Raising Livestock in Washington & the State Wolf Management Plan

Thurs. April 25th, 2013 @ 12 p.m.; Washington State Library Point Plaza East 6880 Capitol Blvd., Tumwater, WA.  Room 221 – doors at 11:45

Washington Cattlemen’s Association (WCA) Executive Vice-President Jack Field, along with former WCA President and Thurston County rancher Rick Nelson, will speak on issues related to raising cattle and ranching under the Washington State Wolf Management Plan.  They will also discuss rancher’s concerns for their livelihood as wolf packs increase throughout the state.

The Washington Cattlemen’s Association was established as the Washington State Cattle and Horse Raiser’s Association in 1926 in Okanogan County where the first county cattlemen’s association had been organized in 1915.

The WCA has provided a unified voice for Washington beef producers for over 80 years. The association promotes innovative rangeland and livestock management and works to protect and preserve the cattle industry in Washington.

For more info or to RSVP, call or email the Washington State Library, 1-360-704-5221

The EveryoneOn launch is Thursday, March 21, 2013.

 EveryoneOn is a national campaign powered by Connect2Compete, a national nonprofit organization bringing together leaders from communities, the private sector, and leading foundations. Through EveryoneOn programs and the power of technology, the lives of Americans will be improved – regardless of their age, race, geography, income, or education level.

The use of technology to access educational content is necessary to ensure future generations can compete in the global economy and to prepare them for the 21st century workforce.

Connect2Compete will help Americans access technology through three exciting offers: free digital literacy training, discounted high-speed Internet, and low-cost computers.

View the April 25^th C2C PSA video at http://everyoneon.org/about-us.

EveryoneOn has the reach to distribute PSA materials to 33,000 media outlets nationwide.

EveryoneOn has an SMS text-based message response program to help people find free computer and Internet training. 

English speakers text CONNECT to 30364. Spanish speakers text CONECTA to 30364.

EveryoneOn has a toll-free 1-855 phone number to help people find free computer and Internet training. 

People can call 1-855-387-9166 to find free computer and Internet training classes near them.

EveryoneOn has a website where people can use an online training locator tool.

Computer users can link to EveryoneOn.org, type in their zip code or their city and state to find free computer and Internet training classes near them. http://everyoneon.org/ and http://www.connect2compete.org/

All of the TV, radio, print, outdoor and digital PSAs from the EveryoneOn campaign direct people to one or more of the resources named above and will connect people to local digital literacy training providers.

EveryoneOn also has a Facebook presence and is on Twitter too.

Find EveryoneOn at http://www.facebook.com/EveryoneOn and #EveryoneOn

Libraries have been key players in providing computer and information literacy training and now are key players in ensuring the residents of their communities have access to digital literacy training.

EveryoneOn has a national reach but will also be very visible at the local community level during the three-year campaign. Libraries need to continue to be seen as meeting community needs in these very important ways. Entering information about your library’s digital literacy services into the EveryoneOn training tool will create additional awareness of your library for all of your community to see.

Want to learn more?

The EveryoneOn campaign toolkit is now available!

The Ad Council has created resources to describe the importance of EveryoneOn and to promote digital literacy in local communities. Libraries can begin using these materials at any time if they are ready and interested. Additional resources will continue to become available in the coming months. The toolkit currently includes:

• Background information
• Downloadable posters and graphics
• Tips on using the campaign materials and spreading the word

NEXT STEP:  In the coming weeks, libraries will be invited to view a webinar that will discuss EveryoneOn, the toolkit materials and how they can be used to support these efforts.

REMINDER:  The campaign launches on March 21, 2013, and several cities are working directly with Connect2Compete to host a local event to support EveryoneOn. We look forward to additional activities and roll-outs in communities across the US over the next three years!

Cave of Secrets. By Hal Burton. Lilliwaup, Washington: Hal Burton Publishing, 2002. 224 p.

Recommendation submitted by:
Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA.

Place, specifically the Olympic coast “north of Grays Harbor County, where US Highway 101 turns inland and most of the coastal region along the shores of the Pacific is accessible only by old logging roads and hiking trails” plays a major role in this regional novel. According to the book’s Prologue:

It is speculated, though never proven, that the first explorers to the coastal region of Washington were monks from China. Several accounts have been found in Chinese court records that tell of missionary trips to the Aleutian Islands and as far south as Baja, California.

