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Washington State Library Co-hosts Pacific Northwest Digital Collections Summit

Washington State Library Co-hosts Pacific Northwest Digital Collections Summit

In March 2015, the Oregon and Washington State Libraries co-hosted a summit of approximately 50 library, archives, and museum professionals to explore avenues for increased collaborative digitization throughout the region. The one-day meeting, held at the Oregon State Library in Salem, Oregon, featured presentations by collaborative projects at local, state, regional, and national levels and allowed participants to discuss topics ranging from leadership and funding of collaborative projects to metadata standards and shared infrastructure for digital projects. WSL staff representing…

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`Direct democracy’ sponsors eye ballot spot

`Direct democracy’ sponsors eye ballot spot

Two citizen initiative campaign submitted boxloads of petitions by the Friday deadline, and both appear to have an excellent shot at making the statewide ballot this fall. Tim Eyman, the state’s most prominent use of the initiative process, turned in what he and co-sponsors Jack and Mike Fagan estimated at at least 334,000 signatures for their Initiative 1366. That measure would direct the Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot for ratification — or face a 1-cent…

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Steve’s last post…

Steve’s last post…

Although this article was found at random in the January 23, 1914 issue of The Mason County Journal, the story actually concerns a man from Spokane, and one of the great unsolved missing persons cases in Washington State history. The subject in question had a perfect name for a Pacific Northwest character– F. Lewis Clark: WEALTHY SPOKANE MAN DISAPPEARS Santa Barbara, Cal.–F. Lewis Clark, one of the wealthiest residents of Spokane, Wash., heavily interested in mines, flour mills, real estate…

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Stafford Creek’s Favorite Author, Garth Stein, Visits Yet Again!

Stafford Creek’s Favorite Author, Garth Stein, Visits Yet Again!

From the desk of Karen S. Diehm, Secretary Senior, Stafford Creek Corrections Center Write fat, edit lean – Garth Stein On Friday, May 8th, 2015 Garth Stein made his 3rd visit to Stafford Creek Corrections Center (SCCC) . We think he’s beginning to like it here! We originally invited Garth to SCCC due to his novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, which is narrated by a dog. This beautiful book has over 4 million copies in print and was…

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Rare atlas tops Library Jewels poll

Rare atlas tops Library Jewels poll

When it comes to our Library Jewels online polls, it’s hard to beat rare and really, really old. That was evident with the April poll, as a rare atlas nearly 500 years old easily won with 68 percent of the votes. Letters and photos of Secretary of Washington Territory Elwood Evans finished a distant second with 21 percent, followed by a poster honoring artist Christopher Stern (11 percent). We’ll start our May Archives Treasures blog series later this week.  

2015 Proposed Legislation Affecting Libraries 4/24/2015

2015 Proposed Legislation Affecting Libraries 4/24/2015

Courtesy of the Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association Library Related Legislation. The Washington Library Association (WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted weekly on this blog. For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.   Bill Title Sponsor Status Date HRG Date Latest Cmte Mtg Info Companion Bills SHB 1105 Operating sup budget 2015 Hunter C 3 L 15 2/19/2015 2/9/2015 Feb 9 Executive…

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Great news for Washington Digital Newspapers!

Great news for Washington Digital Newspapers!

The Washington State Library has been awarded a Veridian Newspaper Conversion Grant to process and present up to 10,000 newspaper images from our Historic Newspapers Collection.  In March we competed against other national and international academic, public and special libraries with digital collections for the opportunity to have the Veridian software company convert our metadata and cloud-host a full-text searchable collection for two years. We will have new features to explore, such as advanced search techniques, improved search results, comment…

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Washington Congressional Senators and Representatives sign off on legislation crucial to Washington.

Washington Congressional Senators and Representatives sign off on legislation crucial to Washington.

From the desk of Rand Simmons Two pieces of legislation important to the people of Washington are working their way through Congress. Optimum support requires members of both the House and the Senate and from both parties sign on to “Dear Appropriators” letters. The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) is administered by the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State. The Senate letter notes that “LSTA is the only federal program that helps…

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Crosby Store Ledger takes it all in this month’s State Archives Poll

Crosby Store Ledger takes it all in this month’s State Archives Poll

This month’s Archives Treasure goes to the Crosby Store ledger from 1859, with honorable mentions for the picture of the 1990 “Steel Magnolias” photo and an 1857 map of Western Washington Territory. The ledger details the day-to-day transactions of the Crosby Store in Tumwater back in territorial days. The store was located on Reserve Street (now Deschutes Way). It was a general-merchandise emporium and important Tumwater fixture, operated by a settler named Nathaniel Crosby III. The ledger was the last of…

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Washington State Library promotes technology

Washington State Library promotes technology

From the desk of Rand Simmons The good ol’ card catalog. How we miss it? The card catalog was a dominant technology for several centuries harkening back to the French Revolution when after raiding religious houses of their books and manuscripts the revolutionaries established a system of public libraries and the French Cataloging Code of 1791. The bibliographic information for each book was recorded on the blank back of playing cards, hence the card in card catalog. In the 1960s…

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