[Libs-Or] Connections: Your Link to the State Library of Oregon (December 2024)

Thu Dec 5 08:36:53 PST 2024

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[Connections: your link to the state library of Oregon newsletter header]
Volume 34, Issue 5 - December 2024
In This Issue:

  *   Digital Collections Are Back!
  *   Everything Everywhere all at Once: Descriptive Audio for Videos
  *   2023-24 Sees Record High Number of Intellectual Freedom Challenges
  *   Updates from Northwest Digital Heritage
  *   Great Reads from Great Places; Oregon’s 2024 selections come to life
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Digital Collections Are Back!
By Heather Pitts, Cataloging Services & Digital Collections Librarian, and Jey Wann, Administrative Program Coordinator, Government Services
The State Library has been collecting and cataloging state publications since it was commissioned in 1907.Over the years, these agency reports have morphed from print into digital versions and with some only available online. To keep up with this technology, the State Library uses software to create a digital bookshelf, where you can find these digital materials. Like all technology, upgrades are needed from time to time. In 2023, the library began a rigorous request-for-proposals and evaluation process to select a new platform for our digital collections. In April 2024, we began the process of migrating our digital collections to their new electronic home. The migration temporarily limited access to digital items, requiring people to work directly with staff to access materials. Now nearly complete, we are excited to announce over 164,000 Oregon government publications are once again available online!

We invite you to explore our Digital Collection by visiting https://digitalcollections.library.oregon.gov/

The Upgraded features include full-text searching and other improved search options. We will also be able to better showcase the depth of our collection highlighting Oregon’s people, places, and events.

The Digital Collections support our mission of fostering government transparency and civic education by ensuring consistent and coordinated permanent public access to Oregon state publications. In addition to the publications produced by state agencies, our digital collections also include non-governmental publications about Oregon, and federal publications about Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

While the bulk of the migration is complete, we are still doing some fine-tuning. Many of the links from our main catalog do not yet go to the new site, so you may have to re-do your search directly in the new site to find the items you’re looking for. We will have the links updated in the main catalog and WorldCat soon.

Also coming soon: more than 8,000 historic photographs of a variety of Oregon topics.
[staff member assisting a patron at the Information Desk, while other patrons search the card catalog]
[women searching card catalog]
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Descriptive Audio for Videos 
By Max Robinson, Administrative Specialist and Recording Studio Coordinator, Oregon Talking Book & Braille Library
Watching a movie or a TV show is something everyone should be able to enjoy. Here at the Oregon Talking Book & Braille Library, we use donation funds to buy DVDs equipped with Descriptive Audio so our users can take part in this pastime. We make use of the Audio Description Project (ADP), a project of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), to help us select movies that are equipped with audio description.  

So, what exactly is audio description? According to the ADP, “it is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the patron) that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted - those images that a person who is blind or visually impaired formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.”  

Descriptive audio is offered in many movie theaters and museums and has found its way into online video as well.  Most popular streaming services and network television providers offer descriptive audio via Smart TV functionality and/or apps. And it’s not just for people with low vision or blindness! Descriptive audio can be beneficial for people with learning disabilities, English Language learners, and fans of complex science fiction or fantasy shows with lots of a new vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to viewers. 

Thanks to the generosity of donors and great resources like the Audio Description Project, we are proud to offer equitable entertainment to our users. Currently, we have over 800 DVDs in our collection and are adding more each quarter. Just like our other services, Talking Books users can call or email to have a DVD sent to them for free, via USPS mail. 

Visit the Audio Description Project’s website<https://adp.acb.org/> for up-to-date listings of movies and shows available on streaming services, in theaters, and airing on network television. They also maintain an exhaustive list of videos with described audio in languages other than English.

2023-24 Sees Record High Number of Intellectual Freedom Challenges
By Tamara Ottum, LSTA and Grants Coordinator, Library Support & Development Services
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Every September, the State Library’s Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse<https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/oifc> (OIFC) releases a report detailing the previous year’s challenges to materials, services, and programs at libraries and schools across the state.
This year's report<https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/ld.php?content_id=78174433> shows 63 challenge incidents were reported in Oregon from July 2023 to June 2024 at 40 different public libraries, schools, and colleges. 151 items were challenged in those incidents, setting the record for the most items challenged in Oregon (the previous record was set last year at 93).

This record comes amidst a similarly record-breaking year of challenges at the national level. The American Library Association (ALA) reported<https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10> that 2023 saw the most attempts to censor library materials since they began collecting statistics.

Most challenges in Oregon were objections to library materials, though libraries also reported challenges to services and programs as well as instances of graffiti and vandalism.

Many of the materials challenged are youth and teen items. Common objections included claims an item depicts sex, nudity, violence, or abuse; contains profanity; is unsuited to its target age group; includes 2SLGBTQIA+ content; or expresses an objectionable viewpoint.

No matter the stated reason for a challenge, one pattern is clear: the incidents and challenged materials are disproportionately about, by, or centered on the stories of individuals who belong to an underrepresented protected class under Oregon law. Of the 151 items challenged during this time frame, 132 told the stories of one or more underrepresented groups, with 66% focused on 2SLGBTQIA+ people and 22% centered on Black, Indigenous, or people of color.

