Support your local library!

The library in Oregon City leaves something to be desired. It's in a shopping center near the McDonald's, the police station and the movie theater. It's kind of dark and the fluorescent lights twenty feet above your head don't do much to put you in the mood to browse through stacks and stacks of DVDs, magazines and books. It's only open 5 days a week and they close at 5 pm on most days. (Now the West Linn Library across the river - that's a sweet library. But West Linn is a super swank suburb on the right side of the tracks...er...river).

It's one of the things that makes me miss my hometown of Bothell, Washington so much. Our library wasn't the most state of the art when I was younger but when I was a teenager, they built a new fancy library that had lots of windows in the ceiling and let in a ton of natural light. There were comfortable chairs to sit in and read and lots of work space for doing projects. I feel blessed for growing up in a community that placed such a high value in eduction.

Things weren't always like this at the Oregon City Library though. Here's a brief history lesson taken from their website (Kecia might like this little bit of Oregon City/Oregon Trail History):

In 1842 The first public library west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Oregon City. The library was then stocked with only 300 volumes. This first library was a subscription library and members were charged a $5.00 per year membership fee. When the Oregon Territory was established in 1848, Congress instituted a territorial library whose primary function was to serve officers of the territorial government.

By the year 1906, the library was housed in a second floor room of the old Masonic Temple. From the years 1901 to 1915, 24 Oregon communities had received funds from the Carnegie Foundation to build libraries. Oregon City put in an application for a sum of $12,500. This was one-half of the estimated cost of the building. The city agreed to put up the remaining half and donate a block of land to locate the library.

In 1912 work began on the new Carnegie Library and on June 21, 1913, the library was officially opened for business. The Carnegie facility served as the city library until 1995. This historic building today is an arts center, coffee shop, and children's museum.

(The Carnegie Center)

I found out a few months ago that the libraries in Clackamas County will lose most (if not all) of their funding gradually over the next couple of years so they're working on getting a ballot measure passed that will increase funding over the next five years so that all of the libraries are fully funded.

So rediscover your love of reading, gain a few pounds from sitting around on your butt with a book (then work it off by running a few laps at your local gym). Support your local library! Even if it's not stuck in a strip mall. (I should turn that into a T-Shirt.)