.
Juliana Rotich is a technologist, strategic advisor, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. She is co-founder of BRCK Inc, a hardware and services technology company based in Kenya. BRCK was formed to realize a vision for enabling communication in low infrastructure environments by developing useful, innovative technologies. Juliana also co-founded Ushahidi Inc., a non-profit tech company, which specializes in developing free and open source software for changing how information flows in the world.
Artist: Thandiwe Tshabalala. Thandiwe is a Cape Town-based graphic artist. Her work is bold, colorful, and conceptual. Her motto as a creative is: “Communicate don’t decorate.” In 2015 she was awarded with the prestigious Mbokodo Award for South African Women in the Arts, in the Creative Design category.
Dr. Hayat Sindi was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia and is one of the world’s leading biotechnologists. She is the Founder and President of the i2 Institute and a co-founder of Diagnostics For All. She was ranked by Arabian Business magazine as the 19th most influential Arab in the world and the ninth most influential Arab woman. Sindi has a Ph.D. in biotechnology from Newnham College, Cambridge, which she obtained in 2001; she was the first Saudi woman to be accepted at Cambridge University to study the field of biotechnology, and the first woman from any of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf to complete a doctoral degree in the field.
Artist: Lidia Tomashevskaya is a freelance illustrator from Tel Aviv, Israel. She has worked with publishing houses on book illustrations and has produced illustrations and graphic design for brands such as Hewlett Packard.
Tu Youyou is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and educator. She discovered artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, drugs used to treat malaria. Her discovery was a significant breakthrough in 20th-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives around the world.
For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. She is the first Chinese Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine, and the first female citizen of the People’s Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu Youyou was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China.
Artist: Xu Hui. Xu Hui is an illustrator from Jinan, China.
Gladys West is an American mathematician known for her contributions to the mathematics underpinning GPS. Her contributions to GPS were only uncovered when a member of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, read a short biography West had submitted for an alumni function.
Artist: Geneva B is a self-taught illustrator from North Carolina. She loves working with colors, drawing big hair, and adding whimsy with a touch of realism and happiness.
Seattle Public Library to eliminate overdue fines in January
SEATTLE (AP) — Starting Jan. 2, the Seattle Public Library will eliminate daily fines for overdue materials — and will forgive existing balances.
The Seattle Times reports the change in policy follows the approval of a $219 million Seattle library levy, which voters passed overwhelmingly in August. The levy will pay for the loss of revenue caused by eliminating fines, for extended hours for many Seattle Public Library (SPL) branches, seismic renovations and additional programs.
In eliminating overdue fines, SPL is following in the footsteps of a number of other library systems nationwide. The purpose, said SPL chief librarian Marcellus Turner, is to provide easy and equitable access to library resources for all patrons.
It’s not that all charges are going away — the library still wants its books back. Patrons who do not return materials 14 days after their due date will have their library accounts suspended until the items are returned. And SPL will charge replacement fees for lost or damaged materials.
An emotional intelligence primer in the form of a tender illustrated poem, an empowered retelling of Cinderella, a meditation on what it means to have enough, a serenade to the art of listening as the gateway to self-understanding, and more.
By Maria Popova
Great children’s books are really miniature cartographies of meaning, emissaries of the deepest existential wisdom that cut across all lines of division, scuttle past the many walls adulthood has sold us on erecting, and slip in through the backdoor of our consciousness to speak — in the language of children, which is the language of unselfconscious sincerity — the most timeless truths to the truest parts of us.
Here are the loveliest such truthful, timeless treasures I savored this year. (And in this spirit of timelessness, here are their counterparts from years past: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.)
While some people are scrambling to collect log-ins for Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu and, now, Disney Plus, Sarah Jacobsson Purewal is working on a different kind of hustle. She signs up for any public library that will have her to find and reserve available e-books.
The Los Angeles-based freelance writer used to bo1rrow a friend’s address to keep a New York Public Library account, and helped another out-of-state friend get a card for the Los Angeles Public Library.
