It has already been a busy year for Washington Rural Heritage.

iris0105. Cataloging in progress.

In addition to launching a newly-designed website this spring (with upgrades to our server and content management system), we have improved our long-term digital preservation strategy to better protect our collections for future generations. We have also recently re-opened our metadata to outside harvesters (using best practices established by the Open Archives Initiative, or OAI), and we are currently in the process of contributing over 19,000 item-level records to OCLC’s WorldCat online catalog, enhanching discovery of WRH collections to library patrons across the world.

Congratulations are in order for the latest group of Washington libraries who will receive LSTA grants (FY 2012) through the Washington Rural Heritage initiative!

• Denny Ashby Public Library
• Nisqually Tribal Library
• Port Angeles Public Library, North Olympic Library System
• Ritzville Library District #2
• Roslyn Public Library
• Sedro-Woolley Public Library
• Sno-Isle Libraries

These organizations will spend the next year digitizing historically significant materials from their own holdings, the holdings of partnering heritage institutions, and in some cases, privately held collections. Read more on each project here.

Libraries currently participating in grant-funded digitization projects this year (FY 2011) will wrap up and launch their new collections or sub-collections in the coming weeks, including Asotin County Library, the Connell Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries, Ellensburg Public Library, Odessa Public Library, North Central Regional Library, Roslyn Public Library, and the Everson Branch of Whatcom County Library System. Look for announcements here as these new projects come online.

Funds for Washington Rural Heritage are made available by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For more information, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager, (360) 704-5228.

The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) announced on May 30, 2012 that it has completed an agreement with the Highline Community College (HCC) in Des Moines, Washington, that will allow the graduates in the Library & Information Services Program, who meet the established criteria, to receive the LSSC (Library Support Staff Certification) designation.

ALA-APA and HCC believe that the degree or certificate coupled with the LSSC will benefit graduates, the library in which they work, and library users. Lorelle Swader, Director of ALA-APA, said, “HCC’s graduates in the Library & Information Services Program will be recognized for their acquired skills and knowledge with this national certification, which is quickly becoming a standard for the profession. The LSSC will show employers of these graduates that they have made a commitment to furthering their own continuing professional development and future.”

The ALA-APA proposed this agreement after reviewing HCC curriculum and finding its graduates have completed coursework that meets the majority of LSSC’s competency requirements. To receive the LSSC, candidates from Highline must have the required one year of recent library experience or meet that requirement within four years.
ALA-APA is has similar agreements with the Pasadena City College and the Palomar Community college in California; the Waubonsee Community College, the College of DuPage, and the Illinois Central College in Illinois; the Carolina Central Community College in North Carolina; and the Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. ALA-APA is working with 13 other colleges including Spokane Falls Community College, to see if their curriculums also meet the standards set forth by the LSSC competencies.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the American Library Association developed, established the LSSC Program, and support ALA-APA’s work with these programs.

Washington State Library has partnered with ALA-APA to offer Registration Assistance Awards to individuals interested in pursuing certification through LSSC. In May, WSL and ALA-APA awarded 7 Registration Assistance Awards to the following individuals:

• John Allman, King County Library System
• Ezilda Johns, Yakama Nation Library
• Cathy Miller, Yakama Nation Library
• Kate Mullen, Sno-Isle Libraries
• Chelsea Pomeroy, Washington State Attorney General’s Research Center
• Susan Springer, Sno-Isle Libraries
• Jolena Tillequots, Yakama Nation Library

Three of the awardees represent tribal libraries in Washington, 3 are from public libraries and 1 is from a government library. Congratulations to the recipients. These individuals join over 230 others nationwide currently seeking certification through LSSC. Now that HCC graduates are eligible for LSSC, we hope to see Washington State numbers grow quickly.

Major kudos to Highline Community College on having the first LSSC accredited program in Washington State.

To find out more about this degree or recognition agreements or about LSSC, please contact LSSC Program staff at [email protected] or visit http://ala-apa.org/lssc/.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

After reading this description of a sea serpent as described on page 7 of the June 30, 1899 issue of The Tacoma Evening News, can anyone out there familiar with the creatures in Puget Sound identify what they really caught?

LOST THEIR SEA SERPENT

Party of Scientists Shipwrecked Off Moskito Island

Collecting Specimens of Giant Barnacles, Sponges, Sea Cucumbers and Other Things For The Ferry Museum

“Ferry Museum has a large and varied assortment of material added to the list of attractions, but not until after a campaign lasting three days, and a shipwreck that lost the entire collection of the first day’s work.”

“An extreme low tide on the straits between the west end of McNeil’s Island and Meridian, off Moskito Island, County Commissioner C.H. Dow has told of wonderful large barnacles, as big as a quart bowl, the beasts having a mouth and jaws on them like the beak of the dinasaurs of the reptilian age. Other strange and wonderful monsters were said to abound in those waters, and a party was fixed up to go after them.”

