WA Secretary of State Blogs

WSL Updates for December 14, 2017

Wednesday, December 13th, 2017 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Technology and Resources, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for December 14, 2017


Volume 13, December 14, 2017 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) TEEN VIDEO CHALLENGE

2) GOING DEEPER WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

3) MLA TECH CAMP

4) PRECISION MEDICINE FOR ALL OF US

5) MUSEUMS EMPOWERED

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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1) TEEN VIDEO CHALLENGE

Budding teenage videographers across Washington are invited to participate in the 2018 Teen Video Challenge, a Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) sponsored competition, hosted by the Washington State Library. Teenagers ages 13 through 18 can create a 30 to 90-second video with their unique interpretation of the 2018 CSLP Teen Video Challenge slogan, “Libraries Rock!” in combination with reading and libraries. Visit the Teen Video Challenge website for details. Submissions must be received by Feb. 10, 2018, to be eligible.

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2) GOING DEEPER WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Learn how to take the next steps toward amplifying your library’s social media program. This webinar will discuss best practices in growing your library’s social media program and managing user engagement. You’ll learn tips on assessing your library’s audience based on their preferred platforms and ideas for converting your in-person library community into an online community.

Details:

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3) MLA TECH CAMP

Do you need to manage born digital content in your collection? Maybe a refresher on fair use of your digital collections? Or guide patrons through creating data visualizations. Come to #mlatechcamp! (MLA tech camp). The Emerging Technologies and Services Committee of the Music Library Association (MLA) is hosting a one day pre-conference workshop on January 31st, 2018, before the MLA annual meeting in Portland, OR (Jan. 31 – Feb. 4th, 2018) to enhance skill sets of librarians, humanists, and technologists who work or want to work with digital objects and data.

This workshop will offer something for seasoned practitioners as well as novices to learn and build together in a collaborative, interactive, informal, spontaneous, and productive environment. All are welcome, whether you are working with music materials or not. Registration for the pre-conference is separate from MLA’s annual meeting. We actively encourage anyone interested in digital aspects of librarianship to take part.

For more information and registration details, visit bit.ly/mlatechcamp2018.

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4) PRECISION MEDICINE FOR ALL OF US

Creating the right health approaches and care for the right person is called precision medicine. Getting the right information to make that happen is the goal of the All of Us Research Program. To get there, the goal is to create the largest health data resource ever. By understanding people’s health, neighborhood, family, and lifestyle, researchers will have information to better understand health and disease. This information is essential to create a healthier future for generations to come.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) are partnering to raise awareness about the NIH’s All of Us Research Program. Through this collaboration, NNLM will focus on improving consumer access to high quality health information in communities throughout the U.S., specifically through public libraries. The NNLM Pacific Northwest Region will work with libraries in Washington State to provide the information they need for their communities regarding the All of Us Research Program. More information is available at nnlm.gov/all-of-us and at allofus.nih.gov.

“We want to reach participants where they are. For many people in the country, including those with limited internet access, one of those places is the local library,” said Eric Dishman, director of the All of Us Research Program. “We’re excited to work with the National Library of Medicine to make more people aware of All of Us and the opportunity to take part.” For the entire press release, use this link: sos.wa.gov/q/AllofUs.

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5) MUSEUMS EMPOWERED

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is offering professional development grants designed to help museums respond to the evolving needs of the museum profession and changes in their communities. The program, now in its second year, is a special initiative of the Museums for America grant program, with the goal of strengthening the ability of an individual museum to serve its public through professional development activities that cross-cut various departments to generate systemic change within the museum.

Eligible entities for Museums Empowered: Professional Development Opportunities for Museum Staff are U.S. museums of all sizes and disciplines. Award amounts will either be $5,000 – $25,000 with no cost share permitted or $25,001 – $250,000 with at least 1:1 cost share. The application deadline is March 1, 2018. See the application guidelines (PDF, 415KB) on the IMLS website for details. A live webinar will provide applicants more information about this opportunity: FY18 Museums Empowered, Tuesday, January 9, 2018, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PST.

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6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

Monday, December 18, 2017

Tuesday, December 19

Wednesday, December 20

  • Navigating WebEx (National Network of Libraries of Medicine) 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. PST

Thursday, December 21

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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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WSL Updates for November 16, 2017

Wednesday, November 15th, 2017 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for November 16, 2017


Volume 13, November 16, 2017 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Note: WSL Updates will take next week off in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. You will find the following week’s schedule of CE events in this week’s edition.

