Secretary of State Candidate Statement

Dale Whitaker
A response to the WLA Survey from Dale Whitaker was not provided.

Steve Hobbs

How have you used and supported libraries in your personal and professional experience?
I have supported and used public libraries my entire life. As a bullied kid in Lake Stevens, my local library was my place of learning and a safe place to socialize with other kids. This love for libraries has only grown in my time in office as Secretary of State as I have seen greater power in transforming lives through libraries. Public libraries are a place to engage communities and to vote. Office of the Secretary of State libraries in our state prisons, state health facilities, and state juvenile justice centers are becoming places for learning and restoration. Growth at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library is opening more doors for those who can’t read standard print. And we are leveraging our statewide role to impact policy to protect the freedom to read in Washington and endeavoring to add state funding to distribute through the public library system. I believe strongly in the freedom to read. No one – apart from parents for their children – should have the right to suppress what other people read or to make those decisions for others. Book banning infringes on everyone’s intellectual rights and threatens the core of our freedoms. In 2023, Dayton Memorial Library in Columbia County was on the verge of becoming the first library in the nation to dissolve due to aggravated community members calling books authored by LGBTQ + individuals “obscene” and “upsetting.” That’s why I’m grateful that the Legislature and Gov. Jay Inslee enacted my request legislation, Senate Bill 5824, which empowers more people to participate in the governance of the libraries in their own communities. Under a law that had not been updated in more than 40 years, not every library patron could have a say if their library remains open, even if their taxes fund the library. If an aggrieved constituent could collect 100 taxpayer signatures — or 10% of jurisdiction voters — on a petition, they could create a ballot measure to dissolve that library, and only voters who reside in unincorporated areas of the jurisdiction could participate. Senate Bill 5824 increases the petitioning threshold to 25% of eligible taxpayers in the district and expands voting eligibility to include all qualified library district residents. This law now protects this library and dozens more rural, intercounty, and island county libraries.

What role do you envision public libraries playing in improving the lives of your constituents, and how will you ensure they are adequately funded and supported?
For residents across the state, local libraries serve as places of learning, after-school hangouts, community meetings, a resource for free technology access or shelter from the weather. Each of these functions requires on-the-ground expertise and programmatic funding. Success also requires awareness by the public that programs exist and the desire to utilize them. I envision getting members of the public in the door the first time as a gateway to far greater utilization that will demonstrate sufficient demand to protect and achieve funding, whether those dollars come in the form of a successful levy at the ballot box or state and federal dollars directed to public libraries. I am proud to have struck a partnership with Washington state company Wizards of the Coast to provide free Dungeons & Dragons kits to public library systems across Washington. I was present to donate the first kit in Yakima, where we invited community members to learn about resources at their library and learn to play, an event we have now repeated several times and intend to do more. I am in discussions with other Washington State game companies to support our program to promote game libraries. This is an example of a new resource that can get a new group of people into libraries, where they can learn about more resources available to them and fall in love with public libraries the way I did.

What connection do you see between libraries and informed citizens, healthy democracies, and the dissemination of accurate information within Washington state?
Public libraries that support the freedom to read are a cornerstone of democracy. It’s that simple to me. We need libraries to be safe spaces so our kids, and whole communities have access to information and a variety of resources that every community invests in for their residents. When we have accessible libraries, we have a more informed community, a more informed electorate, and a stronger democracy.

How will you promote digital equity and ensure that libraries receive funding to close the digital divide, considering their decades-long experience in digital work?
The Washington State Library uses multiple avenues to help address the digital divide. We use federal E-Rate program dollars, funded by a federal Universal Service Charge on phone bills, to provide low-cost internet access to public libraries in rural areas. We have contracts with eligible libraries statewide to pay for reduced-cost equipment and services by internet service providers. The IT director in Everett called this the best use of these federal dollars he’d ever seen. In a dream scenario, we add state funding to drastically increase these capabilities, expand the number of libraries we can provide services to, and broaden the offerings, including more meaningful cybersecurity support. The State Library also provides a broad catalog of career and educational services that we would like to continue to support and grow. More needs to be done and we’re just getting started.

How will you work to increase student access to strong school library programs staffed by qualified Teacher-Librarians?
I would support requests of the Legislature for increased training to grow the number of qualified Teacher-Librarians in our public schools and the resources to help them be successful. As Secretary of State, my office has expanded state libraries’ presence in juvenile rehabilitation centers across the state. At Echo Glen, my office now plays a critical role in connecting our most vulnerable youth to the joy of reading. My office strongly believes that state libraries serve to fulfill and empower those most in need, and I look forward to working with legislative partners to further realize our goals. Back to gaming libraries, I did establish a contract with a gaming education nonprofit to help train librarians, including Teacher-Librarians, how to use Dungeons & Dragons for therapeutic and educational purposes, particularly for youth. If a group of Teacher-Librarians wants to engage in this space, please contact my office so we can make the appropriate connections.

Libraries continue to see decreased funding for collections especially in rural and underserved areas. Presently, the state does not play any role in providing funds to public libraries. Would you support the creation of a state fund to provide money for public libraries’ collections?
I would, and I do. The state does provide some capital dollars to support library construction and renovation, but it is a limited pot of money that I believe has decreased as state budgets have tightened. State operating budget has not been used to support local libraries, however. I would like to change that by initially using state dollars to support expensive digital licenses that have become more popular with users and more lucrative to publishers, in part because each expensive license expires after one year and the library is left with no resource (such as a physical copy of a book that could be checked-out by patrons for years). It’s an expense that many public libraries struggle to keep up with, and by offsetting some of those costs, libraries can better use their limited dollars for personnel and programming.

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