Media Contact: Leanne Ingle, Communications Specialist, 360-704-4508, or outside Thurston County calling area: (877) 284-6237, ext. 2508; e-mail: lingle@trlib.org.

The Timberland Regional Library system (TRL) is making registering to vote or updating an existing voter registration as easy and convenient as possible. Voter registration forms and information have always been available at libraries. Now all Timberland branches have special areas with voter information and forms in English and Spanish.

TRL has also developed a new one-stop online set of links to 2004 election websites. The "Register to Vote" button on TRL’s Internet website www.trlib.org connects to the Washington Secretary of State's website with official mail-in voter registration forms and instructions in eight languages. There is also a link to the Secretary’s special online site for students.

Also on the TRL website, under the label "Election 2004," is a comprehensive set of links to election-related websites. The sources were gathered and organized by the TRL Central Reference department. The links include websites of the local political parties, county auditors, national and local civic organizations such as the League of Women Voters, basic information about the electoral process, advanced information, issues discussions, and media sources. There are even two political humor sites.

"Providing non-partisan information and promoting an informed citizenry is one of the fundamental missions of public libraries," said Liz Stroup, TRL’s Reference and Adult Services Coordinator and former Director for General Reference at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

Stroup often quotes statements of President James Madison that are engraved on the Library of Congress Madison building: "A popular government, without popular information is a prologue to a tragedy or a farce or both," and "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own governours, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

Timberland Regional Library serves the information, reading and lifelong learning needs of the Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston county public at 27 community libraries and 4 school-based cooperative library centers. The library system is funded by local property taxes. For information on any subject, the public can telephone Timberland’s Central Reference librarians at 704-INFO (704-4636) in the Olympia area or 1-800-562-6022, toll-free.