MHCC to celebrate National Library Week

By Nick Ngo

What started as a plan for an open house to celebrate the renovations of the Mt. Hood Community College library ended up as a week-long celebration to commemorate the library, coinciding with National Library Week.

The purpose of National Library Week is to celebrate local libraries. National Library Week takes place across the country every April and is sponsored by the American Library Association. The celebration for MHCC runs April 3 – 7.

“We thought it would be a good time to celebrate, given that we have the renovated space,” librarian Jennifer Quinlan said.

Dean of Information Jan Marie Fortier says that its a good oppurtunity to connect with the community.
“What we’re trying to do is reach out [to the community],” Fortier said. “We’re celebrating the remodel of the library.”
Fortier wants people in the community to know the library is here and they are welcome. Even though the library is trying to reach out to the community, the celebration is mainly for the students at MHCC.

The American Library Association (ALA) and American Book Publishers founded National Library Week in 1958. According to the ALA website, “In the mid-1950s, research showed that Americans were spending less on books and more on radios, televisions and musical instruments.”
To cope with this problem, the ALA and ABP formed an organization called the National Book Committee, a non-profit organization, in 1954.
Their plan was to motivate people to read, support and use the library.
The ALA took full sponsorship of National Library Week in 1974 when the National Book Committee disbanded.

The MHCC Library Public Relations Committee – made up of Quinlan, Public Services Supervisor Dian Schmitt, Library Technical Assistant Eileen Neil, Library Technical Assistant Anna Hawley and Part-time librarian Jane Scott – wanted to hold the open house in October to celebrate the renovations of the library. But they found that there was not enough time to plan something during fall quarter.
“I think we could’ve had a single open house event sooner. That could’ve happened at the beginning of winter quarter,” Quinlan said. “I think we decided to use it as a way to motivate ourselves to offer more programming besides an open house.”
The committed looked at celebrating the open house along with National Library Week.
“As we started to look at it in the spring, it led into waiting to do it as part of the National Library Week,” Quinlan said, “giving us enough time to plan the little bit we’re doing.”

When a library chooses to celebrate National Library Week, it is up to them to choose how the event will go. They have to take care of their own marketing, planning and public relations. They would have to choose how to do the event.
Each day there will be different events throughout the week. Most of the events will be taking place in the Robert C. Scott Room.
Monday, April 3, from noon till 1 p.m. is an “Out loud in the Library” event. Library Technical Assistant Patti Allen will be doing a discussion on the history of the MHCC library.
Tuesday, April 4, the MHCC Orchestra will be performing Beethoven’s Third Symphony in the open area of the library. The performance will take place from noon till 1 p.m.
“I think it’s a good idea to call attention to the library and all the services they offer us,” Marshal Tuttle, Instructor/Director of the String Ensemble, said.

Theater Artistic Director Rick Zimmer will perform a dramatic reading from “Fahrenheit 451,” and philosophy instructor Chris Jackson will do one from “Fahrenheit 32.” Both instructors are doing their performances on April 5 at noon.
Thursday, April 6, at noon history instructor Elizabeth Milliken is doing a reading of the “The Library at Alexandria.” At 1 p.m. speech instructor Larry Dawkins will read from “The Future of Libraries.”
There will also be a panel discussion April 6 from 7 - 8:30 p.m. with science fiction authors David W. Goldman, Ken Scholes, Douglas Lain, M.K. Hobson, Jay Lake, Damian Kilby, Josh English and David Levine.
They will discuss getting published and the relationship between writers, books and readers.

“It grew organically to become this panel discussion,” Quinlan said. “It’s interesting to be able to focus on science fiction.”
Friday, April 7, from 3-4 p.m. there is an open house to celebrate the renovations of the library. The MHCC orchestra ensemble will perform in the open area during this event.
KMHD decided to help the librarians by buying a cake for the open house.
For the next few weeks, they will focus on promoting the event by putting up posters and advertising on KMHD. The library is using this as a test. If students attend the event, the library will try to do another National Library Week next year.