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WSL Updates for August 17, 2017

Wednesday, August 16th, 2017 Posted in Digital Collections, For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for August 17, 2017


Volume 13, August 17, 2017 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) SEEKING LIBRARY COUNCIL MEMBERS

2) RURAL HERITAGE GRANT AWARDS

3) WIKIPEDIA + LIBRARIES: BETTER TOGETHER

4) ACADEMIC LIBRARIES TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

5) STATEWIDE PURCHASING & CONTRACTING WORKSHOP

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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1) SEEKING LIBRARY COUNCIL MEMBERS

The mission of the Library Council of Washington (LCW) is to help all Washington citizens access library services, information, and resources. The LCW advises the State Librarian and the Office of the Secretary of State on statewide library issues and the expenditure of federal LSTA funding. The fifteen members represent all types of libraries and library users. The Council meets in person three to four times each year.

Members may include library employees, volunteers, trustees, foundation board members, advocates, consultants, or educators. We seek new members that are active and knowledgeable, have great communication skills, and can advocate for all libraries while representing a specific interest group’s views as well. There are currently four open positions on the LCW, representing:

  • Special libraries,
  • Technology,
  • Underserved populations,
  • Schools (western Washington).

If you want to help shape our libraries, have at least three years’ experience working with libraries in Washington State, and are interested in applying, please send a copy of the application form and your resume. Application information is available at sos.wa.gov/q/vacancy. Applications must be postmarked by September 22, 2017.

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2) RURAL HERITAGE GRANT AWARDS

Congratulations to the latest group of public libraries and heritage organizations recently awarded digitization grants through the Washington Rural Heritage program! Over the next year Washington State Library staff will be working with these organizations to digitize unique, historically significant materials held in their collections. Awardees will be trained in all aspects of digitization and their collections will be publicly hosted and digitally preserved through the Washington Rural Heritage website and digital repository.

Below are this year’s grant recipients. Read about the details of each project.

  • $6,157 – Fort Vancouver Regional Library District: the La Center, Ridgefield, and Woodland community libraries will partner with the La Center Historical Museum, Woodland Historical Museum Society, and Charlotte Clevidence of Ridgefield.
  • $6,300 – Spokane County Library District, Moran Prairie branch, in partnership with the Moran Prairie Washington Grange #161.
  • $6,981 – Richland Public Library.
  • $4,689 – Whitman County Library in partnership with the Tekoa Museum and J.C. Barron Mill (Oakesdale, Washington).
  • $4,500 – Asotin County Library.
  • $7,000 – Whatcom County Library System, (Lummi) Island Library.
  • $6,958 – Kalama Public Library in partnership with the Kalama History House, the City of Kalama, and the Port of Kalama.
  • $5,669 – Orcas Island Public Library in partnership with the Orcas Island Historical Society.

To learn more about participating in Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Digital Repository Librarian at [email protected]. Washington Rural Heritage is supported with Library Services and Technology Act funding provided by the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services.

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3) WIKIPEDIA + LIBRARIES: BETTER TOGETHER

This fall, WebJunction will offer a free online training program for up to 500 US public library staff to learn to confidently engage with Wikipedia. The course, Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together, will provide a collaborative learning environment for public library peers to build their Wikipedia skills, implement Wikipedia programming, and amplify the role of libraries as information literacy leaders in their communities.

The 9-week course will run from September 13 through November 15, and will consist of 6 live online sessions, online discussion forums, reading, plus skill and knowledge-building activities. As a result of participating, public library staff will be able to use Wikipedia to:

  • Engage and empower their community members to build information literacy skills and to access and create knowledge;
  • Raise the visibility of their libraries and their unique, local collections;
  • Build on their own digital, critical thinking, and community engagement skills—and encourage their colleagues to do the same.

Learn more about the program and enroll today.

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4) ACADEMIC LIBRARIES TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

Learn how to foster conversation and lead change on campus and beyond with Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Models for Change, a free learning series on dialogue and deliberation from ALA, ACRL, and the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation. Through three free webinars in fall 2017, participants will learn to convene critical conversations with people with differing viewpoints; connect more meaningfully with library users and better meet their needs; and translate conversation into action.

Academic library professionals who view all three webinars, live or recorded, are invited to attend a free one-day pre-conference workshop on Feb. 9, 2018, at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver.

