The Senate announced its budget Tuesday night. It is much more friendly to the Heritage Center and the Washington State Library than the House budget.  (An amendment that passed in House Ways and Means removed the State Library and Legacy Project from a proposed heritage, arts and culture agency but maintained a proposed 22% cut to the Library.) 

Other than an across the board 3% salary reductions that applies to everyone in State government, and additional furloughs applied to management staff, no additional cuts were applied to the Library. The Senate budget also left the Heritage Center fund and funding stream intact within the Office of the Secretary of State.

However, the Senate budget proposes a “pre-design” study to be completed by December, 2011 to see if it is feasible to renovate the current GA Building to hold the State Library and Heritage Center. The State Archives is not included in that proposal and in fact it is suggested that the Archives could acquire the additional storage space it needs in the old Dept. of Information Services Building (OB 2) instead of moving the Library and Archives together in the “renovated” GA Building. If the change is deemed feasible, the plan would be to get authorization to move ahead during the 2012 Legislative session.

This secures the Heritage Center fund and keeps fund stream in place for another year within the Office of the Secretary of State.  However, it is far from the Secretary of State’s vision of the Heritage Center, especially not having the State Archives co-located with the State Library.  I also raises questions such as whether the building could be appropriately renovated and brought up to code for a reasonable cost. Besides the State Library and Heritage Center the State Patrol and possibly other state agencies would share the building. If the renovation proves possible, at the very least, the State Library would be back on campus. 

Secretary of State Sam Reed supports the Senate budget proposal as written. It allows us to remain whole.

Melisa Gilbert

 Melissa Gilbert, Branch Manager at Coyote Ridge Correctional Center (CRCC) was recently interviewed by Moving Forward the CRCC Education Newsletter (Spring, 2011). Her responses give an inside look at the depth of services offered by our prison branches. You can view photos of the Institutional Branch Libraries’ Snapshot Day at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=113371795396559&aid=24325#!/pages/ILS-Library-Snapshot-Day/113371795396559.

Washington State Library Interview with Ms. Gilbert by Roy N. Corbray

Q: What do you believe the library at CRCC has to offer students?

A: The library can help students with college class assignments by allowing the students to request scholarly research and additional interlibrary loan (ILL) books related to the topic of their class. Students can request up to eight articles and three books per class. The library has books about college level writing and about careers that college graduates can pursue. The library also has reference books that provide information about contacting colleges, finding correspondence programs, and applying for financial aid. Library staff can also help students by locating information about colleges and careers from the Internet.

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A bill in the House (HB 2033) that would take the State Library and the Legacy Project (oral history) out of the Secretary of State’s office and place them in a combined Department of Heritage, Arts and Culture (HAC), along with the two Historical Societies, the Arts Commission, the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the Tourism Board, and the Film Board. The proposal would also reduce the Library’s budget by 20% with some funds returned from the Heritage Center budget.

The bill also would switch the Heritage Center Fund to the proposed Department of HAC along with the fundraising capacity of the State Library and the Legacy Project.

The Office of the Secretary of State is opposed to the bill. The State Library has found a champion in the Secretary of State. There seems to be no compelling reason to move these programs to another agency.

There is concern that some parts of the State Library’s mission may not be a good fit under the Heritage, Arts and Culture umbrella:

• The State Library has an important role in the preservation of the record of state government through the state publications depository function, which requires close cooperation with the Digital Archives for the preservation of state publications in digital formats.
• The State Library serves as a regional federal depository library, ensuring that Washington residents have access to the records and research of the federal government.
• The Library serves visually-impaired, physically-handicapped and learning disabled persons across the state through the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library by providing digital audio-books, braille, large-print books and a radio reading service.
• The State Library provides services through branches in the state psychiatric hospitals and the larger correctional centers, offering educational and recreational materials to support re-entry initiatives and treatment plans for residents.
• The State Library works with public, school and academic libraries across the state, using federal funds to strengthen their services to their communities. This includes projects as diverse as working with the Northwest Open Access Network to place high speed broadband in rural public libraries, organizing group purchases for libraries, and facilitating the E-Rate application for libraries.
• The State Library is actively involved in the statewide Early Learning movement and is a member of the Early Learning Public Library Partnership.

