community
february20
10 2014
Check Out the Vernonia Library
the community, especially programs at
no charge, is good. The Library is far
more than just a building with books
anymore.”
The Vernonia Library is partici-
pating in the Columbia County Reads
program for the third year. The theme
this year is “Survival, Self-Reliance and
Sustainability.” Moloney says that each
library in the county develops their own
special event around the theme. Shaunee
Moreland is an AmeriCorp volunteer
working with the Columbia County
Emergency Management Department.
Moreland has been coming to Vernonia
to help with the regular After School
Reading Program on Tuesdays, teaching
children about preparing for different
types of potential disasters. “If you’re
prepared, you’re in control and it’s not as
scary,” explains Moloney. “Things hap-
pen and there are things you can do to be
prepared for it. And that’s important for
small children to know and understand.”
Moreland is also presenting a preschool
program for parents and children. More-
land has also developed a major program
for the Library, “Together We Prepare”
which will be held on Saturday, Febru-
ary 22 at 4:00 PM. “This is for every-
one in the community and will focus on
learning about emergency preparedness
and having emergency kits,” says Mo-
loney. Moloney says there will be some
incentive prizes and drawings.
Moloney has some regular pro-
grams that have continued to be popu-
lar. The Preschool Story Time is held on
Monday’s at 10:30 AM. Every Tuesday
at 3:45 is the After School Reading Pro-
gram which includes a story, a snack and
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Moloney is excited about some
new programs the Library is offering
on Thursdays. On the first Thursday at
4:30 PM volunteer Grant Williams runs
a stamp club which Moloney says has
been popular with both young and old
patrons of the Library. “It’s been popu-
lar with all ages,” says Moloney. “We
have little kids who love to come as well
as adults.”
On the second and fourth Thurs-
day at 3:45 PM is Lego Club, which
Moloney says is being attended by both
young children and teens. The kids build
their sculptures and write something
about what they made. The projects are
put on display at the Library until the
next time the club meets.
On the third Thursday at 3:45 a
new Chess Club has been meeting, host-
ed by Robb Wilson. “This has generated
a lot of interest,” says Moloney. “They
play until they are done with their games
and they want to go home; often they are
here until 5:30 or 6:00 PM.”
One other new program that will
start on March 12 th is the Baby and Tod-
dler Time for ages 0-3 on the second
Wednesday of each month, hosted by
Shannon Romdvedt.
Moloney places an emphasis on
finding ways to get young children to
read. She says the Lego Club has been
a great tool to encourage young chil-
dren to read about something they are
interested in. “It reaches out to the kids,
especially the boys, at an age when they
think it’s not cool to read or they have
more important things to do than read”,
says Moloney. “If we find something
interesting to them then they start read-
ing and they don’t even realize it. With
the Legos, they want to read about how
to put them together, how to make a
specific project, or cool things other
people have built and how they did it.
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It’s one more avenue to engage them.”
The Vernonia Library will be
hosting another Oregon Humanities
Conversation Project in April. Moloney
says the Vernonia Library has been very
successful in attracting and receiving
these special programs, mostly because
attendance and participation at previ-
ous events has been so good. “We have
never been denied a request because of
our great participation,” says Moloney.
“These are free programs for us.” The
Conversation Project offers humanities-
based public discussion programs about
provocative issues and ideas. The Ver-
nonia Library has hosted several
of these well received programs
each year during the preceding
four years including topics such
as censorship and being black in
Oregon. “The professional lead-
ers that Oregon Humanities send
for these programs are really
great and very engaging,” says
Moloney.
Another new program being of-
fered throughout the State of Or-
egon is the Library Passport Pro-
gram which allows members of a
Library access to and the ability
to check out materials at other Li-
brary systems including the Washington
and Multnomah County systems. This
is a great benefit for Vernonia members
who work or travel through these ar-
eas, and allows access to a tremendous
amount of additional resources.
The Vernonia Library also has
passes to Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry (OMSI) and the Portland
Children’s Museum. Members of the
Vernonia Library can check out these
passes free of charge and receive en-
trance for two adults and four children.
Although she feels like the Ver-
nonia Library offers a lot, Moloney says
she is looking for more input about how
to reach underserved populations within
the community and finding ways to de-
velop additional and creative programs.
“I want to provide what people would
like, says Moloney. “If they are not
coming, I need to know why. I want to
reach out to our different populations.”
Moloney is extremely grateful
for the help she receives from her many
volunteers. She says she has about twen-
ty-five people who volunteer throughout
the year, some on a weekly basis, some
only occasionally. She also receives a
lot of assistance, especially financially,
from the Friends of the Library who
support numerous programs, buy equip-
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ment, and fill other gaps with volunteer
time as well as funding. The Friends of
the Library will host their Spring Book
Sale, one of their key fundraisers on
March 15 th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at
the Vernonia Community Learning Cen-
ter. Donations can be dropped off at the
Library to help support this program.
The Vernonia Public Library is
funded through the General Fund of the
City budget. Reductions in property tax
revenue have had a significant impact
on the City and therefore are impacting
the Library budget. “There isn’t funding
for any of these programs we provide,”
says Moloney. “These are all volunteer
driven.”
Moloney says she recently ap-
proached the Vernonia Lions Club to re-
quest a small donation to help with the
upcoming “Together We Prepare” pro-
gram. Moloney says she was shocked
when the Lions members handed her a
check the next day for $500 to “...use as
you see fit to help the Library.” “It was
absolutely amazing,” says Moloney. “It
was an example of what I continuously
see from this community. People want
it to work. They want the Library here.
They want the programs here.”
“We offer much more than al-
most any other library of our size,” says
Moloney. “If you look at our statistics
for participation and use it is pretty
amazing. Our circulation has gone up
every month during the past year. The
attendance at our programs is great. It
shows how invested the community is
in the Library. It’s impressive and I’m
proud of it. We all should be proud of
it.”
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