Jim Scheppke
OLA Speech 2011
Remarks at the Oregon Library Association
Annual Conference
April 7, 2011
Today I stand before you for the 20th time to address the membership of OLA. As you’ve probably heard, this will be the last time I address you as your state librarian.
I am the 8th Oregon State Librarian in the 106 year history of the Oregon State Library. I am proud that my 20 year tenure was exceeded only by one other Oregon State Librarian — the first Oregon State Librarian, and the greatest Oregon State Librarian, Cornelia Marvin Pierce who served for 23 years.
When Cornelia retired from her position in 1928 she wrote about her beginnings at what was then called the Oregon Library Commission. This is what she wrote:
May I remind you that it was on August 1, 1905, I began my library service in Oregon, with a clear field, large opportunity, and two thousand dollars a year to be devoted to the cause of library development in a state with no state library except a law library, no free books available for any person in Oregon except for those fortunate ones who lived in Portland, Salem and Eugene, and only one of these maintained a tax-supported library.
Compared to that, I, of course had a much less daunting challenge when I became state librarian 86 years later, in 1991. Much less. In fact I believe that my challenges, compared to those of Cornelia, have been relatively easy to deal with. And I will tell you why. This fairly small state of Oregon has been amazingly lucky to have somehow attracted some of the most capable and committed and creative librarians of my generation.
Let me name some names, and the grey heads, like mine, in the audience should recognize most of them. I’ll only mention the ones who are no longer working, or not working here, so as not to risk offending anyone. Here are some names of some truly outstanding librarians who I have had the privilege to work with: Mel George, Sue Burkholder, Deborah Jacobs, Sara Long, Karyle Butcher, Ginnie Cooper, George Happ, Ronnie Budge, Aletha Bonebrake, Michael Gaston, and Molly Raphael.
What luck it was for me to be able to work in Oregon for 25 years, all but seven years of my entire career, with such a wonderful group of colleagues. And the outstanding work continues today with everyone in this room. The librarians I have named and many others, and those of you in this room, have created a culture of excellence for Oregon libraries that will persist, I’m sure, for many years into the future.
This was not so much the case when I came to Oregon in 1986. At that time Oregon was a pretty mediocre library state, to be honest about it. But we have come a long way in the past quarter century. Today we have great library buildings that we did not have 25 years ago, we have great leading edge technology, we have great collections including great digital collections, and most of all we have outstanding library staff.
My role in all this has been modest. Many times my role has been that of a cheerleader or sometimes a nag, pushing my colleagues to achieve what we needed to achieve. I will mention some accomplishments that I am very proud of, but please don’t misunderstand me. These are not my accomplishments. In every case it was a team effort.
I am proud of the Ready to Read Grant program. We are still the only state to devote all of its state aid to public libraries, to the most important service that a public library can provide, helping all children to become good readers.
I am proud of the renovation of our beloved State Library Building including a much-needed earthquake retrofit that is designed to save lives and save our collection when the big one comes, which it will.
I am proud of the Orbis Cascade Alliance and the bit part I played in that back in the early days. Some of you may remember that PSU and OHSU libraries were holdouts for a little while, and I’ll never forget sitting down with the PSU library director and saying, Tom you know it might be possible to get an LSTA grant so you and Jim could afford that new III system so you can join Orbis. And that’s what happened.
I am proud of the Oregon Digital Library Consortium, and Library2Go which is one of the only statewide downloadable ebook and audiobook collections in the country. Our vendor is no longer keen on statewide shared collections, but because we asked for one six years go when most other states weren’t even thinking about it, we have one and they don’t.
I am proud of our Plinkit content management system that began with an LSTA grant to the Multnomah County Library, and the brilliant Eva Miller. Today most of the small and medium sized public libraries have built their websites on the Plinkit platform, and hundreds of libraries in Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan, and Virginia are using it too.
I am proud of the Oregon Battle of the Books. In a couple weeks we will have the fourth state finals competition at Chemeketa Community College. What a great program to turn students on to reading, and, at the same time, demonstrate the value of school librarians.
I am proud of the restoration of the most valuable book in the Oregon State Library collection, Photographs of the Columbia River by Carleton Watkins, which we undertook in partnership with the Portland Art Museum and the late Terry Toedtemeir, their wonderful curator of photography. The album was in three pieces when we began. Since 2005 it’s been fully restored and will be exhibited this summer at the Seattle Art Museum.
I am proud that today we have 25 public library districts that fund nearly half the public libraries in the state. I played a small role in forming some of those, again as a cheerleader and a nag.
I’ll end it there. I could go on, but I know my time is limited as it has been every time I have spoken to OLA these past 20 years.
Let me just close with some more words from the greatest Oregon State Librarian, Cornelia Marvin Pierce. She said this about her career as a librarian, and I can’t say it any better:
My work has been library work. I take the greatest pride in the fact that I am librarian of the Oregon State Library — the greatest privilege a [person] could have is to give good books to people who are hungry for them…The only thing I have ever done to make the world a better place to live is to promote libraries. There is no greater or better task to which any person could devote a life…