forestgrovelibraryfriends

Friends Spring Newsletter

Michael R. Smith — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:35:03 +0000

Annual round-up from Friends’ President, Kim Reynolds
Forest Grove Conversations Town Hall
Spring Book Sale
Cultural Programs
Friends’ annual meeting
Library Director’s message from Colleen Winters

Read all about it in the Friends Spring Newsletter!
which is edited by Susan Schubothe, Friends’ Secretary
and mailed to 220 Friends members.

Friends Annual Meeting, April 10

Michael R. Smith — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:47:13 +0000

Friends’ annual meeting will be held April 10 at Noon in the Rogers Room of the Forest Grove City Library 2114 Pacific Avenue. Friends’ members are urged to attend to hear a summary of Friends activities, vote on by-laws changes and share a light lunch.

Forest Grove Conversations Series

Michael R. Smith — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:38:22 +0000

The 2013 Town Hall event is titled “The Future is Now: Citizens and Community in the Digital Age.”
The program will take place on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 (please note the new date) in the Forest Grove Community Auditorium from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The panel topics and panel members are:

Social interaction — Nigel Jaquiss, Pulitzer Prize winner at Willamette Week
Civic Instutions — Mark Bailey, Pacific University Professor of Education
Digital Divide — Kate Brown, Oregon Secretary of State

The Town Hall event is co-soposored by the Forest Grove City Library, the Friends of the Forest Grove Library, and the Pacific University McCall Center for Policy Innovation.
A student essay competition will be included. Details are available at the Library. Adelante Mujeres to provide the refreshments.
The organizing committee members are Jim Moore, Colleen Winters, Al Weiss and Dick Ginsburg.

Friends’ Spring Book Sale!

Michael R. Smith — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:05:14 +0000

The Spring Book Sale will take place Monday, May 13 through Saturday, May 18 in the Rogers Room of the Forest Grove City Library, 2114 Pacific Avenue in Forest Grove.

Monday, May 13, 10-8
Tuesday, May 14, 10-8
Wednesday, May 15, 10-8
Thursday, May 16, 10-5
Friday, May 17, 10-5
Saturday, May 18, 10-3

Member perc: Current members of the Friends of Forest Grove Library get 10% off their purchase all day Monday,May 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. Memberships can be purchased at the door of the book sale. Individual one-year memberships are $5, Family memberships $10, Contributing memberships $25 and Sustaining memberships $100.

Prices per item vary from 25 cents to $5. On Saturday ONLY, $5 for a grocery bag full of books; please bring your own bag. All proceeds of the sale benefit Forest Grove City Library!

DEALER ALERT! Friends volunteers have carefully combed through donations and library discards, looking for items that Friends can sell online. Books and other media that we think we can sell online for $8 or more won’t make it to this twice a year on-site book sale.

You can help: As always, we have several volunteer opportunities. We need help with set-up and take-down. This mainly involves putting books on shelves and tables before the sale, and taking books off shelves and tables and putting them in boxes when the sale is over.

Another vital job to be filled is taking two-hour shifts cashiering during the days of the sale. Those who help with set-up and take-down get to take two free books for their efforts, and all book sale volunteers are invited to join us for a Dutch treat dinner after clean up is completed on Saturday.

If you are interested in helping make the Book Sale a success by helping out, please call Carol Woodford, 503 357-2606 or email woodford.parker@comcast.net.

And of course, we welcome book donations any time! Please bring books that are in good condition to the Library.

Why Libraries?

Michael R. Smith — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:40:31 +0000

People who sit in front of their computers all day pontificating are asking why, with all this information technology, do we still need bricks-and-mortar libraries?

The library is a community center where people go to get good information and entertainment free of direct charge:

It is a place where everyone is welcome
Where they can find a quiet place to sit.
As in other (increasingly rare) ‘third places,’ people visiting the library run into people they know: that helps build community
The library has meeting rooms that provide neutral territory for public discussion of public issues.
It enhances life in its community and is a point of public pride.
It increases property values in its community
It is an inheritance for future generations
It is a place to go to help find needed information without being charged and without pressure to buy something.
It is a place where a torrent of information is turned into useful knowledge.
The public library building is like a public park for the mind and it is open 12 months a year. People use it in any weather and the play equipment is amazing!
For the have-nots, whose numbers are increasing, public library buildings provide:
broadband access,
free computers,
advice from trained professionals,
access to the arts,
access to the best of our country’s culture,
help learning English,
help raising literate children,
help finding a job,
and access to an economic system that demands they communicate via the Internet.

More people are going to bricks-and-mortar libraries than ever. [Put down those Oreos, turn off your computer, see the light of day and visit a real public library, oh geek.] No other public institution exists for the purpose of providing free information to anyone.

More background/perspective:

From Dan Duray, “Rescuing the Stacks”, New York Observer, 6/6/2010:

http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/rescuing-stacks

“The public library is the most powerful and cost-effective wealth-transfer mechanism ever invented. Instead of simply ameliorating problems, libraries create opportunity. As generations have learned, the aisle between the shelves is a corridor out of poverty, a bypass around inadequate schools, an expressway that adds momentum to even a first-rate education.”

