Members of the League of Women Voters, who were at the capitol today discussing legislation with various lawmakers, visited the Office of Secretary of State’s Office in period costume and admired our new exhibit on women in government, which celebrates the state’s centennial of women’s suffrage. The official opening for the exhibit is this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the office lobby.
Ask-WA Statistics – December, 2009 December tends to be a slower month for Ask-WA, mainly because academic traffic drops off so sharply during the holiday breaks. In numbers: Email questions received: 3319 Chat sessions requested: 3474 Chat sessions accepted: 2883 Qwidget requests (% of total): 791 (22.8%) On a positive note, our answering percentage rose from its dangerously low 74% last month up to 83% in December, which is ideal. The best part is that this higher ratio is due…
It’s official: soccer’s a hit in Washington. State lawmakers recently showed Seattle Sounders some love for a successful inaugural season by passing a resolution in both the Senate and House chambers. And guess who stopped by the Legislative Building last week? Lacey native Kasey Keller, the team’s captain and goalkeeper, and Adrian Hanauer, the team’s general manager, who hung out with fans at a short reception. Our agency’s Webmaster Matthew Edwards (pictured here with Keller) told the player he’s been a fan for more…
Library News The Everett Public Library’s staff association usually does something nice for the community around the holidays. This time, they decided to make diaper collection their focus after reading a story in The Herald in November about the bare shelves at the Everett Gospel Women’s Shelter. By the end of the year, they had gathered a mountain of diapers – about 75 packages with a total of more than 750 diapers. (Photo) (The Daily Herald [Everett], 1.5.10) http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100105/NEWS01/701059919 Customers…
Courtesy Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association State Bills of Interest. The Washington Library Association(WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog. For information on the legislative process or becoming involved see the WLA site referenced above. Click below to view the tracker.
Senate budget Chairwoman Margarita Prentice has introduced a plan for closing state agencies one day a month for the next 16 months, as a way of cutting costs as the state deals with a multibillion-dollar budget crisis. Prentice, a Renton Democrat, outlined in Senate Bill 6503 introduced on Friday, specific closure days starting with Friday, March 12, and lasting through June 10, 2011. Most of the closures would be Fridays, as California currently does, giving state workers a long weekend, and…
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge of Washington’s practice of releasing initiative and referendum petitions under the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act. The court said it would hear oral arguments, possibly as early as April 19, on the appeal brought by Protect Marriage Washington, opponents of Washington’s new “everything-but-marriage” domestic partnership law. The organization and several unidentified John Doe members of the campaign won a district court ban on disclosure of Referendum 71 petitions last September,…
The American Library Association released on January 12th a new report detailing economic trends in US libraries and providing an outlook for 2010. Says ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels: “This report was prepared to inform and assist library leaders as they plan in these very difficult times. It succinctly brings together diverse strands of data from the past decade to provide a useful benchmark for the library community and its advocates.” There’s some great data in the report worth…
Yesterday our office warned you to be on guard against scammers as you donate to aid the horrific disaster in Haiti. Today, our IT department alerted us to the fact that spammers are already sending out scam e-mails requesting donations to send to Haiti – and these messages are convincing! Here’s an example of the type of spam you may be getting in your inbox: The best practice, our Charities Manager tells us, is to donate directly to the charitable…
Volume 6, January 14, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) EFFECTIVELY SERVING PATRONS WITH PHYSICAL/MENTAL DISABILITIES 2) ONLINE GRANT-WRITING WORKSHOPS OFFERED BY WSL 3) WE THE PEOPLE BOOKSHELF OPPORTUNITY 4) GEORGE AND JOAN ON PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS IN TOUGH TIMES 5) BOOKS FOR CHILDREN GRANTS 6) JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT ON THE WEB: CORE TOOLS FOR LIBRARIANS