Topics include:

1) KEEPING IT PRIVATE

2) SUPERCHARGED STORYTIMES

3) SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

4) ECLIPSE PROJECT RESULTS

5) DISCOVER EXOPLANETS

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT TWO WEEKS

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1) KEEPING IT PRIVATE

Washington State is very open with the way it shares data within the public trust. Our state has one of the most advanced public records laws in the nation, and most public meetings are subject to the Open Meetings Act. At the same time, citizens have a right to privacy under the state’s Constitution. On the private side, hackers are stalking personal data and data brokers are collecting and selling it. You may be putting your privacy at risk simply by leaving your phone unlocked or by sharing personal information with an organization that then makes it publicly available.

First Tuesdays – Keeping It Private: Navigating the Balance of Public Data and Privacy Protections is a workshop sponsored by the Washington State Library and funded in part by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Details:

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2) SUPERCHARGED STORYTIMES

“Supercharged Storytimes for All” will create a free and openly accessible training program for library trainers, staff, and storytime practitioners. The program, which kicks off this November and runs through April 2019, builds on WebJunction’s successful Supercharged Storytimes pilot project which partnered with the Washington State Library and Thrive Washington, using strategies developed by Project VIEWS2.

This winter, the WebJunction team will update the program’s core curriculum. New expanded materials will cover foundational early literacy concepts and ensure that “Supercharged Storytimes for All” aligns well with other library training that educates parents and caregivers about their role in supporting early literacy, e.g., Every Child Ready to Read. The curriculum designers will also draw on the expertise of project partners such as The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to add training on effective community outreach to children and families from diverse backgrounds to the program. Finally, the course will include instruction on using PLA’s Project Outcome evaluation tools to capture the community impact of programming and services.

Watch for learning opportunities in 2018:

  • Train-the-trainer training – starting in May, 2018
  • Self-paced course for individual practitioners – available October, 2018
  • Library staff facilitator training program – starting in November, 2018

For more information, use this link: sos.wa.gov/q/for-all.

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3) SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

Now that you are using social media to engage with your community, how do you know if it’s working? If you don’t know where to start when planning your social media metrics, attend this webinar to learn the best methods to measure your library’s social media outcomes. During this event, you will learn how to establish measurable goals, identify key performance indicators (KPIs), and evaluate your social media results.

“Social Media Analytics: What to Measure and Why” is part two in a series hosted in collaboration with TechSoup. Details:

  • Thursday, November 30, 2017; 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PST
  • For more information and to register: sos.wa.gov/q/analytics

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4) ECLIPSE PROJECT RESULTS

The 2017 Eclipse Project, conceived by three astronomers (Andrew Fraknoi, Dennis Schatz, and Douglas Duncan), paved the way to the single largest distribution of free eclipse glasses in the United States. Now dubbed as the “Super Bowl of Eclipses,” public libraries played a key role in the success of the event by helping to distribute nearly 2.1 million pairs of eclipse glasses to their communities in addition to conducting nearly 35,000 science programs before and after the eclipse.

Congratulations to all participating libraries! For the rest of the report, visit sos.wa.gov/q/eclipse.

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5) DISCOVER EXOPLANETS

The National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) at the Space Science Institute (SSI) is seeking eight library and museum partner sites to host the inaugural national tour of the interactive traveling exhibition Discover Exoplanets: the Search for Alien Earths. Public libraries and small museum partners in rural areas and those serving rural populations and underrepresented groups are especially invited to apply.

Discover Exoplanets is made possible through NASA’s Universe of Learning. NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University.

Applications must be completed and received by no later than 11:59 p.m. on January 5, 2018. Also, stay tuned for a registration announcement for the pre-application webinar which will be held on December 6, 2017.

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6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT TWO WEEKS

Monday, November 20

Tuesday, November 21

Monday, November 27

Tuesday, November 28

Wednesday, November 29

Thursday, November 30

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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.

Subscribe to WSL presents: News from Washington Libraries!

The Washington State Library has gone social! Friend/follow us at:

Linking the Past with the Present

Thursday, April 17th, 2014 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For Libraries, For the Public, State Library Collections | Comments Off on Linking the Past with the Present


Ever since the advent of Web 2.0 people are finding creative ways to harness the power of the web to learn about and share their passions.  Resources are shared and discovered; connections are made between people.  Here at the Washington State Library we have a mission to collect, preserve and make accessible materials about the history and culture of Washington State.  This task is accomplished in a variety of ways, from scanning newspapers, or entire books, to helping communities scan, organize and digitize their local historic collections.  While the library has accomplished this mission by providing access to its digital collections this really is only the first step.  When it gets interesting is when people start interacting with the collections.

Much to our delight, people are finding our collections and using them to enrich their lives.  I wanted to share a few of the stories and comments which have resulted from the resources we’ve shared.  A picture from the Garfield County Heritage collection titled “Denison children and goat cart, 1929” elicited this comment Denison_children_and_goat_cart_1929“My Great Aunt Mary, Great Uncle Roger, and my Lovely Grandmother Dorothy Denison Ruchert. I cherish this photo and hope to bring back the goat carts for use today!”