Will Sherman, “33 Reasons why Libraries and Librarians Are Still Extremely Important”

http://www.collegeonline.org/library/adult-continued-education/librarians-needed

Among the reasons:

· Not everything is available on the internet
· Internet complements libraries but does not replace them
· School libraries and librarians improve student test scores
· Digitization is going to take a while; a long while
· Libraries aren’t just books
· The [ebook] hype might really just be hype
· Google Book Search “don’t work”
· Physical libraries can adapt to cultural change
· Physical libraries are adapting to cultural change
· The internet isn’t DIY
· The internet is a mess
· The internet is subject to manipulation
· Libraries can preserve the book experience
· Libraries are stable while the web is transient
· Not everyone has access to the internet
· Not everyone can afford books
· Libraries are a stopgap to anti-intellectualism:

“It’s not that the internet is anti-intellectual; its academic roots and the immense quantity of scholarly sites certainly attest to it being a smart medium…

[but] Access to books and theories from hundreds of years of cultural history is essential to progress. Without this, technology could become the ironic tool of the sensational and retrograde cultural tendencies. Preserving libraries to store knowledge and teach the limitations of technology can help prevent the hubris and narcissism of technological novelty.”

Where Friends’ Money Goes

Michael R. Smith — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:50:05 +0000

As you can see, below, Friends of the Forest Grove Library has many activities to raise funds. The Forest Grove Library Foundation’s Capital Campaign is one obvious recipient. On what else does Friends’ spend their hard earned money?

Cultural programs
Friends have scheduled and sponsored a series of cultural programs, which include lectures and music, each winter and spring, for decades. They have made Forest Grove’s contribution to the countywide Hearing Voices program and they fund the Adult Summer Reading Program.

Forest Grove Conversations
Friends have financed and organized this annual topical program featuring panelists and a town hall discussion.

Teen programs including the Teen Summer Reading Program

Children’s programs
Since Friends started in 1973, they have been the major contributor to the Library’s children’s programs. These include the annual B.E.A.R. Month, Dia de los Ninos and Summer Reading Program.

Volunteer recognition events, Wassail Party and equipment for the Library.

Capital campaigns
Friends of the Forest Grove Library was a major contributor to the Forest Grove Library Foundation’s million dollar capital campaign that remodeled the west end of the Library and will be an important contributor to the Foundation’s current $500,000 campaign for library furniture and equipment.

“Books and Buns” for FG Library Foundation capital project: success!

Michael R. Smith — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:51:37 +0000

A report from Colleen Winters, FG Library Director, about the fundraising dinner that was held October 27 at the UCC church:
Last night’s event was a huge success by any definition. We took in $2,190 in ticket sales and donations. We served approximately 155 people. Many people commented as they were leaving on what a lovely event it was….the food, the ambience and all those library supporters.
The event proceeds will go toward the FG Library Foundation’s capital campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise $250,000 for furniture and equipment for the Library. See more about this campaign at the Foundation website.
Lots of card carrying Friends of the Library attended. We thank all the volunteers who helped and especially the owner and staff of Maggie’s Buns for their work and donation of food. Every library needs a Foundation, too!

Friends used book sale goes online

Michael R. Smith — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:54:13 +0000

In addition to Friends’ twice yearly book sales at the Library, we have begun selling donated books online. Friends has become one of the many organizations selling through Amazon. We list books in Amazon’s huge database and have the advantage of participating in that gigantic marketplace. So far 80 books have been listed and 11 sold at an average sales price of over $24.
If you would like to see all the books we have for sale online, go to Amazon, choose the book catagory for your search and enter forestgrovelibraryfriends in the search box.
We need more books! The books you donate to the Forest Grove City Library are (1) considered for addition to the Library, (2) checked for prices online–those with low prices over $10 are usually added to our Amazon listings–or, (3) the books are sold at our twice a year sale.
Please give us your unwanted books! Just drop them off at the Library or call the Library 503-992-3247 to arrange to have them picked up by Friends volunteers.
Every cent Friends makes goes toward your Forest Grove community library!

2011 Cultural Program Series

Michael R. Smith — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:46:35 +0000

Programs will be held on the first Tuesday of each month, January through May, at 7:00 pm. In the Rogers Room at the library, 2114 Pacific Avenue, Forest Grove.

January 4 Roots of Rock 50s and 60s Rock and Roll with the band Snax.

February 1 Earthquake and Tsunami Threats in Oregon Presented by Dr. James Roddey, Earth Sciences Information Officer, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

March 1 Images of Forest Grove Presented by Lisa Amato and Mary Jo Morelli Copies of their new book Forest Grove, published by Images in America; book will be on sale following the presentation.

April 5 Massacred for Gold: the Chinese in Hell’s Canyon Author Gregory Nokes will speak about his book that documents this disturbing incident in Oregon history. Copies of the book will be on sale following the presentation.

May 3 Music by GentleRain Jazz Smooth and soothing instrumental and vocal.

2011 Great American Speeches

Michael R. Smith — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:48:25 +0000

The working title for the next Great American Speeches event is “Women: Opportunity & Challenge from the ERA to the 21^st Century.” It will be held on March 29, 2011 at 7:00 pm. The venue will depend on the anticipated crowd and will be either the Forest Grove City Library or The Forest Grove Auditorium.
The format will be a presentation by four panelists followed by a town-hall discussion. Essay competitions for Forest Grove area students will be featured. Three panelists have been invited and have accepted: Susan Sokol Blosser, vineyard owner, Barbara Roberts, former Oregon Governor, and Dr. Karen Steingart, Physician Consultant, Curry International Tuberculosis Center, University of California, former Health Officer for Clark County, Washington, and former physician at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. A fourth panel member has been invited. Pacific University Professor Jim Moore will lead the town hall discussion.
The Forest Grove News Times has expressed an interest in interviewing local women on their experiences before the event. Please send suggestions by commenting on this posting (see below) or call Colleen Winters at the library.
The Friends membership is invited to make suggestions for the event title and for a new name for the event series. Suggestions to change the series name from ‘Great American Speeches’ to ‘Forest Grove Conversations,’ ‘Great American Issues’ or ‘Great American Discussions.’ We welcome your ideas. Add your comments to this posting or contact Colleen Winters at 503 992 3246.