Below you will find some information on why supporting the the public plaza will be a good thing for libraries in Olympia..

Please consider contacting the city council to support the memorandum of understanding. These points are meant to help you craft your own message to the city council, so do not copy them verbatim. If the council receives many identical messages, your words will fall on deaf ears.

You can find the council’s contact information here.

1. The West Olympia Plaza would include a library kiosk for the short term future, with the long term option for a branch library building.

2. A 2007 survey of Olympia residents indicates that a majority of people (76 percent) support a new westside branch, with a larger downtown library building. This foothold on the westside is a step towards that vision and a step towards more expansive library service in Olympia.

4. We need more square footage for our public libraries in Olympia:
The library in Olympia is the oldest library building in Thurston County.
While the population of Olympia has almost doubled since we last built a library, the space we dedicate to our public library has stayed the same.
More people walk into Olympia’s library everyday that any other library in the Timberland system.

5. The memorandum of understanding is a good first step in providing Olympia the library space it needs.

But now, because of a generous federal grant, several other small and more rural branches are also getting high speed. From a Timberland Library press release:

Timberland Regional Library is a participant in two high-speed broadband projects recently funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These projects will help bring faster Internet service to more than 100 community institutions in underserved areas across Washington State. Thirteen of Timberland’s library buildings are expected to benefit from the projects.

The projects are funded by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The ARRA provided a total of $7.2 billion to NTIA and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to fund projects that will expand access to and adoption of broadband services. Chehalis, McCleary, Naselle, Mountain View (Randle) and Salkum will be upgraded to high-speed broadband connections in the first project. Four additional Timberland libraries, Centralia, Ilwaco, Raymond and South Bend, already have high-speed connections, but will receive infrastructure upgrades.

The second project will positively impact four Timberland libraries: Amanda Park,
Hoodsport, Packwood and Westport. These sites have slower network connections that will be upgraded to high-speed broadband connections. Over the last five years, TRL has upgraded network connections to 14 of its 27 libraries to meet the needs of patrons using public PCs and free Wi-Fi access. The BTOP projects will fund broadband connections into most of the remaining library communities.

These two federal grants are expected to create jobs, attract economic investment to rural areas, and provide reliable, high-speed Internet access to schools, libraries, emergency responders, hospitals, government agencies, businesses and individuals. Both projects are expected to be substantially complete by the fall 2012 and fully complete by the fall 2013.

See the TRL website for prize details and rules.

This year’s yarnbombing-inspired cart was a true community effort. Timberland library staff, the Olympia Library’s Monday Night Knitting group, and other knitters/crocheters from Olympia and beyond contributed their skills. The final push for completion was done in the middle of the library’s youth area on a busy Saturday afternoon- Monday night knitters Kathy & Mary answered questions about the cart and enthusiastically facilitated a cart naming contest. We had 2 winners (they win hand knit scarves from Monday night knitters) and our cart is hereby named The Nancy Purl Honorary Bookcart, AKA Purl. For more info on yarnbombing/graffiti knitting, check out yarnbombing.com and knittaporfavor.wordpress.com. More cart pictures (photos by Brian VanderVeen)

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When it comes to bookcarts it’s hard to surprise us at this point, so we were pleased and amazed to see not one but two yarn-based bookcarts this year. Nancy here won out over the very awesome exiSTENCIList not only by having a superior name, but also for being that much more over-the-top. After all, if you’re going to hand-knit a bookcart cozy, you may as well go all the way. Bonus: Knitted Dewey Decimal number for knitting! Olympia Timberland Library, a Pimp My Bookcart runner-up back in 2006, wins their favorite color of Smith System Mini 3 Sloping book truck.

As part of a City of Olympia resource savings and facility improvements project, the Olympia Timberland Library is receiving upgrades to its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system and lighting system. The library will remain open throughout the project, which began Tuesday and is expected to finish around the end of the year.

According to contractor Quantum Engineering, the upgrades replace old and failing equipment with new, more efficient equipment and will provide a better indoor environment for the public and library staff. The upgrades are expected to save $11,500 annually. The anticipated expense to the City of Olympia is $250,000. The project will receive energy efficiency incentives of $68,000 from Puget Sound Energy. City staff will be able to monitor and control the new systems remotely, decreasing response time.

Workers will work Monday through Thursday nights from about 10 p.m. to 8 or 10 a.m. the following morning. “During the project, patrons may notice different sections of ceiling tiles removed,” said Olympia Timberland Library Manager, Cheryl Heywood. “Full-spectrum lighting, which closely resembles outdoor light, was installed over the last two nights. It’s warm, bright and inviting In here! It’s also quieter as the new lights emit less white noise,” said Heywood.

The new HVAC system is also expected to generate less noise. “We will have better ventilation and climate control in the building. Current equipment is more than 20 years old and is failing, so these upgrades will be very helpful,” said Heywood.

The Olympia Timberland Library is located at 313 8th Avenue SE. For more information, the public is welcome to call the library at (360) 352-0595.

Timberland Regional Library provides for the information, reading and lifelong learning needs of the Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston county public at 27 community public libraries and 7 library service partner locations. The library system is funded mainly by local property taxes. Anyone needing special accommodations to participate in a library’s program may contact the library one week in advance.

While you can enjoy this audio files by listening to them in the audio player or by simply downloading the file on each page linked to above, you can also subscribe to our podcast feed.

If you use a program like iTunes or Juice, you’re familiar with subscribing to podcasts. You can subscribe to the Olympia Library podcast by entering this address http://www.olympiafriends.com/category/podcast/feed/ into your program of choice.

We plan on recording more live events at the Olympia Timberland Library and posting them in the future.

Here are a few informational links on podcasts and how to use them:
Wikipedia entry on podcasts
How to subscribe to a podcast (from Science Audio)
Podcasts (from PC Magazine)

“A third of Americans 14 and older – about 77 million people – use public library computers to look for jobs, connect with friends, do their homework and improve their lives, according to a new study” — including half of the nation’s teens.

A good reminder of the power of libraries to make a positive difference in people’s lives!

Olympia Library Article Olympia Power and Ligh 2009t

You an also download the article here in pdf format.