PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.4 Summer 1999

Oregon
Nancy Spaulding, Oregon Representative

People

Karyle Butcher, University Librarian, was honored as one of the four recipients of the 1999 Oregon State University Women of Achievement Award for her professional contribution and community service. She has served on numerous boards and committees that address women's issues and took a leadership role in the development of Calyx, an award winning small press that publishes women's art and literature.

Ginnie Cooper, Multnomah County Library Director, has been appointed to the Committee for Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress. The Committee is charged to identify strategic directions for the Library of Congress's use of technology over the next decade.

Barbara McKillip received the Daniel W. Casey Award at an awards dinner held in Washington DC on May 1, 1999. The award was presented by the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Taskforce for her work on behalf of rural libraries. Ms McKillip is the founder and president of the Libri Foundation, which provides new children's books to small, rural public libraries throughout the United States. Since 1990, the Libri Foundation has donated over $800,000 worth of new quality children's books to 823 libraries in 45 states.

Walter Minkel, Multnomah County Library School Corps Technology Trainer, has accepted the newly created position of Technology Editor at School Library Journal. Minkel has been a force in youth services in Oregon, receiving the Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award in 1992. Before joining Multnomah County, he served as the Children's Services Coordinator for the State Library. He also is the creator of the nationally recognized Multnomah County Library KidsPage. A send off reception was held on April 8th.

Janeanne Rockwell-Kincanon, Assistant Professor at Western Oregon University Library, is one of ten scholarship recipients to this summer's Institute for Information Literacy Immersion '99 program, sponsored by ACRL. The program, held in Plattsburgh, NY, is limited to only eighty national and international participants.

Jan Thenell, Multnomah County Library public relations coordinator, has been appointed chair of the ALA Public Awareness Committee. The committee works with the ALA Public Information Office, officers, committees and units to coordinate national campaigns focused on continuing support of libraries.

Bonnie Allen has taken a position as Associate University Librarian for Access, Technical and Collection Services at OSU Libraries.

Mary Finnegan has accepted the position as Head of Reference at the Corvallis Public Library. She served as head of Adult Services for 16 years at the Salem Public Library.

Betzy Fry has accepted the position of Fund Development Officer/Consultant at the Oregon State Library. She will be carrying out fund development projects and consulting with public libraries about effective fundraising.

Lorrie Kovell has accepted a position as reference librarian for the Jackson County Library's West County Region, located in Rogue River. Ms. Kovell came from the Tumwater Timberland Library in Tumwater, Washington.

Louise Meyers, Children's Librarian for three years in Douglas County Library System, has accepted a position with Multnomah County Library in the Holgate Branch.

Oregon Library Association (OLA)

Records were broken at the Spring OLA conference in Seaside with a total attendance of 569. Carolyn Rawles-Heiser, Corvallis-Benton Public Library, won the drawing at the PNLA display and will receive free conference registration at "Common Ground," the August conference in Calgary.

Awards announced at the OLA Conference included: OLA Librarian of the Year Deborah Carver, University of Oregon; OLA Library Employee of the Year Chantal Strobel, Deschutes County Library; OLA Library Supporter of the Year Kent Taylor, City Manager, McMinnville; Public Library Division OLE Award Michael Gaston, Deschutes County Library; Intellectual Freedom Champion Award Judy Harold, Springfield Public Library; Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award Tom Birdseye, Corvallis.

After 10 years as a roundtable, the Oregon Young Adult Network (OYAN) requested Division status within the OLA organization. The change generated lively discussion at the annual membership meeting. The members voted to accept OYAN as a division, which gives the group voting status on the OLA Executive Board.

OLAweb's newest feature is a searchable membership directory. The directory includes each member's name, library/institution/affiliation, work phone, fax number, email address and OLA affiliations.

A second Library Legislative Day was held on April 15th at the State Capitol. Librarians met with legislators to encourage improved funding for shared databases and the Ready to Read Program. One of the displays in the capitol rotunda featured the Young Readers Choice Award in a display of "Oregon Kids Read, Oregon Kids Vote."

News

The new Valley Library building at Oregon State University was dedicated on May 28th. Six floors high, the library is 343,000 square feet and contains an outstanding collection of Northwest artwork made possible by the 1% For Art state program. Self-guided tours and refreshments followed the ceremony. An Open House for library workers provided a "sneak preview" on April 16.

A major recognition award was presented at the ALA Annual Conference to the Deschutes County Library (soon to be the Deschutes Library District). Given "to a library organization that exhibited meritorious achievement in carrying out a library financial development project to secure new funding resources," the Gale Research Company Financial Development Award acknowledges the long struggle and determination of the library staff and supporters of Deschutes County. Threatened with closure, the county library repeatedly went to the voters and campaigned so successfully that the result was a new library district and a significantly increased budget.

Nine programs received funding this spring through LSTA grants issued by the State Library. They include Clackamas County Library for Assistive Technology LAN which will provide access to electronic resources for persons with disabilities; Hermiston Public Library for Partnering with Parents which will fund staff, collection enhancement and outreach activities to Spanish speaking families; Hillsboro Public Library for Books by Rail, a library branch located at a public transit station; Jackson County Library Services for Shared Integrated System which will contribute toward a multi-county automated resource sharing system with Josephine and Klamath counties; Multnomah County Library for a second year's support for Spanish Language Outreach to Children and Families; Oregon Educational Media Association for OSLIS, the Oregon School Library Information System; Oregon Health Sciences University for Oregon Libraries/Oregon Patient Education and Consumer Health Outreach Project which will train library staff to evaluate and use web-based consumer health information; Tualatin Public Library for Bienvenido a la Biblioteca, which will fund bilingual staff, enhance the collection and train volunteers to encourage use of the library by Spanish speaking residents; and Western Oregon University Library for Polk Library Information Network, which will create a web-based county community information network.

Also using LSTA funds, the State Library has acquired a statewide agreement for a library statistical tool called "Bibliostat Connect." This CD-ROM based program allows libraries to compare themselves to other libraries in Oregon and throughout the country. The program will provide graphical comparisons that librarians can use in budget and other statistical presentations.

Library statistics and directory information from the 1997-98 Oregon Public Library Statistical Reports are now available on the Oregon State Library, Library Development Services website: http://www.osl.state.or.us/libdev/pl9798.xls.

Oregon State University Library became the 14th institution and second largest member in the Orbis Consortium. Orbis, made up of 14 private and public colleges and universities in the Pacific Northwest, share a unified catalog and online borrowing. More information can be found at http://orbis.uoregon.edu.

This fall, a third group of future librarians will begin their MLS degrees in Portland through the cooperative efforts of Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, and the Oregon University System. Weekend classes are taught at Portland State University by Emporia faculty, supplemented by electronic listservs, web pages and e-mail. The 42-semester hour degree program can be completed over an eight-semester cycle including summers. More information about the ALA accredited program can be requested from Dan Roland at 1-800-552-4770 ext. 5064.