And on one of those mythical accounts, dating from 499 AD, hangs this tale of adventure and treasure. First off, the story briefly recreates the actual expedition, and what it might have been like for those early intrepid travelers from another continent. Then we shift rapidly to 1981, as Chuck Coolridge, UW PhD student in ancient Chinese history, having found some tantalizing historical records in Taiwan, mounts an expedition to try and locate any possible remnants of the original expedition these many hundreds of years later.

Further complicating the story is the mystery, never solved, of a young man who went missing on the very same stretch of Olympic Peninsula coastline back in the late 60’s. Two of his friends from the time, being familiar with the area, are recruited to help with the current search. Throw in a nosy Seattle newspaper reporter, and a spy working for the current Chinese government (!), and these disparate factors combine for a fast-paced adventure story.

Libraries and librarians often tend to look down their collective noses at self-published books such as this one, and not entirely without justification. While the writing in this book does not always measure up to sophisticated reader’s expectations, the intriguing nature of the story line soon draws the reader in, and the action and suspense carry you on through.

ISBN: 0-9725707-0-5

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 BURTON 2002.
Available in an eBook edition
Not available as a talking book, or as a Braille edition.

Where the Salmon Run: The Life and Legacy of Billy Frank, Jr.  By Trova Heffernan. (Olympia, Wash.: The Washington State Heritage Center Legacy Project; Seattle: in association with University of Washington Press, ©2012.)

With his father, Nisqually elder Billy Frank Jr. reaches back 10 years before statehood. The long history of Indian people in the Northwest inspired Frank to help unite the state and Indian tribes in the battle for fishing rights. Roughed up and thrown in jail for decades, Frank emerged as a visionary and a bridge builder.  At 81, Frank continues a global crusade to protect indigenous people and salmon.

Drawing from oral history interviews with Billy and those best acquainted with him, Legacy Project Director Trova Heffernan traces Billy’s development from angry young man on the banks of the Nisqually to passionate elder statesman and chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. The book is filled with photographs and contains an extensive family tree.

ISBN: 978 0295991788

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 979.7004 HEFFERN 2012
Available as a free eReader edition.
Not available in Braille or Audiobook editions.

Read more at the Legacy Project’s Oral History site.

Used with author's permission. Photographer: Claire Barboza

Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land.  By Kurt Timmermeister.  New York : W W Norton, 2011. 335 p.

Recommendation by:
Carolyn Petersen, CLRS Project Manager, Tumwater, WA.

This recent memoir reads like having an interesting friend sit down to relate how he made the intriguingly insane choice to change from being a city guy on Capitol Hill who ran a successful restaurant (He didn’t even know how to drive a car, let alone own one) to establishing and running Kurtwood Farms on Vashon Island—with no previous experience whatsoever as a farmer.  Each chapter details a new challenge in his life as a farmer. (Who knew that when  dairy cows are in heat they will try to mount anything—including the farmer leading them from one pasture to the next?) Kurt Timmermeister hopes by honestly sharing his struggles to produce quality products on a small 13 acre farm that consumers will appreciate even more the local produce that comes to market.

ISBN-13: 978 0393070859

Available at the Washington State Library,  NW 630.92 TIMMERM 2011
Available as an eReader edition.
Not available as an talking book, or as a Braille edition.

In times like these, folks need all the friends they can get.  That goes double for librarians who work in the state’s correctional and psychiatric institutions.  Since the 1960s when the U.S. government provided start-up funding to establish libraries in state institutions (ILS) ,  support for these critically needed libraries has plummeted.  As of October 2011, funding for the state’s ILS collections was terminated.

This crisis is not new to Gayle Shonkwiler, library associate at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.  She supervised school libraries at an elementary and high school in Pend Oreille County.  She learned early that if a librarian doesn’t have funds, that librarian better have friends.   Following the success of a 4-H fundraiser she managed, Gayle decided to write letters to popular writers.  Many writers were pleased to hear from a school librarian and they responded by sending small gifts of posters and bookmarks for her library.  Next she had to take the big leap.  She applied for a Dr. Seuss grant and won.  Her library and the whole school got involved with the fun.  Kids were served green eggs and ham in the cafeteria.  A reporter from the Newport Miner wrote a story when the school assembled for a Dr. Seuss birthday bash.  After, Gayle shared her grant writing success with the local county library. 

