From the desk of Evan Robb

The Washington Rural Heritage project recently went live with a new digital collection from the northeast corner of our state. The Colville National Forest Collection provides access to a sampling of the archival photos, maps, and documents held by the Heritage Department at Colville National Forest Headquarters in Stevens County.

Of particular note are the photos of fire lookouts that once dotted the mountaintops of the Kettle River and Selkirk Mountain Ranges. These photos have been geo-referenced and placed on a “Story Map” so that users can fly from peak to peak, getting a glimpse of the varied lookout tower styles  as well as truly stunning panoramic photographs taken from the lookouts themselves—once important tools to the fire spotters that occupied the lookouts. Because most of these photos were produced by the U.S. Federal Government, they are in the public domain.

The collection represents a collaborative digitization project undertaken in 2014-2015 by the Colville National Forest and Libraries of Stevens County. According to Colville National Forest spokesman, Franklin Pemberton, “We love the idea of people having access to [the documents] – for research or for student projects. They capture the heritage of Northeast Washington before photos were widely available to average citizens.”

The Washington Rural Heritage project serves public and tribal libraries throughout Washington, as well as partnering organizations such as museums, local government, and schools. Headquartered at the Washington State Library (Office of the Secretary of State), the project is supported with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project’s 2015-2016 digitization grant cycle is currently accepting applications from eligible insitutions. To find out how your organization can participate in this statewide digitization initiative, please contact Digital Repository Librarian Evan Robb at [email protected].

Volume 11, March 12, 2015 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WASHINGTON RURAL HERITAGE GRANT CYCLE OPEN

2) RECORDED BOOKS ONECLICK RENEWALS

3) SAN JUAN ISLAND LIBRARY WINS AWARD

4) STORYCORPS COMES TO NISQUALLY

5) WELL-FED & WELL-READ – SUMMER MEAL SITES

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

Read the rest of this entry »

Harry Sutherland, pole vaulting at Eastsound, WA, May, 1915. From the Orcas Island Historical Museum, James T. Geoghegan Collection.

From the desk of Evan Robb

Congratulations to the latest group of Washington libraries and museum receiving 2014-2015 LSTA grant awards through the Washington Rural Heritage initiative!

A total of 16 Washington institutions (including eight public libraries administering the sub-grants) will collaborate to digitize historically significant primary sources over the next year. Those institutions are:

• Columbia County Rural Library District, in partnership with the Blue Mountain Heritage Society and the Dayton Historic Depot.
• Deming Library (Whatcom County Library System), in partnership with the Nesset Family Trust.
• Kettle Falls Public Library (Libraries of Stevens County), in partnership with Colville National Forest.
• Medical Lake Library (Spokane County Library District), in partnership with the Medical Lake Historical Society.
• Orcas Island Public Library, in partnership with the Orcas Island Historical Museum.
• Puyallup Public Library.
• Roslyn Public Library, in partnership with the Roslyn Museum.
• Whitman County Library, in partnership with the Staley Museum.

Click here to learn more about each specific grant award and digitization project.

Libraries currently participating in grant-funded digitization projects this year (FY 2013) are busy wrapping up their new collections as of this writing. Look for announcements here as 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.

From the desk of Evan Robb

Since 1969, residents of the Central Washington towns of Roslyn and Cle Elum have named an annual Pioneer Queen–a woman whose life and contributions to the community embody the history of Upper Kittitas County.

Erin Krake, librarian at the Roslyn Public Library, wanted to shine a light of the story of these women, “who built [our] town from the grown up, just as their men did so from the coal mines beneath it.” Beginning in 2012, Krake, and a team of local volunteers began digitizing the documentary evidence of these lives, by directly interviewing surviving Pioneer Queens and scanning their family photograph collections.

The Pioneer Queens of Upper Kittitas County Collection is the result of that effort, which the Roslyn Public Library envisions as an ongoing, multi-year project to tell the story of the settling of Roslyn and the surrounding area from the women’s point of view. According to Krake: “In each case, the stories are vibrant and unique, containing the common themes of family, food, work and play, good times and hard ones.”

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 “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.”  

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 21^st Century device.

Tom Whited sings “The Strawberry Roan” to guests at his dude ranch in Kittitas County. Roslyn Heritage Collection.

From the desk of Evan Robb

Would your library like to digitize its historical materials and special collections? Create an online community archive of unique materials from patrons’ family collections? Partner with local historical societies and other organizations to collaboratively digitize local history resources?

Washington Rural Heritage, the Washington State Library’s statewide digitization initiative for public and tribal libraries is currently accepting grant applications for 2014-2015. A total of $50,000 in LSTA funds is available to award five (5) or more grants up to $10,000 each.  To date, more than 90 cultural institutions (including 33 libraries) throughout Washington have contributed to this growing collection of digitized primary sources.

Learn more about the project and see a full list of contributors by visiting: www.washingtonruralheritage.org/cdm/aboutwrh

The application deadline for this grant cycle is Friday, May 9, 2014. To review eligibility requirements, grant guidelines, and to download grant applications, go to: www.sos.wa.gov/quicklinks/grants. For questions and to discuss potential projects, applicants are encouraged to contact Evan Robb, Washington Rural Heritage Project Manager, at (360) 704-5228 or [email protected].

Larry Tommer with Japanese glass float found near Ocean Shores, Washington, 1966.

