Members of the Jensen family check out young Jodi in the lobby of WSL.

Four-year-old Jodi Jensen had had enough. She’d spent all morning at the Yakima Valley Regional Library carefully selecting her weekly library books (including Achilles the Donkey), playing in the water fountains, sliding down the banisters with her sister Tamera, and pushing all the elevator buttons. She was ready to go home and have a nap. Problem was, her mom Marianne hadn’t finished checking out her own books.

Then...

Exasperated, she leaned her forehead against the card catalog. A photographer from the Yakima Herald-Republic was at the ready, and snapped her sweet sourness. The photo won the sweepstakes in the annual 1969 Oregon-Washington Associated Press newsphoto contest, was snipped for family albums, and was all but forgotten.

Decades later, when the Washington State Library relocated from capital campus to its present location in Tumwater, it resurfaced as one of several photos used for lobby art. More recently, it was used in our ‘Hard Times Got You Down?’ resources bookmark and was distributed to libraries all over the state.

...and now.

This past year we tried to get in touch with not Jodi, but Tamera, as the newspaper mistakenly identified the little girl as her sister. A few weeks ago, we heard from the Jensens. The whole family was going to be in the area for Byron and Marianne’s 50th wedding anniversary.

The family stopped on the way to their celebration destination excited to see the lobby photo and amazed at the celebrities they had become. Jodi, her sister Tamara, and parents jovially posed for photos and chatted with staff, remembering that fateful day. Jodi even recreated the Yakima scene on the second floor of the State Library. Thank you, Jensens, for making it such a fun day for the staff at WSL.

Where is the little girl in the lobby photo? She’s a hair stylist in Renton. And now you know the rest of the story!

Check out more photos of the Jensen family’s visit to the Washington State Library at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsl-libdev/sets/72157627632872492/.

This week’s staff spotlight comes to you from our Public Services team. As the designated lead on virtual/digital reference and government information, Crystal ensures that all reference transactions comply with quality standards, and she mentors and oversees the reference desk staff. She also serves as a specialist in Washington and federal government, law and legislative history, statistics, demographics, and current events, providing specialized reference and consultation services in these areas.

According to Lori Thornton, program manager, Crystal assumed a natural leadership position within the Public Services Program from the very beginning of her employment with the Library in 2002. “She exemplifies public service and is a credit to the library profession.  She always goes the second, third, fourth, and fifth miles for customers.  She is a consummate librarian.  I receive numerous genuine, sincere customer responses each year to Crystal’s exemplary service.”

Our patrons’ words say it best… “I just want to commend Crystal Lentz on the excellent customer service she gave me.  What a pleasure it is to have someone who cares enough about the people they work with to follow through over and above what would be expected.  I am grateful you have people who follow a high standard of commitment to their job.”

Thanks for representing us so well, Crystal!

Theresa Connolly, Audio Production Supervisor for the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) is the Washington State Library (WSL) Employee of the Year.

The transition to digital talking books in both physical form (cartridge) and downloadable form on the internet has increased access and equity for the blind. Whereas many libraries similar to WTBBL are only recently switching to digital production of local books, thanks to Theresa’s leadership, WTBBL is far ahead of the game.

Theresa worked at WTBBL for 15 years and put the digital system in place. Then she left, returning in 2008 when WTBBL became a direct service of WSL to “finish what she started.”

“Theresa exemplifies the best characteristics of WSL staff,” notes Acting State Librarian Rand Simmons. “Theresa is easily one of the most fair, just, and thoughtful people I know,” adds WTBBL Manager Danielle Miller, “and her return wasn’t simply to see digitization through, but to improve information access for people often marginalized and with scant resources.”

In the last year, Theresa made WTBBL the only library in the nation to offer locally produced books for download; she was the first to try and master the Nation Library Service encryption program; the first to test and master the Book Wizard Producer program for marking up digital books; and she presented and spent hours and hours helping her peers to help their own programs meet standard set by WTBBL and Theresa’s Audio Production Department.

“During the last year, Theresa also juggled training new volunteers, preparing books, editing, building, and uploading books with a complete change in audio recording and production software and hardware,” Miller notes. “Throughout all the changes and hiccups, Theresa kept her department going and in fact produced more books than ever before and began a project to make older titles available in digital format.”

Theresa would say she is not a technology person, and while that may be true to her, from Miller’s perspective she is the best kind of technology person: one who takes time to play and try and fail, and discover the best way to explain to another person. She also is aware there will be exceptions and work-arounds and she deals with these with humor and grace.

“I chose Theresa as the State Library’s Employee of the Year because she exemplifies an ideal employee of the Office of the Secretary of State and the Washington State Library,” Simmons remarked. Miller adds, “She is smart, committed, capable, creative, unrelenting, and a joy to her colleagues and the patrons she serves, both internal and external.”

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 to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

The Teen Library Advisory Board (T-LAB) of Republic Library in Republic, WA has garnered top honors for their entry in Collaborative Summer Library Program’s (CSLP) Teen Video Challenge. Guided by the theme ‘You Are Here,’ the group created a two minute video that is now the official commercial for Washington’s Summer Reading Program.

“Everyone (who participated) had video programs and applications that they knew about,” said Gailene Hooper, supervising librarian at Republic Library, said. “But almost everyone learned something new, especially me. This has been a great experience for the teens in our town, and we have really enjoyed participating.”

The video was shot with a digital camcorder purchased with grant funds from the Kinross Gold Corporation.

As winners, T-Lab received $250, and $100 will be given to the Republic Library, courtesy of CSLP. T-Lab includes Anna Heinen, Cody Scriver, Raine Knowles, Lillian Rice, Mathew Wade, Dan Kiesecker, Heather Meyer, and Kristen Ricard.

Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUIB8LHW8P0 and see other state winners here: http://www.cslpreads.org/winners.html

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 to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

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 to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

Bridgeport High School, with 170 students, is one of six finalists in the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. Located near Chief Joseph Dam (Douglas County) with a population of a little over 2,000, it has a chance to win a commencement address from President Obama. Please give them a ‘high five’ at http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement

According to the White House, “hundreds of applications were received and were judged based on the schools’ performance, essay questions and supplemental data. The six finalists were selected for their creativity in engaging and supporting students, academic results, and progress in preparing students to graduate college and career ready.”

Viewers can rate the videos from 1 to 5. The three schools with the highest user rating will then be submitted to President Obama for final selection. Go Bridgeport!

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 to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

Click below to view the tracker.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

Click below to view the tracker.

Read the rest of this entry »