News & Events

Alter Wiener's father was brutally murdered on September 11, 1939 by the German invaders of Poland. Alter was then a boy of 13. At the age of 15, he was deported to Blechhammer, a Forced Labor Camp for Jews, located in Germany. He survived five camps. Upon liberation by the Russian Army on May 9, 1945, Alter weighed 80 lbs., as reflected in the photo on the cover of his autobiography, 64735: From a Name to a Number.

Alter will be sharing his life story at the Cedar Mill Library on Saturday, April 20th at 2:00 pm. The program is free and open to everyone.

Alter is one of the very few Holocaust survivors still living in Portland. He moved to Oregon in 2000, and since then he has shared his life story with more than 800 audiences in universities, colleges, middle and high schools, churches, synagogues, prisons, and other organizations.

The Oregon Book Award winners for 2013 were announced last night. Here's a rundown of the winners in some popular categories. Find a full list of the winners here.

Ken Kesey Award for Fiction
Shards by Ismet Prcic Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction
The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction
Crazy Enough by Storm Large Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature
Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature
Blue Thread by Ruth Tenzer Feldman Readers Choice Award
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Also available as a downloadable e-book and audiobook in Library2Go! Congratulations to all the winners!

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and next up is Anne Rutherford, a performer from Portland.

Anne tells smart, genuinely fun stories to audiences of all ages. Her specialties are original and vintage stories of humor and adventure, trickster tales, supernatural tales and Northwest folklore.

We found this video of Anne telling a story at an event, and had to share it, as it features a librarian and some animals who read.

Like what you see? Check out the Art of the Story performance schedule to get all the details.

April is an arts-filled month at North Plains!

On Saturday, April 13th at 1:00 pm, the Portland Ballet will be offering a free mini-performance and sample ballet lessons for kids in Kindergarten through 6th Grade. This will be taking place at the Jessie Mays Community Hall.

The Portland Ballet, a training ground for professional ballet artists, provides performance experience for pre-professional dancers and emerging choreographers and promotes ballet appreciation in the community through outreach and education. 

In addition, landscape and portrait photographer Tom Jacquemin of Hillsboro will be exhibiting his work at the library from April 11 through May 31. A reception will be held in his honor on Friday, April 19 at 6 p.m. at the library, and the public is invited to attend this free event.

All of Jacquemin’s photographs will be available for purchase and can be made in additional sizes.  He also sells his photographs at the Cedar Mill Farmers’ Market most Saturdays.

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and next up is Bill Ratner.

Bill is one of Hollywood's premier voices and storytellers. For those of you who watched G.I. Joe, Bill was the voice of Flint. You'll also recognize his voice from many movie trailers and commercials.

In addition to his successful career in voiceovers, Bill is a master storyteller - National Storytelling Festival Slam Teller, Best of Hollywood Fringe Festival, eight-time Moth StorySLAM Winner - as well as a published short story writer, essayist, and playwright. He performs his stories in comedy clubs, theaters, taverns, schools, and storytelling festivals across the country.

Want to see Bill in action? Check out this video of a performance on the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood. This performance is for adults, and contains a few "colorful" situations. It's a charming and funny story from the days of his father and uncle, growing up in 1920s Chicago.

Like what you see? Check out the Art of the Story performance schedule to get all the details.

Discover Italy’s charming Amalfi coast through the eyes of tour guide and travel writer Chantal Kelly on Thursday, April 11th, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Plains Public Library.

Part travelogue and part history, Kelly’s book, Gelato Sisterhood on the Amalfi Shore, will fascinate anyone who’s ever wanted to indulge in travel to Italy. The book also offers a number of mouth-watering recipes.

Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, Kelly developed an early love of travel as she vacationed with her family thoughout Europe. She gained fluency in five languages, worked for an Italian travel agency, and ultimately formed her own boutique agency, guiding small groups throughout France, Italy, and other European destinations.

