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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, JuNE 4, 2019
Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia
ARE YOU AT RISK?
According to a new study by Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine and the National Institute on Aging, men and women
with hearing loss are much more likely to develop Dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease. People with severe hearing loss, the study
reports, were 5 times more likely to develop Dementia than those
with normal hearing.
Have you noticed a change in
your ability to remember?
“The more hearing have, the greater the likelihood of developing
Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Hearing aids could delay or
prevent Dementia by improving the patient’s hearing.”
- 2011 Study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging
Jaime Valdez/Portland Tribune
Jennifer Patterson, Oregon’s new state librarian, stands in the stacks of the Oregon State Library.
Patterson makes the
case for libraries
New librarian
takes on role
By MARK MILLER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Jennifer Pat-
terson loves libraries. She
always has, she says.
Now, she’s Oregon’s
state librarian — the per-
son in charge of supporting
every library in the state, as
well as managing the State
Library and helping legisla-
tors and state agencies with
research, reference materials
and anything else a library
can provide.
“What I love about
libraries is that they pro-
vide access,” Patterson said.
“They’re all about providing
access to everyone … and
to anyone who is interested
in either the entertainment
value that libraries can bring,
the educational impact they
can bring, the career oppor-
tunities that libraries bring by
providing access to informa-
tion and resources.”
Officially, the only qual-
ification for the job is expe-
rience and training in the
library field. But in real-
ity, it’s a role that is hard to
prepare for because it is so
unique.
If you go to the Salem
Public Library, for instance,
you’ll find families check-
ing out books to read, older
students studying or spend-
ing time with friends, adults
using computers to apply for
jobs or housing, and more.
The State Library, located
across Court Street from
the Capitol, has little of that
activity. The stacks are filled
with congressional reports,
conference summaries and
other such tomes — some
of which date back to the
Revolutionary War. There
are conference rooms, and
a small library with audio-
books, which see some pub-
lic use. Patterson said she
works with state officials and
other libraries in a way that
she never has before.
“I’m still getting my bear-
ings,” Patterson said.
Gov.
Kate
Brown
appointed Patterson to a
position that had been vacant
for more than a year, after
MaryKay Dahlgreen was
fired in March 2018. Patter-
son started May 13.
Patterson comes to Salem
after a career split between
Los Angeles, northern Col-
orado and the Seattle area.
She’s never lived or worked
in Oregon, but she is famil-
iar with the state because her
father and stepmother moved
to Portland when she was a
preteen.
“I would come out every
summer,” Patterson said.
“Once I moved to the Seattle
area, I’d come down to Port-
land frequently for holidays
and family events.”
Patterson grew up in Fort
Collins, Colorado, about
half an hour south of the
Wyoming state line. She
got her bachelor’s degree at
the University of Northern
Colorado.
Patterson started as an ele-
mentary school teacher after
college but she found herself
attracted more to working in
the school library. Her focus
continued to shift, as she
worked as a children’s librar-
ian at the Los Angeles Public
Library and earning a mas-
ter’s degree in library and
information science from
UCLA in 1999.
Patterson never ended up
working in a school library,
even after moving back to
Colorado and then to the
Seattle area, where she’s
spent the past decade and a
half. The closest she came
was serving as an associate
dean at Edmonds Commu-
nity College north of Seattle,
the last job she held before
being appointed as Oregon’s
state librarian.
Crash course
Since her appointment,
Patterson has gotten a crash
course on Oregon, its gov-
ernment, its libraries and
more. She has yet to replace
the décor in her second-story
office, simply adding to it
with two pieces of artwork by
her daughter, Maisie. She’s
‘WHAT I
LOVE ABOuT
LIBRARIES IS
THAT THEy
PROVIdE
ACCESS.’
Jennifer Patterson |
Oregon’s state librarian
still finding her way around
the labyrinthine building.
“There is so much hiding
back here,” Patterson said.
So far, she’s made a good
impression.
