kcardella

Dear Community, As we approach the end of 2024, I would like to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for the incredible support we have received from our community throughout the year. It’s been a year of growth and exciting initiatives, all made possible because of you—the patrons, donors, and volunteers who help make the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library a vital resource for everyone in our community. We are especially excited about our recent floorplan changes at the Corvallis Public Library, and I encourage you to stop by and experience them firsthand! As you may know, we were recently closed in order to replace our outdated carpet and took the opportunity to rearrange the youth and teen sections of the library in order to create a more engaging and welcoming space. Whether you're looking for a cozy area to read with your children, a fun play space to enjoy with younger kids (and maybe meet new friends), or you are a teen looking for a great spot to study and hang out, we hope you’ll find this updated space both enjoyable and inspiring. December also brings an opportunity to shop for holiday gifts while supporting the library. The Friends of the Library’s Holiday Book Sale will be taking place on December 6 and 7, offering a curated selection of gift-quality books. It's a perfect chance to find that special present for the book lover in your life, all while supporting the continued work of the library. Here’s to a joyful, peaceful, and book-filled December for all! Warmly, Ashlee Return to December Newsletter Return to all Library Director's Letters

Dear Community, Welcome to Fall! This is my favorite season and one that is particularly enjoyable in Oregon! Not only is the weather beautiful, but we have some fantastic projects coming up at the Library! The first exciting project comes with a small dose of bittersweet news: the Corvallis Public Library will be closed from November 3 - November 18. This closure will allow for the carpet on the first floor of the library to be entirely replaced, something that has not occurred for over thirty years in some of the areas! During this time, we also plan to change some floor plan arrangements that will allow for us to create a sensory play area for younger children and a more defined space for teens. During this closure, there will be limited access to some of our items, but we plan to offer delivery service and our branch libraries will remain open. If you’ve never visited the locations we have in Alsea, Monroe, and Philomath, this would be an awesome time to check them out! Speaking of the Philomath Community Library, you may already know that this beautiful and charming branch location is a well-loved building in the community. Since the building was originally constructed, the size and needs of the Philomath community have changed substantially. To ensure that we are offering library services that meet the needs of the community, the City of Philomath recently engaged the services of Robertson Sherwood Architects to embark on a feasibility study regarding an expansion of the library. Throughout this study, RSA has studied the needs of the library patrons, the existing footprint of the building, and ideas for potential future expansion. We are now ready to [Read more]

Dear Community,Happy New Year!For many people, January brings about a time of reflection, planning and goal setting. Whether or not you happen to fall into this category, remember that the Library is here to be a resource for you all year long through our expansive collection of materials, dedicated staff and safe and welcoming spaces. I hope you all have an amazing year ahead of you.The Library also has some fun goals we are taking on in 2024! We are taking on several new initiatives including developing a new strategic plan, pursuing installation of a solar array at the Corvallis Public Library, and furthering our work in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As we settle into using our new computer system, we also hope to make some of the most-requested changes from library patrons, so that your experience can be as smooth as possible. I am certain that by the end of 2024, the Library will only have continued to innovate, improve and offer you the best service possible.With all of that said, I hope you start 2024 off with a visit to your local library. There’s nothing quite so inspiring as walking through the stacks and seeing what new adventure awaits you.Best,Ashlee Return to CBCPL January 2024 Newsletter Return to all Library Director's Letters

Dear Community, I hope I am not the only one who feels like December just popped up out of nowhere! We must be having too much fun at the library—time is simply flying by. This month, I want to share my gratitude for your support. October and November were big months for the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, thanks to you. First, I’d like to thank everyone who voted in the November 2023 election. The straight renewal of the City’s Local Option Levy passed with a 66.5% yes vote. This local option levy provides nearly 35% of the library’s budget and is critical to maintaining our current service levels to the community. Thank you for the greatest level of support you could possibly show us by voting yes. Second, I’d like to thank you for your patience with our two-day closure in October. This allowed for some maintenance and changes to occur at the Corvallis Library, including new furniture in the Youth Services area. It also allowed staff in all our locations to come together for a staff development day. This annual day of learning and camaraderie is extremely important for our staff and means better service to all community members. Lastly, I’m excited to share that the results of the 2023 Corvallis Community Survey have been released. This statistically valid survey occurs every two years and asks community members about their satisfaction with City of Corvallis services. I’m happy to say that 96% of Corvallis community members ranked public library services as either good or excellent. This score puts us at the top of our national benchmarks and is an improvement from our 2021 score of 91%. We have even more amazing things planned [Read more]

