Maybe it’s the smell, or the infinite possibilities of books and the stories inside them, but I’ve always loved the library. I spent every Saturday at my small local library as a kid. The library in the town I lived in was only open for 4 hours on Saturday, so, I raced down there to get new books and return the others. It was run by the nicest woman, who didn’t think the Dewey Decimal System really ‘worked for her’ so she ran it how she liked. Sometimes she organized it alpha by author, genres together, and, well, sometimes not.
Things are much different in the Multnomah County Library system. In fact, this week the publication Library Journal gave the Multnomah County Library 5 stars, the highest possible ranking for the way they manage the more than 20 million materials through the system. I’m guessing the Dewey Decimal system ‘works’ for all the Multnomah County Librarians, unlike my childhood librarian.
In the email celebrating the Five Star rating, they mentioned a whole bunch of other things going on at the library other than just books. Here are a few of them:
• Couponing 101: At the Central Library, May 9, learn how to cut coupons to save money.
• Looking for a job? The library has a special computer lab just for job seekers at several of their branches and the central library.
• Kids Clothing Swap on May 30 at Central Library –Bring some of your kids clothes and look for the gently used ones others bring. It’s all on the honor system.
• Novel Writers Workshop, May 23. I’m taking this one in preparation for NaNoWriMo 2009. Also, mediaChick recently took another class in this writers series and gives some of the tips over on her blog.
• Speaking of OurPDX’s own mediaChick, she and Melissa Lion are teaching a social media class on May 9 at the Rockwood Library.
I’m constantly amazed at all the amazing things the Multnomah County Library has to offer — no wonder it got five stars.
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Thanks for extolling the virtues of the Mult Co Library System. It’s so great that you can search the catalog online and put things on hold at your local branch. Today I picked up Neuromancer and Zahrah the Windseeker. And you’re right there’s all kinds of other cool stuff they do like art classes for families and “Keep Portland Weird” day. Plus librarians are the ultimate activists for privacy and freedom to read.
What I notice most about the library is the relentless shrinking of the number of items available on the shelves. It’s no longer possible to browse almost anything – there’s usually one book at most on a given topic.
It’s been clear for some time that the library has shifted from having lots of single copies to dozens or hundreds of the latest NY Times bestsellers.
It’s sort of the Barnes & Noble approach to running a library.
Sigh.
One of the first things I did when I moved to Portland last month was to get a Multnomah County library card! Too bad I missed the social media class, that sounds like it would have been fun. Thanks for the great article. Here’s a link to the library’s event’s page
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