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 »

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 »

Washington Rural Heritage is excited to introduce North Pend Oreille Heritage, coinciding with the town of Metaline Falls’ centennial.  This brand new collection from the Metalines Community Library contains stunning images of one of the most picturesque parts of the state and tells the story of the adventurous settlers that made this rugged land their home.

Rock formation blasted in 1936

The library houses several albums that were collected and organized decades ago in order to preserve the community’s history. The albums contain over a thousand early images of the area’s waterfalls, canyons and river views – many scenes have eroded or dammed and are no longer there – and photos depicting daily activities of everyone from the town barber to the founder of the town’s cement plant.

Meet Brownie, an amateur photographer and bartender at Pend Oreille Tavern, and his buddy Black Beauty, a bag-punching dog that slept in a human bed. Fall in love with George Marr and Marie Beach, a couple whose romance on the back of a motorcycle would one day lead to their marriage. And tag along with Art and Gertrude Baker, proprietors of Baker’s Saloon. They picnic at Sullivan Lake, go on hiking expeditions, and use canyon walls for target practice.

Hotel Washington in winter

When locals weren’t playing, they were working hard. Many came to the area for jobs in the mining industry, a huge part of this mineral and metal-rich area’s economy. The Pend Oreille Mines and Metals album contains 81 images, dating from the 1920s up to the 1970s, depicting the company’s longstanding presence in the area. It also holds a few photos of Diamond Match employees – during the 1920s, eighty percent of the county’s timber was used in match production.

As part of their 2009 Washington Rural Heritage grant work, funded by LSTA, four libraries have added brand new material to their previously published collections.

Whitman County Library widened their digitization efforts this year and offered scanning services to patrons of all libraries in their district. Whitman County Heritage now includes material from all around the county — users can browse items by community from their home page and are able to view rare images from small towns like Ewan, Sunset, Malden and many more. The collection also includes items from several local cultural institutions. Be sure to check out the Palouse Empire Fair Collection, taken from scrapbooks containing ephemera and photos ranging from fair royalty and 4-H sewing entries to livestock and prize-winning exhibits. Even catch a celebrity sighting — local sons John Crawford and Yakima Canutt, famed actors from the 1970s, visited the fair.

Ellensburg Heritage now includes the Historic Transportation Photograph Collection, showcasing the planes, trains, automobiles, carriages and ferries used by travelers in decades past. See snowplows tunneling through 30 feet of snow, panoramic shots of the Ellensburg Air Base (be sure to zoom in for awesome detail!), and even a gang of ‘motorcycle fiends‘ that cruised around Ellensburg in the 1910s, “finding enjoyment in riding their machines up the precipice at the east end of Fourth Street.” Ellensburg also added to the Fred L. Breckon Historic Portraits Collection. See the town’s baker, doctor, and mayor.

This grant cycle, Columbia County Rural Library District embarked on a new effort to digitize graves from area cemeteries. View individual headstones from Bundy Hollow Cemetery, Covello Cemetery, and Highland Cemetery. Headstones are organized by cemetery and listed alphabetically on the left. Click a name to view the deceased’s headstone.

Newcomer Denny Ashby Library added the Garfield County Schoolhouse Collection to Pomeroy Heritage, featuring now-and-then images of the county’s schoolhouses, class photos and scenes from student life, including a rural tennis match. The collection also now includes images and video footage of the tramways used by area farmers to transport grain in the high bluffs to boats located on the Snake River. This ingenious system enabled farmers to quickly move their harvest several miles and to a much lower elevation without the aid of horses.

