[Libs-Or] Connections: Your Link to the State Library (March 2022)

Tue Mar 1 13:53:02 PST 2022

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Volume 32, Issue 3 - March 2022

In this issue:

  *   Welcome New State Librarian of Oregon, Wendy Cornelisen
  *   Thank You to Acting State Librarian, Nancy Hoover
  *   School Library Report Submitted to Legislature
  *   The Library Travels of a Former Teen Intern
  *   How to Handle Change When It Is Inevitable
  *   TRIVIA TIME!
  *   OrDoc of the Month - Watch This Space!
  *   Important Oregon Women in the Percent for Art Collection

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Welcome New State Librarian of Oregon, Wendy Cornelisen 

[https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/images/a91c0624-7ee2-ffbb-3ff7-56f668750f86.jpg]We are very pleased to announce that Wendy Cornelisen will join us as our new State Librarian effective March 1, 2022. Wendy comes to the State Library with over 15 years of progressive leadership in library positions. She started her library career as a reference librarian in a public library outside of Nashville, TN. Her next position was managing the Tennessee Electronic Library, a statewide resource, at the Tennessee State Library & Archives. In 2014, she became the Assistant State Librarian at the Georgia Public Library Service. In 2021, Wendy served as the Georgia Library Association President.

Wendy has a Master of Library and Information Science from University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a B.S. in Anthropology from Iowa State University. In 2020, she was awarded both the 2020 ALA-ASGCLA Leadership & Professional Achievement Award** and the School of Information Science Alumni Innovator Award. These honors were awarded in recognition of her many years of accomplished service to the libraries of Tennessee and Georgia, and for her dedication and leadership in building a statewide eBook service for Georgia’s youngest readers, a service that was heavily used during the pandemic.

Wendy will be working remotely in March and is planning to move to Oregon in April; she is excited about getting here and putting down Oregon roots. She will be accompanied by her husband, Scott, and her dog, Atticus. Her pandemic passions have been baking for the weekly neighborhood happy hour (outdoors and socially distanced, of course) and pottery. She is looking forward to discovering all the best walking paths and clay studios in Salem.

Welcome, Wendy. We are glad you are here!

Read more on her website<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=d0b5c1be7f&e=fcfe25ac6a>.

** The Association of Specialized Government and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASGCLA)

Thank You Acting State Librarian, Nancy Hoover

The staff at the State Library wishes to say thank you and goodbye to Nancy Hoover, Acting State Librarian. Her last day with the library is March 3rd. Nancy came out of retirement to step in as Acting State Librarian after Jennifer Patterson left the State Library in June 2021. Nancy filled this position with grace and humor while she tackled projects such as preparing the library for reopening to the public, safety and security of the library, and spearheading the recruitment for a new State Librarian. Please join us in thanking Nancy and offering our best wishes for her future endeavors.

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School Library Report Submitted to Legislature

By Jen Maurer, School Library Consultant for Library Support

[https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/images/b9c35ea1-cc40-15db-c733-f77c908f16d5.png]When you think of school libraries, what comes to mind? For many people, memories focus on books and storytimes. However, a strong school library program is at the confluence of reading engagement, technology integration, information literacy – which includes standards-based instruction focused on research and inquiry – and more. “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (ALA, 1989<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=fe84347c06&e=fcfe25ac6a>). In Oregon, there are no specific standards that require information literacy instruction. Licensed school librarians are trained to teach those skills, but for the past four decades, the number of librarians employed in Oregon public schools has fallen dramatically (Oregon School Library Staffing, 2018<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=e01677ceff&e=fcfe25ac6a>). As of the 2020-21 school year, there were 147 FTE licensed school librarians (Oregon Statewide Report Card, p. 13<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=017d09f625&e=fcfe25ac6a>) for about 1,250 public schools.

