Library Coordinator-Joyce McPartland
“I love books.”
That pretty much sums up Joyce McPartland, volunteer coordinator for Josephine Community Libraries, Inc.
Not only does McPartland love books, she loves organizing. “My experience is with volunteer coordinating. I moved to Oregon from the San Diego area where I spent five years with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Carlsbad, California. I worked to support the organization, ran the office and got volunteers for everything. One of my many duties was scheduling and training volunteers.” This was in addition to over 25 years of experience in office and employee management. “So that’s why I got into this position, I’d had experience doing this,” she smiles.
McPartland and her husband Brian moved to Merlin the same weekend the library in Grants Pass closed on May 17, 2007. “I’ve always gone to the library, just like everyone else, just for the love of the library. The private, nonprofit group here was working to open the library and I’d planned to volunteer for that, then I saw an ad in the paper that they needed a volunteer coordinator. I don’t know about libraries, but do know about volunteer coordinating,” she says enthusiastically.
Indeed she does. McPartland oversees and organizes over 500 volunteers who want to generously donate their time and toiling. “We’re all new here and we’re all trying to get to know each other. I’m trying to bring them in slowly,” she says, “to make sure all are trained.”
Holding one of three positions paid for by the library foundation, McPartland works 20 hours a week. The other paid positions include Russell Long full time director and Kris Gleisner in technical services. Gleisner takes care of the circulation desk and cataloging books for 30 hours a week.
McPartland says, “By the time we’re finished staffing the library we’re going to end up with hundreds of active volunteers. We have six people at the front counter now. Other volunteers shelve books for two hours a week.”
“We’re working on the information desk now. We’ll have to train people for that, as many as 30 people could staff that one position. There could be as many as four different volunteers a day for that particular job,” McPartland says.
Debbie Bennighof is the volunteer children’s library director. “The children’s library is run differently than the adult library so we need to train a different set of volunteers for that,” McPartland says. The children’s library was the first to open on December 20, 2008 for the Polar Express Days.
“We still have so much to do, organizing book clubs, activities, etc., but we’ll do all these things eventually. We will also have a Volunteen director who will start a youth volunteer group. And Friends of the Library will be our book sale event group,” she continues.
The community response to the all volunteer library has been overwhelming, McPartland says, “They are just so happy we are open again. The soft opening in December had 500 to 600 patrons attending that first day.”
McPartland confessed when the library first opened after months of sitting idle, “There were books all over the place - lined up all over the place - because usually some books are checked out. We didn’t have room for them all; you only have space for a certain amount. And yes, the books were pretty dirty. We’ve had cleaning crews come in several times.” Before the grand opening on January 24, another crew came in to make sure everything was clean and tidy.
Near the library’s front entrance a membership table staffed by volunteers is set up. “For any donation at all you can become a member, in amounts from $1 to $5,000, it’s up to you,” Mc Partland says. “Most people usually contribute $10 to $20, and $100. You don’t have to be a member to get a library card, but we highly encourage membership because that’s the only way we can keep afloat, because we are nonprofit.”
“Before it was a county supported library,” she continues, “but now we’re not. This is the only library in this situation that we know of. The county voted not to fund it, which therefore made it closed. Pretty much because the county doesn’t want more taxes; we want services, but we don’t want to pay for it. That’s what happens.”
The Josephine County Board of Commissioners did agree to a three-year lease of the building and $300,000 in a matching fund grant October 14, 2008. And on Saturday, January 24, County Commissioners Dave Toler and Dwight Ellis presented JCLI Board President Doug Walker the promised $300,000 grant money. The Josephine Community Libraries, Inc. has raised more than $370,000 far exceeding their matching portion requirement.
McPartland smiles optimistically, “We’re up and running now, because the people are paying for it. It’s now the peoples’ library because it is community run. We couldn’t run it without the volunteers. If the volunteers walked out the doors, we would close because we have no one else.”
As more funds become available, JCLI plans to reopen branches in Cave Junction, Williams and Wolf Creek, hopefully all in 2009.
Some people have conjectured that the internet will replace libraries. But McPartland doesn’t think so saying, “People love to read books. The internet cannot replace a book. You should see the lines of people with stacks of books each. You can borrow for a whole month. I personally don’t like to read on the internet, I mean I get information off the internet, but to sit down and read a book…. you know I still want to do that, and I do that every day. I don’t want to look at a screen; I’ve done that all day. I want to go home and read.”
So what drives McPartland and the many volunteers to be involved with the library?
Her dark brown eyes reflect deep conviction, “For the love of the library, we love serving our community. It’s a great social outlet -absolutely fabulous- not only with each other, which it is, but we get to see the general public in here for every single day which is wonderful. We have so many volunteers so we all get to be social with each other and…. gosh it’s everything. What’s better than being at the library? We love it!”
She smiles broadly- “And the patrons that come in are just so happy that we’re here, so there is nothing negative at all. It’s all positive. I love coming to work, they all love coming in here. It’s a very positive environment.”
And as she glances towards the stacks she acknowledges there will always be books. “At least in my lifetime,” she laughs.
“I can’t imagine life without a book.”
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Library hours -
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesdays and Fridays: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturdays: noon to 4 p.m.
Mary Ann Bullard
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