V.23, N.2, July 2007
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AThe Washington Libraryl kAssociation Journali July 2007 • Volume 23 Number 2 Washington Connects: The WLA Conference Inside this Issue: Martha Parsons ‘steps up’... 5 Meet the American Library Association president... 6 A conversation with Diane Rehm... 14 ALKI • July 2007 Up Front The President Speaks After serving two years as vice president and president-elect, my term as president has finally begun. It is an honor and a privilege to represent the Washington Library Association in this capacity and I look forward to working with you, the members, over the coming two years. I’d like to thank Carolynne Myall for her many contribu- tions to WLA and its culture during her term as president. I’ve heard praise from many about the positive results of her focus on making the association’s legislative actions more open and transparent to the members. I’d also like to thank her for her openness and willingness to share information along the way that helped ease me into my new role. “Washington Connects!” the theme of this year’s annual conference was such an appropriate one. A significant WLA role is to facilitate connections between individuals and libraries, and through those Martha Parsons connections improve services to our customers. This conference was it catches your interest, please contact me, or jam packed full of informative and thought provoking programs, plus any board member, and let us know you’d like some fun networking opportunities, too, such as the opening reception to be actively involved in continuing to make and boat ride on the Hanford Reach. Thank you to the conference WLA “a resource for Washington libraries planning committee, chaired by Mike Cook, for another great annual and the people who make them great!” conference. I’m constantly amazed at the strengths of our member volunteers who year after year put together two successful professional Organizationally we have some challenges annual conferences (WLA and Washington Association of Library looming in the coming year. Our long-time Employees) that excite and rejuvenate those who attend. association coordinator, Gail Willis, is retiring in the summer of 2008 and it is hard to Speaking of volunteers, please join me in welcoming the new WLA imagine how we will manage without her! But board members who began their new two-year terms of office in April: we are moving forward, whether we like it or • Phil Heikkinen – Coordinator of Strategic Planning not, to make plans for the changes ahead. A • Katie Cargill – Pacific Northwest Library Association transition taskforce, lead by Vice President Representative Tim Mallory, is in place and they have started • Elizabeth Iaukea – Interest Group Representative to identify possible options. • Sally Chilson – 2009 Conference Chair I’d love to hear from you. Let me know what As I write this, we have just concluded our annual board retreat at the you think is working and what isn’t working Dumas Bay Retreat Centre in Federal Way. This retreat is an important in the association. Is there something the time for board members, committee chairs and interest group chairs organization can do to help you more to come together to determine the direction the association will take effectively and efficiently deliver services over the next two years and beyond. This year we tried something to your customers? Also, watch for a WLA different and invited Lynn Melby, of Melby, Cameron, and Hull, continuing education assessment survey that an association management firm, to facilitate the strategic planning will be coming out soon from Mary Ross, process. I felt the facilitation gave us a new and focused perspective our continuing education coordinator, and that will serve the association well. Watch the WLA Web site (www. student intern, Kara Fox. Your feedback wla.org) for the new strategic plan. We welcome your thoughts and will help form WLA’s continuing education contributions to the efforts to accomplish our goals. If some piece of efforts. & Martha Parsons works at the Washington State University Extension Energy Program in Olympia, and is president of the Washington Library Association. Please send her your ideas for the association at [email protected] 2 ALKI • July 2007 Alki Table of Contents The Washington Library Association Journal From the Editor .................................................................4 Al ki 4016 First Avenue N.E. Martha Parsons Assumes Association Presidency ............5 Seattle, WA 98105-6502 By Karen Jaskar Email: [email protected] Libraries Foster Community: Web: www.wla.org An Interview With a National Leader ..............................6 By Micheal Wood Alki Editorial Committee Nancy Huling Washington State Library Theresa Kappus