“Admiral Jacobs, of Puyallup, owner of the fine steam yacht Strea, took out his boat, with Professor Harlan I. Smith, of the New York Museum of Natural History; Professor Gilstrap, curator of the Ferry Museum; Commissioner Dow, Frank R. Baker and Mrs. Dow, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Jacobs.”

“The barnacles were all that had been promised, and a big collection of them are now in place at the Museum, where their vicious snapping and terrific looking beaks are a terror to beholders. There is also a fine assortment of sea cucumbers, sea eggs, star fish; sea weed, shells of various kinds, some sponges and other specimens of much interest.”

“The catch of the season, however, was lost by the capsizing of the boat: the sea serpent, one of the most terrible and striking looking of the kind ever caught.”

“The animal, with a lot of other stuff, was in a yawl boat in tow of the steamer, when the struggles of the beast upset the boat, losing the entire collection in the Sound.”

“The sea serpent was of a brilliant green color, so dazzling that it appeared as though the light shone through him. His body was wide and thin, with two immense fins immediately back of the head, giving him a ferocious appearance when seen from the front. His tail was set vertical, with three saw-like teeth, and with one fin immediately forward of the tail on the back.”

“On his brilliant green sides were irridescent spots of red, yellow, white and black, that appeared to come and go as he splashed about in the water, which was lashed into foam as he sped about in the shallows where he was finally caught.”

Some updates to this news article:

Moskito Island has also been known as Mosquito Island, Enriquita Island, and today is called Pitt Island, according to Gary Fuller Reese.

In the book Island Memoir, Betsey John Cammon tells us the town of Meridian used to be on the mainland just across Pitt Passage from McNeil Island. The town actually jumped across the water and was established as the U.S. Post Office for McNeil from about 1903 to 1936, when the island was taken over as a prison site. Meridian’s McNeil Island site (along with Mosquito/Pitt Island) appears on the 1941 Metsker’s Atlas of Pierce County, Washington. WSL has an extensive collection of Metsker’s maps, both loose and bound.

Harlan Ingersoll Smith (1872-1940), the visiting archaeologist, eventually settled in British Columbia and made Pacific Northwest Native cultures his focus of interest.

William Henry Gilstrap (1849-1914) was a former portrait painter who became the curator of the Ferry Museum and Secretary of the Washington State Historical Society.

The Tacoma Evening News ran from 1889 to 1903, and can be counted as one of the many ancestors of today’s News Tribune, as seen on WSL’s newspaper history chart.

Volume 8, February 23, 2012 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE

2) FREE WORKSHOP – PROTECTING CULTURAL COLLECTIONS

3) PRIZES FOR EXCEPTIONAL IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION PROGRAMS

4) FREE ONLINE CONFERENCE FOR SMALL LIBRARIES

5) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Volume 8, February 16, 2012 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) TWO WTBBL WEBINARS: YOUTH SERVICES AND DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

2) FREE BOOKS FOR DISCUSSION KITS OR COMMUNITY READS

3) DOES YOUR LIBRARY NEED A MAKEOVER?

4) IT’S ALMOST TIME TO TURN THE PAGE

5) HAS YOUR LIBRARY’S FACEBOOK PAGE FLATLINED?

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Volume 8, February 2, 2012 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) APPLY FOR A POSITION ON THE LIBRARY COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON

2) FIRST TUESDAYS – TIPS AND TRICKS WITH THE U.S. CENSUS

3) CONNECT WITH COLLEAGUES IN TULALIP

4) WILL YOUR WEBSITE MEET THE NEW ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS?

5) HELP FOR SMALL AND RURAL COMMUNITIES

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Volume 8, January 12, 2012 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WHERE WILL YOU BE ON JANUARY 28?

2) BE PREPARED FOR EBOOKS – COME TO THE ACADEMY

3) DO YOU HAVE HIDDEN COLLECTIONS?

4) PRESERVATION TRAINING COMES TO YOU

5) MOBILE TECHNOLOGY SURVEY

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Volume 7, December 1, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) FIRST TUESDAYS – TWO THUMBS UP

2) WANTED – ISSUES OF DEER PARK TRIBUNE AND SAMMAMISH REPORTER

3) BRAINS AT THE CAFÉ

4) TECHNICAL SERVICES – THE NEXT GENERATION

5) COMPETITION FOR LIS STUDENT AUTHORS

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Volume 7, November 3, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include: 

1) ENTER THE 2012 TEEN VIDEO CHALLENGE

2) LESSONS FROM THE FIELD – EBOOK DEVICES 

3) BUILDING BETTER LIBRARIES FOR ALL – CALL FOR PROPOSALS

4) DOES YOUR LIBRARY DESERVE A MEDAL?

5) GRANTS FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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