In response to the Coyote Ridge funding crisis, Gayle started a letter-writing campaign in partnership with ILS manager Laura Sherbo.  To date, Gayle has written to nearly 200 publishers asking for “in-kind” support.  Companies have shown themselves to be generous and supportive of small, struggling libraries.  Those companies include Orca Books in Canada.  The manager contacted Laura Sherbo and offered like-new books from their stock.  Copper Canyon Press of Port Townsend sent five boxes of poetry books.   The Gibbs Smith Publishers—a company that specializes in fun, whimsical books–sent enough books for every ILS branch.  HarperCollins shipped  J. A. Jance mysteries that are set in Washington State.  Hunter House sent books about domestic violence prevention.  The Parenting Press sent guidance books for children and adolescents. Bilingual Books of Seattle sent popular titles from their self-instruction inventory.   There are several boxes of books on the way from Sasquatch Books in Seattle. The National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and Pacific NW Chapter of Multiple Sclerosis Foundation sent several educational pamphlets. 

Librarians find out who their real friends are during hard times.  Thank you, Gayle. And thank you to the publishers who have responded so generously to the ILS program!

Breach of Duty: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery. By J.A. Jance. (New York: Avon Books, 1999. 384 p.)

Recommendation submitted by:
Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA.

This is mystery writer J.A. Jance’s 14th Seattle-based J.P. Beaumont police procedural. In it, Beaumont is investigating the arson murder of a woman whose death would not have been particularly noteworthy, if $300,000 had not been found hidden in an old refrigerator in her garage.

Meanwhile, a Native American woman, who happens to be a professor of physics at the University of Washington, shows up and warns Beaumont and his partner of a powerful curse. It seems that someone has stolen the bones of an important shaman and bad things start happening to those who handle them, as predicted.

Meantime the chief of police retires, and his replacement is a co-worker of Beaumont whose dislike for him is heartily reciprocated. Oh, and did I mention that Beaumont’s current partner, Sue Danielson by name, divorced mother of two, is worried because her deadbeat ex is coming to town?

Talk about a plot with lots of complications and disparate story lines! Jance weaves all of these lines together throughout various seedy locations of the greater Seattle area. For those who enjoy well-written – if slightly superficial – police-procedural style mysteries set in Seattle, J.A. Jance and J.P. Beaumont could easily become a habit!

ISBN: 0-380-97406-1

Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 JANCE 1999.
Available in eReader, Braille, Large Type and Audiobook (Cassette, Digital Book) editions

From the desk of Sean Lanksbury. PNW & Special Collections Librarian

The Washington State Special Collections contains nearly 600 distinct manuscript collections.  What unifies these collections is their focus on Pacific Northwest and Washington State history, but oftentimes the primary documents contained within each box has broader national or international appeal.

One example of this broader appeal is Washington State Library’s collection of Civil War veterans’ correspondence concerning attendance of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg reunion, 1913 (MS 115).  Consider the following description, taken from the catalog record:

This fascinating collection also contains correspondence from the railroads for proposals with quotes on the cost of the transportation and descriptions of what would be included in the trip, a copy of the itinerary of the special train to attend the celebration, a list of the veterans in the train program, and a typescript of all of the veterans with their addresses that made up the Washington State delegation that attended the reunion.  A few of the items are facsimiles of material kept at the Washington State Archives, but most of the collection is made of originals.

As our nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and approaches the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the State Library is taking special strides to provide access to our Civil War-related materials.  Want to get a better look at this collection, or learn more about what the State Library has to offer war researchers?  Feel free to contact the State Library Special Collections or use the Washington State Library “Ask-a-Librarian” service for further information. Too far away to visit?  The library has recently scanned much of the related material to make it more readily available to researchers.

The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was fought around July 1–3, 1863 and is considered by many the turning point in the Civil War.  For more information about the battle, the American Civil War, and Washington State’s Civil War veterans, please consider some of these links:

• US Civil War – Selected Resources at Library of Congress
• Civil War 150 – A commemoration by the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
• The United States Civil War Center at Louisiana State University Special Collections
• Civil War Historians at Pennsylvania State University
• Civil War Trust
• WCWA: The Washington Civil War Association
• Civil War Veterans Buried in Washington State 

River Marked. By Patricia Briggs. New York : Ace Books, 2011. 324 p.

