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Eastern Receives Big Read Grant Award

Eastern Receives Big Read Grant Award

Eastern Washington University was recently awarded $17,025 to support “The Big Read,” a national program that brings communities together to read and discuss books. EWU was the only Washington organization to receive a Big Read grant in this, the fifth year of the program. Eastern selected The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, for its Big Read program. Events will take place throughout March and April of 2011, as part of the upcoming year’s Get Lit! festival. In a July…

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The Shoestring Library by Sheryl Fullner

The Shoestring Library by Sheryl Fullner

Congratulations to Sheryl Kindle Fullner, teacher librarian at Nooksack Valley Middle School in Everson, WA, on the publication of her book, The ShoeString Library, by ABC-CLIO! The publisher describes the book thusly: An organized collection of budget saving methods, materials, and strategies, these tips are all tried-and-true examples of ways to stretch the media specialist’s budget and time, and change even the drabbest library into an inviting oasis of learning. Makeovers are mesmerizing. Whether it is the 400-pound man who…

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WSL Updates for May 27, 2010

WSL Updates for May 27, 2010

Volume 6, May 27, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) NO LIBRARY IS AN ISLAND – THE 2010 PNLA/WLA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2) WASHINGTON LIBRARIES RECEIVE FREE LYRASIS TRIAL MEMBERSHIP 3) BRUSH UP YOUR PR SKILLS – JUNE FIRST TUESDAYS 4) FREE BOOK – GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES 5) TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES 6) POWER TO THE USER – INTERACTIVE ONLINE REFERENCE SOURCES 7) RE-TOOLING FRONTLINE STAFF WITH E-GOVERNMENT RESOURCES

And the award goes to…WTBBL!

And the award goes to…WTBBL!

For many years, the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library in Seattle has played a crucial role in providing services to Washingtonians who are visually or physically impaired, from talking books to Braille materials to the Evergreen Radio Reading Service. WTBBL’s great work has not gone unnoticed, as today it received the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) Network’s 2009 Library of the Year award. “We are ecstatic and very honored to receive this national award,”…

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This Post is Overdue

This Post is Overdue

There’s been a lot of buzz the past week about a new book that was just published. Marilyn Johnson’s book, This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, has been getting a lot of press (and that’s a good thing for all of us). In the book, Johnson argues that librarians remain essential, even in the Google age (especially in the Google age?), but also remain underappreciated. That’s not news for many of us, I’m sure,…

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State Library facing budget cuts – again

State Library facing budget cuts – again

As state legislators work to fix a projected $2.8 billion budget hole before the 2010 legislative session ends in March, the Washington State Library once again is in the crosshairs. Gov. Gregoire’s budget proposal would ax $2 million from the State Library, resulting in 31 full-time or part-time workers losing their jobs. That’s one-third of the library’s staff. The jobs lost would impact the library’s reference desk, the acquisition and cataloguing of material and preservation of old newspapers. It also…

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2010: Year of the eBook?

2010: Year of the eBook?

eBooks (and eReaders) have been getting a ton of press over the past couple months, and I have a feeling that they will continue to do so throughout the year. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is happening in Vegas right now, and a lot of the buzz coming out is about ebooks and readers. In case you haven’t been paying attention, though, I’d like to highlight some of my favorite articles and thoughts on ebooks to date and for the…

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The Gift of Reading

The Gift of Reading

I’ll avoid any cliches about gifts that keep on giving. Instead, I’ll jump straight in and admit that I, like many librarians, am an NPR nerd. I adore NPR for a number of reasons (though I will say that it was Ira Glass who first got me hooked). I also particularly enjoy their segments with librarian Nancy Pearl on book recommendations. Nancy Pearl was once-upon-a-time the Director of Library Programming at the Seattle Public Library. These days she reads and…

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Literary escape? Here’s a book list for you

Literary escape? Here’s a book list for you

With the four-day Thanksgiving weekend coming up, many of you will spend time among relatives and friends, watching football and filling yourself with turkey and everything else on the table. But some of you can only do so much football, food and family. You might need a diversion, or perhaps a literary escape. Or, you might just want a book to help kill time if you’re traveling (except if you’re driving, of course). If that’s the case, check out this…

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Book Price Wars

Book Price Wars

Amazon and Wal-Mart are engaging in a price war for some “highly anticipated hardback titles” with prices at both retailers dropping below $10.00. Wal-Mart is also offering free shipping. For the details, see Book wars! Wal-Mart, Amazon slash costs from MSNBC and Book price war: Wal-Mart vs. Amazon.com from ABC. I ran across these links on Friday’s Publib list digest. Here’s a link to the thread. Especially interesting were the stock price reactions for not just Wal-Mart (up) and Amazon…

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