The three webinars are scheduled as follows:

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5) STATEWIDE PURCHASING & CONTRACTING WORKSHOP

Registration is now open for a two day Purchasing and Contracting Workshop in Lynnwood on August 22 and 23. The first day of this workshop will be on purchasing and the second day on public works contracting. Registration is open to all local agencies and private consultants statewide. Presented by the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) and the Contract Administration Education Committee (CAEC) of the American Public Works Association (APWA).

Details:

  • August 22, 23, 2017 at the Sno-Isle Regional Library, Lynnwood
  • Workshop fees are $70 for one day or $90 for both days, per person. Attendees can attend either both days or only one day, depending on their interests.
  • More information and registration: sos.wa.gov/q/MRSLwkshp.

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6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

Monday, August 21

Tuesday, August 22

Wednesday, August 23

Thursday, August 24

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DISCLAIMER: The State Library regularly highlights third-party events and online resources as a way to alert the library community to training and resource opportunities.  By doing so, we are not endorsing the content of the event, nor promoting any specific product, but merely providing this information as an FYI to librarians who must then decide what is right for them.

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Washington’s Second Library is Also the First

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013 Posted in Articles, For Libraries, For the Public, State Library Collections, WSL 160 | Comments Off on Washington’s Second Library is Also the First


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

Although the Washington Territorial/State Library was formed in 1853, making it the first library and indeed cultural institution in Washington to be supported by public funds, the distinction of becoming the very first community library belongs to Steilacoom.

In our Rare Vault, WSL has two copies of the Constitution, by-laws, and rules and orders of the Steilacoom Library Association, Washington Territory : organized in March, 1858, which was published in 1860. One of the copies has a news clipping attached to the back cover, dated 7 Feb. 1926, apparently from the Tacoma Daily Ledger:

 Steilacoom Library Has Rare Old Books

Movement Under Way to Prepare Fitting Home for Many Valuable Volumes of Historical Interest; First Library Organization Formed in 1857-58

Books, rare old volumes, representing the first library in the state of Washington, are contained in the Steilacoom library. It is but recently the men and women of Steilacoom have begun an active movement to restore the library and secure a home for the institution that will fit with the historical interest centering about this early library.

An article on the founding of the library was recently prepared by Mrs. William A. O’Donnell of Steilacoom and read by her sister, Mrs. Neil Henly, before the annual meeting of the library association January 12. It said, in part:

“During the fall and winter months of 1857-58 a group of citizens, trying to kill time in a corner grocery, in the then flourishing town of Steilacoom conceived the idea of trying to improve their spare time by organizing a library association and at the same time have a place to meet for social intercourse.”

“A call was sent out and the first meeting was held in the grocery store of Philip Keach, on the corner of main and Commercial streets. Meetings were held from time to time. Then a committee was sent to the State Legislature in January 1858, headed by Secretary W.H. Wood of the library.”

 “The result of this was that the first library of the state was formed and known as the Steilacoom Library association. This was agreeable to the act of the Legislature passed February 3, 1858. The object of the association, it was agreed, would be the diffusion of useful knowledge and sound morality. A reading room was to be established, procuring public lectures and debates.”

“Among the signers of the first record very few are alive, but the names familiar now are E.R. Rogers, John Sarltar, E.A. Light, Ezra and John Meeker, Stephen and Paul Judson and Charles Prosch.”

“Money was collected and E.A. Light went to San Francisco to buy books. Some of the first 600 volumes are in the present library.”

“The first home of the library was in the brick store of McCaw & Rogers, with Mr. Rogers as librarian. The years passed and members scattered, until the association was almost forgotten. In 1892 a few interested citizens took the matter up and a reorganization was effected. A.L. Bell was elected librarian. As many of the books as possible were rebound, but this was not much of a success. In 1900 W.L. Bair had the books moved from the old brick store to his drug store and then to the Iron Springs hotel safe, as he realized the old books would become valuable.”

 “In 1914 the Women’s Commercial club solicited books from each member, until a number of new books were secured. This club disbanded and a few remaining members took over the books and formed a library association under the old constitution and bylaws of the Steilacoom library. When the Iron Springs hotel was sold the library was again without a home.”

“Then the new and old library consolidated and since that time those interested have been working hard to keep a roof over the books by social gatherings and other means and hope to secure a permanent home for the oldest library in the state.”

 “At present Mrs. T.A. St. Clair is president of the association; Mrs. F.H. Chelius, vice president; Mrs. William J. Bradley, secretary, and Mrs. E.D. Annis, treasurer.”