Recommendation by: Carolyn Petersen, CLRS Project Manager, Tumwater, WA.

River Marked is Patricia Briggs’ 6th Mercy Thompson novel. Fans of this “kick ass supernatural heroine” will be very pleased with this latest entry to her story. As the chief mechanic and owner of a car repair business in Richland, WA, Mercy would be unusual. However it’s her attempt to live as a solitary coyote shape shifter among a complex society of werewolves, vampires, and fae (faeries) all the while not attracting the attention of normal folk that make her life challenging.

As this book opens Mercy & her new husband Adam, the Alpha werewolf of Richland, are camping on the shores of the Columbia River on their honeymoon as a result of a wedding gift of a gorgeous camping trailer from the fae. Fairy gifts always come with complications–and this time it’s a doozy of a river monster. Mercy needs to call on her Native American heritage to survive this struggle. While this book can be read alone, readers who don’t know Mercy would be better served to begin with Moon Called.

ISBN-13: 978-0441019731

Available at WSL, NW 813.6 BRIGGS 2011
Available as an eBook.
Not available in talking book or Braille editions.

Title contains adult themes.

Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices. New York, NY : Open Road Integrated Media, 2011. 256 p.

Recommendation submitted by:
Sean Lanksbury, NW and Special Collections Librarian, Washington State Library, and as a first foray into eBook reading . . . on a 9 cm smartphone screen, no less!

Thirty-six Pacific Northwest writers stepped into the Cabaret at Richard Hugo House to contribute a single chapter during The Novel: Live! – a week-long onstage writing event in front of a live audience and writing overlord/librarian Nancy Pearl. All the profits from the event benefited nonprofit organizations making a difference through literacy programs and support of the local arts.

In the end, Seattle’s Capitol Hill District plays canvas to this exquisite corpse of a novel, Hotel Angeline.  The story follows fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin, the daughter of an absent matriarch to a band of misfit progressives in a former mortuary converted into low-income apartments, and the trouble that they face after uncovering a plot to sell the hotel. As the plot progresses, the whorl of intrigue surrounding Alexis’ mother and long-gone father deepen and the heroine battles her own identity issues while she is forced to faster than she had anticipated.

You can sense that the deadline, structure, and subject matter forced many of the authors outside of their comfort zones. In the end the characterizations are pretty consistent and a solid and engaging – if sometimes overreaching – storyline emerges. There is plenty of each writer’s style present, while from chapter-to-chapter the narrative voice stays surprisingly consistent.  Not all chapters are created equal, and understanding the conditions surrounding the storytelling provides the reader insight necessary to appreciate the story’s many charms. Quite a feat, really.

One caution:  Despite the coming-of-age themes, this book is not necessarily intended for children or young teens, as there is plenty of adult language and subject matter in the story.

Chapter 1 / Jeannie Shortridge — Chapter 2 / Teri Hein — Chapter 3 / William Dietrich — Chapter 4 / Kathleen Alcalá — Chapter 5 / Maria Dahvana Headley — Chapter 6 / Stacey Levine — Chapter 7 / Indu Sundaresan — Chapter 8 / Craig Welch — Chapter 9 / Matthew Amster-Burton — Chapter 10 / Ed Skoog — Chapter 11 / David Lasky and Greg Stump — Chapter 12 / Kevin O’Brien — Chapter 13 / Nancy Rawles — Chapter 14 / Suzanne Selfors — Chapter 15 / Carol Cassella — Chapter 16 / Karen Finneyfrock — Chapter 17 / Robert Dugoni — Chapter 18 / Jarret Middleton — Chapter 19 / Deb Caletti — Chapter 20 / Kevin Emerson — Chapter 21 / Kit Bakke — Chapter 22 / Julia Quinn — Chapter 23 / Mary Guterson — Chapter 24 / Erik Larson — Chapter 25 / Garth Stein — Chapter 26 / Frances McCue — Chapter 27 / Erica Bauermeister — Chapter 28 / Sean Beaudoin — Chapter 29 / Dave Boling — Chapter 30 / Peter Mountford — Chapter 31 / Stephanie Kallos — Chapter 32 / Jamie Ford — Chapter 33 / Clyde Ford — Chapter 34 / Elizabeth George — Chapter 35 / Susan Wiggs

Available at WSL, NW 813.6 Hotel A 2011
Available as an eBook.
Not available in talking book or Braille editions.