Special Programs
Teen
7 teens attended our Hour of Code passive programs the week of December 5-11. See more about the Hour of Code here.
Adult
On December 1st, 5 Adults attended our board game night as part of our Mind, Body, Spirit series.
42 adults watched Mary Flower perform on December 2nd for our Library Coffee House program.

Ongoing Programs
Kid
Ananda our dog was sick for three weeks in December, so only came to the library twice for kids to read to her. 4 kids read to her.
Saturday Afternoon Kids Club at Sandy had an attendance of 60, Hoodland had 6 attend.
Preschool Storytime had 71 attend, Toddlertime had 84 attend, Baby Storytime had 4 attend, and Hoodland Storytime had 23 attend.
83 kids attended our programs at Vista Apartments.
Teen
22 teens attended our Game factory Coding Club, and 9 attended Anime Club.
Adult
We notarized documents for 2 people at the Hoodland Library.

Eric Griswold

Art Exhibits

The Clackamas County Arts Alliance installed an exhibit by photographer Eric Griswold of West Linn.

The photography of Randy Blevins of Boring, is also on display at the Sandy Library.

Randy Blevins

You can catch these two amazing photography exhibits through February.

Fun  On December 4th, staff of the Sandy and Hoodland Libraries ran (or walked) the Jingle Bell Run in downtown Portland.  12 staff members joined in, and we raised $1400 for the Arthritis Foundation.  After the run, we all went out to brunch before the library opened.  This was our staff Holiday event.

Programs
Teen
On November 10th, we held a Scholarship & Financial Aid Workshop in coordination with College Goal Oregon’s Lisa Brookshier, MBA & ASPIRE Access Specialist. The event included scholarship essay writing and application tips and hands-on-help with FAFSA applications from FAFSA pros. 8 people took advantage of this great opportunity.

Adult
On November 3rd, 9 people came to our film screening of Xmas without China.

On November 4th, 90 people came to our Library Coffee House featuring a folk anthology by Romeo and Carolee Carrera.

On November 12th, 11 people came to Mike Jordan’s author talk at Hoodland. Mr Jordan wrote much of his recent book at the Hoodland Library! FInd out more about Mike Jordan and his books here.

On November 13th, 30 people came to listen to the Peter Wigmore to hear about his family’s experiences during the Holocaust.

On November 14th, 26 people came to Tim Palmer’s author talk and slide show on the Rivers of Oregon. See more about Tim and his beautiful book here.

On November 17th, 22 people came to the film screening of feature-length documentary film Gaining Ground by Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein that tells personal stories of farmers making extraordinary changes in their farming practices to feed their local communities sustainably grown produce and grains. Find out more about this documentary here.

Ongoing Programs
Kids
7 kids read to the dog in November (we were closed one Thursday for Thanksgiving)

79 people attended Saturday Afternoon Kids’ Club in Sandy, and 11 attended in Hoodland.

86 people attended Preschool storytime and 114 attended Toddler Time in Sandy. 18 people attended storytime in Hoodland.

On November 7th we held our first quarterly (rather than weekly) Hora de Cuentos with Claudia Osario. 14 people attended this extremely vivacious storyteller’s program.

Teens
17 people attended Game Factory – our Teen coding club.

5 people came to out T-LAB (Teen – Library Advisory Board) meeting to help us plan our teen programs.

9 people came to Anime Club, and 1 came to Teen Book Club.

Adults
Our ESOL classes were very well attended right through our last date for this calendar year in November. Our last day of class was November 16th. We plan to start these classes up again January 10th. They will be held every Tuesday and Thursday from 12-1:30pm. We are also partnering with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints starting in January. They will be holding an additional ESOL class on Wednesday evenings.

10 people attended our Hoodland Book Group this month to discuss Girl on the Train.

7 Public Notaries were done in Hoodland.

Outreach
On November 10th, we talked to 21 people at the Headstart Family Night., We issued 6 library cards and checked out 2 books.

We did literacy activities with 62 kids and 12 adults at Vista Apartments.

Strategic Planning
Our final Strategic Planning Committee Meetings took place this month. The Strategic Planning Survey went live on December 13th. Take the survey here to help us determine our priorities going forward, it should take you about 10-15 minutes if you finish all the questions.  75 people have already taken the survey!  I should have a Draft of the Strategic Plan for Sandy and Hoodland Libraries before the City Council in February.

Meetings
On November 17th, Thea Kuziemski and Sarah McIntyre met with Dylon Blaylock from Clackamas County as well as 5 other City officials within the County to discuss ways of maximizing our Social Media presences through working together.

On November 18th, Directors in LINCC (Libraries IN Clackamas County) met with Directors in WCCLS (Washington County Cooperative Library Services) to discuss regional policies, and share information.