Our fourth year is off to a fantastic start as we bring in brand new projects, revitalize some old ones and continue with several more. Washington Rural Heritage will fund seven projects through funds made available by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

• Asotin County Library will partner with the Asotin County Museum to digitize historic photos, a collection of branding boards and various other items and artifacts in the museum’s collections.
• The Denny Ashby Library will create a collection documenting the small towns that once existed in Garfield County, including Columbia Center, Gould City, Mayview, Pataha City and Peola. Partners include the Garfield County Museum and citizens who will contribute items from private collections.
• Ellensburg Public Library will add the Building, Street Scenes, Town Views and Public School collection which will include images of primitive log structures and rural school houses as well as photos of ornate homes and early business buildings of downtown Ellensburg.
• Orcas Island Public Library and the Orcas Island Historical Museum will join forces to add to their existing collection that documents early island life through historic images, artifacts and documents.
• The Prosser Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries will partner with the Benton County Museum and Historical Society and the Historic Downtown Prosser Association to create a collection around women in the valley, downtown Prosser, schools and dry-land farming/homesteading.
• The Sedro-Woolley Public Library and the Sedro-Woolley Museum will team up to digitize historic logging photos, pioneer photos and diaries, and items documenting the elephant escape of 1922.
• Whitman County Library will partner with several museums, historical societies, business and private citizens as it continues to digitize photos, documents and ephemera representing historic rural life from all parts of the county.

Congratulations to these Washington libraries!

Topics include:

1) DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOKS PORTAL LAUNCH

2) ROUND TWO BROADBAND APPLICATION FILED

3) CURRENT ISSUES – LIBRARY TRENDS WITH GEORGE AND JAMES

4) NEW STUDY DESCRIBES PUBLIC LIBRARY INTERNET USE

5) YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST FUNDED

6) AMERICA – THE STORY OF US CONTESTS

Read the rest of this entry »

Volume 6, March 25, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK APRIL 11-17

2) CHANGE THE FIRST FIVE YEARS AND YOU CHANGE EVERYTHING

3) SHARE YOUR DÍA CELEBRATION

4) 2010 ADULT SUMMER READING LOGO AVAILABLE ONLINE

5) OCLC TRAINING AT THE NISQUALLY TRIBAL CENTER

6) SAVE AMERICA’S TREASURES – GRANTS AVAILABLE

7) FUNDING FOR HIV/AIDS COMMUNITY INFORMATION OUTREACH PROJECTS

8) PICTURING AMERICA DEADLINE EXTENDED

Read the rest of this entry »

A new LSTA grant cycle is now open for the Washington Rural Heritage Initiative, www.washingtonruralheritage.org. These grants are intended to support small and rural libraries in the development of sustainable digitization programs for photographs and other historical materials. To date, more than 50 libraries, museums and cultural institutions throughout Washington have contributed to the initiative and we’ve published almost 10,000 items on our site.

We wanted to give you a quick peek into what we’ve discovered and uncovered around the state as part of this year’s grant and digitization activity.

Last week, we scanned 15 of over 100 glass negatives that a community member brought in to the Benton City branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries. The negatives, housed in an old cardboard bowling ball box, contained the above image of two children observing a hay-stacking operation around the turn of the century. Upon further inspection, staff realized that the photo was taken at almost precisely the location where the library stands now!

We’ve also done quite a bit of scanning at the Sedro-Woolley Museum in partnership with the Sedro-Woolley Public Library. We’ve captured photos, maps, a pioneer’s journal and items relating to the infamous 1914 bank robbery that occurred downtown. The below image was taken from a set of 96 glass lantern slides created just after the event as part of a special presentation for the Majestic Theatre in Sedro-Woolley. They portray, in chilling detail, the crime’s events and characters, including Deputy Corlin (below), who was shot in the leg by one of the robbers.

These collections and more will be published later in the year.

Overall funding to support this grant cycle is $50,000, with a maximum award of $10,000 per application. It is anticipated that five or more applicants may receive awards. Application deadline: Postmarked or received by April 30, 2010. View eligibility guidelines, FAQs, and download a grant application at http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/libraries/grants/grants.aspx.

For more information, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager – Washington Rural Heritage, 360-704-5228, [email protected] or Jeff Martin, Grants Program, 360-704-5248, [email protected].