This past week (Oct. 8-13) I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting several libraries on the Eastern side of the mountains. I hope to post some pictures and additional details in later blog entries, time permitting!

My trip culminated in attending the WLMA (Washington Library Media Association) conference in Yakima, where the Washington State Library as is our custom, sponsored a booth in the exhibit hall. I attended several informative conference program sessions as well as spending time staffing the WSL booth. This trip provided me with the opportunity to visit and talk with librarians, library staff, and teacher librarians along the way, in various venues and settings.

During the course of my visits, it came to my attention that information about the “new” statewide ProQuest contract, and the revised content that came with it, had somehow not trickled down, or gotten through to everyone. A number of people were not aware of some of the content that should be available to them through the Statewide Database Licensing (SDL) project’s current contract with ProQuest.

The new SDL contract with ProQuest went into effect on July 1, 2011. Under the terms of the new contract, some of the previous content was removed from Washington accounts, and some new content was added in its place.

The new content consists of:

• SIRS Discoverer
• History Study Center
• ProQuest Learning: Literature
• ProQuest Family Health (included in “ProQuest”)

All of these, except ProQuest Family Health, are specifically aimed at the K-12 audience, and the SIRS Discoverer interface and significant content are aimed at the lower grades. Material in both SIRS Discoverer and eLibrary are identified by reading level, and searches can be limited or sorted by reading level.

More recently, a larger newspaper database, the Western Newsstand (included in “ProQuest”), was added to the package, to compensate for the loss of three Washington newspapers.

Previous content that is no longer included in the Washington contract is as follows:

• eLibrary Elementary (the standard eLibrary is still included)
• World Conflicts Today (this content is now included in the History Study Center)
• Ethnic NewsWatch (was included in “ProQuest”)
• Alt-Press Watch (was included in “ProQuest”)

Unchanged content that we had previously, and still have now includes:

• eLibrary
• ProQuest Research Library (included in “ProQuest”)
• ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry (included in “ProQuest”)
• ProQuest National Newspaper Core (included in “ProQuest”)
• ProQuest Washington Newsstand (now down to only 5 current titles; included in “ProQuest”)

You will find a complete list of the current and the previous package contents, along with the relevant links, product descriptions, title, lists, etc., on the SDL ProQuest package web page here: http://www.sos.wa.gov/quicklinks/PQ

Please note: Items listed above that are described as “included in ProQuest” are items that you access through the standard ProQuest search platform. The items NOT so described run on their own platforms, and require separate individual links for access.

If you are a school librarian, I recommend that you check your school or district’s web site, and if you do not have access to the “new” content, please make every effort to contact whoever is in charge, and ask them to add links to the new content, and drop links to the content that is no longer available. Without these links, you are not getting full value for your subscription.

If you are a public librarian, you may want to double check that your library is offering all of these resources to your staff and patrons.

Keep in mind that access to ProQuest for K-12 school (public or private) is via your local ESD. That is, while the State Library pays half the cost of the statewide contract centrally using federal LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) funding made available through IMLS (The Institute for Museum and Library Services), the other half of the cost is divided between all of the participating libraries, and access, while inexpensive, is not free. Your school or district needs to pay its share of the subscription cost through your local ESD.

Without the participation of ALL Washington libraries, this project would not succeed. It’s the combined purchasing power of practically the ENTIRE state (K-12, public, private academic, community college, and even hospital and medical libraries) that makes this project sustainable.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions. Thank you for your participation and support!

Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager
Washington State Library | Office of the Secretary of State
360.704.5217 | fax: 360.586.7575
[email protected]

I remember the Librarian in my home town was my best friend’s Mom, so I knew her pretty well. Of course there was a limit on the number of books you could get, and I would get the maximum but some for my little brother too. I sort of remember reading to him, and then counting them up when it was time to go back to make sure we had all of them. We carried them in brown grocery bags. I remember books on cassette that came in plastic bags with handles. And later I discovered Nancy Drew and EM Kerr and the Oz books. I have a clear memory of reading a library book in the summer, under a tree in the front yard, lying on an inflatable rubber tube covered with a blanket. That Librarian’s name is Diane, and her daughter is still my best friend, and she is still the Librarian in that town. In fact her son grew up to be a Librarian too; he is a teen librarian in the next town over.

Lynne Greene, who recently won the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award, has been director of the Davis High School Library for 27 years. Greene traveled to the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia in April to receive the award.

And she’s up for another honor this summer. Her two staffers are nominating her for the Washington Library Media Association’s 2010 Librarian of the Year.

The Yakima-Herald Republic has a detailed profile of Greene in its June 3, 2010 online issue. The announcement from the Washington Commission for National and Community Services is available here.

