Grants Pass Now

“Effective May 31, 2007 all branches of the Josephine County Library system will be closed due to lack of funding.”

This is what you see when you click on the Josephine County Library’s website. For those who love to read, it’s a slap in the face and for those with children, an embarrassing example of what can happen when adults forget how to prioritize.

While many children in this country visited their local library for the annual Read Across America Day, a national day set up to celebrate reading. On this day, groups and individuals across the nation are encouraged to instill a love for books in the hearts of children. The celebration takes place at or around the time of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, which is March 2nd. The theme this year was “Go, Books, Go!”, and in Josephine County, they certainly have gone. On Monday, March 3rd, children and adults gathered outside the locked doors of the Grants Pass library, sitting on blankets and lawn chairs. Some brought their own books, while others took advantage of a table set up with free books for the taking. While they shivered in the chilly air and hoped the rain would hold off a little longer, they could look in the windows and see shelves and shelves of books and cozy places to curl up and read, but that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the books they did have.

Josephine Community Libraries is a non-profit corporation hoping to reopen those doors. Parents, business professionals, educators, and many more from all walks of life have joined this group of over 200 volunteers. They estimate that with one million dollars, it would be possible to open all four JoCo libraries and still run them in a professional manner. While it sounds like a daunting task, it would happen with a donation of under twelve dollars per person. The board of commissioners has voted to match $300,000 of the donations received by Josephine Community Libraries. That would bring the amount down to under eight dollars per person. That’s less than the cost of a number seven value meal at McDonald’s and the gas it takes to get there. If gas prices continue to increase, you’ll have to change over to a Happy Meal instead, but let’s not bog ourselves down with details. When you add in the donations of businesses, corporations, and monies raised in funding drives and through foundation grants, you’re down to just a couple of dollars per person.

The point is that residents can take matters into their own hands and have access to our libraries again if we’re willing to take the steps needed to make this happen. If you’re reading this and horrified that you just gulped down a value meal when it could have been used to help open the library back up, do not panic. There are plenty of other ways to help out with the cause. For example, you could join join their mailing list and learn more about the group. The brave can dive right in and join one of their committees, each of which focus on a certain aspect of making Josephine County Libraries Inc. run smooth.

Another easy way to figure out what’s going on with our libraries is to simply attend the board meetings, which are held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. The next meeting will be on March 18th in the Guild Building located at 1867 Williams Highway. They are held in order to not only discuss business, but to gain ideas from those who attend, such as how to help the community become aware that their libraries can be opened again, how to organize fundraisers, and where books can be bought at minimal cost. If you’re leary of jumping in as a volunteer for Josephine County Libraries, attending these meetings is a great way to get your feet wet before making any decisions.

Benjamin Franklin once said “a house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” When we closed our libraries, we didn’t do ourselves any favors. Josephine County isn’t simply a place we live in, it is our home. Just as the human body craves food, the mind craves knowledge. Public libraries provide that a large portion of that knowledge in the communities that host them. Unless, of course, their doors are locked. -Gina Locke