They're Building a New Library in Gresham

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At the corner of NW Division St and Eastman Parkway in Gresham, a new library is going up. Multnomah County Library is growing like a weed (a weed of knowledge, yo) and Gresham is lucky to host a huge new branch.

They've started and they have the crane in, as can be seen. When completed, in 2026, it'll be more than just a branch, but an east-side flagship; nearly as big as the Central Library. 

From the page about the project at https://multcolib.org/building-libraries-together/east-county-library:

Completion date: Mid-2026. Be there or be severely uninformed.

The Inside Of The Midland Library, Fourteen Months On

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This is a view of the Midland Branch that I was beginning to despair ever of seeing again, looking down the middle of the building as though we were going to find seats at the back and sit in for a few hours.

We didn't get to stay long, and it wasn't nearly enough, but it felt good. Staff dispersal wasn't complete, and we're happy to see a few familiar faces there. Some pieces of our heart have gone on to other branches, or chose to retire, but the pandemic has been a real society-quake, rattling things to the four corners. I guess we'll have to come to terms.

Just before Covid went full-tilt boogie, there was a re-arranging going on here which was scheduled to conclude just as the world went into lockdown. Largely, though, it appears to have been in the children's section; the shelves line the building in the same way, and the computer stations, though not yet in use, are in the same places. 

It took a little poking around to find books of my interest but not much. 

There were tables in the back area, where we usually sat, but they're spread out a little more and not in business yet for those of us who might want to linger long; areas of the interior are corded off. It all feels a work in progress still.

But if this is all possible, could a return to relative normality be so impossibly far off now? I'm certainly hoping it's so. 

More on this story as it develops.
 

A Welcome-Back From The Mighty Mighty Midland Branch of the Multnomah County Library

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Evolution toward a post-pandemic level of open society continues. The Multnomah County Library system has initiated what the call Stage One Reopening.

In April of 2020 we were habituating the Gresham branch due to Mighty Mighty Midland's temporary closure due to a bit of rearranging and re-doing of the interior. Just as that temporary closure was set to expire, the Covid-19 pandemic roared in ... and all library branches were physically closed, indefinitely. 

That was fourteen months ago. And, since then, MultCoLib has gone through some evolutions of its own: the ending of overdue fines (we approve), the institution of a contactless hold pickup protocol (we also approve), and the shuffling about and reduction of staff (we do not approve and are still sorting out our feelings about this). 

However. On 2 June, 2021, Stage One reopening in in effect. For the first time, in over a year, we could go in to the library, our heart we love so fondly. Stage One, for what its worth, is basically this: a limited number of people can be in the building at a time (at this time, Midland's limited to an occupancy of less than ten), and you can browse for up to thirty minutes, or stay up to an hour if you want to use tech, such as Wi-Fi or the branch's Chromebooks (the computer stations are not in service as of yet).

I have some more pix, which I'll share in a subsequent episode. But, for now, enjoy this banner, and the heartstrings, it tugs upon them.

The banner is sincere. The feeling is decidedly mutual. 

Drawing Scott McCloud at the Multnomah County Library

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So, yesterday, I drew comics scholar Scott McCloud at the Multnomah County Library.

Yeah! Totally! He totally came by and sat for me, and this is totally what he looks like in real life:

I mean, it would be cool to be able to say that, but obviously not. But I was able to take my ballpoint out and dash this down (using is visage on the cover of Understanding Comics as a model, naturlich), and that was a satisfying thing.

Also satisfying: this picture on the right here. Working from a cue in a book titled The Confident Creative, I wanted to make some marks and fill a sketchbook page, I didn't have a subject, didn't have an idea, just started drawing lines. It became an exercise in trying to use those lines to create a suggestion of volume and space, and it succeeded somewhat. I had two arms snaking off and merging into the background, a ceiling up top, and, on the bottom, kind of a shelf going into something resembling a waterfall.

All drawings are ballpoint or liquid ball ink on crushed and deferred dreams.

Wife Art: Midland Library Bookshelves with Trees

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While I dither over creating art, The Wife™ takes charge and takes action, during a deliciously long afternoon sit-in at the Mighty MultCoLib's Midland Branch:

The wispy trees lining SE Morrison Street beyond the window are in a shiny silver marker. The subjective marks above the window are in a shiny gold.

Such is the subjective power of impulsive art that I can fetch the way I was seeing, the feeling of place, and the emotions of the moment just by looking at that card.
 