Dear Community, It really has been a transformative and busy summer at the Library! First, I want to extend my gratitude for your patience as the Library transitioned to a new computer system. I hope you are enjoying the new online catalog, auto-renewals of your library materials as they come due, the ability to manage notifications, and a seamless experience in checking out downloadable items. Please know there are still enhancements and fixes that we are continuously working on. I expect that you will continue to find new services to enjoy and that if you have any frustrations, they will soon be remedied. We welcome your feedback and the opportunity to ensure you have the best possible experience using the library. Also, I am hopeful that everyone enjoyed our Summer Reading program. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our events and visiting our libraries these past few months. A massive thanks to the Friends of the Library who continue to financially support this annual program by providing funding for a variety of high-quality performers and giveaway books for all ages. The fall season will bring many more improvements and fun programs your way. As always, delivery services will continue to be offered. If you find yourself too busy to visit the library in the upcoming busy season and haven’t tried delivery before, I encourage you to sign up and enjoy the convenience of it. Best,Ashlee Return to CBCPL September 2023 Newsletter Return to all Library Director's Letters

Dear Community, As you may have heard, the Library is in the process of upgrading to a new computer system. This system will roll out on June 20 — less than a month away! This means that you’ll see some changes in the library’s online catalog and start to hear about new and useful services we will offer. We have spent a lot of time working on getting the system to as close as perfect as we can before releasing it and we think you’ll be very pleased with what you see and experience! However, we all know that there is always a learning curve with new systems and we realize we may need to make some adjustments after we launch the new system. Your feedback is always welcomed. There are a few changes coming that I know will be hard for folks but please know that these changes make your accounts more safe and secure. Additionally, our new system also comes with many perks we know you will enjoy. We appreciate your flexibility, patience and adaptability. We have had the same computer system for over 20 years so this is a big change for all of us! Lastly, I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported the Friends of the Library by shopping at the Big Book Sale last month. Thanks to your purchases at the sale, you continue to help fund our summer programs, maker space supplies, staff trainings and much more. We really appreciate you. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer — we hope to see you at the Library! Best, Ashlee Return to CBCPL June 2023 Newsletter Return to all Library Director's Letters [Read more]

After observing National Banned Book Week in September, and with recent headlines about the rise in book challenges across the country, it seems appropriate to talk a little more about the topic. The American Library Association (ALA) reports that between January 1 and August 31 of this year, there were 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources in the United States, targeting 1,651 unique titles. This is an unprecedented number. In 2021, there were 729 reported attempts to censor library resources, which is the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began documenting these numbers over 20 years ago. We are well on our way to outpacing that number in 2022. Here at CBCPL, we always offer patrons the opportunity to file a formal “reconsideration request" in addition to providing feedback. In these cases, patrons fill out a form that documents their concerns and our response to their request. We have received 4 requests so far in 2022, and we received 11 in 2021. Both of these are high numbers for the state of Oregon, though not the highest in our state, either. These numbers do not include “informal” requests, where a patron may suggest the removal of an item or provide feedback for our consideration on a particular item in the collection. During the review process, our library’s management team and the selector for that particular collection analyze the item in question to determine if it violates the principles found in our guiding documents. Our two main guiding documents for the selection of library materials are the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights and a City of Corvallis Administrative Policy that covers the Selection of Library Materials. The ALA Freedom to [Read more]

Dear Community, Welcome to our 31st season of Random Review! This month’s newsletter shines a spotlight on this long-standing and popular event series. I recall, with great clarity, one of the first events I took part in as the new CBCPL Library Director. It was the 25th Anniversary Random Review Celebration event, a Reader’s Theater, where I had the honor of reading from Kathleen Dean Moore’s Riverwalking, an apt and inspiring choice for someone new to the Pacific Northwest like myself. After that, I was hooked. I attended Random Review whenever I could, often standing in the back of a packed room with no open seats. A couple of years later, I was invited to present my own Random Review, on Susan Orlean’s The Library Book. While the book is about the 1986 catastrophic fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, it is also an homage to libraries in general. Presenting that Random Review program is one of my fondest memories so far as Library Director. I know that most of you have similarly fond memories associated with Random Review, and none of that would have been possible without our Random Review Coordinators! Before we start our newest season, I’d like to take a moment to thank our most recent long-standing Random Review Coordinators, Debra Goldenberg and Connie Georgiou. Debra became the Chair of Random Review 15 years ago, and Connie joined in as Co-chair 13 years ago. Together, they have led us through some amazing seasons, including several seasons during the pandemic. Debra and Connie are ready to hand the reins over to someone new, except for the first time in Random Review’s history, the folks taking over are library staff! Yes, that’s right. [Read more]