Congratulations, Lynne! We salute you!

There’s been a lot of buzz the past week about a new book that was just published. Marilyn Johnson’s book, This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, has been getting a lot of press (and that’s a good thing for all of us). In the book, Johnson argues that librarians remain essential, even in the Google age (especially in the Google age?), but also remain underappreciated.

That’s not news for many of us, I’m sure, but her book abounds with examples of how librarians are helpful, hip, and breaking new ground every day in how they serve their communities. A recent Salon.com article cites that Johnson:

“… delights in refuting our assumptions about librarians, while making a rock-solid case for their indispensability at a time when library systems are losing an average of 50 librarians per year. Who else is going to help us formulate the questions Google doesn’t understand, or show non-English speakers how to apply for jobs online, or sympathize with your need to research the ancient origins of cockfighting? Librarians, Johnson argues, are one of our most underappreciated natural resources.”

Johnson was interviewed for the radio show On the Media, which was released on February 19th. You can listen to the full interview below (6m:09s):

There have also been excellent stories and interviews via the NJ Star-Ledger and Library Journal (which has video clips!).

Marilyn Johnson has her own website at http://marilynjohnson.net, and the book has its own site: http://www.thisbookisoverdue.com/. You may also find the book at your local library via WorldCat.

Those of us in libraries know that librarians are amazing; hopefully this book will help get the word out to the rest of the world.

Your librarians will answer your questions, day or night.

Have you ever had a question you couldn’t answer? Has Google left you empty-handed – or overwhelmed? Have you considered asking an expert for help?

Your library has professional information specialists (we just call them librarians) who know how to go beyond Google to find you the information you need. And now asking a librarian is just as convenient as searching the Web.

Over 60 libraries in Washington State have joined together to form Ask-WA, a statewide cooperative of libraries in Washington that is in turn part of a larger, global cooperative. Using Ask-WA’s easy online chat service you can get a quality answer within minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ask-WA’s friendly librarians are ready to help you with any question — from checking that pesky fact to helping you get started on in-depth research. Whatever your question, Ask-WA has answers from a professional you can trust.

In August, 2009, Washington residents used Ask-WA services through their local libraries to ask nearly 7,000 questions. Those who use the service are thrilled, and within just the last month have left such positive comments as:

“The librarian who helped me was excellent and I loved how he was able to link things that he was talking about directly on to my computer. Fantastic service – thanks for having it!”

“This was so easy, a high school student could do it. It’s nice to get information from REAL people once in a while.”

“I had been looking for this book through the Internet and it took me so long and I didn’t find it. I should of known I could chat with someone and have them as a professional find it for me! It took them about 1 to 2 minutes! That was awesome! Thanks!”

“We are so fortunate to have this service available. Incredible!”

Have a question that needs answering? Need help with genealogical research, citation styles, finding research-quality resources, or just settling a bet? No question is too big or too small.

Get answers now through your library’s web site, or ask via the official Ask-WA page at http://ask.wa.gov. For more information, or to find out if your library is participating in Ask-WA, contact the staff at your local library.

Ask-WA Statistics – August, 2009

Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of August, with email again outpacing chat service. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3821
• Chat sessions requested: 3067
• Chat sessions accepted: 2599
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 789 (25.7%)

As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 84.7% for the month, which is lower than in July but remains well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep up the good work! The email aspect of the service remains robust, and outpaced chat for the month. Qwidget traffic remains around 1/4th of the total chat traffic, with the main users continuing to be Seattle Public and UW Libraries.

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It’s time once again to nominate your favorite librarians for the annual I Love My Librarian award. Up to ten winning librarians will be honored with a $5000 award and will get to represent in New York this December. Here’s the snippet:

Librarians in our nation’s 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans every day. Now is your chance to tell us why we should shine the spotlight on a librarian at your public, school, college, community college or university library. Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!

You can nominate public, higher academic, and school/media librarians, which leaves you a lot of choices but which means, sadly, you can’t nominate me. Not that you would have, necessarily, but I do like to think you might have considered it, if only briefly.

Nominations close October 9th and winners will be announced in early November. If a librarian has made a difference in your life, this is a great opportunity to make sure they get the recognition they deserve.

Ask-WA Statistics – July, 2009

Despite a fairly quiet academic cooperative, Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of July. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3512
• Chat sessions requested: 3238
• Chat sessions accepted: 2927
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 883 (27%)

As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 90.4% for the month, which is well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep up the good work! The email aspect of the service remains robust, and outpaced chat for the month. Qwidget traffic is edging up towards 1/3rd of the total chat traffic, and getting particularly heavy use out of Seattle Public Library and the University of Washington.

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