The Seattle Public Library board of trustees unanimously voted at its May 28 meeting to honor former board member Betty Jane Narver by naming the reading room in the new Central Library after her.
The room, which will be on the 10th floor of the 11-story building, will be known as the Betty Jane Narver Reading Room, said Terry Collings, executive director of the Seattle Public Library Foundation, which proposed the honor.
"Betty Jane was a tireless advocate for the Library and she loved reading," said Deborah L. Jacobs, city librarian. "She gave all of us so much of herself. We wanted to honor her hard work for the library and the community as well as honor her love of books and reading in a way that would be visible every day to the public."
Narver, a well-known civic activist, died Dec. 9, 2001, following a stroke. She helped found the Seattle Public Library Foundation Board in 1980 and also served as president from 1986 to 1987. In 1992, then-mayor Norm Rice appointed her to the Library Board. She was reappointed to a second, five-year term in 1997 and served as board president in 1997 and 1998.
"She was a wonderful colleague and she richly deserves this recognition," said Linda Larson, the current Library Board president.
Narver was a senior research fellow at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington and director of the university's Institute for Public Policy and Management. Her areas of expertise included education reform, workforce and economic development, growth management and state and local government reform. She also served as chairwoman of the board of the Seattle-King County Municipal League and was on the boards of the national Urban Libraries Council and the National Civic League.
As a Library Board member, Narver helped oversee the implementation of the $196.4 million "Libraries for All" bond measure, which Seattle voters passed in November 1998. The plan calls for improving or replacing all 22 branch libraries, building five new branches and building a new central library.
The 362,987-square-foot Central Library was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in a joint venture with Seattle-based LMN Architects. The $165.5 million building, which is now under construction, is scheduled to open in late 2003 at 1000 Fourth Ave.
The Foundation, which was established in 1980, raises money to supplement the Library's tax-based support. The Foundation is in the midst of a "Campaign for Seattle's Public Libraries" with the goal of raising $77.5 million from private sources to enhance the public bond commitment. Every dollar raised will ensure the library system reflects our community's needs in buildings, books, technology and people, long into the future.
For more information about "Libraries for All" or the Foundation, visit the Library's Web site at www.spl.org.
(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, communications assistant, at 206-615-1627.)
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Content modified: 21 June 2002
12/30/2005
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