Mattawa Public Library to expand hours, add services
Apr. 23—MATTAWA — North Central Washington Libraries officials will be expanding the hours at the Mattawa Public Library.
The library is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. four days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It's open Wednesday morning from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
Amanda Brack, communications manager for NCW Libraries, said the Mattawa branch is without a permanent librarian.
"We have had library assistants filling that role," she said.
The lack of a full-time librarian led to a reduction in hours, she said, but the Mattawa branch remained open.
Valerie Ramirez Garcia, the library's customer service technician, told Mattawa City Council members that the goal is to add four to six hours per week to the library schedule, although some of the details are to be determined.
"We're pretty sure that we're going to be extending Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until 6 p.m.," she said. "We'll be open until (6 p.m.) three days out of the week so that our members are able to come during the afternoon. We do close a little bit early, and I know that stops some people that want to use it in the afternoon."
Ramirez Garcia said library officials are working on adding additional services at the library, including books and programs.
"We are currently working on expanding our Spanish collection," she said, as well as the English Spanish bilingual collection.
Ramirez Garcia showed an example of one of the bilingual books for children.
"It talks about the experience that children have (when they) interpret for their parents," she said.
She also has plans to promote the library and what it offers to the community, she said, both children and adults.
"In the next few months, I'll be working with teachers at Mattawa elementary schools to provide a tour for the little kids, let them know what's at the library, what they can use, and I'll be having an enrichment activity for them," she said. "I'm also going to be working with the 21st Century program this summer for summer school kids. Monday through Thursday, (each) of those days is going to be designated for summer for a certain number of kids to come in. I'll be teaching them about books, and we'll be reading a book together."
Activities are planned throughout the summer for toddlers and preschool children.
"I plan on doing some story times with kids and the parents," Ramirez Garcia said. "I'll be reading a story for all the kids who want to come."
The Mattawa branch also provides free online access and related services, she said, as well as mail order through its website.
"If there's a book we don't have in our collection here, you can just hop on the website with your library card, and you find whatever book," she said.
Online resources give people who have a library card access to a range of other services.
"If community members don't have, for example, a way to watch movies, they can log on and go on the (NCW Libraries) website, and they're all free," Ramirez Garcia said.
The library offers online access to test preparation materials for young people and adults, as well as help with writing resumes. Another program offers tutoring for students of all ages.
A different online option offers classes and training in specific subjects.
"You can pick a course, and you will get a certification, (which) you can add to your resume. And get a little more knowledge on a certain topic," she said.
The NCW Libraries website also offers language courses free of charge to patrons with a library card, along with streaming music services and digital and audiobooks. Printing and scanning services are available, as well as access to computers. There are time limits on computer use because the number of computers is limited, Ramirez Garcia said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Quipu: The Inca's Mysterious Recording Device
Long before Spanish colonization, the indigenous people of Peru kept track of important dates and numbers, and perhaps even stories, using a mysterious coding system of strings and knots called a quipu. When the Spanish invaded, they decided these bundles of strings and knots were idolatrous and pagan, in opposition to the Catholic Church. They burned them, hoping to quell any thought of resistance. Quipu means knot in Quechua, the dominant indigenous language in the region. You might mistake a quipu for a brightly colored necklace or headdress, but it is a communication device. Unlike their Mayan and Aztec counterparts, the Incas had no written language. They used quipu instead. Quipus consist of a series of colored, knotted cords made from cotton, wool, or other animal fibers. The knots and their placement on the cords represented numerical values. In some cases, it carried other information, such as dates or records of events. The use of the quipu dates back to 2500 BCE, long before the Inca Empire emerged. We still don't know how it originated. Deciphering quipus is tough. Its purpose and meaning can change depending on the length of the cord, the number of knots, the color, the way the cords are twisted and woven, the material, and the arrangement. While some historians think they were used almost exclusively to communicate numbers, others believe they were capable of storytelling and poetry. Certainly, the main purpose of the quipu was to track and manage the data of populations, goods, resources, and taxes. It was the administrative tool of the empire. Each knot on the cord had a specific value depending on its position, with different knot types (such as single knots, long knots, or figure-eight knots) representing different values. The Incas used the decimal system and knots to record 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s, and so on. The colors of the cords could indicate categories like resources, people, or geographical locations. For example, red represented warriors or war, white represented silver, and yellow symbolized gold. The quipus were managed by quipucamayocs, which means "quipu authority." These administrators were the record