Two long time employees announced their retirement in February.

Ruth Sobota, library assistant since 1995, and Kathy Draine, Reference Librarian since 1997 will both retire. Kathy on April 30, Ruth on June 30. Both of these women have been valuable members of our team. We will miss them very much!

I offered the job of Reference Librarian to Maureen Skinner, a part-time employee since July 2011. “Mo” has proven herself to be a great asset to the library. She is in library school, slated to receive her MLIS in June 2014. Kathy is taking great advantage of her remaining time to train Mo on the specifics of reference work here at the Sandy and Hoodland Libraries. We’ll be advertising for a bi-lingual clerk to replace Ruth’s hours.

Susie Jenkins, Maureen Skinner and Susan Winsinger attended special training on Overdrive – Library2Go which will be upgraded in March. The training was offered by staff at West Linn Public Library. Overdrive is the vendor that we use for Library2Go, our statewide consortium collection of digital materials such as audiobooks and e-books.  The demand for digital materials is rising, and we are hopeful that the upgrade will make this source more user friendly.

With the increase in the use of digital materials, the Clackamas County  libraries have agreed to create an “Advantage program”, a separate collection of digital materials that will be available to Clackamas County residents only. This new collection will help to decrease the long wait times for some digital material.

The use of our community room and the study room have been increasing. In January, the community room was used 24 times in addition to our 3 story time sessions each week. The study room was used 45 times.

Monica and I have been involved with the Ford Institute Leadership Program, and we had our final training session on January 11-12. Part of the session included a dinner with community members to build “social capital”. We’re very excited about our project to renovate the Community Action Center. Networking with this group is allowing us to see possible partnerships that will make our community even better.

Several library staff attended a management mini-retreat with Scott on Jan. 15. It was very interesting to review and discuss the survey on departmental effectiveness and management.

On Jan. 18 we hosted the LINCC Library Directors at a retreat. Arty Trost volunteered her time as facilitator. We were able to create a purpose statement, and set goals and ground rules for future meetings. It was a helpful and effective retreat.

I participated in the Digital Inclusion Work Group on January 10. I’m very interested in exploring ways that we can ensure that everyone has access to information in this rapidly-changing technological world.

On December 7th we had a huge turnout for Cafe Cowboys for our First Friday event. The music varied from country-western to many other styles. It was fun and as usual Busy Bee catered the event and provided delicious Christmasy-desserts. Katie has already started planning for our First Friday events when the program resumes in April.

We accomplished several building related issues in December. We had leaks in two rooms during a big rainstorm. It was discovered that there were several little holes in the roof membrane. We’re not sure how they got there, but they were all patched, and we are watching carefully for any more leaks. The door card readers and exit alarms were also installed. The library staff is learning how to set up the doors and alarms as the community room can now be used after hours.

Thanks to the Friends of Sandy Library, we have another cultural pass to offer to our patrons. They purchased a pass to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Because of the distance to this venue, we are alerting our patrons that they can check out passes and return them in the drop box, making it easier for them to enjoy a full day, and not have to rush back to return the pass before the library closes.

December was a busy month for our outreach program at Vista. The kids had been working with Katie, Susan and Monica for months on a ‘Zine, and it was finally finished and published! The stories are fun and creative, and are accompanied with illustrations. They celebrated with a party and each child got a copy of their ‘Zine.

The cover and table of contents are pictured below. The story titles are difficult to read, but you can click on the picture to get a better view. If you would like to see the complete finished product, let me know.

On November 14, Scott and I visited the Hoodland Library. It is in a small space, but it is bright, cheery and well organized, as it was when we “inherited” it from the County. The Hoodland Women’s Club is making progress in fund raising towards the new facility that will house the library. They were just awarded $350,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust, and are waiting to hear about other grants.

On our way back, we dropped in at the Vista Apartments to visit our outreach program there. Katie Murphy and Susan Winsinger were working with the kids on stories for a ‘zine (defined as:  An inexpensively produced, self-published “magazine”) that they are putting together. Their stories and pictures will be printed and each contributor will receive a copy. We may even have one in the library.