The text of the bill can be found at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2011-12/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/2033.pdf. The bill’s sponsors are listed there.

For more information please contact Rand Simmons, Acting State Librarian, [email protected], 360.570.5585.

The Washington State Library is a member of the Early Learning Public Library Partnership (ELPLP). The members of ELPLP include libraries of all sizes, income levels, and geographic regions throughout the state of Washington, and represent the extremely diverse population of the state. The member libraries of ELPLP contribute an agreed-upon percentage of their operating budgets to contract with the Foundation for Early Learning. The Foundation, in turn, assists public libraries and other entities and organizations interested in early learning efforts to form partnerships throughout the state. Their online Early Learning Community (http://www.earlylearningcommunity.org) is a free resource that allows families, educators, and early learning professionals to connect and discuss the learning of children, birth through age five.

The Foundation for Early Learning believes that “every child deserves to reach their full potential.” The “Summary of Essential Findings” from “A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy” (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/library/reports_and_working_papers/policy_framework/) posted by Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child states, “Early experiences determine whether a child’s brain architecture will provide a strong or weak foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.. Ensuring that children have positive experiences prior to entering school is likely to lead to better outcomes than remediation programs at a later age, and significant up-front costs can generate a strong return on investment.  Cost-benefit studies have demonstrated positive returns on high-quality programs for vulnerable children beginning as early as prenatally and as late as age 4.”  The Foundation for Early Learning helps to ensure that all children are healthy and ready to succeed in life by investing in communities, quality childcare, and pre-kindergarten programs.

Martha Shinners, Diane Hutchins, and Rand Simmons were among the more than 400 guests who attended the Foundation’s annual Leadership Luncheon last Friday, March 18, at the Seattle Westin. Guests were treated to “Watch Him Roll! Baby Edward’s Amazing Brain” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/06/132648837/watch-him-roll-baby-edwards-amazing-brain?sc=fb&cc=fp) before the keynote speaker, Rob Glaser, founder of Glaser Progress Foundation, provided guests with an inspirational message, which included a video interview with his parents. Holli Martinez, a member of the Foundation for Early Learning’s Board of Ambassadors, also spoke during the luncheon. For the first time, an early learning expo was included as part of the Luncheon’s activities and included the following sponsors: Child Care Resources, City University of Seattle, Early Learning Public Library Partnership, Kaplan Early Learning Company, Lesley University, Nurturing Pathways, and ParentMap. 

A summary and video of the event is located at: http://earlylearning.org/blog/archive/2011/03/21/thank-you-for-joining-us.

From the desk of Rand Simmons

Sunday, February 27 I traveled to Kendall Washington for the grand opening of the North Fork Community Library, formerly the Maple Falls Library but renamed when a new building was constructed across from the Kendall Elementary School. This lovely building was a true library system – community partnership. The Whatcom County Library System purchased the land. The library branch, Friends and community raised the money to construct the building. And what a coming together it was. Branch manager, Georgina Furlong-Head, told a standing room only crowd about some 71 businesses – some as far away as Seattle – that donated materials and services or sold materials at cost. Community volunteers donated thousands of hours in labor. The entire structure was built by volunteers, and with each donation of labor or of building materials, precious donated funds could be stretched to actually finish the library, which went from groundbreaking to completion in eleven months!

The Friends of the North Fork Community Library raised $138,000 in donated dollars despite a harsh economy and received a variety of grants totaling $130,000. A last minute donor anonymously gave $30,000, the funds needed to complete the building, and allowed for early completion. This lovely building near Mt. Baker is 3,120 square feet.

