Umatilla library reports growth in visits and programs; county district director outlines services

The Umatilla library reported on March 4 that it expanded community programming, increased visits and strengthened Spanish-language collections, while the Umatilla County Special Library District explained how district funds and services support the county’s libraries.

The local library director (name not specified in the transcript) told council the library’s summer-reading program had 196 participants who collectively logged roughly 1,380 reading hours, that the library hosted programs for all ages (including a self-defense class and a "Firefighter for a Day" event that had about 200 participants), and that the library recorded about 6,600 visitors and nearly 6,000 public computer/Wi‑Fi uses in the last six months.

The director said grants allowed the library to buy additional Spanish-language books; she and the district director attended the Guadalajara Book Fair to select roughly $2,000 in materials for the collection. The library is planning events such as a Tinkercad 3‑D printing workshop for teens, trivia nights and daily guided activities.

The director said some collection and circulation data were not available at the meeting because the SAGE system had undergone an update; she said staff would provide corrected collection statistics at a future meeting.

Umatilla County Special Library District director Heather Estrada explained the district’s funding and operations: the district was created by voter approval in 1986, is governed by a five-member board, and is funded by property taxes collected across the county (excluding the incorporated city of Homestead). The district sends roughly 80 percent of funds to local libraries and uses the remaining 20 percent for district staff, shared-catalog services (the SAGE consortium), courier service, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (age 0–5) and an early-literacy outreach coordinator who visits daycares and Head Start programs.

Estrada said the district operates a cataloging center, provides training and support for smaller libraries, and administers shared consortia such as SAGE and Libby. She emphasized that the district’s distribution formula has been refined in recent years to make allocations more transparent; the district reviews population data every three years for formula updates.

Ending: Council accepted the informational reports. The district and library directors said they would provide updated circulation and collection data once SAGE reporting issues were resolved.