keepers, accountants, bookkeepers, mathematicians, census takers, and historians of the empire. The smooth running of the empire rested almost entirely on their shoulders. The Incas had a complex road network called the Qhapaq Ñan. All these roads led to the capital of Cusco. Endurance runners called chasquis transported quipus along these roads, resting or passing them to other runners in supply stations called tambos posted every few kilometers. Messengers could quickly carry news of an Incan victory, the death of an emperor, or details of an enemy attack from province to province. After smallpox had killed the ruler Huayna Capac, his sons, Atahualpa and Huascar, battled for the throne. Atahualpa triumphed and killed his brother. To further legitimize his ascension, Atahualpa had all records destroyed. This meant burning quipus that recorded anything to do with his brother. Atahualpa even killed the quipucamayocs. "[It was] a total renewal, what the Incas called a pachakuti or a turning over of time and space," historian Mark Cartwright wrote. Later, a Spanish governor of Peru, Vaca de Castro, tried to find quipucamayocs to teach him about the land. Eventually, he came across two who had survived the purge. "They found them wandering in the mountains, terrorized by the tyrants of the past," according to historian John A. Yeakel. Though the Spanish destroyed many quipus, some chose to study them. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega was the son of a conquistador and an Incan prince, and acted as an intermediary between the two peoples. He learned about the quipu as part of his upbringing and wrote extensively about them: When my father's Indians came to town on Midsummer's Day to pay their tribute, they brought me the quipus; and the curacas [local leaders] asked my mother to take note of their stories, for they mistrusted the Spaniards, and feared that they would not understand them. I was able to reassure them by re-reading what I had noted down under their dictation. Likewise, a rogue Jesuit priest named Blas Valera advocated for learning from the quipus. Also half Spanish and half Inca, Valera proclaimed that the Incas were the real rulers of Peru. He died under house arrest in 1597. In 2015, anthropologist Sabine Hyland got a call from the remote Andean village of San Juan de Collata. This little village held some of the last remaining quipus. Villagers granted Hyland access to two quipus from the 18th century. They told her that for years, guarding the quipus was a coming-of-age ritual for local adolescent boys. After seeing one of Hyland's documentaries, the village elders had reached out, hoping she would visit. "Over the next couple days, we would learn that these multicolored quipus, each of which is just over two feet long, were narrative epistles created by local chiefs during a time of war in the 18th century," Hyland wrote. The elders recounted the story of a failed rebellion against the Spanish. A leader, betrayed by his associates, was imprisoned and eventually executed. He had used the quipu to tell his countrymen that he was the ruling Inca Emperor. Not far from the village of San Juan de Collata, Hyland was invited by a local schoolteacher to examine a hybrid quipu. The hybrid was set on a wooden board containing a ledger of names and multicolored quipu threads. "The board bears the names of villagers, while the quipu cord associated with each name indicates the contribution of labor and/or goods that the individual was expected to provide in a community ceremony," Hyland wrote. Much to Hyland's astonishment, quipus were used in the village until the 1940s for communal, administrative, and record-keeping purposes.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Keep Beaufort Beaufort' is a reminder and a rallying cry for us all
'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' What beautiful marching orders from Cynthia Jenkins, who stepped down this month as the director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation after a-14 year tenure there. You'd think this is a group that looks back in time, sometimes to an aggravating degree, and it does. But since 1947, it has looked forward by doing its best to keep Beaufort Beaufort. I hope the foundation is the first one to capitalize on the 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort' T-shirts, if they haven't done so already. But really, that is the cry of our times all over the South Carolina Lowcountry — 'Save us, dear God, from ourselves.' And we're not the only ones in the fight. The most famous municipal rallying cry is probably 'Keep Austin Weird' in Texas, but it's easy to imagine a lot of T-shirt wishes closer to home. Keep Bluffton Eccentric. Keep St. Helena Gullah. Keep Hilton Head Over There. Keep Columbia Hot. Keep Myrtle Beach Kitschy. Keep Charleston From Sinking. A real one today is 'Keep Chelsea Rural,' a grassroots reaction to the kudzu vine of growth that is now reaching beyond Bluffton and Hardeeville to overtake Highway 462 in rural Jasper County. A similar new plea is 'Save the Euhaw.' As Hilton Head Island has grown from a few thousand residents to around 40,000 while luring 3.5 million visitors a year, some people even marched in the streets trying to 'save' things. We've had: Save Our Trees. Save the Sea Pines Deer. Save the Forest Beach Chickens. Save the Tiki Hut. Have all these people over all this time been asking too much? Cynthia Jenkins was in the best position to know what it means, and understand what it will take, to keep Beaufort Beaufort. All of these grassroots wishes implore us to know who we are. What is our soul? And why would we sell it to the devil? What is our birthright? And why would we sell it for a bowl of lentil stew? 'Keeping' and 'saving' our soul implores us to know who it is that is defining who or what we are. Is it the travel brochure or the poet? The Big Mac or the shrimp burger? Trader Joe's or Harold's Country Club? Beaufort can tell her own story, if we'll but have the sense to listen. It is older than the United States of America itself, and has somehow rolled with the tides and the times under six different flags. It serves today a feast of flavor brought by the Africans, Huguenots, Spanish, English, Scots, and, yes, plenty of damn Yankees. Best-selling author Pat Conroy, who was adopted by the people of Beaufort when he was just a sniveling Marine Corps dependent, came as close as anyone to capturing the allure of Beaufort in mere words. In 'The Prince of Tides,' Conroy wrote, 'To describe our growing up in the low country of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open you an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'' Countless others have savored it over 400 years. We can thank Cynthia Jenkins for her years of attention to every detail of her unique home town. But we can also thank her for reminding us how important it is to 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Archaeologists may have finally solved the mystery of Roanoke's ‘Lost Colony'
