Happy 30th Birthday Sequim Branch Library!

The current Sequim Branch Library building turns 30 years old on Tuesday, May 21st!  The first official library in Sequim was established on February 1, 1947.  In 1950 the library checked out 13,000 books.  By comparison, in 2012 customers of the Sequim Branch checked out more than 437,000 items!  In 1982 construction began on the current location at 630 North Sequim Avenue.  The library was dedicated on May 21st, 1983.  The North Olympic Library System funded the construction project with generous contributions from the City of Sequim and the Sequim Rotary Club.

 

At the time of construction the building was intended to hold 8,000 books in the children’s section, 17,000 non-fiction volumes, and 14, 000 volumes of adult fiction.  At the time no other items were circulated.  Today over 55,000 items are currently housed at the Sequim Branch including fiction and non-fiction children’s, young adult, and adult books, DVDs, audiobooks, magazines, and music CDs.  The collection also includes hundreds of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and other e-resources.

 

 

The North Olympic Library System recognizes that the Sequim Branch is undersized.  The wheels have been set in motion to investigate how best to address this need.  NOLS is working with architects and public policy consultants to solicit community about the future of the Sequim Library.  You’ll be hearing more in the future about a community survey and town hall meetings where you can voice your opinion on how the Sequim Branch Library can better serve you.  And in the meantime, if you have questions or comments about the needs assessment study or the Sequim Branch Library, please contact Library Director Paula Barnes.

 

 

Thanks a ton, Library customers!

The recent Food for Fines program sponsored by the North Olympic Library System was intended to bring folks with fines back into the Library by removing potential financial barriers in exchange for food donations. It was win, win, win as thousands of dollars of fines were waived for patrons, more than a ton of food was collected and given to local food banks, and important community ties were strengthened.

“We were shooting for a ton of food,” said Customer Service Specialist Bertha Beattie, “and we exceeded that expectation through the generosity of our patrons.” “It was a rousing success,” added Vera Glica, Technical Services Assistant. Beattie and Glica coordinated the system-wide event.

The Library turned over all donations of food to local area food banks. More than 1,100 lbs of food went to the Port Angeles Food Bank, over 950 pounds to the Sequim Food Bank, more than 400 pounds to the Forks Community Food Bank, and the New Hope Food Bank in Clallam Bay secured more than 120 pounds. In return, staff at the Library will now see some long-lost library users come through the doors - people who perhaps had been staying away from the Library because they owed fines on overdue materials.

Adding to the bounty in Clallam Bay

Over 1,100 lbs of food collected in Port Angeles

Loading donations in Forks

Nuclear Science & Poetry - a perfect blend!

Events celebrating National Poetry month at the Port Angeles Library concluded on Wednesday April 24^th with a lively discussion of Kathleen Flenniken’s collection Plume: Poems – a collection of nuclear age songs of innocence and experience set in around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The discussion was part of the library’s regular monthly book discussion series. A book kit containing 10 copies of Plume will soon be available for other book groups to check out.  To reserve this or any other book kits click here.

In addition to discussing Plume, participants played a poetry game called Exquisite Corpse.  In this version, the group agreed on the poem’s topic and title. Then each member wrote one line of the poem concealed from all the rest.  After the last line was written the poem was then read aloud.

Here is the result:

Nuclear Cows

Do Holsteins sing the

                                                            blues

                                                                         downwind?

And does their milk glow in the dark?

Cows:

black & white, and brown

                                                                        with glowing eyes!

And then the animals’ spots mutated.

The cows came home with nuclear laced milk!

                                                                        Moo, moo, mooo…..

Cows are passive. Nuclear is scary.

They do not belong together.

New grass – it’s greener over there.

Flenniken, Washington State’s Poet Laureate for 2012-2014 grew up in Richland, WA next door to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. She and her father both worked at the site.  Kathleen visited the Port Angeles Library earlier in the month and led a wonderful afternoon writing workshop for adults and later read from Plume in an evening poetry reading.  Also featured at that event were local poets Alice Derry and Kate Reavey and poets Juanita Edwards, Brandan McCarty, Cindy Claplanahoo, John Pritchard III and Christopher Thomas from Poetic Blood Quantum  a poetry collective comprised of Native Americans from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Makah Nation and others.

Collections of poetry by Flenniken, Derry, Reavey and Poetic Blood Quantum members can be found in the library catalog. For more information about Kathleen Flenniken please visit her excellent website for poets and poetry fans: www.kathleenflenniken.com .  For more information about library sponsored book discussion groups visit www.nols.org  click on “Events” in Port Angeles and Sequim.