When an information literacy bill that included school libraries did not make it through the 2021 Oregon Legislative Assembly, parts of it became a budget note<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=7d6f7bed6d&e=fcfe25ac6a> assigned to the Oregon Department of Education. Staff from that agency worked with State Library staff, along with an advisory group, to study the appropriateness and adequacy of the current media program standards, meaning the Oregon Administrative Rules (OARs) for school library programs – OAR 581-022-2340<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=78abecf5d2&e=fcfe25ac6a> and part of OAR 581-022-2250<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=34c6cdafdb&e=fcfe25ac6a>.

The Oregon Department of Education submitted a report<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=a0e1ab5ebb&e=fcfe25ac6a> to the Oregon Legislature in December 2021, and the nine findings and three recommendations are summarized on pages two through four. It is clear that information literacy instruction is valued, but there is not agreement about which staff positions are qualified or necessary to provide that instruction. It is also clear that expectations in the school library OARs regarding staffing and instruction need to be clarified. Next steps will primarily depend on what actions the Oregon Legislature takes. However, the State Library and organizations such as the Oregon Association of School Libraries are tracking this situation. If you have questions, contact Jen Maurer<mailto:jennifer.maurer at slo.oregon.gov>, School Library Consultant at the State Library.

The Library Travels of a Former Teen Intern 

By Buzzy Nielsen, Program Manager for Library Support

One of the best parts of working in the Library Support & Development Services division<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=26fe21633b&e=fcfe25ac6a> is getting to visit libraries around the state. Like many things, COVID-19 prevented us from traveling as often as we’d like. Fortunately, while visiting family, I was able to stop by for a visit with some hard-working library staff in Coos and Curry Counties on the South Coast.

First stop: my hometown library. Langlois Publ<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=b497bf246b&e=fcfe25ac6a>[https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/_compresseds/9c8a0486-0af1-97b4-447e-21fe6e3bf3d7.jpg]ic Library<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=8fc8691866&e=fcfe25ac6a> is right on Highway 101 in north Curry County. With its distinctive shape and green roof that my mother affectionately refers to as a turtle attempting to take flight, it’s hard to miss! Library Manager Sandy House gave me a tour and showed off some great projects: space for more children’s materials, new computers installed by Library Assistant Megan, and busy storytimes. I particularly liked the display that featured books by local authors.

[https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/_compresseds/a0df128f-d3d7-96ef-6ac9-c46114b6e2bf.jpg]Next up was Coquille Public Library<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=e5c79c6f06&e=fcfe25ac6a>(CPL), located inside the Community Center right in downtown. Shout-out to Library Assistants Ivy and Sarah, who were there to greet me with a smile and didn’t balk when I said I worked for the state. CPL is small but mighty. Their space doesn’t have much room to grow, but they make the best of what they have with good collections and spaces for patrons to study. The library is fortunate to have a shiny new Library Director in Teresa Lucas. Since her previous job was at North Bend Public Library, a fellow member of Coos County Library Service District<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=0a8a340b74&e=fcfe25ac6a>, Teresa is hitting the ground running in planning for the library’s future!

For the final stop, I got a personal tour of the Port Orford Public Library<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=10469c635d&e=fcfe25ac6a>. Port Orford is the next town south of Langlois on Highway 101, in Curry County. There’s a lot going on in Port Orford! Library Director Denise Willms told me about their plans to install a changeable storywalk<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=ad8cebdc33&e=fcfe25ac6a> in their courtyard, which already includes a pretty fantastic outdoor programming area. They’re also partnering with [https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/images/8e156797-3a0a-f4b7-ab14-25232de88087.jpg] Co<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=292aab2faf&e=fcfe25ac6a>ast Community Health<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=6cbc6f6e12&e=fcfe25ac6a> to set up a small cabinet in their teen room with hygiene essentials: menstrual products, deodorant, condoms, toothpaste, and more. The master of the house, Story the library cat, greeted me. Story has lived at the Port Orford Library since she was a kitten.

Many thanks to all of the library staff and board members who welcomed me while I was visiting. It’s always wonderful to see firsthand the great work going on in Oregon libraries.