“I’m a member of every library in California that allows me to be a member as a resident of the state,” said Jacobsson Purewal, before rattling off a list of cities: Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego.
Over the past two decades, electronic books have taken off as a way to read on smartphones and e-readers like the Kindle. Digital books are sold online, typically for less than their physical counterparts. They’ve also found popularity in public library systems, where cardholders can download multiple e-books and audiobooks to their devices without leaving home. But, as with hardback library books, there can also be weeks-long waits and the inability to extend loan times for in-demand titles.
And while there are technically an infinite number of copies of digital files, e-books also work differently. When a library wants to buy a physical book, it pays the list price of about $12 to $14, or less if buying in bulk, plus for services like maintenance. An e-book, however, tends to be far more expensive because it’s licensed from a publisher instead of purchased outright, and the higher price typically only covers a set number of years or reads.
That means Prince’s recently released memoir “The Beautiful Ones” recently had a four-week wait for the e-book in San Francisco. Library-goers in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County were waiting 13 weeks to download Jia Tolentino’s book of essays, “Trick Mirror.”
Library e-book waits, now often longer than for hard copies, have prompted some to take their memberships to a new extreme, collecting library cards or card numbers to enable them to find the rarest or most popular books, with the shortest wait.
Recently, Julian Hayashi-Marsano found “Bringing Columbia Home,” a book about the multistate recovery effort to locate every piece of the space shuttle to return to Kennedy Space Center, with just a short wait before downloading it on his Kindle. The first-grade teacher is a card-holding member of the Queens, Brooklyn, and New York Public Library systems, the Cape Cod library sharing system (CLAMS), and another city’s library where he borrowed a relative’s address.
“E-books have been mostly very good as an experience. The downside is that wait times for titles are often quite long, because people will troll the catalogues and put everything on hold,” Hayashi-Marsano said. “So it’s only certain boutique interests of mine that get indulged regularly.” Those include accident reports, National Transportation Safety Board investigations, organizational psychology, gardening, water ponds, applied economics, and nontraditional building methods like cob housing, rammed-earth and adobe.
A library typically pays between $40 and $60 to license a new e-book adult title, which it can then loan out to one patron at a time, mimicking how physical loans work. Each publisher offers different payment models. Under one, a library only has an e-book for two years or 52 checkouts, whichever comes first. Another agreement covers 26 checkouts per book.
“We have dozens of publishers who are vying to have their books made available, sometimes at no cost, because they absolutely see . . . when libraries promote an author, their print sales spike, their e-book sales grow, and their audiobooks as well,” said Steve Potash, chief executive of OverDrive, which works with more than 43,000 libraries to negotiate prices with publishers and provides tools to manage digital collections, including the library app Libby. Unlike with physical books, one library system will have an OverDrive system for all its individual branches, creating a single collection of titles they share.
Maintaining these collections is expensive. In 2017, libraries spent 27% of their collection budgets on electronic materials – which include e-books, databases and other digital content – versus 54.8% on print. That’s up from 16.7% spent on electronic content five years before that, according to data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which handles federal funding for public libraries.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work for our collection librarians to manage the e-book collection, as titles are expiring every day and they have to decide to repurchase or to let it go,” said Jennifer Tormey, who manages technical services at the Des Moines Public Library.
Even with the higher prices, some publishers are balking at the popularity of library e-books, saying they may be hurting business.
Macmillan, one of the five-largest publishers in the United States, started enforcing a new embargo on e-book sales to public libraries this month. Libraries are only allowed to buy a single e-book version of its new titles until eight weeks after their release. Then they can buy more.
In a letter announcing the change, Macmillan CEO John Sargent said library loans were “cannibalizing sales.” The company declined to comment further.
E-book sales have dropped every year since 2014, according to the market research firm NPD Group, although there’s no evidence it’s tied to library loans. Print book sales have continued to rise.
In response, some library systems are boycotting Macmillan e-books, and the American Library Association says it is considering legislative options.