(Photograph of Kathleen Flenniken by Rosanne Olson)

Jefferson Elementary Fourth Grade Book Club

Jefferson Elementary School and the Port Angeles Main Library recently teamed up in creating monthly book club for fourth graders.  Twenty six kids (over 60% of the fourth grade) are participating in the optional club.  During the month of March, the group read Home of the Brave by Newbery-award winning author Katherine Applegate.  Told in free verse, the book is the story of Kek, a Sudanese refugee, and his experience as an immigrant to Minnesota.  After discussing the book (and finding Sudan and Minnesota on the globe), students created book poetry, using words on the spines of books.  Check out their free-verse, just in time for National Poetry Month! 

Winter Reading Circus winners

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Winter Reading Circus. The turnout was great, with a total of 431 people signing up and 236 people meeting the challenge of reading five books or more. A number of people also participated by performing extraordinary feats of derring do like composing circus-themed poems and sharing circus memories on the Facebook page, attending library performances and programs or just trying something new – like making your own hula hoop! You can see pictures and reminisce about the fun at the library’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NorthOlympicLibrarySystem .

 The winners of the 2013 Winter Reading Circus:

 Winner of the Grand Prize, a certificate for a night’s stay for two at Lake Crescent Lodge:

Sarah deLeiris, Port Angeles with Lorrie Kovell, Librarian

 

 Winners of new Nook Color with glowlight:

 

Megan Berger, Port Angeles

 

April Tuttle, Forks

 

Karen Taylor, Sequim

Jenny Sprague, Clallam Bay with Pam Force, Youth Services Librarian

 

 Congratulations!

Conversation Café Blooms in Sequim

The first Conversation Café session at the Sequim Branch Library was a success! These discussions were begun to tap into the deep well of thoughts and ideas that people are yearning to find expression for. Meaningful conversation is a rarity these days, or at least it seems so in our fast-paced society.

Each session relies on two springboards to conversation. The first is Margaret Wheatley's book Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. The second is a short video talk from TED.com.

What is TED? This nonprofit organization started out as a conference to bring together people from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design--hence the name TED. Their mission is to spread ideas. All of their online video talks at www.ted.com are free and cover almost any topic you can think of.

In our January Conversation Café, we watched a TED Talk about Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, who is also known for being autistic. Her autism allows her to experience the world in ways that others do not. She thinks in images as animals do, and this insight has allowed her to understand animal behavior.

After listening to Temple Grandin speak, participants discussed the various ways that people learn. Some learn by seeing, some by hearing, some by doing. People talked about how schools help children with various learning styles. Others mentioned how animals learn. One gentleman had just learned about canine nosework and how dogs interact with the world. Another person spoke about being able to feel what an animal is thinking using intuition.

The next Conversation Café will be February 19. The discussion will begin with Margaret Wheatley’s question, “Do I feel a vocation to be fully human?” – What does it mean to be fully human? What actions does being fully human require? What shifts in attitude? What do others think it means?

Unfortunately, this Conversation Café group cannot take on any more members because it is full. However, starting your own café might be something you would like to do. It is easy and fun. Ground rules for hosting conversations can be found in the Internet resources listed below.

Resources

I recommend Margaret Wheatley’s book, and also these other books found in the Library:

The art of conversation a guided tour of a neglected pleasure by Catherine Blyth

The World Café : shaping our futures through conversations that matter by Juanita Brown

Socrates Café: a fresh taste of philosophy by Christopher Phillips

Internet resources:

Conversation Café -- http://www.conversationcafe.org/

Can We Talk? Conversation Cafés Show Us How by Vicki Robin -- http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/can-we-talk

Donation of the first printed Klallam Language Dictionary

The North Olympic Library System welcomes an exciting and historic donation of the first printed Klallam Language Dictionary to the Port Angeles Main Library Reference collection. Staff extend gratitude and thanks to Port Angeles High School Klallam Language teacher Jamie Valadez for this volume. Plans are underway to acquire additional copies for circulation and the archive collection in 2013. More information about the dictionary can be found in the Peninsula Daily News article: here . The dictionary is an important step in saving the Klallam language and teaching it to new speakers.

Features of the dictionary¹include:

• The Klallam alphabet and pronunciation guide.


• A list of English words with their Klallam equivalent.


• The history of the how the dictionary was produced, including the names and a brief biography of each contributor. The initials of the elders who helped with the dictionary are listed next to their contributions.

In addition to the dictionary, an audible pronunciation guide is available at http://tinyurl.com/hearklallam. A “word of the day” with an audio pronunciation is available online at Twitter or Facebook under the group name KlallamWOTD. The dictionary is currently on display at the Port Angeles Library in the Reference department.

Source: 1. Rice, A. (2012, December 12). First Klallam language dictionary revives ancient Native American tongue. The Peninsula Daily News on the Web. Retrieved December 26, 2012, from http://tinyurl.com/cxwvrq3 .