Special Programs
We had 1115 kids come to play games and get candy for Trick or Treat Trail on October 29th!

On October 21st, 180 people (mostly teens) attended the Haunted Library and Creepy Carnival! The dunk tank was a big hit. A special thank you to Officer Olmos who did 2 turns in the dunk tank, and to Officer Steffenson for putting up with the smoke alarm going off in the library! Now we know what to do for next year so that this does not happen again.

13 kids, volunteers, and staff attended the Zombie Walk! Watch the video here.

Our Chair Yoga Class for adults had great attendance for the 4 week class with an average of 15 people attending each week.

Cheryl Hill’s author talk on October 10th on the Fire Lookouts of Oregon had an attendance of 23.

October Coffee House on October 7th with Steve Hale performing had 51 people in attendance.

Our Dia de los Muertos event on October 28th, planned with key members of the Hispanic Community had a great community attendance of 75 people. 

Ongoing Programs
We had 9 kids Read to the Dog in October

69 kids and parents attended Saturday Afternoon Kids’ Club at SA, 20 at HO.

80 kids and parents attended Preschool Story Time, 94 at Toddler Time, 21 attended Baby Time, and 37 attended HO storytime

We saw 60 kids and parents for literacy activities at Vista Apartments.

Teen Game Factory had 43 teens attend. TAB had 77 people attend to work on the Haunted Library and Creepy Carnival. Teen Book club had 3 people attend, and Anime Club had 15 people in attendance.

We held one Book a Librarian session on how to use the library catalog.

6 people attended Hoodland’s Book Group to discuss Walking on Water, and 8 people attended Gypsie Raleigh’s author talk at Hoodland. Gypsie is the author of Soolie Beetch and the Dying Light.

Our English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Classes continue to be popular on both days, with approximately 6-8 adult at each class, and 8-10 kids.

Outreach
On 10/8, we attended the Oral Hull Family Fall Festival ans talked to 58 people about library services and programs.

We attended the Kelso Elementary School open house on 10/25 and talked to 41 parents and kids.

Strategic Planning

The Strategic Planning Committee continued to meet in October.  We are making great progress on a Strategic Plan for the Sandy and Hoodland Public Libraries.  It should come before the City Council for approval in February 2017.

Training

Libraries in Clackamas County held our second annual all staff training on October 10th.  We had a great day learning about building resiliency with Clackamas County trainer Jeri Oswalt and mental model busting with Cheryl Gould for all staff.  There were individual breakout sessions on Library Security (thanks to Chief Yamashita!), Singing and Signing with Storytime, Cataloging digital information, and Readers’ Advisory.

Staff Fun!

The staff at Sandy Library dressed up for Halloween as our library programs.  We had a great time!

Kids Programs

53 people attended Saturday Afternoon Kids’ Club at Sandy. 47 attended in Hoodland.

Storytimes at Sandy had 99 kids and 97 adult attend, Hoodland had 38 kids and 26 adults attend.

In our outreach efforts at the Vista Apartments, we checked out books and did literacy based activities with 57 kids.

Teen Programs

Our Teen Lock-In with Antfarm had 51 teens attend.

Game Factory had 18 teens attend in the month of September.

We held our first Teen Book Club meeting on September 24th.  The book discussed was Taking Aim.

Anime Club on September 28th drew 16 teens. They are currently watching episodes of Naruto Season one, and working on their art journals.

Adult Programs

On September 1st. the Sandy Library helped to host the Black Swan Youth Theatre in Meinig Park.  50 People attended Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

Our Library Coffee House on September 2nd with Eric John Kaiser, Portland’s own French Troubadour had 93 people attend.

September 14th, we held our last Readers’ Theatre Program in conjunction with Actor’s Dojo before taking several months hiatus.  Look for more Reader’s Theatre programs next summer.

On September 15th, we hosted Michael P Jones.  He lectured about Portland’s infamous Shanghai Tunnels to 28 eager individuals.

Art Exhibits

Artist Exhibit Program of www.clackamasartsalliance.org presents watercolor paintings of Cheryl Butterfield.  This exhibit will be up through November.

Meetings

The Library hosted the Chamber of Commerce Good Morning Sandy! on September 21st.  View a slide show about library programs here!

Sarah attended the annual Public Library Directors of Oregon meeting at the Hillsboro Library on September 23rd.

Programs

Teen Tuesdays Open Gaming Lab was held each Tuesday in August.  37 Teens attended these programs.

On August 2nd, we partnered with the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon Humanities for a discussion titled “Good Food, Bad Food: Agriculture, Ethics, & Personal Choice” led by author Kristy Athens

We held our final kids’ Summer Reading programs at Vista apartments.  2 weeks of Art with Becky Hawley.  The kids did leaf painting, and created collages.  41 kids participated.