 Like the Washington State Library, Steilacoom’s library has had an eventful and perilous history, but has survived and continues to serve citizens to this day.

Other pre-November 1889 territorial library efforts:

1860, January: Seattle Library Association formed, according to Thomas Prosch, followed by several reorganizations for the next couple decades. Actual books were not acquired until 1866. In 1881 the collection was donated to the University of Washington.

1860, November: Lyceum and Library Association, Olympia. A series of lectures failed to excite the interest of the public in funding a new library.

1862: University of Washington. The UW Library did not have a book budget until 1880, existing purely on donated material up to that point. In 1867 the University was missing so many books that an edict limiting circulation to students and teachers was issued.

1864: Walla Walla Library Association began organization in 1864 and incorporated in 1865. Eventually Walla Walla’s library shifted from a subscriber-based foundation and in 1878 actually built and opened what was possibly the first free public library in Washington with a full-time librarian. The experiment came to an end in 1888 due to costs.

1865: Holy Angels College Library, Vancouver. This collection of over 300 volumes was supplied by the Vancouver Catholic Library Association during the College’s quarter century or so existence.

1869, August: Tacoma Lodge of the Good Templars (Olympia). Capt. D.B. Finch, who skippered a mail steamer, donated a building to Olympia for the express purpose of establishing a free public library. By 1878, due to lack of funds, the library had to charge a subscription fee, but that failed to keep the institution alive. The collection was given to the Washington State Library in the 1890s. For a couple years in the 1870s the Territorial Library was housed in the same building.

1873: The Tacoma Reading Room. This short-lived venture began in a tent, which also served as a church on Sundays.

1875: Mrs. Maynard’s Reading Room, Seattle. Catherine Maynard, Doc’s widow, established a free reading room in her downtown Seattle home. In 1876 the collection was moved to the YMCA. Trivia: Mrs. Maynard may have been the person responsible for introducing the dandelion to the Puget Sound area.

1876: Dayton began as a free public library, but was forced to move to a subscription-based model after a year.

1878: The Vancouver Library Association worked in cooperation with the local Odd Fellows to create a free public reading room. In 1891 the collection was given to the newly formed Vancouver Public Library.

1880: The Spokane Library was free to the public and started out with 41 volumes. After a few fits and starts it eventually morphed into Spokane Public Library.

1882: Whitman College makes the first purchases of books for a library.

1882: The city of Colfax worked in cooperation with the Colfax Academy to form a subscription library.

1886: The Mercantile Library of Tacoma began as a reading room in the home of Mrs. Grace R. Moore. Within a few years it was moved downtown and became Tacoma Public Library.

1887: Mr. Bonney’s Book Collection, owned by W.W. Bonney in Ellensburg, was opened to the public. The Ladies Municipal Improvement Society took control of it for several years before the library was presented to the city.

1887, September: Gonzaga University opens and even employs a librarian in the first year.

1888, June: The Ladies Library Association in Seattle started a process of creating a new library, which finally happened after Seattle’s great 1889 fire.

Connect with Your Library: A Mobile app for Washington

Thursday, April 4th, 2013 Posted in Articles, For Libraries, For the Public, Grants and Funding, News | Comments Off on Connect with Your Library: A Mobile app for Washington


appThe Washington State Library is delighted to announce a $200,000 grant from the Paul G. Allen Family  Foundation which, in combination with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds, will develop a mobile application or “app” to connect patrons with their libraries. Libraries that sign up by Friday, April 19, 2013, will have the opportunity to be in the initial phase of implementation.

LSTA funds will pay for development costs of a mobile app for academic, public, and tribal libraries to connect individuals with the library’s online services. Two statewide apps, one for academic libraries and one for public libraries, will be developed. The Allen Foundation funds will pay for public and tribal libraries to use and test the application for the year 2014. Academic libraries will need to pay the subscription fee themselves. Allen Foundation Funds will also pay for a state wide internet PR campaign to publicize the application’s availability.

After the completion of a formal procurement process, and with the advice of an advisory committee, Boopsie was selected as the vendor for this project. Boopsie currently supplies a similar app to the Seattle Public Library (as shown in the image) and to the King County Library System, as well as having provided a similar statewide implementation in the State of Virginia.

More information, including a listing of app features and the Intent to Participate Form can be found at: www.sos.wa.gov/quicklinks/app. Questions? Contact Carolyn Petersen [email protected], 360.570.5560, or Will Stuivenga [email protected], 360.704.5217.