Or we received this comment on a photo of Nooksack Valley“So grateful to have found these photos! We now live on this very property and are in the midst of returning the homestead to historic glory.”   	Logging on Gardene's homestead on property

Then there was the time that the Public Services desk received a call from someone who had heard that the Washington State Library had digitized her Great-Great-Great Grandfather’s journal.  When asked who that person might be, they said, Daniel Bigelow.  We were excited to let her know that the State Library Digital and Historical Collections team had indeed made the journal, along with other mementos kept in the Manuscripts Collection, digitally available.  Thrilled, she explained that her family was unaware that the material was available and was eager to pass the word along to her kin.  Needless to say, our Public Services team was delighted to help make these connections.

Finally, the other day on our Facebook page there was a wonderful piece of serendipity.  Just for fun we posted pictures of a small library in Eastern Washington with a challenge to “Name that Library”.  Someone who saw the post commented that her great grandparents had lived in that community and she was interested in genealogy.  A librarian from that library, OK I’ll tell you, The Denny Ashby Library in Pomeroy, saw the post, and knew of a book that had been scanned and made available in Open Library.  She went to the book and found an entry about the person’s great-grandparents and shared the link in the comments.  Connection made, information shared.  How cool is that? Keep reading, keep watching, you never know when something that links you to the past will turn up on your 21st Century device.

WSL Updates for September 15, 2011

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 Posted in For Libraries, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for September 15, 2011


Volume 7, September 15, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOPS

2) RETHINKING REFERENCE COLLECTIONS

3) ONLINE NORTHWEST CALLS FOR PROPOSALS

4) SURVEY – PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

5) FUNDAMENTALS OF PRESERVATION

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for August 4, 2011

Thursday, August 4th, 2011 Posted in For Libraries, For the Public, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for August 4, 2011


Volume 7, August 4, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) NEW LEGACY PROJECT FEATURE “MAKES HISTORY”

2) LAST CHANCE TO HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE

3) CONNECT THE DOTS PRESENTATIONS ONLINE

4) DIGITAL PRESERVATION – WHAT’S NOW, WHAT’S NEXT?

5) DOES YOUR LIBRARY USE TWITTER OR FACEBOOK?

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for April 7, 2011

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for April 7, 2011


Volume 7, April 7, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) MATH AND SCIENCE LITERACY TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANS

2) TARGET STORE GRANTS SUPPORT READING PROGRAMS

3) IFFLA SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEY

4) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for December 30, 2010

Thursday, December 30th, 2010 Posted in For Libraries, Grants and Funding, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for December 30, 2010


Volume 6, December 30, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WSL GOES SOCIAL

2) GRANTS FOR THE BIG READ

3) TRAVEL OPPORTUNITY FOR SECONDARY EDUCATORS

4) AFTER-SCHOOL ARTS PROGRAMS RECOGNIZED

5) OPEN GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for September 9, 2010

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 Posted in For Libraries, News, Technology and Resources, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | Comments Off on WSL Updates for September 9, 2010


Volume 6, September 9, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

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

2) REF22 PRESENTS CHAT REFERENCE WITH TEENAGERS

3) HANDS-ON EAUDIOBOOK ORIENTATION SESSIONS

4) IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR EARLY LEARNING SYMPOSIUM

5) MY SKILLS MY FUTURE

6) ALCTS RDA E-FORUM

7) YOURS, MINE, OURS – LEADERSHIP THROUGH COLLABORATION

8) FREE ONLINE TRAINING NEXT WEEK

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WSL Updates for July 29, 2010

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 Posted in For Libraries, News, Training and Continuing Education, Updates | 2 Comments »


Volume 6, July 29, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) UPDATED WSL HARD TIMES GUIDE

2) LESSONS LEARNED FROM RENEW WASHINGTON

3) EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY

4) CORE REFERENCE SKILLS ONLINE COURSE

5) LYRASIS TO BCR TRANSITION TALK

6) SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR FUNDRAISERS

7) PREPARE AND RESPOND – PARTNERING WITH LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

8) ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS

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WSL Updates for July 1, 2010

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 Posted in For Libraries, News, Technology and Resources, Training and Continuing Education | 2 Comments »


Volume 6, July 1, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WASHINGTON READS – WASHINGTON AS PLACE

2) FIRST TUESDAYS – ELLUMINATION!

3) FREE ONLINE CLASSES FROM WSL AND AMIGOS

4) WSL OFFERS FUNDING FOR ARSL-ABOS CONFERENCE

5) OPPORTUNITY TO ORDER DISCOUNTED FLIP CAMCORDERS

6) COME TO THE FAIR

7) E-GOVERNMENT TOOLKIT RELEASED

8) TEN SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & SECRETS

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