The author will have her book for sale and for signing after her presentation. This event is sponsored by The Friends of the North Plains Public Library.

The Oregon Book Awards ceremony is next week! The finalists for the awards have been announced, and you can vote for your favorite online in the 2013 Readers' Choice Award.

Why not choose your next book from the list of finalists? See all the finalists here, or click the links below to place a hold on books from popular categories in the WCCLS catalog.

Finalists for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction

Finalists for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction

Finalists for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction

Finalists for the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature

Finalists for the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature

We look forward to sharing the winners with you next week!

The Library2Go website got a new look a few weeks ago. One of the frequent comments about the new, image-heavy look was that information about the book (title, author, etc.) was hard to see without clicking on each book. Today new title display options have been added to Library2Go, which will hopefully make browsing for books a little bit easier.

When you click on a category or do a search, you'll see a new set of buttons that allow you to change how the titles display. Choose from the default view - "Cover" - or switch to a grid or list view. Switching to the grid or list view will give you more information about the title, without having to click on the book cover image first.

The changes were made by OverDrive, the software company that powers the Library2Go service.

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and next up is Kim Weitkamp, a nationally known storyteller, humorist, singer and songwriter.

The Oregonian said: "Kim studs her storytelling performances with bits of musical Americana that match the sweet and gentle tones of her narrative." 

Her material has been played on NPR affiliate stations as well as Sirius Radio. Kim travels the continent full-time performing in theaters and at festivals.

This is a funny and heartwarming video featuring clips from one of Kim's performances at the Snow Theater in Idaho. Like what you see? Check out the Art of the Story performance schedule to get all the details.

The Oregon Career Information System (Oregon CIS) will be unavailable on Saturday, March 30th from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. This is due to repair work at the University of Oregon, which maintains this resource.

Oregon CIS is a valuable online resource full of Oregon-specific information about jobs, careers, education and training. See all of WCCLS' job search and career resources here.

Escuadrón 201 - "Aguilas Aztecas" ("Aztec Eagles") On Wednesday, April 3rd, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, join Sig Unander at the West Slope Library for a documentary film and discussion.

Sig will be introducing a film called The Forgotten Eagles, a documentary about a Mexican fighter squadron - known as the  "Aztec Eagles" - who fought alongside the United States in World War Two.

Registration for this program is required. Please contact the West Slope Library to register or for more details.

You may know that WCCLS member libraries have great nonfiction reference books to help you research a topic or complete a homework assignment. But did you know that WCCLS offers access to these great reference books in e-book form? Access them anywhere, anytime, from the WCCLS website.

This collection of e-books is called Gale Virtual Reference Library. The books in the collection cover a wide range of subjects, from law and medicine, to history and literature.

There are also lots of e-books for kids in the collection, with titles covering subjects like castles and space exploration.

Find Gale Virtual Reference Library at the WCCLS website and log in with your library card handy!

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and we're starting with Rick Huddle, a performer from Portland.

“He’s like David Sedaris and Ira Glass had a baby and Carol Burnett raised the little guy.”

Rick's work exposes the tender, humorous and, at times, outrageous collision of inner psyche versus personal relationships. His openness, humility, and compelling presence draw the audience into the story as if it were their own. His characters relate to people with their infectious uncertainty, confusion, and desire for connection.

Check Rick out in a funny, sweet, and musical performance for adults at a festival in Portland a few years ago. Like what you see? Check out the schedule of Rick's and all the other great performances.

The WCCLS website will be unavailable on Tuesday, March 26th at 9:00 pm, for approximately one hour. This is in order to perform scheduled maintenance.

While the site is down, you can still access the following:

• WCCLS online catalog
• Your account
• Library2Go
• WCCLS events calendar

Thank you for your patience! If you have questions or comments, you can reach us at webmaster@wccls.org.

