From the desk of Rand Simmons

December 2015

Because of recent events in the media there is national concern over active shooting and keeping family and friends safe. Here is one list of resources, many of which focus on children.*

Disaster Distress Helpline: 1-800-985-5990. The helpline is also available in Spanish, by text and by TTY. http://www.disasterdistress.samhsa.gov/

Talking to Children about the Shooting http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/talking_to_children_about_the_shooting.pdf

How to talk to your child about the news. http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/news.html

Tips for Parents on explaining media coverage to children http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/tips_for_parents_media_final.pdf

Restoring a Sense of Safety in the Aftermath of a Mass Shooting: Tips for Parents and Professionals http://www.cstsonline.org/resources/resource-master-list/restoring-a-sense-of-safety-in-the-aftermath-of-a-mass-shooting-tips-for-parents-and-professionals

Psychological First Aid for Schools Field Operations Guide http://www.nctsn.org/content/psychological-first-aid-schoolspfa

Coping with Crisis – Helping Children with Special Needs http://ubhc.rutgers.edu/tlc/guidelines/educators/CopingwithCrisisHelpingChildrenSpecialNeeds.html

Facing Fear: Helping Young People Deal with Terrorism and Tragic Events – for ages 5 to 7.
http://www.redcross.ca/crc/documents/3-7-2_Tools-for-Teachers_Facing-Fear-Module-1-(ages-5-7).pdf

Activity Book for African American Families: Helping Children Cope with Crisis https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/cope_with_crisis_book/Pages/index.aspx

After a Crisis: Helping Young Children Heal – checklist http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/helping_young_children_heal_crisis.pdf

Parent Tips for Helping Preschool-Age Children after Disasters http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/appendix_tips_for_parents_with_preschool_children.pdf

Coping with Disasters, National Library of Medicine
English:   http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/copingwithdisasters.html
Spanish: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/copingwithdisasters.html

Original list compiled by Andrew R. Roszak, JD, MPA, Senior Director, Emergency Preparedness, Child Care Aware® of America as posted to the ARSL Membership, December 10, 2015, posted by Susan Hanks, California State Library

*These resources are not vetted or endorsed by the Washington State Library / Office of the Secretary of State.

To quote a prominent library administrator: “Every library is designed to serve a specific community:

• Public libraries serve the people of a specific city or county.
• Academic libraries serve the faculty, staff, and students of a specific college or university.
• School libraries serve the students and teachers of a specific school.
• Medical libraries serve doctors, nurses, and patients at a specific hospital.
• Law libraries serve the attorneys and staff of a specific law firm.

Each library is designed to add value to the specific community that it serves.”

The Washington State Library (WSL) is none of the above. Its broad mission is to collect and preserve materials of value for the entire State of Washington.

This theme is developed in the current issue of the WLFFTA newsletter, the Advocate. WLFFTA stands for Washington Library Friends, Foundations, Trustees & Advocates, and is an interest group of the Washington Library Association.

The current issue of the Advocate focuses on the Washington State Library and some of its key services and programs. It also highlights the precarious budget situation in which the State Library currently finds itself. Read the entire newsletter at http://sos.wa.gov/q/AF2014.

From the desk of Mary Paynton Schaff

Fall might seem an odd time to think about weeding, but in the world of libraries weeding happens all the time. Weeding is the term libraries use to describe removing books from a collection. And contrary to what one might assume about the State Library’s collections, books don’t just come here to gather dust in perpetuity. We weed like other research libraries weed, and a book might find its way out the door or moved into another collection for a variety of reasons.

1)      The book no longer fits within our collection development guidelines or library mission

2)      The book contains outdated or inaccurate information

3)      We have more copies than we need

4)      The information contained in the book can be more easily be found online

5)      The collection is out of shelving space

6)      The book has not been used in many years

7)      The book is too damaged to be useful any longer and new copies can be found to purchase

Currently our librarians are weeding our Reference Collection and Northwest Collection and finding new homes for books that no longer meet our needs. What happens to books that are weeded out of these central library collections? The State Library’s branches, including prison and hospital libraries, have first dibs on the central library’s discards, followed by other Olympia-area state government branches. If a book can’t find a home in any of those places, we dispose of the items through the Washington State Surplus program. Materials that are officially surplussed can be donated to other locations, including officially designated rehabilitation workshops such as Goodwill. A significant portion of weeded materials are destroyed when none of the surplus qualifications are met.

Other Washington State Library collections like the State and Federal Depository programs have different rules for weeding materials based on the rules that govern their operation. Weeded copies from these State Library collections may find their way to local state or federal depository libraries near you.

For an amusing look at the world of library weeding, including the importance of keeping library collections relevant and up-to-date, check out Awful Library Books.

Washington Reads – A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014. 416 pp.)

Recommendation by Mary Paynton Schaff, Reference Librarian, Washington State Library

Fall means ghosts, creepy old houses, and stories about families scarred by tragedy. So now’s the perfect opportunity to gather up your afghan, sit by the fire with a cup of hot cider, and dive into Garth Stein’s newest book, “A Sudden Light.”