A team of researchers believes they may have cracked one of America's most enduring legends: Where did the settlers of the Roanoke Colony go? The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in the United States. A group of over 100 colonists settled on North Carolina's Roanoke Island in 1587, led by Sir Walter Raleigh. John White, the governor of the colony, returned to England for supplies in 1587. When he came back to Roanoke Island in August 1590, he found the settlement mysteriously abandoned – and all the colonists, including his daughter Eleanor Dare and his granddaughter Virginia Dare, gone. One of the only clues remaining at the site was the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a palisade. It either referred to Croatoan Island, which is now called Hatteras Island, or the Croatoan Indians. The mystery has haunted Americans and Brits for the past four centuries, with several investigations launched into the matter. Whether the colonists were killed by Native Americans, starved to death, or left for greener pastures has eluded historians. But new research suggests the colonists' fate may not have been tragic after all. Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at the Royal Agricultural University in England, spoke with Fox News Digital about his findings. 5 A team of researchers believes they may have cracked one of America's most enduring legends: Where did the settlers of the Roanoke Colony go? Getty Images For the past decade, the British researcher has worked with the Croatoan Archaeological Society's Scott Dawson to uncover the mystery. Horton said they've uncovered proof that the colonists assimilated into Croatoan society, thanks to a trash heap. 'We're looking at the middens — that's the rubbish heaps — of the Native Americans living on Hatteras Island, because we deduced that they would have very rapidly been assimilated into the Native American population,' Horton said. The smoking gun at the site? 5 The mystery has haunted Americans and Brits for the past four centuries, with several investigations launched into the matter. Youtube/IslandTimeTV Hammerscale, which are tiny, flaky bits of iron that come from forging iron. Horton said it's definitive proof of iron-working on Hatteras Island, which could have only been done by English colonists. 'The key significance of hammerscale … is that it's evidence of iron-working, of forging, at that moment,' he said. 'Hammerscale is what comes off a blacksmith's forge.' Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Horton added, 'This is metal that has to be raised to a relatively high temperature … which, of course, [requires] technology that Native Americans at this period did not have.' Hammerscale shows that the English 'must have been working' in this Native American community, according to the expert. But what if the hammerscale came longer after the Roanoke Colony was abandoned? Horton said that's unlikely. 'We found it stratified … underneath layers that we know date to the late 16th or early 17th century,' he said. 'So we know that this dates to the period when the lost colonists would have come to Hatteras Island.' 5 The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in the United States. Getty Images 5 'We're looking at the middens — that's the rubbish heaps — of the Native Americans living on Hatteras Island, because we deduced that they would have very rapidly been assimilated into the Native American population,' Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at the Royal Agricultural University in England, said. Youtube/IslandTimeTV 'It's a combination of both its archaeological position but also the fact that it's evidence of people actually using an English technology.' At the site, archaeologists also found guns, nautical fittings, small cannonballs, an engraved slate and a stylus, in addition to wine glasses and beads, which all paint a vivid picture of life on Hatteras Island in the 17th century. When asked if the colonists could have been killed in a later war, Horton said they survived among the Croatoans and successfully assimilated. 'We have one little snippet of historical evidence from the 1700s, which describes people with blue or gray eyes who could remember people who used to be able to read from books,' he said. 'Also, they said there was this ghost ship that was sent out by a man called Raleigh.' 5 When asked if the colonists could have been killed in a later war, Horton said they survived among the Croatoans and successfully assimilated. Youtube/IslandTimeTV Horton added, 'We think that they assimilated into the Native American community and their descendants, their sons, their granddaughters, their grandsons carried on living on Hatteras Island until the early 18th century.' When asked if he's officially solved the mystery, Horton said that though the archaeological evidence is definitive, the legend will probably still endure. 'Have we solved the mystery? Well, you know, it's pretty good evidence, but there's always more work to be done,' he said. Horton added, 'And people love mysteries. They hate resolving things one way or the other. So I'm sure that the mystery will continue, you know, whatever the scientific evidence says.'