On August 5th, we held our monthly Library Coffee House.  Kelsey and the Next Right Thing played to a crowd of 150 people.

On August 6th, we started our 4 week swing dance program for adults – held at the Sandy Community Center.  30 excited people learned the basics of swing dancing!  View a video from the class here.

On August 10th, Actors Dojo presented Reader’s Theatre Plaza Suite by Neil Simon.

On August 23rd, we held our pilot English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class at the Sandy Library.  We had an enthusiastic group of teaching assistants and students!  These drop-in ESOL classes will be held at the Sandy Library every Tuesday and Wednesday starting September 27th!

Cedar Ridge Middle School

Outreach
At the end of August, Library staff attended Open Houses at Kelso Elementary, Firwood Elementary, Sandy Grade School, and Cedar Ridge Middle School to issue library cards and talk about library programs with parents and kids. Staff talked to 105 people at these events.

Volunteer Recognition

The Sandy and Hoodland Libraries closed at 5pm on August 31st so that staff could recognize our 80+ volunteers who assist us on a day to day basis.  Library staff were in charge of the Sundae Bar – which was a great success!

Programs

The Library Coffee House took place on July 1st, and Biddy on the Bench played their Old-world Folk, Irish Traditional, Shanty music for an appreciative audience of 97 people.

Susie Jenkins led our adult Journal Writing class that began on July 2nd.  This was a four week class that 10 people attended.

July continued our Summer Reading Programs!  We held the following programs:

Dragon Theater Productions

The Lego Guy

Tuesdays in July continued our Teen Tuesday’s Open Gaming Lab.  16 Teens attended throughout the month.

Actor’s Dojo presented Neil Simon’s Star Spangled Girl on July 13th for an eager audience of 22 people.

We held an informational/recruitment meeting for volunteers to help teach English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Classes.  25 prospective volunteers were there to learn about this exciting program under People, Places, Things, LLC.  We will be holding a student recruitment/pilot class from 6-7:30 on the evening of August 23rd!

Outreach

The Lunch Bunch, a group from Oral Hull wanted advice on how to begin a book club.  Maureen Skinner, Reference Librarian spoke to 20 people on July 16th.

The Library had a table at Oral Hull’s first Sip, Eat, Stroll fundraiser on July 23rd.  We spoke with 34 about library services.

Training

Chief Yamashita of the Sandy Police Department held a self-defense class for library staff.  We learned a great deal, and got practice hands on practice.

Programs

Summer Reading began June 1st!  Pick up a packet for Kid, Teen, and Adult Summer Reading at the Library through July 31st.  Summer Reading performers started on June 14th.  Tuesdays at Hoodland Library, Wednesdays at Sandy Library, and Thursdays at Vista Apartments.  Come join the fun from 2-3pm through July 19th in Hoodland, July 20th in Sandy, and July 28th at Vista.

On June 1st, we started our 4 week adult drawing class taught by Eileen Holzman.  This class had 18 attendees.  Coming soon, a display on the ramp wall of the art from this class!

June 3rd was our Library Coffee House.  We had music by Back Up and Push, edible treats, and a kids craft.  233 people attended.

17 people attended our first anime club cosplay contest event on June 22nd!

On June 27th, we held an informational meeting to gather volunteers to teach our upcoming English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes.  25 interested English speakers attended!  We will hold a student recruitment meeting (and sample class) on August 23rd.

City

The Longest Day Parkway was a great success for the Library!  We talked with 257 people, and gave out many Summer Reading packets.

LINCC (Libraries IN Clackamas County)

On June 16th, Chris Wilhelmi, Elaine Russell, and I went to the LINCC offices to begin testing of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging and checkout of items.   The RFID Implementation Committee has begun meeting.  We plan to have every circulating item in our collection tagged, and RFID check-out and security fully implemented by June 30, 2017.  The Sandy Library will need to close for up to a week (likely sometime in February or March 2017) to accomplish the tagging.

Community

On June 1st, Dianne Downey and I attended the Mount Hood Pedestrian/Bikeways Open House. This was an event hosted by Clackamas County to discuss pedestrian/bikeways of the Mount Hood area. There is a crosswalk across from the library, as well as a walking/biking pathway on Welches Road in the current Draft Plan.

Programs

Cellist Gideon Freudmann played at Library Coffee House on May 6th. 229 people attended.

Sandy and Hoodland Libraries participated in Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 7th.  We had a bat cave, made superhero cuffs and masks, and watched the Classic Batman Movie.  Oh, and gave away free comic books!  67 people attended at Sandy, and 29 at Hoodland.

