From Our Corner

Election officials: R-71 checkers using care, not rushing

Sponsors of Referendum 71, the effort to overturn Washington's new "everything but marriage" domestic partnership law, are accusing the state Elections Division of rushing the signature-verification process and being biased against their effort. Election officials at the Secretary of State's office are pushing back, strongly defending their crew of signature-checkers as conducting the process with great care and diligence, not rushing through – and certainly not showing bias one way or the… Read more

Dayton residents cast their ballots for library service!

Good news for Dayton, Washington, and Columbia County. Residents of Dayton voted yesterday to annex into the Columbia County Rural Library District (CCRLD). This is a win-win for both the city and the library district. Voters approved the annexation… Read more

WSL Updates for August 20, 2009

Volume 5, August 20, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) FREE NANCY PEARL READERS’ ADVISORY WORKSHOPS 2) WLA SAM SUPERVISORY WORKSHOP CANCELED 3) FREE LIBRARY 2.0 AND GOOGLING TRAINING --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) FREE NANCY PEARL READERS’ ADVISORY WORKSHOPS In order to effectively match up a reader with just the right book, it's helpful to understand how to apply the concept of… Read more

State fights for disclosure of R-71 petitions

The state Elections Division soon heads to federal court to try to clear the way for public release of Referendum 71 petitions.

Image Deputy Solicitor General James Pharris, who represents the Secretary of State, has filed the state's response to the continuing effort by R-71… Read more

R-71 count surges to nearly 73k

The signature count for Referendum 71 surged to well over the half-way mark Tuesday, with 72,976 signatures now processed – and a cumulative error rate edging upward to 11.32 percent.

State Elections Division checkers, working double shifts and hoping to wrap up the count by month's end, added an additional 7,000-plus new signatures and are now reporting results from 328 of the 623 bound… Read more

Video | The Signature Check

You know you want to pop your head in the Elections Division door and see how all this R-71 signature check business actually works ... But since you can't (sorry, we're at our observer max down there), we're bringing the check to you. This 5-minute video shows you the basics of signature checking and gives you an idea of what our checkers are up to:

“Go to Prison” in Colorado

For anyone interested in the Institutional Library Services category, I'll share a link to the Colorado Libraries blog, which has some similar content. You will also see accounts written by people from outside the field who were allowed to go inside some of the prisons and get a sense of what this work environment is like and how offenders use the libraries. It's inspiring to see how the Colorado Correctional Librarians are networking by communicating their day-to-day experiences in the form… Read more

E-Beam me up: Archives' cool new tool

Image When you hear its nickname and learn how it works, you can’t help but think it’s some high-tech weapon that Dr. Evil would love using to take over the world. (Cue up sinister music and his waaaay-too-long laugh.) Alas, our State Archives’ Imaging Services staff isn’t using “The E-Beam” for nefarious purposes. Instead, it is a new tool that offers an inexpensive way to preserve and reproduce many documents at a much higher visual quality… Read more

R-71 signature check nears halfway point

Image The signature check for Washington's Referendum 71 is near the halfway mark, with over 65,000 petition signatures now tallied . According to a fresh post at the end of the day shift Monday, election crews and master checkers have completed their work on about 289 of the 623 petition batches – bound volumes of 15 petitions, each bearing between 1… Read more

Clippings, August 17, 2009

Clippings – August 17, 2009 Library News The Cashmere School District is set to recommend replacing longtime Vale (Elementary School )Librarian Barbara DeRubertis with two first-timers: Steffanie Haney and Wendy Crossland. Haney is a substitute teacher in the district and Crossland just finished her student-teaching. Neither of them has ever worked as a librarian before. The recommendations states the job will be on an interim basis for one year, after which a permanent position will be… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington: Colville's name

Pronounced KAWL-vil and located in northeastern Washington, the Stevens County seat was established by the Hudson’s Bay Co. as Fort Colville in 1825 and named for Andrew Colvile (with only one "l"), London governor of the fur-trading company.

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A few miles east, the U.S. Army established a post under Maj. Pinkney Lougenbeel, and in his honor the place was known as Pinkney City. When Stevens County was organized in 1863, Pinkney… Read more

R-71: The Friday Evening Post

The count goes on. Washington election workers have now checked over 58,000 Referendum 71 signatures, with a rejection rate now up to about 11 percent. Almost 8,000 new signatures were added Friday evening to the tally reported by master checkers a day earlier. The new total is 58,493 checked from several hundred volumes. (A volume is a bound batch of 15 petition sheets, each with between 1 and… Read more

Didyaknow...?

The very first protesters on the State Capitol steps were the Sons of the American Revolution. In 1929, they protested the fact that everyone could walk across the bronze State Seal with the image of George Washington on the rotunda floor. They thought it was disrespectful that citizens could actually tread across the face of our first president. Image One year later, their voices were heard and ropes did go up to protect the State Seal. In… Read more

Ask-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for July 2009

Image Ask-WA Statistics - July, 2009

Despite a fairly quiet academic cooperative, Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of July. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3512
• Chat sessions requested: 3238
• Chat sessions accepted: 2927
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 883 (27%)

As a cooperative we maintained… Read more

R-71 Thursday update: 50k and counting

Crews checking Referendum 71 signatures report they've now checked over 50,000 signatures.

The daily update reflects the completion of checks on 220 bound volumes that contain 15 petitions sheets apiece. The previous day's report showed a big increase in volumes that were completed by master checkers, but Thursday's number was much smaller. That ebb-and-flow will continue according to the pace of the master-checking process. The… Read more

R-71 questions? Dive into our FAQs

• Image What the heck is a "master checker"?
• Why are election workers checking every single signature submitted for Referendum 71, the "everything-but marriage" law, rather than the more usual random sample?
• Why are advocates on both sides watching the truly arcane figures on how many duplicate R-71 signatures are being found?
• The current rejection rate is running between 10 and 11 percent. What's the dividing… Read more

WSL Updates for August 13, 2009

Volume 5, August 13, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) FREE CONTINUING EDUCATION WITH FIRST TUESDAYS

2) LCW PUBLIC LIBRARIES POSITION OPEN

3) FREE WAYFINDER SEARCH BOX WIDGET

4) FREE DISASTER PREPAREDNESS WORKSHOPS

5) ONLINE TUTORIAL HELPS LIBRARIES LOCATE RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES

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1) FREE… Read more

R-71 Wednesday update: Tally now tops 48,000

Election crews have now posted the latest Referendum 71 signature-check results, adding over 15,000 checked signatures, pushing the total to over 48,000. The tally now includes 43,147 signatures accepted and 5,142 rejected, with a slightly higher rejection rate of 10.65 percent.

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A number of bound volumes, with 15 petition sheets per batch, were completed by the master checkers and added to the running total. The signature… Read more

Legacy Project honors civil rights pioneer

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Lillian Walker, who has been fighting for civil rights ever since the early 1940s in Bremerton, is the most recent subject of the Office of Secretary of State's Legacy Project. Secretary Reed and the Legacy Project team held a reception in her honor on Tuesday to celebrate her story and contribution to Washington State.… Read more

R-71: Fresh snapshot of fully checked signatures

State election officials have released the first of a new format of daily updates for the closely watched Referendum 71 signature checks. The late Tuesday recap, reflecting only the batches that have been fully vetted by checkers and reviewed and revised by master checkers… Read more