Monica and I are both taking part in the Ford Institute Leadership Program. As part of it, we attended the Conference of Communities in Eugene on 11/16-18. Three other cohorts from around the state were also present. We met a lot of great people, heard some interesting speakers and had a great time. Our cohort met again Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Welches. At that meeting we developed our ideas for a community project. It will be announced soon!

Several LINCC librarians were invited to sit in on an English class at Clackamas Community College. The students had all visited libraries and bookstores and were reporting back to the class. It was interesting to hear about their observations. I was not really surprised but somewhat disappointed to learn that none of these students were aware of our online resources. One of my major goals is to get the word out in our community about our digital books and reference materials.

Two new art shows premiered at the library this month. We have historical photographs of Sandy High School’s first graduating class (3 students) in 1914, to a picture of the beautiful new campus on Bell Street and many pictures showing the years in between.

We also have beautiful hooked rugs on display, in honor of Timberline Lodge’s 75th Anniversary. The twelve burlap and wool hand hooked “Timberline Collection” rugs graced rooms at Timberline. These contemporary rugs, made “in the spirit of” the originals, were created for the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Lodge.

The Rose City Hot Club entertained a large group of First Friday attendees on the 5th. They played acoustic swing music that was very popular with the crowd.

Our literacy program at the Vista apartments kicked off this month. Monica Smith, Katie Murphy and Susan Winsinger are working with the kids to create a ‘Zine — a self published magazine.

We weren’t able to offer our pirate program last year in our temporary library site, but this year the pirates (volunteers Judy Evans, Ric Sward and Marcia Warren) were back! We had 8 treasure hunts with 224 kids participating, all 6th grade students at Cedar Ridge. They learn how to seek out and find treasure at the library.

In conjunction with our hooked rug exhibit, we had guests Sarah Munro (historian of Timberline Lodge) and Curator Linny Adamson present a program reviewing the early history of the Lodge, from its design and construction, to its modern state.  There was also a volunteer who demonstrated the craft of hooking rugs.

Monica Smith and I attended a “Lead the Change” discussion at the Seattle Public Library on Oct. 30. This was excellent training for us as we look to ways to enhance Sandy by providing excellent library services.

Monica Smith and I are taking part in the Ford Institute Leadership Program. We have met twice, and will meet with the group monthly for the next few months. We are working with a great group of people who are interested in serving the community. This class will culminate in a group project that will bring benefit to our extended community, from Boring to Government Camp.

During September, we focused on digital information and how to promote these services to our patrons. Kathy and Monica have developed classes in using our catalog and databases, but the most popular classes have been on how to use electronic devices, such as Kindles and iPads, to access and download our digital material. We use a third party vendor, Overdrive, to manage our digital collection. There are many different formats, devices, the usage rights vary, our patrons often feel overwhelmed with it all. We are offering classes and hands-on training to make the use of digital materials less confusing for patrons.

On September 12, the library staff met to develop our procedures for checking out laptops for use within the library. The Friends of Sandy Library purchased 12 laptops for us with the electronic equipment purchased for our community room. We use those laptops for classes, and they double our number of internet stations. They can be used at designated places in the library where they can be anchored in place.

The Sandy Women’s club offered a Silver Tea to the public in our meeting room on September 22. It was a lovely celebration in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the group. The Women’s Club was instrumental in the formation of the library in 1934, and in our acquisition of the current building in 1989. They had many scrap books and pictures of the earlier days of the club and of the library. See the pictures below.

Our very popular Summer Reading Program ended in August. Monica reports that over 30% of the children who started with the program were “finishers”. We had more finishers than last year and anything above 25% is considered good.

Library outreach to children, summer reading programs and early literacy training for parents and childcare providers are the three best practices defined by the state library. Sandy library made the list of “Best Practices Libraries” because of our Vista Program, Summer Reading Program, and the projects Monica did as part of the Reading for Healthy Families.

We’ve been perfecting our laptop check out procedures and are just about ready to begin that program. The Friends of Sandy Library provided funding for us to furnish our community room, including 13 laptops to use for presentations and for classes.  When we learned that RFID (Radio frequency Identification) is probably not an option in the near future, we had to figure out other methods to secure the laptops. Those details have been worked out and soon those laptops will also be available for use by library patrons within the building. The library will double its capacity for access to the internet without having to give up room for “wired” stations. The laptops can be used in the library anywhere there is an anchor point.