20 people attended our second Reader’s Theatre program.  This program is presented by Actors Dojo.  You can find the Reader’s Theatre program at the library every 2nd Wednesday of the Month.  The July Reader’s Theatre will feature the play Star Spangled Girl by Neil Simon on July 13th, 6:30pm.

We held our first Scratch workshop on Saturday May 14th for Scratch Day!  15 people attended.  Scratch is a coding program for kids.  We will be holding additional scratch workshops throughout the summer on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 2-4 pm

Firwood’s first grade classrooms visited the Sandy Library on May 20th.  90 kids and 15 adults heard a story, learned what the library does, and found out about the Summer Reading program!

We held our Teen Art Night in Sandy on May 20th.  Eileen Holtzman helped the teens to create MC Escher inspired tessellations.  Stop by to see finished pieces of art from this night until July 1st.

Nature Walks for Creaky Knees met twice in the month of May.  We had 10 enthusiastic participants.  Everyone wore a name tag to  help with communication and comradeship. There was a broad range of abilities, some who don’t hike at all and were somewhat wobbly, as well as, those who claimed they wanted to do Dog Mountain!

Programs

April 1st was Library Coffee House for 1st Friday.

395 happy individuals listened to Terry Robb play his acoustic blues guitar.  There was a special exhibit opening and presentation by the artists of the Wy’East Artisans Guild.

On Thursday, April 7th at 6:30 pm in the Sandy Library Community Room, Dr. Scott Burns spoke on the “Dynamic Geological History of Oregon with special emphasis on the region around Sandy”.  25 people attended.

On April 9th, we celebrated Beverly Cleary’s 100th birthday at the Sandy and Hoodland Libraries with cupcakes and board games!

April is National Poetry Month!  We held the annual Poetry Slam at Sandy Library on April 14th, and an Open Mic Poetry reading at Hoodland Library on April 18th.  60 people attended the Poetry Slam, and 6 people attended the open mic poetry.  Photos of the Poetry Slam winners in the under 14, adult, and group categories below.

On April 28th we held a program for the National Day of Action for Transgender Youth.  Nunpa from Antfarm read the book, “I am Jazz.” Discussion followed led by Eric Overby and Lurissa Sponsler-Overby of PFLAG. Local resources from PFLAG, GLSEN, and HRC were available.

  April 30th was Dia de los Ninos!  143 people came to this Mexican celebration of children. We had fun and games, balloon animals, food, and the performer Chayag (Alex Llumiquinga).

Food For Fines April 10-16

We celebrated National Library Week by accepting Food for library fines.  All food was donated to local food banks.  Sandy Library collected 681.6 pounds of food for the Sandy Community Action Center, and Hoodland collected 236 food items for Neighborhood Missions food closet.

Library Advisory Board
At our April Library Advisory Board meeting, the Library Advisory Board voted to make the Presidents of the Friends of Sandy Library and Friends of Hoodland Library Ex Officio non-voting members of the Library Advisory Board.  We would like to officially welcome current Presidents George Hoyt and Judith Norval to the Library Board!

Programs

Friday, March 4th was the Library Coffee House featuring Irish Folk – An anthology of Folk chronologically arranged by Carolee and Romeo Carrara.  112 people came to enjoy the evening.

LEGO Club continues to be a big hit!  As the first Saturday of the month, as part of our Saturday Afternoon Kids’ Club, LEGO Club continues to lead the pack.  25 Kids and 10 adults created LEGO masterpieces on March 5th.  Remember to stop by the Sandy Library to see the LEGO display each month!

On March 19th, author Jane Kirkpatrick spoke at the Hoodland Library.  31 people were enchanted by her stories.

Tuesday, March 29th, We held a workshop: Gardening with Native Plants.  Clackamas County Master Gardener, Kris LaMar, shared information and ideas to spruce up your yard.  16 people attended the workshop.

Wednesday, March 30th, we held our monthly Anime Club for 6-8th graders.  Since we have started this club in January, we have had an average of 22 kids in attendance!  They are interested in meeting weekly, rather than monthly.

On March 31st, Heather Michet of Iris Healing Arts presented “The Spirit of Health” — The science of health is everywhere these days: “What’s ‘good’ to eat?  Avoid this!  Relax.  Sweat out the toxins!”  Ms. Michet outlined steps and techniques to help balance mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects to help you create a healthy life. 11 people attended this workshop.

Exhibits

The Photography Club hung their Spring Group Show on the entry ramp wall.  Three local photographers contributed eight photographs for this beautiful exhibit.

Training

On March 16th, Library Assistant Elaine Russell attended an all-day Train the Trainer workshop in Washington County.  Elaine is in charge of our Circulation area, and trains incoming staff and volunteers.