“Why should a publisher dictate how public libraries get run?” said Lisa Rosenblum, the executive director of the King County library system in Washington state. “You can say, ‘I’m not making any money; I want to charge you more.’ That’s an argument I can understand, but to refuse to sell to us?”
The embargo would create a massive backlog of holds for new titles and cost the library more, according to Rosenblum. Her library system, which is the largest digital lender in the country, already spent more than $2 million, or 16% of its collections budget, on e-books last year. It still invests far more in print, which made up 52% of its expenditures, or about $7 million.
Despite Macmillan’s concerns, multiple publishing executives told The Washington Post that libraries were key to promoting new authors and stimulating sales, and that internal research did not support the same conclusion.
Meanwhile, Amazon Publishing – the company’s 10-year-old book publishing arm with 16 imprints and a growing roster of big-name authors – has a different approach. It refuses to sell any e-books of its titles to libraries. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Post.) Amazon declined to comment.
Some readers are also moving to paid Netflix-like subscription services for e-books, such as Kindle Unlimited, Scribd, Bookmate and services tailored to specific genres, like Harlequin’s romance e-book subscription service.
Librarians say the patrons most likely to be hurt by Macmillan’s rule are people like D.V. Thorn, a voracious reader who is unable to leave their house and is mostly bed-bound due to disabilities. Thorn has read and listened to around 800 books so far this year through e-lending apps, and uses multiple area library accounts for the shortest hold times.
“Not only does it disproportionately target marginalized people, particularly multiply marginalized poor and disabled people, but it also shows they don’t really understand libraries or their users,” Thorn said. “A lot of people use the library to check out a book initially, and then buy copies for themselves for the books they love. I have been that person!”
Meanwhile, e-book lovers are finding more creative ways to make the most of libraries. Take Scott McNulty, an author who has written books about the Kindle, who downloads library books and then puts his device into airplane mode. “That way you can read an e-book after its due date because the Kindle has to be connected to the network to remove the book,” McNulty said.
The book still appears as returned in the library system, so it doesn’t hold up other readers. He sometimes even “returns” a book early to free it up.
Since auctioneer Stacie Hewitt always has her maximum five holds in the Libby app, and as multiple books can become available at once, she regularly uses the “suspend hold” option, which keeps her on the waitlist without going to the back of the line at her local Louisville library.
Some people interviewed by The Post admitted they borrow a parent’s library log-in or sign up under their own name using a friend’s address, but none would use their names for fear of losing access to their secret supply of e-books.
Cheating is not always necessary. A number of major library systems offer memberships to state residents, and even paid options for out-of-state readers. For example, anyone in New York can sign up for an “eCard” to access the Brooklyn Public Library. The Los Angeles Public Library charges $50 a year for a nonresident membership, though nonresidents must apply and renew in person.
Meanwhile, a free browser plug-in called Library Extension shows library book availability while browsing titles on Amazon. Since Seattle-based software engineer Andrew Abrahamowicz built the tool eight years ago, it’s grown to around 5,000 libraries and more than 100,000 users. Abrahamowicz, who used to work for Amazon, says he believes the extension helps readers decide what they want to purchase.
“I don’t think [publishers] would lose so much business in these cases,” he said. “The people who are users of this extension are users of the library, and if they don’t have it they’ll buy it on Amazon.”
The hacks themselves can be seen as evidence that publishers’ e-book limits are working. That difficulty, dubbed “friction” by the industry, is the magic ingredient keeping the peace.
For her part, Jacobsson Purewal plans to keep adding to her collection of thousands of physical books. After using her library log-ins to track down “Blackjack Shuffle Tracker’s Cookbook,” she bought it.
If she’s found out, “I’m a member of enough libraries, they can’t all kick me out,” she said.
File PhotoThe saying, “If she can’t see it, she can’t be it,” speaks to the importance of introducing girls to female role models, especially in areas where women’s accomplishments were often overlooked or minimized such as in science, mathematics, and technology. A new poster collection aims to bring more of these women’s stories to light — and inspire today’s Mighty Girls with the knowledge that she can be whatever she aspires to be!
