State Library could get fresh start with Reed

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Tuesday, March 19, 2002

OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Library survived the legislative session after Gov. Gary Locke proposed that it be closed, but control of the library likely will shift to the Secretary of State.

Administrators from the library and the secretary of state will meet for the first time this afternoon to discuss the merger.

If Locke signs House Bill 2926 -- which he has indicated he will do -- oversight of the formerly autonomous library will shift to the secretary of state as of July 1.

"We're looking at taking two 727s and combining them into a 747 -- in midair," State Librarian Nancy Zussy said Monday. "We want to do it without upsetting the passengers as much as possible."

That's not to say Zussy doesn't support the change, considering two months ago the library faced elimination as part of Locke's plan to bridge the state's budget shortfall. Library employees got word of Locke's proposal after they had settled in the library's temporary home on South Capital Way in Tumwater.

"This poor staff has been in crisis mode for the last year and a half," Zussy said.

Proposals to bring the library into the Secretary of State's Office had been floating around well before the legislative session. The secretary of state oversees the State Archives.

Trying to find ways to save the library, supporters seized on the idea anew as lawmakers were building their budget proposals.

"I pointed to it and said, 'Maybe this is a viable alternative,'" said Anne Haley, the director of the State Library Commission, which will cease to exist under the new proposal. "There is a lot of compatibility between the library and much of what's being done at the archives."

The merger will be an opportunity for the library to re-examine the services it offers, Haley and Zussy said. The institution has been criticized for not making enough of its services available online or relevant to anyone but state government employees.

"The challenge will be to sort out the mission of the library for the 21st century, and to re-engineer it for a new approach," said Secretary of State Sam Reed, who pushed for the merger. "We're going to have to prove its value, and the value it can add."

The library is scheduled to stay in its temporary home in Tumwater for two years, as the Senate occupies the Joel M. Pritchard Library Building during the Capitol renovations.

Reed said it's possible the library could eventually settle in a new site adjacent to the State Archives, which are in a former bomb shelter on the East Capitol Campus.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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