Challenge incidents exact a financial toll on organizations and a mental toll on the people who respond to challenges. The State Library thanks the staff and volunteers, including members of OLA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee<https://www.olaweb.org/intellectual-freedom-committee-home>, who respond to challenges, who report these challenges to OIFC, and who continue to ensure their collections and services represent their diverse communities in the face of opposition.

For any questions about the OIFC report, please contact Buzzy Nielsen, Program Manager for Library Support, at buzzy.nielsen at slo.oregon.gov<mailto:buzzy.nielsen at slo.oregon.gov>.
Updates from Northwest Digital Heritage
By Ross Fuqua, Data and Digital Projects Consultant
The State Library is celebrating the launch of a new website for Northwest Digital Heritage<https://northwestdigitalheritage.org/>, our collaboration with Oregon Heritage<https://www.oregon.gov/oprd/OH/Pages/default.aspx> Commision and the Washington State Library<https://www2.sos.wa.gov/library/>, Office of the Washington Secretary of State, supporting digital collections throughout the Northwest.

The new site improves the user experience, as well as some back-end
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School band portrait, Athena School<https://northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/athena/item/920>
improvements that will ensure the project can extend to new collections and organizations.

As part of the Northwest Digital Heritage program, the State Library now maintains a digital repository for small libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations in Oregon to host their local collections. These collections include historic photographs, documents, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and images of physical objects, as well as more contemporary images of communities and landscapes throughout the state.  Organizations we are proudly hosting collections for include:

  *   Athena Public Library<https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/athena/page/home>

  *   Gilliam County Public Library<https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/gilliam/page/home>

  *   Gresham Historical Society<https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/gresham/page/home>

  *   Oregon State Archives<https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/oregon-state-archives/page/home>

  *   Weston Public Library<https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/s/weston/page/home>

Additionally, hosted collections are being actively developed that will include local history, high school yearbooks, and oral histories for:

  *   Coos Bay Public Library

  *   Maggie Osgood (Lowell) Library

  *   Toledo Public Library

As always, Northwest Digital Heritage continues to collect information about the digital collections from contributing institutions to include in the Digital Public Library of America<https://dp.la/> (DPLA), a national platform for the discovery of cultural heritage items. To date, there are over 950,000 records<https://nwdh.dp.la/> from over 250 libraries, colleges, museums, and community organizations in from Oregon and Washington, as well as digital collections from the University of Idaho Library.

To learn more about Northwest Digital Heritage, please reach out to Ross Fuqua, Data & Digital Projects Consultant, State Library of Oregon at ross.fuqua at slo.oregon.gov<mailto:ross.fuqua at slo.oregon.gov>.
Great Reads from Great Places; Oregon’s 2024 selections come to life
By Jen Robinson, Program Supervisor, Talking Books
In late August, the Oregon Talking Book & Braille Library took part in the 24th Annual National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. This single day, free event for book lovers features author talks and programming for all ages. As part of the “Roadmap to Reading” program, visitors collect stamps to learn about the “Great Reads from Great Places” titles chosen by each state. Our stamp, featuring the icon from the Oregon Center for the Book logo (a book “wearing” a pair of headphones), was a great conversation starter, and we stamped over 1,800 maps! Accessibility and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) library network were also steady discussion topics throughout the event.
[Oregon Center for the Book's greeting booth, stationed at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C., celebrating music and dumplings with books from two Oregon authors.The Oregon Center for the Book booth at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C.]
[Portland author, Dane Liu, and Talking Books Librarian, Matt Roach, posing with a copy of her book, "Laolao's Dumplings" in front of the recording studio booth.Portland author, Dane Liu, and Oregon Talking Book and Braille Library’s Outreach Librarian, Matt Roach, showing off a copy of Liu’s book, “Laolao’s Dumplings”.]
Kim Johnson, author of our teen selection, Invisible Son, joined us at the booth for most of the afternoon. She was able to meet fans old and new and enjoyed hearing directly from readers. Kim told us that meeting Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, at the reception the night before was “a highlight of [her] life.” Both our teen and children’s book selections sold out at the Poetry and Prose bookstore.

Back in Oregon, we arranged for Dane Liu, author of our children’s selection, to visit the Talking Books offices in Salem and record her book Laolao’s Dumplings for inclusion in the NLS catalog, for national distribution. She is the first author to narrate their own book for us, and a video of her visit and a short interview will be up on the Oregon Center for the Book website<https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/oregoncenterforthebook> soon!
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Library Support & Development Services Manager
Buzzy Nielsen<mailto:buzzy.nielsen at slo.oregon.gov>, 971-375-3486

Talking Book & Braille Library Supervisor
Jen Robinson<mailto:jen.robinson at slo.oregon.gov?subject=&body=>, 503-378-5391

Government Information & Library Services Manager
Elke Bruton<mailto:elke.bruton at slo.oregon.gov>, 971-375-3509

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
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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