[Out122ndWay] Tiny Lions In The Library

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Saturday, traditional Library day, I'm diarizing trying to make sense of the all, and what should I see but some rather feline patrons.

One was a wild African cat. Well, really just wild about playing with his friend.

The other, a most watchful micro-panther.

I needed the smile. Just the mere look at a cat and I smile. And I usually have a bit of an averse reaction to people bringing their personal pets into the library … I don't really think that's allowed … but these guys were pretty well-behaved. And nobody else was freaking, the fuzzbutts were in plain sight.

Sometimes, you need to see a kitty.

The micropanther was called Zimba:

And this is the other little guy, Leo:

They were in the possession of this young couple, who were taking them out so they'd get used to other people and the chaos of the street. We didn't find out about their story, but they were quite a nice young couple.

The Wife™, of course, handled the social interaction. I got some serious pets in and heard some serious purrs.

Puurfect.

So it goes. 

[Out122ndWay] Aaron Nigel Smith Plays The Midland Library's 20th

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I did mention that, in my previous missive, there was music to be had. This was a moment of discovery.

I was told it was going to be reggae, but it wasn't, not really, at least not when I stepped in. There was this energetic quartet playing poppy music to a group of parents and kids who were eating it up. The parents were entertained and the kids just couldn't not dance.

This was the Aaron Nigel Smith band, and they were there to please the parents and get the kids happy and they knew what they were doing. I wasn't sure how I would receive the music myself but the style was infectious and pretty soon I was tapping my toe as well. Of course, many many years ago a man wise in the ways of musical appreciation told me there was nothing like live music, and this was one of those moment when I realized how right he was.

Aaron Nigel Smith

His mission is stated on his web page thusly:

Aaron Nigel Smith's “Call To Action” is to get kids and families to sing, dance and play together. In 2002 he founded FUNdamentals of Music and Movement, an arts program which is now the     program of choice to over 100 early education centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, NewYork and Boston. His fun, inspired, and lively show is guaranteed to get the audience off their feet.

That is one seriously gorgeous 5-string bass!

It was all fun and games until the Simon-says.
After that it was fun and games too,
Just slightly more fun fun and games.

The full-fathom four. Seriously? That was some confident musicianship going on.
They were very enjoyable to watch.

The website for Aaron and his band is http://www.aaronnigelsmith.com. There's videos. 

[Out122ndWay] The Midland Library: It Was 20 Years Ago Today …

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This is yet another series of love letters to a place. And it's also an anniversary card. Because it was 20 years ago, 1996 (was it REALLY that long?!?!), that the center of a neighborhood and a landmark of the heart went up on SE 122nd Avenue at the corner of Morrison Street.

Midland Library, then.

The history of the branch suggests that there's been a library branch on this corner for the better part of the last 60 years. Midland branch is the second largest branch in the mighty MultCoLib system and is second only to Central in the number of patrons it service. And, in 1993, amid increasing pressure and demand from heavy Eastsiders thronging the location, plans were set, and in 1996, in September, construction was completed on the current building.

The new building was, at 25,000 square feet, three times the size of the old one, and graced with a modern-design clock tower with a very witty 'OPEN' neon sign in the side, was a true landmark for the neighborhood.

When the new Midland was being built, The Wife™ and I were actually residents of Brentwood-Darlington, what was once called Errol Heights, and we called Woodstock our home branch. Even then we were well on the way to having a tradition of weekly Library Days which were to become the pole star of our week; we even endured through the rebuilding of the Woodstock branch into a much more modern one. By the time we found our home the Mill Park area, the library had been in place for a handful of years. Just getting broken in, you might say. It wasn't too long after we'd become heavy Eastsiders, Bedrock residents, that we'd tried out the new branch.

I can't remember what it was like, the first time we'd walked in, but I'm sure it was love at first sight. When it comes to libraries, we're easy that way. I mean, this is truly a large branch; smaller towns would call it their main library, and this is is the city that's home to the Multnomah County Library system. A branch here is a universe in other towns. And a signature clock tower, the kind you can meet, Meier and Frank-style, under. Just seeing it when we pull in releases the kind of endorphine rush that requires pharmaceuticals in any other happenstance.

