We pulled away from the dock in a drizzle. The ruddy-faced captain gunned the jet-boat engine and for the next three hours we traversed the last free flowing stretch of the Columbia River.
Conferences can all look the same: A cookie-cutter hotel; windowless rooms in a sterile conference center. But the Saturday morning tour of the Hanford National Monument gave a sense of place to the Washington Library Association’s Tri-Cities conference in April.
The cover of this issue offers a glimpse of the undeveloped shrub-steppe landscape. Alki lucked out in finding Naches-based photographer Rose Ferri a few years ago. She’s shot every WLA conference since, but his year’s gathering took place against one of her favorite backdrops. Ferri is working on her master’s thesis in resource management and has special permission to roam the highsecurity Hanford site, documenting changes in the landscape over the last sixty years. She generously offered to share her images with Alki.
Inside you’ll find interviews with Leslie Burger, president of the American Library Association, and Martha Parsons, WLA’s new president, plus highlights from sessions on library technology, research and reference. We hope you enjoy this snapshot of a memorable conference.
Alki Editor: Margaret Thomas
Alki Editorial Committee: Nancy Huling; Theresa Kappus; Lynne King; Erin Krake; Brian Soneda; Rayette Sterling; Konny Thompson; Mary Wise, Chair; Michael Wood, Intern
Cover photo by Rose Ferri
Download the full-color PDF issue below.
by Martha Parsons
by Margaret Thomas
by Karen Jaskar
by Micheal Wood
by Theresa Kappus
by Brian Soneda
by Konny Thompson
by Rayette Sterling
by Margaret Thomas
by Ann Wise
by Ann Reeves
by Nancy Huling
by Tony Wilson
by David Wright