Ventures into Online Learning .........................................8 Lynne King Erin Krake By Theresa Kappus Brian Soneda Reading for Pleasure, Discovery and Rayette Sterling Konny Thompson Personal Growth ................................................................9 Mary Wise, Chair By Brian Soneda Michael Wood, Intern Margaret Thomas, Alki Editor Technology Sessions Highlight Trends and Services ......11 By Konny Thompson Alki (ISSN: 8756-4173) is published three times per year in March, July Sessions Highlight Northwest History and December, and mailed to over and Environmental Resources ........................................13 1,100 WLA members and interested By Rayette Sterling parties. Print subscriptions are available at $20 per year, or $7.50 per Listening Helped Radio Show Host Find Her Voice .......14 single issue. Contact the WLA office By Margaret Thomas at the address above. Portable Electronics in Libraries .....................................15 Alki’s purpose is to communicate By Ann Wise philosophical and substantive analyses of current and enduring Snapshots of the Conference ........................................16 issues for and about Washington libraries, personnel and advocates, Legislative Update: and to facilitate the exchange of Library Doings in the Two Washingtons ........................18 research, opinion and information. WLA Communiqué Direct your submission queries to: Margaret Thomas President’s Award ....................................................19 3824 107th Ave. SW Association Announces Merit Award Winners ......20 Olympia, WA 98512 (360) 481-1250 Effective Job Training in Five Steps ................................22 Email: [email protected] By Ann Reeves Alki was designed by Gerry Rasmussen Design. Scholarship Awarded to Ana Alvarez ............................24 Gerry Rasmussen retired from state service as By Nancy Huling a graphic designer in 2003 after thirty-three years. He started his government career at the Bibliographic Musings and the Metaphysics Washington State Library, working there from 1969 to 1981. of Libraries, Part Two ......................................................25 Cover photo by Rose Ferri. By Tony Wilson I’d Rather Be Reading The Secret to His Success: ‘Our Mutual Friend’ .............31 By David Wright On the cover: The Columbia River around the Tri-Cities of Pasco, Richland and Kennewick. Photos of the area (like this one) and the WLA Conference were taken by Rose Ferri. ALKI • July 2007 From the Editor We pulled away from the dock in a drizzle. The ruddy-faced captain gunned the jet-boat engine and for the next three hours we traversed the last free flowing stretch of the Columbia River. Conferences can all look the same: A cookie-cutter hotel; windowless rooms in a sterile confer- ence center. But the Saturday morning tour of the Hanford National Monument gave a sense of place to the Washington Library Association’s Tri-Cities conference in April. The Alki Editorial Committee: (left to right) Margaret Thomas, editor; Brian Soneda; Konny The Hanford Reach is a birdwatcher’s dream. We saw pterodactyl-like Thompson (front); Lynne King; Rayette Sterling; and Mary Wise, committee chair. Missing members herons lift off nests the size of tires in a treetop rookery, and the mud are Nancy Huling, Theresa Kappus, Erin Krake and swallows’ architecture honeycombed the cliffs. White egrets shared Michael Wood, intern. the river with loons and a variety of ducks. Deer grazed in the sage and grass along the bank, while a fisherman in a boat braced himself against a bobbing pole. We didn’t wait to see the steelhead on his line – the combatants had already been at it for an hour and half. president, plus highlights from sessions on library technology, research and reference. We The monument’s history is as rich as its scenery. “Cocooned” nuclear hope you enjoy this snapshot of a memorable reactors stand like Cold War sentries on the stark landscape. No conference. & Trespassing signs aren’t needed, notes our guide. Radiation warnings keep visitors off the beaches. The cover of this issue offers a glimpse of the undeveloped shrub-steppe landscape. Alki lucked out in finding Naches-based photographer Rose Ferri a few years ago. She’s shot every WLA conference since, but his year’s gathering took place against one of her favorite backdrops. Ferri is working on her master’s thesis in Correction resource management and has special permission to roam the high- A profile of Deanna Sukkar in the March security Hanford site, documenting changes in the landscape over the issue of Alki mistakenly named her as last sixty years. She generously offered to share her images with Alki. co-chair of the Reference Interest Group. Sukkar co-chaired RIG in 2005-2006. The Inside you’ll find interviews