Few Washington State Library employees have had to adapt and grow as much as Shirley A. Lewis (a.k.a. SAL) in the course of the past three years. But the series of events that led her into the unexpected positions of Head of Acquisitions and then Head of Technical Services has given WSL an opportunity to benefit from the many facets of her professional experience.

In her nearly quarter century of service at WSL alone, SAL has worked in Library Development, which gave her the skills to handle RFPs and grants as well as a state-wide view of our profession, and in Public Services, giving her frontline experience in information delivery as well as collection development experience. When she is approached by another WSL staff member to help with a project or solve a problem, the odds are high SAL has been in the shoes of that person herself.

She has a great institutional memory, particularly in the complicated area of microfilm. As the newspapers on microfilm collection is our most popular in terms of circulation and public use, her knowledge in this area has proven invaluable.

She has demonstrated an ability to grow, i.e. learning the basics of supervision, the technical tricks of Excel and Access, and has applied her learning to developing and/or supervising projects such as creating new finding aids (audit reports, microfilm vendors).

“SAL is a fun partner in brainstorming and in the course of doing so it is clearly evident she loves WSL,” notes Steve Willis Manager for Central Library Services.

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