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Reference & Information line: 704-INFO (360-704-4636) in Olympia area or toll-free 1-800-562-6022.
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Media Contact: Leanne Ingle, Communications Specialist, 360-704-4508; e-mail: lingle@trlib.org.

Celebrate with Tumwater Timberland Library at 10th Anniversary Events

The Tumwater Timberland Library marks 10 years in its current building with a two-day community event. The library will host a 10th Anniversary Appreciation Evening from 6-7:30 p.m., Friday, March 11, and a 10th Anniversary Celebration Day from 10 a.m. to  5 p.m., Saturday, March 12.

The events are being sponsored by the Friends of the Tumwater Timberland Library and supported by the Tumwater High School Key Club. The library is located at the corner of Israel Road and New Market Street, Tumwater (7023 New Market Street), just west of the Tumwater City Hall. Telephone number: (360) 943-7790.

Appreciation

Friday’s program will focus on the history of the library and on appreciating its community of supporters. “We’ll be honoring the people who built the library, all those who support and maintain it now, and the people who are taking us into the future.” said Tumwater Community Librarian, Sally Nash. The library closes at 5 p.m. on Fridays, but will reopen from 6-7:30 p.m. on the 11th for this special event.

The Tumwater Old Town Center Senior Choir will open the evening with a song or two and will entertain after speakers have completed their remarks (scheduled for 6:30 to7 p.m.). Light refreshments will be served.
Speakers:

• Ralph C. Osgood, Mayor of the City of Tumwater
• Jim Brown, Tumwater Library Board member and local historian
• Sue Allen, Chair of the Tumwater Library Board and friend of Joyce Nichols who was Tumwater’s first Community Librarian
• Helen Bell, President of the Friends of the Tumwater Timberland Library
• Dick Nichols, Timberland Regional Library (TRL) Board of Trustees member
• Jodi Reng, TRL Director

Josh Pong, the Tumwater School District high school representative on the Tumwater Timberland Library Board, has organized a group of Tumwater High School Key Club members who will be helping out during the festivities.

A little history

The 17,400 square foot library was funded by a 1.7 million bond passed by local voters; $400,000 from the Tumwater School District; and a $170,000 grant from Timberland Regional Library. (Total $2.27 million). The library opened March 1, 1995 and was dedicated on March 11, 1995. Like City Hall, the building exterior evokes the towered brick “Old Brewhouse,” built by Tumwater’s pioneer brewer, Leopold Schmidt.
The late Joyce Nichols was the Community Librarian of the first Tumwater Timberland Library, a 4,000 square-foot storefront operation located at the Southgate Shopping Center. Nichols championed the new library from concept to completion.

“She was committed to the community and to creating a welcoming, people-oriented atmosphere at the library,” said Leanne Heald, head of the youth services department at today’s Tumwater library. Heald worked with Nichols at the old library and performed as Acting Community Librarian of the new library for a year. “One thing that’s never changed is that we’ve kept the small-library attitude, the spirit of graciousness, of welcoming people and getting to know them,” said Heald.

Celebration: Today’s Tumwater Timberland Library

With a day of ongoing read-aloud sessions planned, “Saturday’s focus is on reading and books; people and community; and the library connection,” said Nash. “The Tumwater library has a lot of avid readers—and not just adults—but reader of all ages.”

Highlights:

• Throughout the day, local celebrities and other library fans will present short readings from their favorite books, stories and poems.
• The Tumwater high schools’ mascots and Booker T. Bear from the South Sound Reading Foundation will mingle with celebrants.
• A photo display will spotlight the Tumwater library of yesterday and today.
• Visitors can write the title of their favorite book on a fun cutout shape for the library’s community information bulletin board.
• Refreshments will be served.

Library resources, programs and services

The Tumwater Timberland Library draws users from all over the county including West Olympia, Steamboat Island, Rochester, Littlerock and Black Lake, as well as all the neighborhoods in Tumwater. “People come from home, office and school,” said Nash. State and other workers from new office buildings lining Tumwater’s portion of Capitol Boulevard find the library very convenient. Library staff often make special arrangements to help school groups with research projects.

The library’s programs promote early literacy, life-long learning and recreational reading, listening and viewing. Below are a few examples:

• For preschoolers from birth to age 6 and their families: fun-filled story time programs that develop language and early literacy skills.
• For school age children: school visits, homework support, reading and discussion programs, and fun seasonal story times and activities.
• For teens: reading, research and discussion; information and activities of interest to teens; and leadership opportunities.
• For adults: reading, discussion, cultural enrichment, practical information and lifelong learning. The library has a special focus on business resources and information services.
• For seniors: all adult programs plus information and services of particular value to seniors, including outreach services for the homebound.

Each week, Nash and Margo Eytinge, the TRL Coordinator of Volunteers, bring books, magazines, newspapers and songbooks to the Hampton Special Care Center on Trosper Road and read and sing with the seniors living there. The facility also houses a day care center, so sometimes they read and sing lively songs such as “Take me out to the ball game!” with seniors and kids together.

Tumwater’s library building

The main area of the library is open and relaxing. The building also has specialized areas, including:

• An information desk staffed to offer personalized service to information seekers of all ages on any subject.
• Separate areas for children’s activities; teen activities; quiet reading and studying; and public computers to access the library catalog, Internet, word processing and CD ROM programs.
• The Norman Wisner and Joyce Nichols multipurpose rooms for meetings and programs.
• A special space: Comfortable park-style benches border a tranquil gardenlike area in the center of the library. The space is lit naturally by a large peaked skylight.
  • The area is centered on a 15-foot high “Garden Plaza Clock,” surrounded by plants. With four faces, the clock helps everyone in the library stay on schedule.
  • “Girl Reading” is a life-sized bronze statue donated recently by the Friends of the Tumwater Timberland Library. Both children and adults often sit on the bench with her to read.
  • A “Sesquicentennial Time Capsule” was sealed under the garden plaza clock when the library opened. It will reveal its secrets on October 15, 2045.

Fun Facts

• Original Tumwater Timberland Library: 4,000 square feet
  • Today’s Tumwater library: 17,400 square feet
• Opening day collection: 63,000 items
  • Today: 110,740 items
• 1995 average monthly circulation: 26,140 items
  • 2004 average monthly circulation: 39,050 items

Revised 03/03/05