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Washington State Library Community Book Project

Washington State Library Community Book Project

Back in 2008 an idea was born.  Many Washington Libraries were catching on to Nancy Pearl’s brilliant “One Book, Community wide read” idea.  A book was selected each year for the entire community to read, programs were developed around that book and the book would bring the community together for discussions around shared topics.  In preparation for a program libraries would invest in dozens, or sometimes hundreds of copies of a book.  At the end of the year though, they…

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The new LSTA Five Year plan has been approved.

The new LSTA Five Year plan has been approved.

Every five years one of our tasks at the State Library is to both look backwards and look forward. The backwards part is an evaluation of our previous LSTA Five-Year Plan; how did we do, did we meet our goals, and how can we do better? Looking forward of course is developing our plans and goals for the next five years. We take into consideration LSTA priorities, goals set by the Governor, we consult library leaders around the state about…

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WSL Holds eBook / Audiobook Conference

WSL Holds eBook / Audiobook Conference

From the Desk of Will Stuivenga. The Washington State Library recently hosted the first ever face-to-face User Group Meeting for members of the Washington Digital Library Consortium, a group of 44 (soon to be 45) of the state’s mid-sized and smaller public libraries that provide the OverDrive-powered Washington Anytime Library to their patrons. 61 people (including Cindy Aden, State Librarian, and 4 additional staff from the State Library) attended the event, with all but a handful of member libraries represented….

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Help us Tag Washington’s WWI Sammies!

Help us Tag Washington’s WWI Sammies!

From the desk of Shawn Schollmeyer The Library of Congress has once again found a fun new way to promote our digital newspapers collections by launching a new crowd-sourced tagging tool to help us capture the key names & titles of the WWI cartoons in our Washington digital newspapers. From 2008-2014 the Washington State Library participated in the National Digital Newspaper Program, contributing over 306,000 pages of Washington newspapers to the Chronicling America website. One of the biggest advances in…

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The Shoalwater Bay Tribe has a beautiful new museum/library.

The Shoalwater Bay Tribe has a beautiful new museum/library.

From the desk of Carolyn Petersen Congratulations to the Shoalwater Bay Tribe on their new museum library location! On Friday, September 8, the Shoalwater Bay tribe realized a long held dream of opening a museum to highlight their cultural contributions to their community.  Tribal Library Consultant Carolyn Petersen conveyed a letter of congratulations on their achievement from Secretary of State Kim Wyman which was presented to tribal members. Some of the highlights of the collection: a cedar hand dugout canoe,…

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3rd Annual Historical Zine Contest

3rd Annual Historical Zine Contest

From the desk of Judy Pitchford Hey kids (and adults)! It’s time for the 3rd Annual Historical Zine Contest! Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, is sponsoring the 3rd Annual Historical Zine Contest with co-sponsors Washington State Archives and Timberland Regional Library. Participants are asked to create a Zine about some aspect of Washington History. Washington residents from 4th grade and up (yes, adults, too!) are asked to participate. All three sponsors have…

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Growing up in Washington’s Finest Dairyland

Growing up in Washington’s Finest Dairyland

From the desk of Evan Robb Former state senator (1969-1980) Gary M. Odegaard stopped in at the Washington State Library last week to share a wealth of unique photographs from his family collection, as well as hours of great stories about growing up in the border town of Sumas, Washington. Deborah Morgan from the Sumas Library met with Odegaard while staff from our Washington Rural Heritage program worked to digitize his photos. It was a fascinating day of learning about life…

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The Great Eclipse of 2017

The Great Eclipse of 2017

Click for a Flickrset of some of the great pictures we took! What started as a surprise, turned into a glorious celebration!  Several months ago when we learned that NASA was giving away eclipse glasses to libraries we decided to order 1000 pairs to hand out to Washington Libraries.  Those were quickly claimed, but NASA was kind enough to send us several thousand more, which we continued to distribute to interested libraries across the state.  Then one day, out of…

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Newly Received Federal Publications April – June 2017

Newly Received Federal Publications April – June 2017

The following publications were received during April – June 2017. The titles included in this document represent the many valuable publications produced by the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and distributed to federal depository libraries through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The Washington State Library is the Regional Federal Depository Library for the states of Washington and Alaska. History Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives. “Women in Congress.” US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Government Publishing Office,…

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The National Book Festival and a book to represent Washington State

The National Book Festival and a book to represent Washington State

In September of 2001 the first National Book Festival was held in Washington D.C.  Laura Bush, a retired librarian, then First Lady of the United States, worked with the Librarian of Congress to launch this new event to encourage a lifelong love of reading.  James Billington, then Librarian of Congress, said, “We must all try, in every way we can, to send the message that reading is critical to our lives and to the life of our nation.” (1) In…

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