Interview: Central Library Program Manager, Candy Bertelson-Part 2

Yesterday we had part one of Reading Local’s interview with Candy Bertelson, Adult Program Manager for the Central Library.  Today in part two, Ms. Bertelson tells us about some of her favorite events held at the Library, how they maintain the rich history of the Library while blending in the needs of the present, as well as what some of her favorite books are. [This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity]

RL) What are some of your favorite events?

CB) One of the things we just had, which has become an annual event, is our Writers Resource Fair. In addition to a lot of readers, Portland has a lot of writers and prospective writers. We are lucky enough to be a Public library that has a room set aside for writers, called the Sterling Writers Room. There is room in there for four writers at a time. We have an application, you don’t have to be a published writer, but you fill out the application and it goes through the approval process and then you can go in there and write in this beautiful room. It’s a great space to write and do research. In the room there are a couple of bookcases full of books that people have published after using the room to write them.  Anyway, once a year we have the Writers Resource Fair, and we invite editors, publishers, and lawyers who specialize in writing. There are all kinds of resources for people who are writing or want to write.  It’s an open house type event, and we had the most groups and attendance this year than we have ever had.  Another great program, and this will be it’s third year, was a brainchild of one of our librarians and is called “Keep Portland Weird.”  We have the whole building full of groups that are a little off “mainstream.”  One of the most popular is the Ukulele group, or the scrap group who make things out of recycled material. There are belly dancers, just a wide variety of organizations.  It’s so much fun, and the building is just packed.  So “Keep Portland Weird” has become a very, very fun activity.

RL) How do you keep in touch with the Library’s rich history while at the same time embracing the future?

CB) We want to be true to the key things that people love about this library, but on the other hand we always try to be responsive to new things that are going on. Right now for instance we just recently started a couple library blogs, which provide great ideas for what to read.  Another example is we have quite a nice, rich collection of zines, and a group of library staff who are very active in the zine community.  We also have zinesters who come into the library to present their work.  Admittedly zines have been around for awhile now, but that was a way to get something into our collection that was very active in Portland’s community.  Another thing we have done in the last few years is look at the community in terms of new immigrants.  We had a major study done looking at what are the big immigrant groups, how are we serving them, and how would they like to see the library serve them.  So one of the things we have done in just the last few years, is we now have staff who speak Spanish, which we have had for quite some time, staff who speak Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, and others. So that people for whom English isn’t their first language can come in and be able to speak to someone in their native languages as much as we can.  For example, Woodstock, one of our branches, has quite a large Chinese community.  So they have several Chinese speaking staff and do programs around various aspects of Chinese culture, and sometimes do bi-lingual story times.  So that’s just another way that we are trying to take our traditional services but make them responsive to the way our community is changing.

RL) What are some of the features that you feel are under-utilized in the library?

CB) I would say the reference resources. Public libraries are still trying to determine what kind of resources we need in print, and what kind of electronic resources are more reliable or are used more.  So many people now use Google, and we use Google too, but it is also true that we have resources here that can get you a lot more in depth information and sometimes more accurate information.  Libraries are trying to figure out a way to market those kinds of research-oriented resources. It’s kind of a funny conversation to have in our particular library system because everything is so over utilized.  We are just bursting at the seems in terms of holds.  On the whole I would say that most of our resources are pretty well utilized.  We are actually nationally known for our early childhood services. We not only serve the children in our Public libraries, but we go out into the community and take the books to the places where kids are.

RL) Are there any other events that you would like to tell us about?

CB) Right now one of the most popular series we have going, and it’s such a surprise, is Read The Classics.  We have had waiting lists for almost every one of those.  It is so encouraging to me that people still want to get together and read and talk about the classics.  So you never know what’s going to hit a chord with people.

RL) Do you think that people are coming back to books?

CB) Well from our perspective in a library it’s like they never left, because our circulation just goes up every year.  But the neat thing, in terms of studies that are done nationally about reading, the numbers are going up.  And part of that is they are changing what they count as reading.  In some of those early studies they just counted reading a book or print, now they’re counting reading online.  Which a lot of young people I know that is where they do the majority of their reading.  I do not feel it’s any less important, or any less literary, nor does it qualify any less as reading.  So, that I find really encouraging.

RL) Lastly, since we’re all readers here, what are some of your favorite books?

CB) I am just reading the last collection of short stories that Stephen King published, and I have read everything that King has published.  I love John Grisham.  I love thrillers and horror, but I also like Children’s literature. So I have kind of a varied taste.

I would like to thank Ms. Bertelson for her time and willingness to answer the questions posed, and would like to remind all of you to continue to support and take advantage of this great resource at our disposal.