Our First Friday events in May and June were successful, as usual. Our performers were Josh and Belinda (May) and Brady Goss (June). The library is really transformed during these events and we love it!

Two new art shows were hung, a selection of weavings by the Damascus Fiber Arts School, all depicting the Columbia River, and a photo show of scenes and history of Mt. Hood.

Ramona and Beezus and Percy Jackson and the Olympians were the movies shown to families during May and June. And the kids at Vista had a talent show for their final activity for this year.

I interviewed and hired three new on-call library clerks: Katie Murphy, Stephanie Betts, and Caitlin McDowell. We also hired a new library clerk to take over Ruth Sobota’s duties. When Kathy Draine retired, we lost our only bilingual employee, so we advertised for someone who could speak Spanish, but we also wanted someone who is bi-cultural, who will be a great asset for outreach to the Spanish speaking community. Rudy Ubaldo was hired to take Ruth’s place. He started on the job on June 17, and has already had opportunities to use his bi-lingual skills with our Spanish speaking patrons.

We celebrated Ruth Sobota’s Retirement on June 27 with a luncheon. Ruth has worked at the library for 18 years. She has been a good friend to all of us and a hard worker. We’ll miss her, and wish the best for her.

Long term trends for all libraries have been tracked. The chart below shows 10 years of data. Data values are shown for Sandy (purple) and Hoodland (green) libraries only.