Oregon Report

by Nancy Spaulding

Oregon Representative 

Oregon Library Association

"Libraries: Proud Tradition, a Bright Future" is the theme of the OLA's upcoming conference April 5-7 at the Portland Airport Sheraton. Keynote speaker Brooke Sheldon is the author of Leaders in Libraries: Styles and Strategies for Success. Among the numerous other presenters are Leslie Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies; Michael Lavine from SUNY Buffalo speaking on business resources; C.J. Critt, narrator for Recorded Books; and John Callahan, Portland-based cartoonist and author. The full conference lineup and registration information are available at www.olaweb.org/conference/2000/.

Working with the Metropolitan Group, OLA has raised over $100,000 in grant funds, sponsorship funds, and in-kind publicity to support the 2000 Summer Reading Program, "Ticket to Tomorrow". The money will provide free summer reading materials to every public library in Oregon, a statewide publicity campaign, and fund programming grants to many libraries. Supporters include: Craig Berkman & Associates, Wells Fargo Foundation, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon Community Foundation, and the Washington Mutual Foundation.

A draft job description for an Executive Director position was presented to the OLA Board in January. A subcommittee of the board is investigating the creation of the position to better serve the association.

During February, the OLA Intellectual Freedom Committee will conduct its second statewide survey on Internet usage. All public and academic libraries will be contacted and data compiled on use, policies, filtering, monitoring and regulation.

There are currently 1,036 members of the Oregon Library Association. Categories include: personnel - 640, institutional - 23, trustee/friends - 88, student/retired/unemployed - 70, company representative - 5, out-of-state subscription - 15, joint members with Oregon Educational Media Association - 164, lifetime - 19 and complimentary - 12. Membership in the optional affiliations include: Academic Library Division - 168, Public Library Division - 140, Children's Services Division - 130, Young Adult Network Division - 81, and Support Staff Division - 106.

Other News

Multnomah County Library won the LibrarySpot.com "Library Site of the Year" award for 1999. The site (www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/index.html) was honored for its comprehensive content, navigational ease, resources for kids and teens, welcoming community feel, and strong local content.

Updated information about Oregon libraries is available in the newly released Public Library Statistics spreadsheet available on the Library Development website: www.osl.state.or.us/libdev/libdev.html The spreadsheet is in Excel 5.0 format and should be viewable in most popular spreadsheet

The Newport Public Library held a grand opening of its renovated and expanded library on Friday, February 11. Tours of the building were given throughout the day.

Construction of Western Oregon University's new library can be viewed online. The library information and construction site (www.wou.edu/provost/library/newlibrary/) includes a fact sheet, milestones for the project, floor plans, a picture gallery, and a live webcam. The project began in August 1998 and occupation is planned for August 2000.

A new electronic mailing list will promote books by authors living in Oregon. "ORAUTHOR" will present newly-published works, meetings, speakers available, Oregon author resources, reviews, general purchasing information, recommendations, and availability. To subscribe send an email to: Majordomo@sparkie.osl.state.or.us with the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe orauthor.

A variety of professional opportunities kept Oregon librarians busy this winter, including:

• January 8 the OLA Children's Services Division held its annual Mock Caldecott Workshop with Multnomah County Library's Youth Services Coordinator Ellen Fader (former Newbery Award Committee Chair) and Steve Armitage (former Caldecott Committee member).
• January 11-14 Oregon Chapter of SLA held their first desktop conference "A Golden Age for Librarians". The interactive chatroom topics included career development, meta data, and serving off site patrons.
• DIGOR (Documents Interest Group of Oregon) met January 28th at the State Library for a business meeting and library tour.
• January 28 the OLA Reference Roundtable met at the Oregon History Center in Portland where John Mean, Librarian Director, Reference and Research Collections presented an overview of the Oregon Historical Society's collections and special indexes.
• February 4 was the 17th annual Online Northwest sponsored by Oregon University System's Inter-institutional Library Council. Topics at the one-day conference in Portland included as distance education delivery, public workstation access policies and Internet filtering, virtual reference service, and interface evaluation for websites and databases.

Return to PNLA QuarterlySpring 2000 Table of Contents