Fourteen-year-old narrator Trevor is brought to crumbling Riddell House in north Seattle by his father in the summer of 1990. Trevor’s father Jones has a lot on his plate: settle the Riddell family estate, get his father into a nursing home, make amends to his sister Serena who has spent the better part of her life nursing their father, and make his peace with the untimely death of their mother. Last but not least, Trevor is hoping his father can find a way to repair his marriage to Trevor’s mother, despite the fact they are currently separated by thousands of miles. As Jones begins to wrestle with these issues, Trevor is drawn into the history of the storied Riddell family and the monumentally fascinating but literally decomposing Riddell House. Trevor is aided in his exploration of the house, and his family history, by an unlikely guide who reveals to him further betrayals, tragedies, and opportunities.

The Washington setting of “A Sudden Light” plays a crucial role in Trevor’s coming of age story. The Riddells make their fortune in logging, as many Northwest pioneers did. Each of Trevor’s ancestors has a relationship to the trees; cutting them, climbing them, or building something out of the wood. As the profits from the trees roll in, the Riddells became the fashionable aristocracy of Seattle society. Lumber barons make deals with railroad magnates. And when Trevor’s guide steers him to John Muir’s “The Mountains of California,” Trevor begins to wonder what costs might have incurred as the family chopped and bargained its way to the top.

There’s an enjoyable gothic overtone to “A Sudden Light.” Exploring an old haunted house has been a favorite literary device from Jane Eyre to Rebecca to Scooby Doo. The library, ballroom, locked trunks, and secret stairways you hope Trevor will find are all there. Adding to this reading satisfaction, Stein further layers in a generational family saga, lost journals in leather bindings, the relationship between fathers and sons, pairs of doomed lovers, conflicting promises, and the sublime joy that can be found in nature. (This librarian experienced such joy simply reading Stein’s description of historical research undertaken in a pre-internet public library, using microfilm no less!)

So rest your bones and dig into this satisfying Northwest work of fiction.

ISBN-10: 1439187037

Available at the Washington State Library
Audio book available through the publisher.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Program Manager for Central Library Services

The Pacific Northwest Card File appears to have been started in the early 1950s as a finding aid for biographical and historical information in the Washington State Library. Information was indexed from newspapers across the state as well as many published local histories, creating a very unique point of access.

Comprised of hundreds of thousands of cards, the drawers are divided into a Name File and a Subject File. Work began in late 2012, chiefly with WSL volunteer David Lane, on the Name File. We are now up to the surname “C” and will continue to update the online index as progress is made.  See the open drawer in the picture? That’s where we are currently working.

The Card File was closed in the early 1990s.  Please remember however that this is a historical card file and not every item listed is still on the shelves of the library.  A quick chat, email or phone call to the reference desk will help to ensure  you get the proper resource.

To see a nice sampling, simply type in the name “Anderson” in the “Last Name” box.

Many thanks to Evelyn Lindberg for creating the utility that made this possible

Spotlight on Staff: Kathryn Devine

When you think of detectives you may think of the hardboiled Sam Spade or perhaps Sherlock Holmes with his deerstalker hat, but working behind the scenes at the Washington State Library is a detective extraordinaire — Kathryn Devine. Kathryn is one of our Public Services Librarians and an expert at deep genealogical research. As her supervisor Crystal Lentz says, “Kathryn has solved many a genealogical mystery for us.” She has a BA in History from Marysville College in Tennessee, is a hair’s breadth away from a Master’s in Art History and of course a Masters in Library Science. In other words, Kathryn has had a lot of experience with research. When asked what she likes best about her job she answered that she loves to take on the deep research questions, something she can really sink her teeth into. She also mentioned the great team of people she works with at the State Library. She stressed how they all work so well together and willingly take on any task if they see that one of their co-workers is swamped.

Kathryn moved to Washington from Tennessee in 2003 working as a faculty librarian at Centralia Community College and as a reference librarian for Timberland Regional Library. She came to the State Library in 2006, hired as the Genealogy Librarian. If you’ve asked a Genealogy question in recent years you no doubt have experienced her excellent service.  Kathryn does outreach to Genealogy organizations in the state and will be presenting, along with the Washington State Archives, next week at the Eastside Genealogical Society in Bellevue.

Recently Kathryn’s job has morphed into helping field more of the Government and legal questions that our public services staff receive. She also helps to monitor the online chat service that the State library offers. It is not common knowledge but the Washington State Library’s “Ask A Librarian” service is the contact for the AccessWA Help Center, so we handle a lot of government research questions.

A personal project that Kathryn has taken on is working to make our Federal Collection more accessible to the public. She keeps her eyes open for short, non-copywrited federal material, which she then scans and makes available online through our catalog.

While she spends her days in quiet research her nights are anything but. She is married with an almost five year old daughter (and anyone with kids knows how busy THAT keeps you!) and… she skates in the Roller Derby!

Want to hear more about her awesomeness? Here are some quotes from her fans:

“I asked a question on Thursday night, 14-August via email, and received an answer Friday morning, 15-August @10am, @my msn.com inbox! Answer was exactly what I asked for – Thanks so much to Kathryn Devine Reference Librarian Washington State Library, for due diligence and very timely reply!! – Grateful Thanks…”

“Hats off to Ms. Kathryn Devine. Questions answered succinctly and with sufficient information to follow up. You Guys ROCK!”

“I didn’t realize at the last minute that this was for the library instead of the Revenue’s contact us page. Kathryn went ahead and helped me anyway, so she’s awesome!”

So if you need help with a good meaty research question, particularly about Washington State history, contact us. You will make Kathryn’s day and you will no doubt become another true fan.