From Our Corner
From Your Corner of Washington
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The Olympic Peninsula, Ruby Beach. -Submitted by Ben H.
To submit a photo from your corner of Washington, go here.
Run it up the flagpole ...
Image When the Secretary of State offered U.S. flags that had flown over the state Capitol in honor of Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, over 200 were snatched up. That was easily a record for a one-week period for special occasion flag offerings. The flags, $14 if purchased at the Secretary's front desk in Oly and $17.25 if shipped by mail, are sold at discount. (The office also… Read moreFlashback: The office then
Same drapes, though those great metal filing cabinets are long gone ...
Image Secretary of State Coe with Rodeo Queen, 1957. From the Susan Parish Photograph Collection, 1909-1981. (Via the Digital Archives online search.)What is the Future for Library Subscription Databases and the SDL Project?
Back in early December, Google made a significant announcement that may have been overlooked by many librarians. Certainly I didn’t hear about it at the time; in fact, I didn’t learn about it until a week or two ago. What was the announcement? Here’s a brief excerpt:
Wind through your hair?
Patrick Crawford of Littlerock has filed a simple little initiative that asks voters whether to repeal the mandatory seat-belt and helmet laws and the "blaze orange law" for hunters, and to reimburse fines for the past three years. Drop me an email if you want a copy of the current draft: [email protected] It takes 241,153 valid voter signatures, submitted by July 3, to qualify for the November statewide ballots. A full list is kept up to date on the… Read more
Hi There, Washington
Image Hi there, Washington. The Office of Secretary of State has started this new agency blog to help you keep track of what’s going on here in Olympia and learn about how it affects you. One of our priorities with this space is conversation – we want… Read more
Blog Contributors
Erich R. Ebel is the communications director for the Office of Secretary of State. Kiran Boyal is the office's website and social media coordinator. Derrick Nunnally serves as writer/editor and media relations coordinator for the office. Jamison Murphy and… Read moreBlog Use Policy
The Office of the Secretary of State's blog use policy states that posts and/or comments must not contain vulgar, offensive, threatening or harassing language or personal attacks. Outside comments must be on-topic only. Under state law, we cannot post political statements, such as comments that endorse or oppose political candidates or ballot propositions. We will not post any content promoting or advertising commercial services, entities, or products. Making a comment on this blog does… Read more
Kard Katalog Kat
[caption id="attachment_340" align="alignleft" width="236" caption="Old time card catalog of the Baby Boomers"] Image [/caption] Unlike my cohorts in the prisons, the customers I serve in the large psychiatric hospital of Western State Hospital are not passionate bibliophiles. Mind you, they love movies, magazines and music. Those fly back and forth on the library shelves. But a book-lover? This, alas, is somewhat rare. And so, when I am… Read more
Library Legislation Tracker – January 23, 2009
Courtesy Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association State Bills of Interest. The Washington Library Association(WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog. For information on the legislative process or becoming involved see the WLA site referenced above. Click below to view the… Read more
Patrons: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Really, they are not all bad. Yes they have done bad things and they have gotten caught. They are now incarcerated, but occassionaly one of them might surprise you. Working in a prison library I see it all when it comes to patron types. We all have them, the quiet one that comes in every week or couple of weeks. Wouldn't really notice him or her, except that they are just like clockwork. Then there are those that when they walk in the door you cringe, you may even look for a place to… Read more
Coyote Ridge Library—coming soon
I can proudly say that I have visited all of our Institutional libraries here in Washington, or at least I used to be able to. Now I have one new one that I need to visit and from the pictures I would have to say this will be one of the more impressive ones that we have. The pictures show the work in progress as the library is being set up by the dedicated staff at Coyote Ridge. They have their work cut out for them as they unpack thousands of books and CDs. Then comes the fun part,… Read more
WSL Updates, Jan. 22, 2009
Volume 5: January 22, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list
Topics include:
1) LIBRARY SUPPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DURING TIMES OF CRISIS
2) CALL FOR PRESENTATION PROPOSALS AT TRIBAL CONFERENCE
3) ALA’S “ADVOCATING IN A TOUGH ECONOMY” TOOLKIT AVAILABLE ONLINE
4) OUTSTANDING BOOKS WITH NORTHWEST SETTINGS
5) NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR BCR BOARD REPRESENTATION
6) BRIEFLY NOTED—WASHINGTON READS POSTERS; FIRST TUESDAYS
… Read moreInaguration Day
Like any institution, the psychiatric hospital at Western State Hospital functions on routine. Meals are served, patients are given medications, and everyone participates in educational classes. But Inaguration Day was different. On this day, staff and patients came together as a community of Americans. All classroom TVs were fixed upon this historic moment in the U.S. Presidency. There is something far ranging when an event takes place that is unprecedented in history. The signficance… Read moreInauguration Day
Photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863. On this Inauguration Day, and in anticipation of Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial in February, we thought it appropriate to revisit Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, one of the great speeches of American history. The text of the speech is found in the… Read moreLibrary Legislation Tracker – January 20, 2009
Courtesy Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association State Bills of Interest. The Washington Library Association(WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog. For information on the legislative process or becoming involved see the WLA site referenced above. Click below to view the… Read more
Language challenge
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="ALA Welcome Poster"][/caption] Walking into the Seattle Public Library you will find several floors of books, DVDs, CDs, magazines, and newspapers with many of them in different languages. This is because the library serves a diverse population and many languages are spoken by its patrons. The same can be said about prison libraries, but you wont find the range of… Read more
Say good-bye Seattle PI?
As part of the State Library's participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) we've been researching Washington's historic newspapers. In the process we take a chronological snapshot of the life of a paper. It is a bit like doing… Read more
IMLS/AAM Offer Museums Opportunity to Assess
Application deadline are due February 15, 2009
Announcement taken from GrantStation Insider; provided by GrantStation in partnership with the Washington State Legislature, Governor Gregoire, and the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED)
Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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