From Our Corner
As the globe turns, Part Deux
Print reporters are doing audio, video, blogging, online writing, and doing bite-sized uber-fast stories as they transform into this New Media environment. The Olympian reporters, Adam Wilson and Brad Shannon, regularly include video with their stories. This legislative session, Adam Wilson is doing some hilarious sendups of the whole darned whacky Olympia scene. Here are three videos, a sort of survivor's guide to the Legislature ...
As the globe turns ...
Image Sad news from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today -- Tuesday is the last print edition for Seattle's oldest newspaper. After 146 proud years of operation as a preeminent voice in Northwest journalism, the P-I is packing it in as a "dead-tree" newspaper and will become an online-only voice, at seattlepi.com. The P-I has always been must-reading at the state Capitol and its reporting staff has always been vigorous and creative in covering Under… Read moreThe Way to a Mans Vote - Through his Stomach?
Image Sara Medlicott, an intern from the Evergreen State College, shares her impressions of one of the clippings she indexed from the Emma Smith DeVoe collection. The Washington State Library received the collection of Emma Smith DeVoe, a… Read more
ILS Employee of the Year 2008
[caption id="attachment_456" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jill accepting her award from Bob"][/caption] At our Quarterly Meeting last week we honored Jill Merritt as the ILS Employee of the Year 2008. In addition to working in one of our busiest branches (population 2,000 inmates - average monthly circulation almost 9,000 items), Jill found time to do a lot more. She worked harder than the rest of us to ensure that this blog represents us well and she has kept it relevant and… Read more
Insta-poll: Smoochy or not?
Will you help break the tie? College students and our voter outreach gurus split right down the middle when they were voting on a new lapel pin for their 2009 campus activities to encourage more student engagement, volunteerism and voting in their communities. (SecState Reed is touring more than 20 campuses this spring as part of the thing.) The Top 2 choices for you to consider are smoochy flag-lips ("Love your vote!") or a sleek op-arty VOTE. Which version do you like, remembering the… Read more
Virginia--Releasing back into the community
After 24 years of service at the Washington State Reformatory Unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex Virginia is being released. She has plans for her release and they include an impressive collection of crafts that there was just no time for during her imprisonment. We will all miss her when she goes, but we know that she will not be back and her re-entry will be a success. Seriously though Virginia has been a fixture over the years at the Reformatory and it will be hard to see her go.… Read more
Broadband Stimulus Funding - Part 3
I searched the transcript of the March 10, 2009 meeting hosted by the US Dept of Agriculture, Federal Communications Commission, and US Dept of Commerce regarding the rollout of broadband stimulus funding. Here is how "libraries" were mentioned both by speakers and by the audience:
Chairman Michael Copps, Acting Chair, Federal Communication… Read moreCrunch time ... and election cuts
The big budget mess is affecting virtually every corner of Washington state government -- and we're getting ready. Cuts could be 20 percent or more, pretty darned painful in a smallish, task-driven service agency like this one. The Elections Division, Archives and their Digital Archives, state Library and their services to the blind, and the Corporations and Charities Division and their various programs, all are prepping for the budget knives. For a longer look at the Elections Division… Read more
Broadband Stimulus Funding - Part 2
Not for the light-hearted. The following notes are excerpted from a kickoff conversation between the American Library Association Washington Office Staff and the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA - that is, State Librarians).
ARRA 2009 Broadband Initiative Kick-offTuesday, March 10… Read more
CTED 2009 Resource Book Is Available
Image The Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development is a large and diverse agency. The 2009 Resource Book describes their many programs. It includes staff contacts for each program. This… Read more
Crunch time ... and election stuff
Image Lawmakers are grinding through tons of bills -- yes, it IS a sausage factory -- as the house-of-origin deadline looms at day's end. Lobbyists are twitchy and lawmakers are looking forward to a little relief after the deadline passes (other than that little matter of an $8.5 billion budget hole that still awaits! New revenue forecast comes out next Thursday. Eeeek!) Joanie Deutsch and the fine folks over at the state Elections Division are… Read moreWSL Updates, March 12, 2009
Volume 5: March 12, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) SERVING WASHINGTON LIBRARIES: A BLOG BUILT JUST FOR YOU 2) GENTLY-USED REFERENCE VOLUMES SEEKING NEW LIBRARY HOME 3) COALITION BUILDING IN YOUR COMMUNITY—AN ALA WEBINAR 4) SAM GREEN, WASHINGTON’S FIRST POET LAUREATE, WILL SPEAK AT WSL 5) WORKSHOPS ON SERVING TEENAGERS STILL OPEN 6) PROQUEST TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES 7) ALA SURVEYS LIBRARIES ON E-GOVERNMENT Click below to read more about these topics… Read more
Senate OKs expanded domestic partner benefits
Image Washington senators have voted 30-18 to expand the list of rights and benefits for same-sex domestic partners. The legislation now moves to the House, where it is expected to pass. Governor Gregoire has expressed support. The legislation essentially matches the list of rights that married heterosexual couples enjoy, but does not include any reference to marriage equality. The state currently allows same-sex couples or older heterosexual… Read moreCommunity Service Employment for Older Americans
From a message from Melanie Anderson, ALA Washington Office Director of Office of Government Relations (3/11/09): "Yesterday, an email was sent out about the Senior Community Service Employment Program. This program places senior citizens in jobs at nonprofit and public facilities, including libraries. I understand there is some confusion about this program. Libraries do not apply for these funds. The funding is distributed to the states and to the 18 nonprofit organizations that have been… Read more
Special legislative races coming up in '09
Image It's an off-year for legislative-congressional-statewide elections -- blessed be our ears!-- but a number of counties will be picking state legislators to fill unexpired vacancies. Two beloved members of the House died after being re-elected last fall -- Democrat Bill Grant of the 16th District and Republican Steve Hailey in the 9th -- and a third state representative, 15th District Republican Dan Newhouse, was appointed agriculture director by… Read moreClippings, March 11, 2009
Clippings, March 11, 2009
Park officials passed a resolution Feb. 10 stating unequivocally that they want the library (Vashon/ KCLS) to stay put. (Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber [Vashon], 2.18.09) http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/vashon/vib/news/39752273.html
A report of a gun threat in the Spokane Public Library on Friday led to a SWAT team invasion and the arrest of an unarmed woman. (Spokesman Review [… Read more
Sort of stabilizing ... at awful
Image Fresh news out of the state Revenue Forecast Council is that tax receipts for the past month are down $40 million from levels expected in the November forecast that Governor Gregoire used as the basis for her budget proposals. Believe it or not, that's sort of good news, since it's no worse than forecasters predicted last month. It's true that since the November forecast, our shortfall has grown by nearly $240 million, but since the council… Read moreDigitizing Newspapers: Part I - Source material
We began a post about changes we'd recently implemented in our post-processing of digital images of newspaper pages. Of course, we found this hard to talk about without delving first into the process of digitizing newspapers. So we've decided to cover the topic more thoroughly through a series of posts. These posts are not meant to be a "Steps A-Z" type of tutorial but rather a discussion of things we consider when… Read moreGrant Resources and Opportunities for Libraries
Image ALA’s Washington Office District Dispatch: grants category: Provides frequent grant listings and updates from the American Library Association’s Washington Office. Library Grants blog: For librarians interested in grant opportunities; frequently updated. Compiled by two librarians, co-authors of Grants for Libraries: A How-To-Do It… Read moreSecretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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