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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2008)
CQfflTTl u n ity may 2008 17 Library Presents Two Chautauqua Programs On the Shelves: A Brief History of the Vernonia Library The Vernonia Library in conjunction with the Vernonia Friends of the Library will present two Oregon Chautauqua Programs made possible with funding from the Oregon Council for the Humanities. By Nancy Birch The Vernonia Library was officially established in 1928, making it eighty years old this year. The first program will feature Jeni Foster presenting “Birdsong: Birds as a M etaphor in American Folk M usic.” The program will take place on May 12 at 7:00 pm. Ms. Foster will show how bird songs and flight are used as metaphors for life, love, freedom, and death in cultures throughout the world and how these songs reflect an American sense of adventure, opportunity and freedom. “At a meeting in the city hall Monday night, a board of directors and committees were appointed to advertise, solicit books, subscriptions, money, and the general support of all the people of Vernonia, as the library is for everyone in the city, camps, schools, etc.” This is taken from an article in the May 1925 Eagle newspaper. Dates are a little vague, but Vernonia did have a library by 1925 with 645 registered borrowers, 1087 total volumes and yearly circulation of 4160. Even so, the library was not officially On May 22 at 7:00 pm, M att Love will present “The Portland Trailblazers’ established by city ordinance until Feb. 21, 1928. This information about the library Championship Season: An Oregon Story.” Mr Love will discuss the impact of was found and copied from articles in The Eagle (researched by Delores Webb) and also the Portland Trailblazers 1977 NBA Championship season, using slides, lec from library board minutes. Thanks to some unknown person, the original hand-written ture, oral histories, and audio and video clips. Love shows how this memorable minutes of library board meetings from February 1928 through July 1988 have been season is one of the signature events in Oregon sports history. This program preserved. (Minutes from that time forward have been computer generated.) The history of the library is told in these articles and board minutes—of the fluctua was rescheduled from October 15, 2007. tion of circulation in relation to population and later in relation to television and other Both of these Chautauqua programs will be held at the Vernonia Library and sources of entertainment; of fund-raisers such as tag sales, paper drives, teas, rummage sales, etc. to help fund the library; of expenses and revenues (right down to the penny); will be followed by refreshments. of borrowing books through the Carnegie Association, and so much more. Circulation for 1932 was 14,623 when Vemonia’s population was estimated at 2500 and there were 1800 registered borrowers. By the late 1930’s circulation was under 10,000 per year. In 1950, only 3641 volumes were circulated and there were 570 registered bor rowers. The statistics from 1950 remained fairly consistent through the 1950’s and ‘60’s. The May 1944 board minutes read as follows: “There was a discussion of the suit The Spring Sports A ssociation has four T-Ball teams this year sponsored by ability of detective stories for the library, a topic presented by the librarian. She was local businesses: Holce Logging, True Value, Wauna, and Sentry Market. directed to write the state librarian concerning this matter.” The A ssociation has im plem ented a new division to its program this year, the The library was part of the building (between the U.S. Bank and the mortuary) JR M idget team. The team is for 7-9 year olds who are above T-ball level but shared by the police, city offices, and fire department until some time after the closure of not quite ready for all fundam entals o f full baseball. A bsolute M arble and the Safeway store in September 1959 (I could not find a definite date.) when 919 Bridge Granite sponsors th e JR M idget Team. The A ssociation w ould like to give a Street became its new home. Once again space was shared with city offices. Council special thank you to all the terrific sponsors. meetings and municipal court were held in the space when the library was closed. This arrangement continued until the new library was completed in October 1999. M elissa Zavales said, “Our goal here in Vernonia is to create ‘ALL AM ERI The purchase of encyclopedias and other reference books, often mentioned in early years, CAN BASEBALL TEA M S’ for players and the community. We encourage the became less important by the late 1980s as computers with reference CDs and Internet public to watch our games and to be involved. We have a wonderful group access became sources of information in the library. In the 1990s, the state library ceased o f volunteers who help w ith the Spring Sports Association: Brent Dass* base to provide materials for library patrons, severely limiting the sources for small libraries ball president, M elissa Zavales, t-ball president, and Kathy Fetch, softball to pretty much what they could purchase on their own. The book budget of $1,000 for president. We also have many parent volunteers. W ithout them the program 1988-’89 (when I was hired) has increased enough each year so most books requested w ould not exist. Thank you. “ by patrons may be obtained. Nearly all of the funding for the library comes through the City’s budget. A small yearly grant is received from the state for children’s programs, The program has come a long way in the past couple of years. M elissa added, and The Friends of the Library help supplement programs and materials. “Unfortunately, the flood hit the group hard (as it did m ost people), and we Without a doubt, the most important and exciting event in the last twenty years has had to start from scratch. We w ould like to extend a very huge thank you to been the construction and move to the new building. Watching the foundation being the Friends of Baseball program that donated over half of our equipm ent.” poured, the walls going up and finally moving in were like seeing dreams come true. The increase in circulation was noticed immediately—doubling in the first year. The new space “We also had a couple o f work days in which volunteers gathered together allowed expansion of programs for youngsters and the introduction of presentations such to do field m aintenance and build tables with wood donated from Exterior as Chautauqua programs for adults. In that first year, 1999-2000, the library’s automated Wood Products. ” search/circulation program (Athena) was introduced with nearly all of the entries being done by volunteers. What a joy it was not to type and file cards for each library item. The Spring Sports A ssociation holds fundraisers throughout the year. Currently there are 2,037 registered library patrons, 22,399 titles in the collection, an average of 2,000 items are circulated each month for a yearly total of about 25,000, and On F a th e r’s Day w eekend, Saturday, June 14th, there w ill be a baseball ex the library is open 39 hours a week. A weekly preschool story time is held each Monday travaganza at Spencer Park. There w ill be a home run derby, pop can drive, at 10:30 and an after school activity/story time takes place at 3:30 (also on Mondays). blood drive, car w ash, and o f course a delicious BBQ. Please com e and jo in The library does have “detective” stories as well as videos, DVDs, audio books, music in the fun. There w ill also be a Firew orks stand again this year w ith dates CDs, and four computers with Internet access. to be announced and the third annual g olf tournam ent Saturday, A ugust Another quote from the 1925 Eagle is one that remains true today. It reads “The 23rd. This event has been a great success for the team s. Please jo in in the library is your library and it is open to everyone. Its success depends upon your patron activities and help make B aseball in the city o f V ernonia an “A ll A m erican” age.” com m unity event. The following is a poem written by a former librarian, Edna Owens Engen that was found among the board minutes: Tired of thit Buried Treasure “Honey Do List’? There are treasures to uncover And adventures you can’t beat. Sit back, relax, and let There’s a jolly bunch of people That Guy do it for you! Whom I know you’d like to meet. They’re all there, waiting for you, I K . If you’ll take the time to look. Waiting just to be discovered In the pages of some book. Library staff will be happy to provide these newspaper articles and library board minutes to anyone interested in reading them. (The hand-written minutes are a part of history just by themselves.) Spring Brings Baseball Into Full Swing Call That Guy for a helping hand... (971)570-5226 - Local references HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY W YA TT LEE W O O D A LL! Upcoming Library Events: • Family Movie Night (Saturday, May 10th -7 p.m. — Snow Buddies) • Chautauqua programs on May 12th (Birds as Metaphor in American Folk Music) & May 22nd (1977 Championship Trail Blazers) both at 7 p.m. • Ballot drop site until 8 p.m. May 20 • Book Discussion (Monday, May 26th -5:30 — Three Cups of Tea) • Mature Movie Night (Thursday, May 29th — Rain Man)
