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March 2024
Fundraising Event Provides
Student Public Library Cards
ESD 4J Homeschool and Public Charter School Students
Eugene OR — Last December the ESD 4J district
announced a community literacy drive to provide
library cards for every student in the district, but
that didn’t include homeschooled or public charter
students. Jenny Jonak, 4J School Board Vice Chair,
saw a gap in access for those 4J students, as well as
non-4J students living in unincorporated areas of ,
so she organized the fundraising event at Tsunami
Books.
Students who are homeschooled, attend a 4J
public charter school or attend another district but
live in certain rural Eugene areas outside city limits,
are not eligible for the current library card program.
One of those charter schools is Title One -- a school
with a high percentage of low income students.
The annual cost of a Non-Resident Eugene
Library card is $132-- a significant amount for
families in poverty. Jenny Jonak partnered with
Lane Educational Service District, Lane Eugene
Foundation and the Eugene Public Library to close
in on these gaps in youth literacy.
In Jenny’s words, “I even heard from parents of
kids with dyslexia, or learning disabilities who are
telling me we really need access to audio books and
some of these alternative ways of learning, that are
very expensive.”
Their goal was to raise $10,000, which would
fund several hundred cards. At the end of the
weekend, the estimated total was $18,900, but the
actual number, according to Jonak, including online
deposits, may turn out to be higher than $19,000.
Jenny also said, “I see literacy as very much a
social justice issue. If you look at literacy rates, it is
highly correlated, not only with financial success
later in life but also it’s civic engagement with
higher health outcomes with crime rates, all sorts
of things. Basically everything we want for our
community. We want our students to grow and
become successful individuals that are involved in
their communities.”
In the next year, Jenny plans to collect data
to come up with permanent solutions to provide
Letters from the Librarian
“A place where everybody knows your name.”
I’ve
been
thinking about
the third place.
If home is the
first place, and
work or school
is your second
place, do you
have a special
third place? A
place where
you feel comfortable and at home? You can meet
friends or sit quietly. Is it church? Is it a pub like
“Cheers” of tv fame?
Well, just maybe, for some of us that third
place is the library. This is of course different
from gold, silver, and bronze medals. There’s no
competition implied. People who study human
belonging write about this third place. Librar-
ies are more than books inside walls. They are
vibrant places of connection to the world and to
others.
In case you’re not sure: Mildred Whipple
Library is truly a place you belong.
Inside the library doors is a place to read the
papers, to browse the shelves, to make friends
or be comfortably alone. We shed our political
views, our differences. We connect with the
world and make it a little better one library visit
at a time.
Thanks for being part of the community that
makes libraries and other public spaces safe and
fun for all of us. We are the luckiest. If you’ve not
stopped in, we’d love to meet you.
Miriam Sisson, Director
Mildred Whipple Library, North Douglas Library District
ndld.org 541-836-2648
equal access to a library. Carol Dennis, Secretary
& Treasure of the Lane Education Foundation,
said, “Lane ESD provides services for life skills
classes, migrant education, for students that are
homeschooled or for families that are unhoused.
Reading is a magical thing to be able to do, and I
wish it on everyone.”
On literacy, Jenny said, “It’s not only the way
that you learn, but it’s also the way that you hear
about other perspectives, learn about other cultures,
learn about how to see different viewpoints, and
that’s such a critical thing that we want for all of our
students and for members of our society.”
The Lane Educational Service District provides
services for all school districts within Lane County.
Schools and education centers can apply to the
Lane Education Foundation for grants ranging from
$200 to $1,000.
Links to donate:
https://tinyurl.com/2sshzc9w
North Douglas Herald
Press Release:
OREGON’S OLDTIME FIDDLERS
TO CONVERGE ON WINSTON
The Annual State Convention of the Oregon
Oldtime Fiddlers’ Association (OOTFA)
is scheduled for APRIL 4-6, 2024 at
the Winston Assembly of God Church
in Winston, Or. With several hundred
musicians and fans coming from throughout
the region, it will be an ideal place to enjoy
stage shows, jamming, dancing, workshops,
band scramble, raffle, food and more.
LULD Library Notes
Lower Umpqua Library District (LULD)
has materials available for borrowing in a
variety of different formats. The magazine
section has substantially expanded recently,
due to the addition of new subscriptions
about a variety of topics. Some examples
of recently added magazine titles include
Rock & Gem, Trails Magazine, Freehub,
Oregon Historical Quarterly, The Guardian
Weekly, Scientific American,
Medieval World, and New York Times
Magazine. While the normal borrowing
limit for library materials (books, DVDs,
CDs, etc.) is 25 items at a time, patrons may
borrow an unlimited number of magazines.
New magazine issues are available for
checkout immediately after they are
processed.
LULD created new music CD and
video games sections last year and while
the number of items available in those
formats are still relatively small when
compared to others, we are continuing to
add more. Donations are welcome! If there
is a particular title that you would like to
borrow that the library does not yet own,
please let us know and we may be able to
acquire it.
We would like to encourage more
people to volunteer at the library. Volunteer
work could include tasks such as shelving,
inventorying, and processing new items as
well as more complicated projects.
Information about any events being
hosted at the library can be found on our
website, www.luld.org.
For example, a series of talks about
gardening are being given in the library’s
meeting room. We are open to ideas about
other events that could be hosted at the
library.
Please contact the library if you have
any questions or would like to schedule an
event in the meeting
room.
Alex Kuestner
Library Director/District Manager
Lower Umpqua Library District