Washington State Library

10/23/2026

Did you know the State Library offers tours of its mighty collection at its central location in Tumwater, WA?

After Washington State Library (WSL) staff visited Kitsap Regional Library (KRL) branches last year, KRL staff, in the form of their Communications Team, returned the favor by visiting WSL's Central Library in September. Highlights from the tour included seeing maps, the "Lewis and Clark Exposition in a nutshell" catalog, consisting of text and photos issued in a hinged walnut shell from 1905, more maps, and our oldest materials, published back in the 16th century, consisting of items that are part of our Territorial Collection.

This cross-cultural exchange between special and public library staff culminated, naturally, in the sharing of appetizers.

10/21/2026

We are thrilled to announce the first event in our series celebrating the winners of the 2026 Washington State Book Awards!

WSBA Winner Leyna Krow in Conversation with Sharma Shields
Nov. 4, 7 p.m. online
Free registration link in comments.

This event is presented by the Washington Center for the Book and the Spokane Public Library. Registration is required for this free, online event.

Winner of the 2026 Washington State Book Award for Fiction, Leyna Krow’s “Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids,” imagines the rules to be broken, choices to be made, and even crimes to be had for the sake of the people, and places, we love.

Leyna Krow is the author of the books I’M FINE BUT YOU APPEAR TO BE SINKING, FIRE SEASON, and most recently, SINKHOLE AND OTHER INEXPLICABLE VOIDS, which was a winner of the 2026 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Washington State Book Award. She teaches fiction in the Eastern Washington University MFA program and lives in Spokane, WA with her family and an obnoxious dog.

Sharma Shields is the author of a short story collection, FAVORITE MONSTER, and three novels, THE SASQUATCH HUNTER’S ALMANAC, THE CASSANDRA, and the forthcoming DUCKLING. Her books have received a PNBA Award, a Washington State Book Award, and other honors. She is currently the Writing Education Specialist for Spokane Public Library and is the recipient of a Humanities Washington Changemaker Award.

The Washington State Book Awards are a project of the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of The Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library).

10/20/2026

Washington State Library’s Open Data Librarian, Kathleen Sullivan, recently attended the Life after Data conference at Georgetown Center on Privacy & Technology. Nearly 30 scholars, lawyers, data scientists, artists, librarians and nonprofit leaders spoke about surveillance, exclusion and other data abuses, and offered antidotes ranging from better use of data to no use of data. Talks featured lecture, storytelling, art, satire, surveys about how and when to leave the internet, Scottish English exam questions, and exercises for cultivating deep attention.

10/19/2026

Washington Digital Newspapers manager, Shawn Schollmeyer, attended her 11th annual visit to the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA) convention held in Everett this year. The event was the 139th annual convening of Washington print newspaper publishers presenting 609 awards for high-quality journalism. One of the largest programs in years featuring 14 workshops including a panel on state library resources moderated by our own Deputy Secretary of State Randy Bolerjack (WA Secretary of State). Bolerjack also moderated the closing plenary session. The convention was supported by the Washington Digital Newspapers and Civic Engagement programs with the help of Civic Engagement Specialist Michael Bowman.

10/16/2026

En route to the WNPA Convention in Everett, Washington Digital Newspaper manager Shawn Schollmeyer stopped in to meet with Everett Public Library History Specialist, Lisa Labovitch, to discuss the preservation of the Everett Herald. The main library will be working around construction in October and November preparing for a new HVAC system and they are looking forward to a newly renovated space for their special and northwest history collections. Check their website for closures and nearby branches.

10/15/2026

Washington State Library and Washington State Archives staff recently travelled to Spokane to attend the Pacific Northwest History Conference. This conference, put on by the Washington State Historical Society & Washington State Council for the Social Studies, had the mission of supporting history and social studies teachers and celebrated the theme “Whose History? Our History!.”

WSL's Head of Collections, Crystal Hicks, presented practical ways to check for false AI resources. And a sponsoring team comprised of Archives staff, Ben Helle, Ed Echtle, Sako Chapman, Devrick Barnett; Civic Engagement coordinator, Michael Bowman, and Washington Digital Newspapers librarian Shawn Schollmeyer, showed up to share the great resources available from the WA Secretary of State’s office for educators, researchers and historians.

10/15/2026

In mid-September, Washington Library staff visited the Gilmour Memorial Library/Kittitas Public Library at its new temporary location on Main Street in the Catalyst Building (a Co-Working / Office Share service of the Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce) where it occupies two rooms within the facility. WSL staff also attended the board meeting, met with board members and Friends of the Library, answered some questions regarding library funding and talked about opportunities and services offered by the Library Development unit of the Washington State Library. Their old building, known to be the first schoolhouse in Kittitas County, was recently razed due to structural degradation and now they need a new permanent home.

10/13/2026

Celebrate Indigenous People's Day by reading books by Indigenous authors - today and every day. Here's one great book that also happened to represent Washington state at the National Book Festival earlier this year!

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

State Library Staff visited the Lake Stevens and Granite Falls branches of Sno-Isle Libraries earlier in September for a tour and introduction to the Self-Service Access offered at both these locations. While there we also learned the latest about the new Lake Stevens Library currently under construction and how Sno-Isle Libraries succeed in meeting the unique needs of their various local communities. In order to better serve their patrons, Granite Falls retains one of the more robust physical audiobook and video collections we have seen in years, bucking the recent trend across libraries to reduce and in some cases eliminate physical audio-video materials altogether in favor of streaming options. In the case of Lake Stevens, caregivers to the memory challenged asked the library for informational support and the library delivered by creating, in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, Washington State Chapter, a series of memory kits, divided into the three stages of memory care, all of which include activities, games, support materials and resources. This circulating collection has proven so popular that Sno-Isle plans to introduce it across their system of 20+ libraries.