From Our Corner

Romney-Ryan ticket cleared for WA ballot

Image The Romney-Ryan ticket has been given a green light to appear on the Washington state ballot in the fall. Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee, in a ruling handed down from the bench after brief oral arguments Thursday, rejected a challenge… Read more

In case you get calls about your voter registration…

이미지 When a big election approaches (like the one this fall), it isn’t uncommon for advocacy groups and campaigns to contact people and ask whether they are registered. Lately, staffers in our state Elections Division have fielded several calls from voters who say… Read more

WSL Updates for August 23, 2012

Volume 8, August 23, 2012 for the WSL Updates mailing list Note: WSL Updates will be on hiatus next week. Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend! Topics include: 1) APPLY FOR A POSITION ON THE LIBRARY COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON 2) DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER FOR NWILL 2012 3) ARE YOU READY? 4) TIPS FOR COPING ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 5) JOIN THE ACCESSIBILITY HACKATHON 6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington: Capitol Lake

Photograph courtesy of Jonathan LeFaive

It isn’t rare for you to see the sky looking like this around this time of year in Olympia, but it’s still just as nice every time you happen to catch it. This photo shows a great view of Capitol Lake to the backdrop of our state Legislative Building and a colorful pink sunset. We invite you to e-mail your photos and stories to us as part of an ongoing feature called “From Your Corner of Washington” – we want to gather images of… Read more

Archives treasure #3: GamScam Documents

Image Here it is! The last of this months’ three “Archives treasures” is a… Read more

Redemption through Reading

According to a recent Reuters news item, the country of Brazil is offering a novel way for prisoners to shorten their sentences: read a book!

Inmates in 4 federal prisons can read up to 12 works of literature, classics, science, or philosophy, and shorten their incarceration by 4 days per book, up to a… Read more

High desert hardships and romantic conflict in Little Century

이미지 Little Century: A Novel. By Anna Keesey. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. 336 p.) Recommendation by: Carolyn Petersen,… Read more

Archives treasure #2: Toxic waste clean-up files

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(Photos courtesy of State Archives)

As Washingtonians, we live in one of the most beautiful and scenic states in the nation, one which consistently places high value on our environment. Our environmental legacy is a major part of this state’s… Read more

A cleaner Capitol dome

Looking out our windows at the beautiful blue summer skies, we have often been surprised to see droplets of water falling before us. One of us would remark, "So, the sky is blue, but it appears to be raining. How weird!" But we then realized that it isn't raining! It's Capitol dome cleaning time!

… Read more

From Your Corner: Tumwater's name

Image The falls (above) of the Deschutes River at Tumwater Falls Park are a gorgeous attraction for visitors, but you may not know that they are also the site of the oldest American settlement in Puget Sound country. Founded in 1846, the historical… Read more

New digital resources from Asotin County Heritage

Asotin County Library has recently added over 100 newly digitized photographs to the Asotin County Heritage collection with the assistance of a grant from the State Library's Washington Rural Heritage initiative! [caption id="attachment_8332" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Oliver Brodock poses with his cat outside his… Read more

Clippings for the week of August 10, 2012

[caption id="attachment_4996" align="alignright" width="227" caption="Image courtesy North Pend Oreille Heritage collection"] 이미지 [/caption] Washington State Library News Steve Willis, central library services program manager of the Washington State Library in Olympia, must have great fun delving into old publications. Take this gem he uncovered from the Walla Walla Union, circa… Read more

Archives treasure #1: Columbia Basin Commission files

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(Photo courtesy of Washington State Archives)

As we’ve done since January, we’re featuring three rare, interesting or just plain cool items or collections found in our State Archives. The first of the three… Read more

A new stamp for Washington

Image A cool and classy new stamp featuring Washington’s state flag will soon be available to purchase. As part of its “Flags of Our Nation” stamp series, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled the new Washington State stamp in… Read more

Chronicling Washington: WSL receives additional funding for newspaper digitization project

Image (Image courtesy of the Washington State Library.)

We are pleased to announce that the State Library has received an extension of funding from the National Digital Newspaper Program… Read more

Libertarians seek to block GOP ticket from WA presidential vote

Image The Libertarian Party of Washington is asking Thurston County Superior Court to rule that Republicans do not have major party status in the state, and that the Romney-Ryan ticket does not qualify for an automatic place on the state ballot this fall. The… Read more

Libraries offer advice on purchasing eReaders

이미지 “If you are going to circulate eReaders to middle schoolers, consider buying “bomb proof” covers for each eReader device.” This is the advice that a school librarian tendered after participating in the eBook Pilot project which concluded in May, 2012. The objective of this pilot project was to distill the experiences of academic, public, and school librarians as they experimented with circulating eReader devices and training staff and the public… Read more

Face to Face with a Ghost in Centralia

이미지 From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: This week's newspaper on microfilm picked at random is the Centralia Daily Chronicle for Feb. 9, 1909. The reporter who covered this ghost story must have… Read more

Nominate a company that does good in the community

Image If you know of a corporation that does good things for your community, you have a couple of weeks left to nominate it for Washington’s highest civics award. The Office of Secretary of State is accepting nominations for a 2012 Corporations for Communities Award, and the deadline to nominate a company is Aug. 31. Nomination forms can be found here on the Secretary of State’s… Read more

New section launched on voter page for FAQs

Image Our Elections Division has just made voting even easier by launching new website information explaining how voters can accomplish tasks that election staffers are frequently asked about. Links to the information can be found… Read more