Caren Agata was interim
state librarian after Dahl-
green’s dismissal and has
stayed on as a program
manager.
Having done the work,
Agata understands the job
Patterson now holds.
“I think first and fore-
most, you have to understand
librarianship and the field of
library science,” Agata said.
The State Library also has
a leadership role among Ore-
gon’s libraries. It provides
grants and trains librarians
and library trustees.
“It also involves shar-
ing our story and promot-
ing what we do,” Agata said,
adding, “People take librar-
ies for granted, because they
just assume they’ll be there.”
The search for a new state
librarian took time, Agata
said, but she thinks it has
yielded a “wonderful, won-
derful result.” Patterson is
experienced, smart and “very
steady,” she said, and she’s
glad to be working with her.
“I would say that they
hit a home run, ultimately,”
Agata said.
Esther Moberg, president
of the Oregon Library Asso-
ciation, is also getting to
know Patterson.
“The Oregon Library
Association is excited to
have her on board at the State
Library,” Moberg, the direc-
tor for the Seaside Public
Library, told Oregon Capital
Bureau.
When Patterson finds any
spare time — even as she
worked at Edmonds Com-
munity College and applied
to become state librarian last
year, she was working on a
master’s in public adminis-
tration — she enjoys reading
and hiking.
She divides her time
between Salem and Ken-
more, Washington, just out-
side Seattle. Her husband,
Ryan Patterson, has a coun-
seling practice and their
daughter is in her senior year
of high school. Patterson has
been making the nearly five-
hour drive up to Kenmore on
Friday nights, returning to
Salem for the workweek.
“We’ll revisit things after
a while here,” said Patterson,
who also has three cats and a
dog at home in Washington.
Patterson is getting to
know her new environs, as
well.
“I’ve had such a warm
welcome from both the
State Library employees
but also the library commu-
nity,” Patterson said. “The
library community has been
very welcoming. I’m really
excited to see that and to
start getting to work with the
library community here.”
IS IT TIME FOR A HEARING TEST?
TAKE THIS QUIZ TO FIND OUT...
y n
Do you feel that people mumble or do not speak
clearly?
Do you turn the TV up louder than others need to?
Do family or friends get frustrated when you ask them to
repeat themselves?
Do you have trouble understanding the voices of
women and small children when they are speaking?
Is it hard to follow the conversation in noisy place like
parties, crowded restaurants or family get-togethers?
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Governor appoints
The Legislature changed
the law in 2015 so that the
governor appoints the state
librarian. Before that, the
State Library Board of Trust-
ees appointed the librarian.
Patterson is one in a long
line of state librarians in Ore-
gon, which began with Cor-
nelia Marvin in 1913. The
State Library itself was built
during the Great Depression
as a public works project,
like the Capitol.
As state officials and
library managers, Patterson
and Agata said they know
they have to make a case
for libraries in an age when
information is readily avail-
able online and books can be
downloaded to laptops, tablet
computers and smartphones.
Patterson said that while
she enjoys leafing through
a book, she likes the con-
venience of e-books, and
they make up much of her
reading.
To that end, the State
Library now conducts much
of its training via webinar. It
also maintains online data-
bases and digital collections,
although it takes “a lot of
time and effort and dollars,”
as Patterson put it, to digitize
written publications.
“Working in libraries is
very fulfilling,” Patterson
said. “You get the oppor-
tunity to see firsthand the
impact that libraries can
have. In all of the positions
that I’ve had, I’ve had those
type of opportunities to hear
from people about what
libraries mean to them, what
they’ve been able to accom-
plish because of the services
that libraries provide.”
OFFER ENDS June 7th
Don’t Wait! Call and make your appointment now!
Code: 19JunAlzheimer
Special Notice State Employees.
You may qualify for a hearing aid benefit
up to $4,000 every 4 years.
Call for eligibility status.
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(503) 836-7921
2505 Main Ave. N. Ste. C
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(503) 836-7926
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