The Tualatin Public Library is hosting their Community Resource Fair on Saturday, March 16th, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Visitors to the resource fair will be able to talk to representatives from local business and organizations, and learn more about the services they offer.

Free face painting! Groups such as Boys and Girls Aid, Red Cross of Oregon, FACT Oregon, Families for Independent Living, Ride Connection/Tri-Met, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, and more will be on hand.

There will also be free face painting by UB Painted, and giveaways and fun crafts for the kids.

Learn more at the Tualatin Library's website.

We are proud to announce the winner of our 2013 Teen Summer Reading Art Contest - Kait Baird! A ninth-grader at the Beaverton School District’s Arts & Communication Magnet Academy, Kait has been awarded top honors for her unique design depicting a person catching fish with very special bait - a book! Kait's design will appear on all countywide Teen Summer Reading publicity this summer.

Kait Baird's winning entry This is the fourth year that WCCLS has encouraged young artists to submit designs representative of our summer reading theme. Over 40 pieces were submitted and on March 12th, a panel of teen librarians met to review feedback collected from local Teen Library Councils.  The vote was unanimous - Kait Baird’s piece best represented the 2013 Summer Reading Program and the "Beneath the Surface" theme.

Kait was awarded Honorable Mention in the past two contests. “It has been a real treat watching Kait’s artistic style develop over the past few years,” said Rick Samuelson, Youth Services Librarian with WCCLS. “She is quite a young talent!”


Second Place - Zoe Ahrednt

The Second Place winner of the contest this year is Zoe Ahrendt, from Liberty High School in Hillsboro. The judges also awarded an Honorable Mention to Ashleigh Imwalle of Tigard High School. Kait will receive a $150 gift card to Powell’s Books. The Second Place and Honorable Mention winners will receive gift cards for Dick Blick Art Materials.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the Washington County teens who participated in this year's contest!

Honorable Mention - Ashleigh Imwalle

The new interface for Library2Go has rolled out, and one thing that is a little different is how and where you tell Library2Go how long you want to check a title out for.

The best thing to do is to go in to your Library2Go account and set the default loan periods for your account - 7, 14 or 21 days for ebooks and audiobooks. That way you just do it once and don't have to think about it again. We have instructions on how to do that on our Library2Go help pages here.

You can also adjust the loan periods for your account as you are checking out a book, but not for titles that you had on hold and are now checking out. Just below the Borrow button for a title, you will see a line of text that tells you how long you will have the book for. If you would like to change that, click on the Change link underneath.

Unfortunately, once the title is checked out to you, we are not able to adjust the loan period on that title.
Have other questions about how to use Library2Go? Check out our help pages. Wondering about how best to search or browse in the new interface? Take a look at our guide that walks you through the process of searching or browsing, as well as placing holds and checking titles out.

On Monday, March 11th, you will notice that Library2Go looks different. OverDrive, the software company that powers the Library2Go service, is bringing some changes.

Here are some of the things that will change:

• The look of the website will be updated
• One-step checkout - it will be less clicks to check out a title
• A new (additional) way to download books right to your browser, no extra software needed
• You will be able to return any title you check out, as long as you haven't downloaded it yet
• Create a wish list in your account, and see suggestions of other books to read based on the books you have checked out in the past

Here are some things that won't change:

• You will still be able to download books to your mobile device using the OverDrive app
• To transfer books to an e-reader or MP3 player, you still download to your computer and transfer using Adobe Digital Editions (ebooks) or OverDrive Media Console (audiobooks) 
• Downloading Kindle books will also still work the same as it does now
• You will still log in with the same library card number, and any checkouts or holds you have now will stay on your account even when the look of the website changes

WCCLS has been working hard to update all of its Library2Go Help pages to make sure they reflect all the new changes coming to Library2Go. Look for updated content on our help pages later in the day on Monday.

Check out this video, created by OverDrive, to get a sneak preview of the changes that are coming to Library2Go on Monday. We hope you find the new Library2Go a little easier to use!