SPRING CLEANING AT THE STATE LIBRARY

SPRING CLEANING AT THE STATE LIBRARY

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Do you have old or obsolete electronic devices stored somewhere in your home that you haven’t used in a long time? What about a box of mysterious, tangled cords that may or may not connect to things you’ve long since discarded? We do. Libraries, often much like the patrons and communities they serve, also accumulate things like this, and the Washington State Library is no exception. Recently, however, the State Library finally bid farewell to some old stalwarts: our mechanical…

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BANNING BOOKS: AN EGREGIOUS FORM OF CENSORSHIP

BANNING BOOKS: AN EGREGIOUS FORM OF CENSORSHIP

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Libraries connect readers to information, ideas, learning, knowledge, and development. Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, helps ensure people have unfettered access to information at hundreds of public, school, academic, and institutional libraries across Washington. This commitment is rooted in the fundamental principle that an educated and informed citizenry is critical to a free society. But in today’s increasingly polarized political climate, an alarming trend to ban books from schools and community libraries…

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WASHINGTON STATE’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION: A HISTORY AND LEGACY IN 28 PAGES

WASHINGTON STATE’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION: A HISTORY AND LEGACY IN 28 PAGES

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Do you ever wonder how many U.S. representatives and senators Washington (as a state and territory) has had in its 170-year history? How many of them were Republicans? How many were Democrats, or Progressives? If you’re doing a little in-depth research, how many years did Julia Butler Hansen serve in the House of Representatives? Why did James W. Bryant’s term end? Or, if you’re simply curious, what in the name of Orange Jacobs is a “Silver Republican”? We’ll get to…

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INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARY SERVICES: A VIEW FROM THE NEW

INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARY SERVICES: A VIEW FROM THE NEW

Meet Jen Haas. She recently joined Washington State Library’s Institutional Library Services (ILS) and is the Branch Librarian at the Snoqualmie-based Echo Glen Children’s Center branch of the State Library, ILS’s first-ever state library for incarcerated youth. Read on as she reflects on her experience as a librarian and what brought her to ILS. “One of my favorite quotes from novelist and diarist Anais Nin compels us to reflect that, ‘…the day came when the risk to remain tight in…

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WASHINGTON DIGITAL HERITAGE GRANT RECIPIENT PROJECTS HELP DOCUMENT AND SHARE WASHINGTON HISTORY

WASHINGTON DIGITAL HERITAGE GRANT RECIPIENT PROJECTS HELP DOCUMENT AND SHARE WASHINGTON HISTORY

Each year, Washington State Library awards grants to libraries across the state for digital projects that document and share Washington’s rich and unique history. The 2021-2022 Washington Digital Heritage Grant awardees recently wrapped up their projects. This year’s grants encompassed a wide range of topics and mediums, from Nez Perce stories and legends to the Grand Coulee Dam. Grant recipients scanned images, created thesauri, recorded interviews, and much more. Read on to learn more about the awardees’ recently completed projects….

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SEATTLEITES WALK FOR WHITE CANE DAY

SEATTLEITES WALK FOR WHITE CANE DAY

On Saturday, Oct. 15, nearly a hundred people who are blind and visually impaired and their families and friends gathered in Seattle to celebrate White Cane Day with a one-mile walk. The White Cane Day Walk 2022, which began at the south base of the Seattle Space Needle and ended at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL), was a celebration for people who are blind and visually impaired, many of whom use a “white cane.” White canes not…

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NEW NORTHWEST DIGITAL HERITAGE SEARCH ENGINE ENABLES EASIER ACCESS TO PACIFIC NORTHWEST CONTENT

NEW NORTHWEST DIGITAL HERITAGE SEARCH ENGINE ENABLES EASIER ACCESS TO PACIFIC NORTHWEST CONTENT

Northwest Digital Heritage is proud to present its DPLA Local site, a new search portal that enables users to more easily access materials digitized by over 150 institutions in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. At the DPLA local site (https://nwdh.dp.la/), visitors can discover over half-a-million electronic documents, photos, maps, oral histories, and much more. The site enables users to narrow their search results across a variety of categories, including copyright status, location, contributing institution, and much more. Additionally, DPLA Local highlights…

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INTRODUCING THIS YEAR’S WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD FINALISTS

INTRODUCING THIS YEAR’S WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD FINALISTS

The Washington Center for the Book and The Seattle Public Library have selected 39 finalists in eight categories for the 2022 Washington State Book Awards. Now in its 56th year, the Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) — formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards — recognize outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2021. A winner in each category will be announced Sept. 13, 2022. 2022 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES Biography/Memoir Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End…

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Books by regional authors selected to represent Washington state at the 2022 National Book Festival

Books by regional authors selected to represent Washington state at the 2022 National Book Festival

“The Last Cuentista” and “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk” chosen for the National Center for the Book’s Great Reads from Great Places program The Washington Center for the Book has selected one youth book and one adult book by Washington authors to represent the state at the 2022 National Book Festival: “The Last Cuentista” by Donna Barba Higuera and “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk” by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe. Both titles…

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Washington Digital Newspapers Collection Exceeds Half a Million Pages!

Washington Digital Newspapers Collection Exceeds Half a Million Pages!

Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, recently wrapped up several large digitization projects and achieved some significant milestones that expanded its Washington Digital Newspapers (WDN) online collection to over 500,000 newspaper pages. The WDN program selects historic newspapers, prepares them for online searching, and hosts them on the Library’s WDN website as a free public resource. Visitors to the website will find Washington newspapers from the state’s territorial days through the early 2000s,…

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