On July 23, City Club of Portland welcomes Molly Raphael, director of Multnomah County Library, to talk about "Why Libraries Matter in the 21st Century" at the Club's weekly Friday Forum held at the Governor Hotel.
Raphael's first year as leader of this venerable institution saw a rocky start, with an immediate controversy over her salary and, more recently, the challenges of meeting the high expectations of Multnomah County's library users in an era of budget constraints. As head librarian, her task is to provide effective leadership to a high-performing organization that is one of the country's busiest and most respected library systems. Over the past year, she has also had the task of defining the library's role in today's culture, tackling issues such as Internet access and the USA Patriot Act by exploring the library's role in supporting education, intellectual freedom and access to information.
This week's Friday Forum, which is open to the public, will be held in the third-floor ballroom of the Governor Hotel at 611 S.W. 10th Ave. Doors open at 11:30 AM. The program begins at 12:15 PM and concludes at 1:15 PM. Lunch reservations can be made online at http://www.pdxcityclub.org or by calling 503-228-7231 by 2 PM Wednesday, July 21. Lunch tickets are $ 16 for members of City Club, $ 18 for nonmembers. Coffee/tea tickets are $ 5 at the door. General seating is free for members and $ 5 for nonmembers.
A NOTE TO MEDIA
Media are encouraged to attend and are invited to sit in general seating. Please sign in at the registration table on the day of the forum. For broadcast media, an audio press patch will be available, and a riser for videotaping can be provided with advance notice. Contact Tim Krause at tim@pdxcityclub.org or 503-228-7231.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Molly Raphael was appointed director of libraries for Multnomah County in the fall of 2003. Raphael joined Multnomah County Library from the District of Columbia Public Library, where she served as director for almost six years. She began her library career at the District of Columbia Public Library in 1970 as an assistant children's librarian and held several leadership positions within that system prior to becoming its director.
A recognized leader in the library field, Raphael has been an active member of the American Library Association since 1974. Recently, she completed a term on its Governing Board and is continuing on its legislative body. Raphael's professional activities have also included serving as president of the District of Columbia Library Association and as co-founder of the ALA's library service for people with hearing impairments. She is a member of the Urban Libraries Council, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the Friends of Libraries U.S.A. She is also a member of City Club of Portland and its program committee.
Raphael holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree in library science from Simmons College.
ABOUT MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY
What is now the Multnomah County Library dates its existence from 1864, when a small group of Portland citizens met to establish a subscription library and reading room, organizing under the name "Library Association of Portland."
On March 10, 1902, the library became a tax-supported free public library, open to all residents of Portland. In 1903, services were extended to all residents of Multnomah County and the Multnomah County commissioners became ex officio members of the library board.
Central Library, located at 801 S.W. 10th Ave. in downtown Portland, opened in September 1913. Designed by architect A.E. Doyle, the building took two years to build at a cost of $ 480,000. The Central Library building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, continues to be the heart of what has become a system of branch libraries that serves library users all over Multnomah County.
On July 1, 1990, after 126 years of guiding the library to the respected community position it currently enjoys, the Library Association of Portland transferred ownership of the library's buildings, books and other holdings to the people of Multnomah County, to be governed by the Multnomah County Commission.
With its Central Library, 16 branches and several outreach services, Multnomah County Library is the largest public library in Oregon and serves over one-fifth of the state's population.
Historic Central Library, open since 1913 in downtown Portland, reopened April 8, 1997 after being closed for two years during an extensive $ 24.6 million renovation. During the renovation period, Central Library materials (over 875 tons of them) were relocated to a temporary rented space (called TransCentral Library).
Multnomah County Library's largest branch (24,000 square feet) is the Midland Library, which opened September 16, 1996. Gresham Library, which opened in January 1990, is the second largest neighborhood library with 20,000 square feet.
Multnomah County residents are also high-volume users of their libraries. Sixty-five percent of the 670,000+ county residents have library cards, and they check out an average of 26 items per resident annually, totaling more than 17.8 million items in 2002-2003. Library staff filled 1.6 million holds in 2002-2003.
Libraries within the system are linked by a sophisticated automated circulation and catalog system. The library's collection totals two million books, audio cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, compact discs, maps, documents, CD-ROMs and other library materials.
For more information about the Multnomah County Library, visit http://www.multcolib.org.
ABOUT CITY CLUB OF PORTLAND
City Club of Portland is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education- and research-based civic organization dedicated to community service, public affairs and leadership development. Through weekly Friday Forums, citizen-based research reports, special programs and issue committees, City Club examines issues of importance to the Portland metropolitan region, the state and society as a whole. Membership is open to everyone.
For more information about City Club of Portland, visit http://www.pdxcityclub.org or call 503-228-7231.
# # #
More College Books To Rent Press Releases
No comments:
Post a Comment