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.

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From the desk of Rand Simmons

For the past ten years, Lori Thornton, Public Services manager at the Washington State Library, has been going to prison once or twice a month, but not as a member of a work release program.  Rather, Lori voluntarily conducts the Baby Read program for the inmates and babies of the Residential Parenting Program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

The Residential Parenting Program was established in 1999. It allows selected minimum security inmates who give birth during their incarceration to keep their babies with them in prison where the mothers are taught good parenting and life skills.  The prison nursery is open to a maximum of twenty mothers with less than three years to serve after their baby is born.

Baby Read is a language and music enrichment program that encourages inmate mothers to read to their children daily; models engaging reading techniques; offers guidance as to age appropriate books, rhymes, songs, and finger games; and teaches why reading and singing with babies is important. Most of these women did not have an ideal childhood which included books, reading, and music. By encouraging them to establish a routine of reading and singing with their child, Baby Read fosters parent/child bonding, healthy brain development, and early literacy skills. Early literacy skills are critical for school success which, in turn, is critical to social success.

The reason Lori goes behind the razor wire fence is quite simple – recidivism.  Reducing the recidivism rate and the parent/child multiple generation incarceration cycle by keeping just one child from a life of crime, according to a study by Vanderbilt University ten years ago, could save society as much as an estimated 1.5 million dollars.  Plus, the happiness in the room is palpable which is always a good thing in prison!

For more information on this topic see Abby Quillen’s article, Raising Babies in Prison, Yes! magazine, January 14, 2011.

From the desk of Rand Simmons

Congratulations to Mary Carr, Spokane Community College, and David Keyes, City of Seattle who were appointed, along with 14 others, to the Digital Inclusion Working Group by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

The working group will assist in the development of a Framework for Digitally-Inclusive Communities that can be used by local communities to assess their complex needs for public access technology. The group is a response to the National Broadband Plan that recognizes the pivotal roles that libraries and community-based organizations play in providing access to high-speed internet. The National Broadband Plan charged IMLS with developing tools to assess the needs of communities for public access technology.

IMLS is working with the University of Washington and the International City/County Management Association to identify the characteristics of digitally inclusive communities in order to guide strategic public and private investments.

The group meets January 24-26 in Washington, DC.

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

You know how it feels to receive a call, letter, or greeting card of encouragement from a friend?

I feel the same when I receive a message from a customer telling me just how wonderful my staff is. I know it, but it’s so much better to know that our customers know the staff is helpful, encouraging and competent.

I received such a hand-written card in December before Christmas. It was from a manager of a rural branch of one of the larger library systems. She wrote to say, “I would like to thank you and the Washington State Library for the outstanding support and assistance we received this year.” Of one staff member she wrote, “she works 24 hours a day to connect people with resources and each other. All this assistance allowed us to continue to serve our rural patrons, even in this time of reduced hours, layoffs and deleted training budgets. The rural libraries and their communities depend on the State Library and your staff members deliver.”

All I can say is, “Right on.”

The Friends of the Seattle Public Library recently won a Baker & Taylor Award from the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF) and with it a $1000 check and plaque to honor their achievements. In 2009, the Friends, under took a successful campaign using social media and other tools and executed a year-long strategy to educate the city council and the mayor on the value of the library. Their use of social media tools garnered thousands of supporters. Thanks, in part to their efforts, the city council added $860,000 back into the library budget. That allowed several branch libraries to stay open 60 hours per week rather than the proposed 35 hours per week. Hats off to the Friends of the Seattle Public Library!

Are you a Friend of the Washington State Library? You can be. Go to http://www.wslfriends.org to join. 1131 individuals have also joined the Save the Washington State Library Facebook cause page. You can too at http://www.causes.com/causes/435648.

Courtesy Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association State Bills of Interest. This tracker covers the sine die special session.

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 »

From the desk of Rand Simmons

A Google map details the sad status of school libraries and school librarians across the United States. Pointers indicate where communities and states have made decisions to either eliminate certified teacher-librarians (blue pointers) or have assigned them to cover two or more library programs throughout the week (red pointers). Set your cursor on a map pointer and text will appear on the screen giving details of the situation.

I assume the sites are self-reported so the map doesn’t give a full picture of what is happening within each state. As of the writing of this post, Washington school districts in Sedro-Woolley, Port Angeles, Edmonds, Bremerton, Lakewood, Wishkah Valley, Rainier, Longview, and Hockinson are reported in trouble.

For those of us who love school libraries and school librarians and believe how integral they are to the educational well being of our children the map has a visceral impact. For more information on how school libraries positively impact academic achievement visit the Library Research Service.

The American Library Association recently announced that Neel Parikh, Director of the Pierce County Library System, was awarded the 2010 Sullivan Award for “Public Library Administrators Supporting Services to Children.”

Parikh has provided outstanding leadership within Washington State in the area of early learning training. She was instrumental in founding the Early Learning Public Library Partnership to promote public libraries as essential partners in the early learning movement. She was also a member of the Washington State Library’s Library Council of Washington where she represented disadvantaged populations.

Congratulations to Neel. You can read more about her and her award at PCLS Director Receives 2010 Sullivan Award.

Courtesy Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association State Bills of Interest.

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 »