From the desk of Evan Robb

A new digital collection from Ocean Shores, Washington documents the area’s rapid transformation from a sleepy, rural seaside locale to a developed resort community during the 1960s and 1970s. The Ocean Shores Heritage Collection includes material from the local history archives of the Ocean Shores Public Library, digitized in 2013. Digitization was made possible with assistance from the Washington State Library’s Washington Rural Heritage Initiative.

Standout material from the new collection includes:

• Photographs from Ocean Shores’ local newspaper The Ocean Observer. These include some great images of coastal recreation, including a topic near and dear to many throughout the Pacific Northwest: razor clam digging.
• A series of 1960s photos depicting Ocean Shores landmarks and a community in the early phases of development. These include a few good shots of the S.S. Catala, a retired Canadian passenger steamship that was brought to Ocean Shores in 1962 to serve as a floating motel, but capsized and sank close to shore on New Year’s Day, 1965.
• Several items documenting Ocean Shores’ incorporation (Ocean Shores is a relatively young city in Washington State, having incorporated in 1970).

Didi Anstett, 1968’s Miss USA, posing with the Ocean Shores Clam Prix oversized razor clam shovel.

Ocean Shores Public Library joins more than 90 cultural heritage organizations contributing to Washington Rural Heritage, a statewide collaborative digitization initiative coordinated by the Washington State Library.  Public libraries, tribal libraries, and partnering heritage institutions are eligible to participate in the project, which provides grant funding, training, digitization support, and digital collections hosting to its participants.

To learn more about participation, as well as upcoming digitization grant opportunities, please contact Evan Robb at the Washington State Library, [email protected], 360 704-5228

The Washington Rural Heritage initiative is pleased to announce a new digital collection: North Olympic Heritage.

A project of the Port Angeles Main Library of the North Olympic Library System, this collection includes hundreds of photographs of pioneers, Native Americans, trains, ships, logging scenes, and views of early towns and sites in Clallam and Jefferson counties digitized from the expansive Bert Kellogg Photograph Collection.

In 1970, local resident Bert Kellogg donated his collection of over 5,000 photos and negatives depicting life on the Olympic Peninsula during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the North Olympic Library System. Kellogg amassed the collection by borrowing and copying images from families and individuals, and by combing through rummage sales for prints and negatives during a 30 year period. Until now, access to this great collection has largely been limited to those who are able to visit the Port Angeles Library in person.

Working on a Washington Rural Heritage grant and leveraging a fairly robust pre-existing Access database, local project manager Rebecca Nugent and her staff (thanks, Tim!) at the Port Angeles Library have managed to digitize approximately 25 percent of the Bert Kellogg Collection in a single year — a huge feat resulting in 1158 digital items!

Highlights from the digital collection include:

• Amazing views of the construction of (the recently removed) Lower Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams (also known as the Upper Elwha Dam).
• The early days of the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, a Utopian socialist settlement near present day Port Angeles.
• Early 20th century views of the Olympic Hot Springs resort.
• Over 420 geo-located images of Port Angeles street scenes, views of Ediz Hook, the Elwha River and more!
• Post offices made ‘the Pacific Northwest way‘ — from cedar tree stumps!

Following this initial project, the Port Angeles Main Library has recently been awarded another Washington Rural Heritage grant for the 2013-2014 year to continue digitizing images from the Bert Kellogg Collection. Look for more great images as they add to this rich digital collection over the winter and spring.

Display of canned salmon at first Clallam County Fair, 1895. North Olympic Heritage Collection.

From the desk of Evan Robb

Congratulations to the latest group of Washington libraries and museums receiving 2013-2014 LSTA grant awards through the Washington Rural Heritage initiative!

• Ellensburg Public Library.
• Orcas Island Public Library, in partnership with the Orcas Island Historical Museum.
• Port Angeles Public Library (North Olympic Library System).
• Sedro-Woolley Public Library, in partnership with the Clear Lake Community Historical Association.
• Sunnyside Library (Yakima Valley Libraries), in partnership with the Sunnyside Historical Society.
• Walla Walla County Rural Library District.
• Whitman County Library, in partnership with the Pine City Historical Society.

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

Libraries currently participating in grant-funded digitization projects this year (FY 2012) are busy wrapping up their new collections as of this writing. Look for announcements here as 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.

We are proud to announce Lincoln County Heritage — a small, yet very cool new digital collection from Washington Rural Heritage — as well as a brand new website for the Davenport Public Library!

The Davenport Library’s new web presence, built on a Drupal content management platform by our own Evelyn Lindberg, was developed as part of the Washington ReadyWeb Project (WaRP). Davenport joins the Reardan Memorial Library, the Ritzville Public Library, and the Denny Ashby Library in Pomeroy who all have a new and powerful, yet easy to use website from the WaRP initiative.

Irrigation ditch at Peach

Lincoln County Heritage, a collaboration between the Lincoln County Historical Museum (LCHM) and the Davenport Public Library, is our latest digital collection which came together through the help of Davenport librarian Katy Pike and LCHM staffer Tannis Jeschke, with imaging assistance from Washington Rural Heritage staff.

Highlights from the collection include:

• Late 19th century images of the U.S. Army at Fort Spokane.

• Early 20th century images of the community of Peach, Washington, along the lower Spokane River — one of many towns in northern Lincoln County submerged by the rising waters of Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, following the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in the early 1940s.

Foot bridge over the Spokane River narrows

For more information about Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager: (360)704-5228, [email protected]; or Ross Fuqua, Digital Projects Librarian: (360)570-5587, [email protected].

For more information about Washington WebReady Project (WaRP), please contact Evelyn Lindberg, Project Manager: (360)704-5228, [email protected].