I was honored to bring greetings from Secretary of State, Sam Reed, and from the Washington State Library and present them with a letter to the Friends of the North Fork Community Library co-signed by Sam and me.

The letter reads, in part, “With great pleasure we congratulate you and the Friends of the North Fork Community Library on the grand opening of your new location in Kendall, Washington. The grassroots effort that brought this building into existence is remarkable and commendable.

The purchase of the land by the Whatcom County Library System and the coming together of Friends, the local community, the Whatcom County business community, and local builders and volunteers is a wonderful example of the kind of partnership that moves rural communities forward.

We look forward to watching the progress of the North Fork Community Library project and the changes it will bring to the community it serves.”

The Friends of the North Fork Community Library states: This Kendall-North Fork area is a large geographic area with a scattered population and is the fourth largest community in Whatcom County. The area is unincorporated, has very few organized services, and includes a high proportion of low- to moderate-income households: 71% of children enrolled at Kendall Elementary School are eligible for free or reduced price lunches. The Kendall-North Fork area has the largest number of economically disadvantaged families in the county and 24% of the population resides in households below the poverty line, http://www.northforkcommunity.org/info.htm. One of the Friends told me that many of the individuals who donated their time to building the library were out of work and were happy to have something meaningful to do.

A quote from the Friends of the North Fork Community Library web site, http://www.northforkcommunity.org/, “Perhaps no place in any community is so democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.” Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady.

For many reasons, this truly is a miracle library.

From the desk of Rand Simmons

Bob Nelson is a folksinger, concert performer, occasional teacher and archivist. You can read about him on the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society web site. Bob is a Co-Director of that organization.

I met Bob in January when he and his wife were doing research at the Washington State Library. I was on the public floor (second floor) and our reference librarians were helping him. He was so grateful for the service and the results that he exploded with enthusiasm.

Bob sent a letter to Secretary of State Sam Reed which stated in part: “I am researching three events that all happened off the Washington Coast: two off the Westport Bar and one in 1927 that happened closer to Neah Bay. After a few weeks of phone calls, my wife and I walked into the State Library in Tumwater. We were simply amazed at the reception we received.

Within ten minutes of our arrival, I was scanning the Seattle Times newspapers from 1927 . simply astounding. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful . quite refreshing.

You are to be congratulated for your role in keeping this valuable facility open to all of us who value and treasure our history.”

Best of all, Bob copied his Senator, Nick Harper.

Bob has generously offered to do a concert for us so stay tuned . no pun intended but it worked out nicely, didn’t it?

The US Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released The National Broadband Map, http://www.Broadbandmap.gov. The National Broadband Map is a tool to search, analyze and map broadband availability across the United States. The project is a  partnership with 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia. Follow the link in this message, enter your address, city, zip or county to find the level of connectivity in your area. I found that zip code works best.

Courtesy 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.

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From the desk of Rand Simmons

Three of the newer members of the Washington State Library Institutional Library Service (ILS) program suggested a plan that would take advantage of social networking sites and the American Library Association’s (ALA) National Snapshot Day to highlight library services within the state’s major prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

Libraries are challenged to demonstrate to fiscal decision-makers about how state monies are spent for public services. The ALA has created an opportunity for all types of libraries to give the public a peek into a typical day in a library.

Anna Nash proposed the idea and accepted the lead in producing a plan, a time-line, and literature to prepare library staff and their host institutions for a Snapshot Day January 11.  The entire team was excited about this opportunity.  They also recognize that the best plans remain buried unless somebody is willing to invest time and talent into making it a reality.  Anna, Jill Merritt and Molly Mooney led the project. See their handiwork on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ILS-Library-Snapshot-Day/113371795396559.

In April the Washington State Library in Tumwater and its Washington Talking Book & Braille Library in Seattle will participate in a Library Snapshot day with public, school and academic libraries in Washington.

Courtesy 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 »