While I of course love all the libraries in Oregon, Langlois Public Library has a special place in my heart. It was the location of my first library job, back when the library was in a studio apartment-sized room off the side of the old firehall. My first task was attempting to decipher the gobbledygook off a corrupted 3¼” floppy disk that previously held library catalog records that were supposed to go on our CD-ROM catalog. You know, the good old days.

That first library job was made possible because Langlois’s librarian at the time, Tobe Porter, saw potential in me, a low-income local kid who lived in a single-wide trailer with his disabled mother. Tobe remains the best librarian I know, with such an incredible, innate understanding of what it means for a library to create community. In the course of my 20+ years in libraries, I frequently ask myself, what would Tobe do? Because she took a chance on a teen, I am the librarian I am today.

If you work in a library, you, too, can give a teen a chance. The State Library is offering grants of up to $5,000 to libraries that want to hire teen interns this summer. The opportunity is open to all library types, and applications are due on March 15. Check out our information page<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=65e580b482&e=fcfe25ac6a> if you’re interested. You can be someone’s library role model just like Tobe!

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How to Handle Change When It Is Inevitable

By Joel Henderson, Volunteer and Recording Studio Coordinator for Talking Books

In late January, the National Library Service (NLS) announced to Talking Book network libraries that the large-print version of the January-February issue of their publication, Talking Book Topics (TBT), would not be printed. Furthermore, supply chain issues and soaring printing costs would probably mean the end of the large print version of the publication altogether. For decades, TBT has been the way the NLS has let users across the country know what new books have been added to the collection, and the large print version of TBT was by far the most common version users received.

You can imagine the response this announcement received. Many staff in libraries expressed a variety of concerns. But when you cannot get the necessary paper, the printing costs are too dang high, and the only things guaranteed in this life are death and taxes, how do you approach a sudden and monumental change when it’s happening regardless of your concerns?

Adapting to change in a healthy way starts with arranging your business practices with the assumption of change built in. Keep clean, accurate, and current user data because you never know when you’ll need that data to make quick decisions. Make a habit of setting up review schedules for regular practices to ensure procedures are still serving users and staff the best way possible. When change is seen as a routine part of business, it becomes much easier to manage.

Unexpected and immediate change can still be jarring, and that’s when emotional responses have a tendency of taking over. Here is where having good data comes in very handy, because it allows you to evaluate the merit of suggestions against solid and useful information. What appears to be a massive problem according to anecdotal evidence and gut feelings often becomes a much smaller and more manageable change when seen through the lens of quality data.

Here in Oregon, the Talking Book and Braille Library sees inevitable change as an opportunity to serve users better. We don’t rest on the phrase, “That’s how we’ve always done things,” and honestly, that phrase would show a lack of understanding of what users need from us. That phrase also does not give users enough credit, limiting in our minds their own ability to change with us. Instead, our library is constantly asking the questions, “What problem is keeping our users up at night, and how are we the best option to solve that problem?”

One of the hardest parts of inevitable change is communicating that change to our power users. Initially, they are going to have emotional responses, but it is imperative to develop healthy boundaries and expect all users to follow them. Thankfully, your clean data will help you identify the users who will feel most strongly about the change so you can actively target them with positive and reassuring messaging. This approach focuses your emotional energy where it is really needed instead of spreading yourself too thin trying to reassure everyone.

Ultimately, change is still hard, regardless of how well you have prepared for it. But when you feel empowered and others feel understood, change will not overwhelm you. Change will connect you in new ways, enabling you to appreciate yet another facet of the gem of life.

Talking Book and Braille Library TRIVIA TIME!

We’re back with another Talking Book and Braille Library TRIVIA TIME! But before we get to this month’s question, here is last month’s answer:

By what percentage did the Talking Book and Braille Library’s circulation increase in 2021 thanks to duplication-on-demand? 30%

Thank you to everyone who submitted their answers, and feel free to keep participating each month. Here is this month’s question:

Q: What preferences does the automatic selection process take into consideration when choosing books for users?

