St. Helens library to centralize local history collection, add shelves and begin staff hours in April

Library Director Suzanne told the St. Helens Public Library Board on March 10 that staff will centralize the library’s local history collection on newly acquired shelving, begin public office hours for local history in the first week of April and collaborate with the Columbia County Museum Association to make items more searchable.

Why it matters: centralizing local history material and adding catalog records increases public access to historical documents, yearbooks and other archival items that currently are scattered across the library.

Suzanne said the library acquired shelving from a North Bend library and will place "almost all of our local history materials, books, periodicals, etcetera" on those shelves and store archival items in a locked metal cabinet. She said staff expect to begin offering four hours of local history office hours each week starting the first week of April, and that the local history steward Brenda will accept appointments to help researchers find and use items.

Staff described the work to add items to the public catalog as "original cataloging," noting that many local history items lack records and that creating each record will take time. Suzanne estimated creating a full catalog record for such items can take about 45 minutes per item because staff must identify subjects, physical description and other bibliographic details.

The board also discussed informal collaboration with the Columbia County Museum Association to maintain a shared spreadsheet or references so staff can direct patrons to holdings across institutions; the library will add the items to its catalog over time so records become searchable.

On the question of naming rooms, Suzanne said she had checked with city recorder Kathy Payne and that "the city council, of course, would need to approve any choice that we would like to make." The board discussed possible names, including a Native name for Mount St. Helens and honoring founder Diane Chaney Kim, but made no decision.

Discussion only: no formal votes were taken on cataloging priorities or naming; staff will continue cataloging work and return updates to the board.

Next steps: staff will install shelving and a locked cabinet, begin local history office hours in early April, continue original cataloging at roughly 45 minutes per item, and coordinate with the Columbia County Museum Association to improve discoverability.