From Our Corner

Ranald MacDonald

이미지 The son of a Hudson's Bay factor and Raven, the daughter of Chief Comcomly of the Chinooks, Ranald MacDonald grew up on trading posts in the Northwest. Fascinated by the idea of visiting Japan since his youth, he conceived the plan of shipping out on a whaling vessel and marooning himself on the Japanese shore. Despite the fact that the government of Japan threatened death or imprisonment to foreigners trying to enter the kingdom, he did just… Read more

Friday Fun Fact: World’s first updatable time capsule belongs to….

Image ...Washington, of course! This unique Centennial Time Capsule rests in the State Capitol on the first floor and consists of 16 stainless steel containers. The first container, dated 1989, is filled with artifacts and information about Washington and will not be opened until the year 2389. Every 25 years, beginning in 2014, the capsule will be opened and one of the 15 remaining containers will be filled with items of interest to the people… Read more

Too close for comfort ...

Image Remember Washington's "Election from Hell," the 2004 governor's race that took three vote tallies and a court challenge before Governor Gregoire was affirmed as chief executive seven months after the election? Have you been watching the similarly tight race still playing out for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota? Maybe it was misery-loves-company or maybe it was like re-telling war stories, but the election directors of Washington and… Read more

Encyclopedia Article Center

"Encyclopedia Article Center " . I found everything from " Blackfoot Tribe Letter to FDR" from 1933 to the poetry of William Barnes.

Washington Historic Newspapers Now Available in PDF

Image Washington State's Historical Newspapers as digitized by the Washington State Library are now available in PDF format. This means that teachers, students, and public library users no longer need to download the DJVU viewer in order to use the historical newspaper collection… Read more

Honest, Abe ...

Image We join many Americans today in celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Great Empancipator's birth. Abraham Lincoln, the great Civil War president, has never been hotter, with a new wave of biographies coming off the presses, PBS airing a special, and President Obama, the nation's first African-American president, hailing the legacy and wisdom of another Man from Illinois. Secretary of State Sam Reed, who considers Lincoln a personal hero… Read more

WSL Updates, Feb. 12, 2009

Volume 5: Feb. 12, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) PUBLIC LIBRARY USAGE IN TOUGH TIMES 2) HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS NOW AVAILABLE IN PDF FORMAT 3) CONSERVATION KITCHEN BOOK REPAIR MATERIALS 4) THE LATEST FROM ALA ON THE LEAD IN BOOKS ISSUE 5) FREE ONLINE CLASS CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION CLASS 6) WORKSHOP ON UNDERSTANDING TEENS IN THE LIBRARY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) PUBLIC… Read more

What the main attractions said ...

Image Bill Gates Sr., Sam Reed, Wilfred Woods For many people who attended, one highlight of yesterday's Medal of Merit ceremony in the House Chambers was seeing Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates sitting in the Gallery while his father, Bill Gates Sr., received this prestigous honor. Another highlight was hearing the elder Gates and this year's other living recipient, retired Wenatchee World publisher and philanthropist Wilfred… Read more

Flashback: Olympia then

Goodbye to the old downtown Safeway, which was demolished this week for the new City Hall. A look at the store during its glory days: Image 1962. By Merle Junk, from the Susan Parish Collection.Search Washington State Archives' photos online.

WSL CE Grants

Information about CE Grants from the Washington State Library has been updated to reflect changes to the CE Grant process and criteria. The primary changes for 2009 include the use of substitute time and out of country travel. For specific information on the new CE Grant information, please visit http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/libraries/training/continuEd.aspx. Remember that CE Grants are available to individuals… Read more

Two great joys for me

I have two great joys when it comes to working at the library. Well maybe one, since they are tied together. I love to go shopping for new books, whether it is online or in the store, looking over all the books, deciding what to buy can be the most fun. It isn't even necessarily the actual shopping, but hoping that I am choosing books that the inmates will want to read, which ties into my second joy....unpacking the boxes. When the boxes arrive in the library, I usually have my library… Read more

No stamp required ...

Image Among the skads of election-related bills is this little idea by Representatives Hasegawa, Green and Chase. Their House Bill 2112 would require counties to send out their vote-by-mail ballots wih prepaid return postage. Info about HB 2112 can be found here. The state would reimburse the counties. No word yet on the pricetag, but a similar bill last year had a cost of $2… Read more

A Week on the Road

이미지 The Washington Rural Heritage team has been digging for historic treasure around the state, making stops all over in our efforts to scout out our next collections. From Cathlamet to Metaline Falls and eveywhere in… Read more

Stalking the wily Millennials, part deux...

Image Last week, Dave wrote about how the number of 18-24-year-old voters who took part in last November's election was still below the turnout of older voters, despite all of the hype about how the "Obama factor" was going to up young voter turnout. I wanted to hear from a "Millennial" about why fewer of them vote compared to Boomers and seniors and what can be done to get… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington

Image Flying over Washington -- Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier -Submitted by Brian

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Image metadata tools

If you've ever labored under the wish that you could easily extract, edit, or read that wonderful data embedded in your image files, you're not alone. There are lots of reasons to work with the embedded metadata in your image or other media files. For instance, you may want to keep records about your collections or display the file size and pixel dimensions of images in your collection. Much of this data exists in tags embedded in image files. Some data formats you might see in your images… Read more

Prison Slang

[caption id="attachment_295" align="aligncenter" width="116" caption="Prison slang book found on one MICC shelf"][/caption] Working in a prison I find that there are times I need an interpreter because in some cases the words used are like listening to a foreign language. Some words used are self explanatory, such as "celly" which means cellmate or the generic equivalent is roommate. However, others can be so confusing I just have to ask "What?" I remember the first time I heard someone… Read more

Next up: March 10 voting in 23 counties

Image 'tis the season ... for voting on local school levies, bonds and local propositions. By February 18, 25 counties will certify the results of their February 3 round of elections. And by February 20, mail ballots must go out for the March 10 ballots in 23 counties. For some County Auditors, there's barely a moment to catch their breath: 17 counties that ran February 3 elections are also running a March 10 round for other districts. The new… Read more

Washington Libraries Appreciated in Hard Times

Our sister blog (parent blog?) over at the Washington Office of the Secretary of State (we just call them OSOS) had an interesting write-up last week on… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington

Image Tumwater Falls, Tumwater -Submitted by Bill

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