6A • June 9, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
From the love of libraries to state leadership
Seaside leader
elected to top
library post
By Brenna Visser
Seaside Signal
When Esther Moberg was
17 years old working as a
page in the Astoria Library,
the thought of becoming one
of the most infl uential librari-
ans in Oregon was not on her
mind.
Starting in September,
Moberg will take over as the
president of the Oregon Li-
brary Association. She is the
director of Seaside Public Li-
brary, and has been working
in the library world for more
than 14 years. The library
association elected her at the
end of May for a year long
term.
As president, it will be
Moberg’s job to advocate for
the health and well -being of
all academic, public, school
and special libraries through-
out Oregon, she said. She will
often be at the same table as
government offi cials and pub-
lishers and will organize con-
ferences to help give Oregon’s
libraries a unifi ed voice .
“It’s such an honor. It says
your peers respect you enough
to give you this kind of re-
sponsibility,” Moberg said.
“It’s all about giving back.”
She said she decided to run
after the nominating commit-
tee reached out to her, recom-
mending her as a viable candi-
date. Before this, she had been
involved with the library as-
sociation for about fi ve years,
serving on a variety of confer-
ence and award committees.
— which runs with only one
paid staff person — a priority.
“Sometimes people don’t
realize how critical these grants
and resources are to libraries
like these,” Moberg said.
Early childhood
literacy
Love at young age
Her love for libraries start-
ed at a young age, she said.
She was home-schooled,
which meant going on mul-
tiple trips to the library for
learning materials.
“I think I read through the
entire children’s section of
the Astoria Library,” Moberg
laughed.
The former library director
Bruce Berney offered her a
job as a page because “he was
seeing me in the library every
week anyway,” she said.
Her experience in working
with rural libraries will end
up being an asset as presi-
dent, current president Elsa
Loftis said.
“She knows the dynam-
ics. We like to have broad
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Library Director Esther Moberg meets with a colleague. Moberg was recently elected presi-
dent of the Oregon Library Association.
geographic
representation
of communities outside the
Portland and Salem corri-
dor and we’re always trying
to fi nd ways to support rural
and special libraries,” Loftis
said. “I know she’s passionate
about all libraries, and that’s
what it takes.”
Some of Moberg’s goals
Video development kicks off for Seaside
I
f you spend any amount of time
online these days, or perusing a
social media app on your smart
phone, you know that video is a big
part of the social and web experience.
It comes in all forms too. From taped
content produced with big, small or
no budget to live content that streams
a sunset or an event on Facebook or
Instagram, it’s nearly impossible to
scroll through a social news feed and
not see video content within the fi rst 30
seconds.
With that trend in mind, fi ve months
ago I wrote briefl y about a few projects
that we’d be working on in 2017. One
such project was the development of
new videos, thanks in part to a funding
grant we received from Clatsop County.
Before I get into that project, it’s
important to know that video isn’t new
to Seaside. We developed a series of
10 videos about four years ago that we
entitled the “Seaside Experience.” It was
a video only journey, set to light music,
exploring as much of Seaside as we
could condense into 30-60 second video
vignettes. We’ve also done work where
crews come to Seaside and help us tell
a story that includes interviews and
SIDE RAIL
JON RAHL
taped segments. One such segment aired
on the Motor Trend YouTube Channel
and has had close to 250,000 views to
date. I’ve even been told twice recently
that the episodes are now available on
Netfl ix. These videos have one thing in
common. They offer us a platform to tell
the Seaside story and offer a view into
life on the Oregon Coast, its history and
the many offerings we have for visitors.
One missing piece to our video li-
brary has been a branded story. But fresh
off a 2016 year that saw the develop-
ment of new print, digital and radio ads
for our “It’s Easy to Seaside” campaign,
we made the decision that the timing of
a video series telling people how to do
some of these great Seaside activities
was lined up perfectly.
A little over three weeks ago we
began production on six “how to” videos
that will show consumers just how sim-
ple it is to walk, bike, kayak, catch your
dinner, treasure the beach and – when
the weather is a bit damp – have a good
time indoors too. That last segment will
have a title card called simply, “How to
Seaside Inside.” It’s exciting to report
that three days of video shooting has
already produced rough cuts of four of
the six videos. We hope to have the other
two videos shot in the next six weeks
and all six videos ready for launch by
late July or early August.