  *   Subject
  *   Narrator
  *   Explicit content
  *   All of the above and more
[Click this link to submit your trivia question answers]<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=64299f5ee5&e=fcfe25ac6a>
Hint: you can find the answer in a previous issue of Connections<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=03f553f114&e=fcfe25ac6a>. 

Click the button above to submit your answer to the trivia question. If you provide your name and contact information and answer the question correctly, you may win a fun prize! 

Check back next month to see the answer, and we’ll be back with more trivia in future Connections issues.

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OrDoc of the Month – Watch This Space!

Starting in April, the Oregon Documents Depository Program<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=c4d08b085e&e=fcfe25ac6a> will feature one Oregon document (OrDoc) in each issue of Connections. OrDocs, which are Oregon state government publications, are interesting and useful, in addition to sometimes being fun or even a little wacky. In the meantime, you can become familiar with the OrDocs Program<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=a82a6c205a&e=fcfe25ac6a>.

Important Oregon Women in the Percent for Art Collection

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are sharing information about two important women in Oregon’s history who are included in our Percent for Art collection: Sarah Winnemucca and Tabitha Moffat Brown.

Oregon’s Percent for Art program<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=d790ab6b81&e=fcfe25ac6a> requires 1% of construction costs for construction or alteration of state buildings to be used to acquire art. When the State Library building was renovated in the late 1990s, part of this money was used for plaques by artist Dennis Cunningham<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=265601365d&e=fcfe25ac6a>, which are displayed in the second-floor hallway. (For more information about Dennis Cunningham, see the July 2021 issue<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=f9a276acaa&e=fcfe25ac6a> of Connections.)

Tabitha Moffat Brown<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=25e9538aaa&e=fcfe25ac6a> traveled to Oregon from Missouri in 1843 when she was 66 years old. The journey included a near-disastrous detour suggested by a guide that Brown referred to as “a rascally fellow.” She settled in the Willamette Valley, where she supported herself by various means, including sewing. In 1848, she founded a school for orphans and children of pioneers in Tualatin Plains. This school eventually became Pacific University. Tabitha Brown was named by the 1987 Legislative Assembly as the Mother of Oregon. Her name is inscribed in the House chamber<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=8d41b666c1&e=fcfe25ac6a> of the capitol building.

Sarah Winnemucca was a member of the Kuyuidika band of Paiutes, living in present-day Nevada. She learned English as a child, and eventually began working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in Oregon. When she realized the harsh conditions in which her pe[https://mcusercontent.com/91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03/images/af4486b5-2f3f-6cf7-8a20-4ce0c3f2df5e.png]ople were living, she started a campaign of writing letters and newspaper articles to call attention to their plight. She also gave hundreds of lectures and petitioned Congress to return the Paiute to their original home. She said, “I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts.”

Sarah Winnemucca’s autobiography, Life Among the Piutes, was the first book written by an American Indian woman. It is available online<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=397a4a2fcc&e=fcfe25ac6a> at the Internet Archive. A statue<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=2fb12bb525&e=fcfe25ac6a> of Sarah Winnemucca is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol.

Some information for this article was taken from The Oregon Encyclopedia<https://oregon.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=91dd1172fce9a235a5e993c03&id=755f5cb0e2&e=fcfe25ac6a>, which we gratefully acknowledge.

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Library Support & Development Services Program Manager
Buzzy Nielsen<mailto:buzzy.nielsen at slo.oregon.gov>, 971-375-3486

Talking Book & Braille Library Manager
Elke Bruton<mailto:elke.bruton at slo.oregon.gov>, 971-375-3509

Government Information & Library Services Manager
Caren Agata<mailto:caren.agata at slo.oregon.gov>, 971-375-3483

Chief Operating Officer
Susan Westin<mailto:susan.westin at slo.oregon.gov>, 503-378-5435

State Librarian
Wendy Cornelisen<mailto:wendy.cornelisen at slo.oregon.gov>, 503-378-4367

Connections is published monthly by the State Library of Oregon, and was formerly known as Letters to Libraries Online.

Mission
The State Library of Oregon cultivates, preserves, and delivers library and information services to foster lifelong learning and community engagement.

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