Library News
Philip Pledger, a Boy Scout with Troop 1506, kept it local when he chose the Tracyton Community Library as the site for his Eagle Scout project. Library volunteer Bonnie Chrey said Philip installed an improved community bulletin board and revamped the planting bed on the west side of the building. (Central Kitsap Reporter [Silverdale], 3.22.13)

A janitor, Joaquin Amaya, at the Vashon Island Library, a part of the King County Library System, has been charged with sexual assault, accused of groping a developmentally disable man after luring him inside the building. Amaya has been charged with fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation as well as attempted unlawful imprisonment. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Online, 4.25.13) http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Charge-Library-janitor-molested-disabled-man-4464702.php

What a generous gift Bill and Pat Caldwell have offered to the city of Toledo – a building for a library branch. Shrinking reimbursements from insurance companies left the Caldwell’s struggling to earn a living so, after 23 years, they closed their pharmacy reluctantly. Now the couple … wants the empty pharmacy building turned into a Timberland Regional Library branch. (The Chronicle Online [Centralia], 4.30.13) http://www.chronline.com/opinion/article_c99f564c-b1b3-11e2-ae10-0019bb2963f4.html

Elections
On April 23, voters in Ferndale will decide whether to add the final cost of a new Main Street library to their property tax bill. But the City Council went into its Monday meeting still unsure of how it would cover its earlier commitments to the library through matching campaigns. (Ferndale Record, 3.20.13)

Buildings
Libraries have changed a lot in 60 years, and so has the city of Mount Vernon. City leaders say it’s time to start talking about a new, modern library, and they are eyeing a 23-acre piece of city-owned land as a potential home for the new building. (Photo) (Skagit Valley Herald [Mount Vernon], 3.19.13) http://www.goskagit.com/all_access/mount-vernon-looking-into-new-library/article_3a98822e-10d9-5f3f-89bd-543e40ee6cb0.html

Notice is hereby given that sealed bids will be received by Issaquah School District No. 411, for the Liberty High School Addition & Modernization Phase 3. Phase 3 includes replacing 27 existing classrooms and the library, remodeling existing spaces and miscellaneous exterior finish improvements and completing 6 tennis courts. (Daily Journal of Commerce [Seattle], 4.23.13)

Letters & Editorials
It may be the scent of a book that draws your attention. Or it may be the way it feels in your hand as you turn its paper pages that adds to the experience of reading. We talk about getting lost in a book and, for some, it is the tactile experience and our senses that help us to get there. (North Kitsap Herald (Poulsbo), 3.22.13) http://www.northkitsapherald.com/community/199892441.html

Programs & Displays
Whidbey Reads, an all island program that encourages everyone to read the same book and experience adjunct events that support its themes, has chosen Bainbridge Island author Jonathan Evison’s portrait of the Olympic Peninsula, “West of Here” for their 2013 selection. (Photo) (The Whidbey Examiner [Coupeville], 3.21.13)

Take a small rural library with barely enough room for one study table. Surround it with a few shojo girls. Provide a tub of Pocky, a few pencils and plenty of paper and what you get back is the Touchet Library (a part of the Walla Walla County Rural Library District) Manga Club. (Photos) (Union-Bulletin [Walla Walla], 3.28.13)

Some books hold hard truths but offer a life ring of hope and even some humor in an ocean of sadness. “Stories for Boys,” Gregory Martin’s memoir of his family’s coming to terms with the fact that his father is a closeted gay man, is such a book. It is also this year’s Seattle Reads book, chosen by a group of Seattle Public Library librarians and Library Foundation staff members as the book all Seattle should read together. (The Seattle Times, 4.29.13) http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2020882341_litlife29xml.html

[This summary of library news was created by Bobbie DeMiero and Leanna Hammond of the Washington State Library Division of the Office of the Secretary of State. It represents a selection of newspaper clippings about Washington libraries from all Washington newspapers received in the packets on the dates shown. For more information about any of these stories, contact Martha Shinners at 360.570.5567 or [email protected]]