All videos are set to a music bed that
aligns with our fun branding and feature
some locals – or near locals – that volun-
teered their time to help tell the story as
our video talent. Most of the videos will
also feature drone videos by Morrisey
Video Productions. It’s been a lot of fun
watching it come to life and I’ll be sure
to report back once the fi nal product is
ready for release.
as president are tackling
lack of funding for libraries
across the board, as well as
making the needs of small,
rural libraries like Warrenton
DINING
on the
NORTH COAST
Great Restaurants in:
GEARHART
SEASIDE
CANNON BEACH
Have a thought or a question about
tourism in Seaside, or maybe an idea
for a future column? Drop me an email
at jrahl@cityofseaside.us. Jon Rahl is
the director of tourism for the Seaside
Visitors Bureau and assistant general
manager of the Seaside Civic & Conven-
tion Center.
Exploring artifacts from a beaver’s world
Naturalist
expounds on
beavers’ role
in habitat
restoration
By Rebecca Herren
Seaside Signal
As part of The Wetland
Conservancy’s “Beaver Tales:
A Celebration of Beaver Art,”
traveling exhibit, local wild-
life photographer and con-
servationist Neal Maine pre-
sented “Beaver Life,” a slide
presentation demonstrating
the importance and impact
beavers have on streambed
habitats and the signifi cance
they play to local ecology at a
lecture held on May 25.
Maine’s love of the beaver
was apparent throughout his
slide presentation, at times
pausing to refl ect on the be-
guiling faces starring back at
REBECCA HERREN
Neal Maine at a lecture
he gave on “Beaver Life”
and the positive outcome
beavers can have on salmon
restoration, riparian habitat
and waterway ecology.
him. “The young have no fear
of humans yet and they would
swim right up to me,” he said
stretching his arm out as an il-
lustration of the close proxim-
ity between him and the kits.
Maine began with a brief
explanation of the fi nancial
role beavers played when set-
She also hopes to focus
on her longtime passion of
supporting early childhood
literacy. Moberg has been a
main player in the Libraries
Reading Outreach in Clatsop
County program that helps
rural kids get access to pub-
lic library cards for free. She
also hopes to develop ways
to help libraries be more pro-
active about securing more
modern technology resourc-
es, she said.
But what Moberg is most
excited about is what she
fi nds the most rewarding as-
pect of the job: honoring peo-
ple in the industry for exem-
plary work.
“I get the great job of be-
ing the one who gets to say
‘thank you,’ ” she said. “(Li-
braries) do a lot of things
well, but we’re not great
about always telling people
about it. It’s my job to let ev-
eryone know.”
tlers migrated to the Pacifi c
Northwest. “Beavers in our
area have been around for
thousands of years,” he said.
Prized for their fur, beaver
pelts were “very signifi cant
and used as the monetary
exchange for products. You
could sell a mule full of mate-
rial for a beaver pelt.”
Due to their value, beavers
were over-trapped by early
settlers and eliminated from
much of its original range. In
1969, the Oregon Legislature
declared the beaver its state
animal.
Maine shared a display
of beaver artifacts includ-
ing gnawed branches, beaver
teeth and sculls. Beavers’ in-
cisors, he explained are made
up of an iron oxide in front
and calcium (or soft dentin)
in back, resulting in beveled
teeth that are ideal for slicing
through wood and stripping
away bark. This combination
aids in the continuous growth
of the teeth so they won’t be
worn down by chewing on
wood.
Beavers are primarily noc-
turnal and do their best work
at building dams and lodges
at night. But, one might won-
der how can one beaver do
so much work in only a few
hours? Taking into consider-
ation the razor sharp strength
of their incisors, these lum-
berjacks can fell an 8-foot tree
in about fi ve minutes. For this
steadfast ability, Maine refers
to them as “King Kong of the
logging industry.”
Though lodges are built to
dam waterways, they are also
used for protection from area
cougars and coyotes, provide
shelter, a place to raise their
young and to travel.
The exhibit will be avail-
able to see during the June
10 Astoria art walk at the As-
toria Art Loft then travel to
the North Coast Recreation
District in Nehalem where it
will be on display from Aug.
4 through Aug. 31.
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