In response to a request from a community member, we added JAWS to one of our laptops. This is a text-to-speech program designed for use by people with a vision impairment. We will schedule the use of this laptop along with our study room so that the audio can be heard by the user without disturbing other patrons.

We were very busy in July with library programs. Monica organized and delivered two Summer Reading programs each week, one in Sandy, one in Hoodland. The performers included mad scientists, musicians, magicians and dogs. Each performer emphasized the program goals — to get kids reading throughout the summer, and the kids have a great time.

The library staff has been trying something new. The Sandy and Hoodland staff have been swapping jobs.  Every employee is getting experience working in both libraries. It has been fun and educational!

On July 6th, we took a slightly different turn with our First Friday offering. We invited three authors, Kathryn Hurd, Scott Lazenby, and Nancy Osa, to come and read from their work. We had a great turnout. We held a door prize drawing for copies of each of the authors’ books.

For the entire month we promoted The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This book was chosen for our annual “Let’s Talk About It @ your Library” community read program. We sold copies of the book at the library for $2.00, and on July 25th held a community discussion. In addition to the discussion of the book, Monica highlighted examples of other young adult novels in the dystopian genre.

Monica, Susan Winsinger and I manned a table at the Family Fun Festival on July 28th. We were able to promote the library programs, and disseminate information about our wonderful online resources: reference databases and downloadable material.

During July our meeting room was used 16 times, and our study room was used 21 times.

The following is a quick summary or our statistics for last fiscal year.

Our First Friday offering for June proved to be very popular. Mary Flower performed to an appreciative audience. The Friends of Sandy Library are also having book sales and we have been offering a children’s craft activity during our First Friday programs. Along with the coffee and desserts, the library is the place to be — or at least the place to stop by — on First Fridays.

The library closed on June 20th for all-day staff training. Chief Yamashita taught us about the implications of HB 4016 and our responsibility as mandatory reporters. We also had a lot of hands-on time to practice downloading e-books and audiobooks to various devices.

A really stunning art show was hung on June 10th. The art was created by SPLASH,  a group of Willamette Valley artists. The art is inspired by the book Mink River by local author Brian Doyle. This show will remain at the library through the summer.

Dorothy Smith, longtime volunteer at the library retired for the second time on June 27. She volunteered for a period of 11 years and left to spend time with her husband. After his death, she returned to volunteer for another 5 years. We’ll miss Dorothy’s fine work, but we’ll still see her, as she is an avid reader and a very frequent library user.

Monica Smith worked with Judd Mills to present a classics program to children in 4th and 5th grades in the Oregon Trail District. They chose  Hamlet since this is the play that was performed at Sandy’s Shakespeare In The Park. It was a huge success. The kids absolutely loved it! They did a total of 30 programs at all of the schools. Monica did 6 library tours for classes from Sandy Grade and Cedar Ridge. The kids and teachers of all of the classes expressed their appreciation and all were really impressed with the new library. Summer Reading programs began in June with Cinda Tilgner and Snailpeople, both fantastic musical performers. In total, we have 456 kids signed up for the summer reading programs at both libraries.

Mary Flower was our First Friday performer on May 4th. Her blues and ragtime guitar and vocals were very popular. Once again Katie Murphy coordinated the entertainment and refreshments for the enjoyment of all.

We held a “garage sale” in the former Radio Shack space where we have been storing library materials. I had also posted the furnishings on Craigslist, and on the city’s Facebook page.  I was very disappointed in the turnout. I’ve decided that as beautiful as they are, custom made double sided bookcases are not in high demand. Many people commented that if they were single sided, they would have bought some. We do have a connection with a library that is starting up in Aloha, and are hoping that they will be interested in buying some (or all) of the shelving units.

Chris Wilhelmi, Monica Smith, Susie Jenkins and myself are all taking part in the University of Sandy Management “lite” class offered by Professor Dr. Scott Lazenby. It will be an interesting 2 years.

The Downtown Parking Advisory Committee (DPAC) held an open house in the library’s meeting room on May 30. I was not able to attend, but by all reports, our meeting room proved to be a great venue for this, the first public meeting held there.