Moreover, Midland's a regional branch. There is a library hierarchy, and it goes three deep; Central, regional, and local branches. In the ranking order, branches like Capitol Hill, Holgate, and Rockwood are local branches. Midland's a regional, and you know it the moment you step in. The energy and life in the building is palpable. It's nearly always busy, and it's a good busy. although the slight overwhelm when things like Dia de los Ninos happen is also a good kind of overwhelmed.

Also, there's great mariachi music when that happens. Never ceases to delight me how that comes off.

There was music there this day, but I'll get on to that presently. The real keynote for today was a festive atmosphere and just that ever-present energy, restorative, healing, that Midland always has. We go there to recharge, and there's a reason, and that's it; for me, there's The New Yorker and looking for whatever art books they have for inspiration and motivation in my new drive to draw and cartoon; for The Wife™, catching up on The Oregonian; for me, investigating new-to-me fiction and literature and periodicals; for her, obsessive drilling-down on whatever the current interest is (and food, always food!).

Very restorative.

At the entry there were happy friendly neighbors and delicious cupcakes (with superb frosting, I'd eat a cupcake made out of that frosting, honestly) and a little spin-wheel to take home a little memento from the event. I lucked, and got a legacy pin; it was apparently supposed to be an early logo for the branch incorporating the talking-leaf motif I've commented on in an earlier missive and including the clock tower from the architecture. This'll be a keepsake.

The staff was out in force, doing the all the library things. We've known them all for so long, they're friends to us; we've seen staff members come, go on to greater responsibility, the friends we fondly remember; the staff that's still there now, just getting better as the years go by; the Sheriff's deputy that patrols the place has always become a good pal, and there are some that have gone on to promotions or other assignments that we also miss greatly.

On the right as we go back there was the children's section, doing what it does so well. If smart kids come out of this place, I can show you were some of them got their start.

The theme of the building, as I may have pointed out before, is talking leaves; that's what the Cherokee intellectual, linguist and philosopher Sequoyah called books. The theme is keynoted by the great, large, wonderful acrylic work in the foyer area at the east end of the building, Lucinda Parker's Talking Leaves, complete with a sketchbook-style explanation of what's going on at the bottom of the painting. That's an especially fun thing to look at; I must have looked at it a hundred times, but the vibrancy of the handwriting and the confidence of the sketching never get old for me. Even the outside of the building functions as a sort of book; quotations from literati such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Oregon's own William Stafford form a meta-connection between the contents of the building, the function it serves, and the link between it and its environment. All of that can be viewed at the Midland Library history page. It's a very thoughtful and apt selection.

We love our Midland Library. At age 20, it's coming into a maturity both rooted and vital, still the beloved heart of a community that it loves right back.

On the way from there to here and perhaps back again.

It's busy, but it's the good kind of busy. There's electronic
media and paper media. You're very well-rounded here.

The weekly The New Yorker and Dutch Bros.
It's and excellent job, but someone has to do it.

If you see Gordon at the desk, tell him we sent you.

Juan and Yuriy are just two more of the Midlanders we've grown
fond of over the years. All the the Midland staff are just about the
best friends a reader can have.

Doing what it should be doing, this is the way you library in Portland, Oregon, 2016.

The mighty MultCoLib is at http://www.multcolib.org. May we remind you that ours is the original and genuine? Accept no substitutes!

[design] Multnomah County Library's New Logo

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If you were asked what the logo of the Multnomah County Library was, up until now, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with one.

It was more of a wordmark, really, a designed arrangement of the name. After the Library 'went public' in 1990 (by the passage of a tax base measure which spelled the end of the private "Library Assocation of Portland … before which the LAP's seal was its logo) the word mark appeared alongside Multnomah County's stylzied "M" logo (seen right). During and for a time after the Library's sesquicentennial year (2014), the library logo featured a base of a large black block with the number 150 reversed-out of it.

This month, that all changes. The new, up-to-date Multnomah County Library logo, which should see our beloved library well into the next 150 years, has debuted, and here it is:

Of course,  we're prone to like anything MultCoLib does, but this is a winner. The type is current and seems to have that classic sort of feel to it that should prove to withstand the test of time. The abstract symbol, which recapitulates the abstract approach of and seems to share a similar palette with the County's logo, is shaped in an abstracted "L" (which can be made more than one way by tracing along the edges of the shapes) and can be viewed as a an open book, an open laptop computer … really, whatever you want to see there.

I see an open door inviting me to go down a passage, myself.

The new logo is expected to help coordinate a unified graphic approach to all County Library publications, which is another good thing a logo can do … become a linchpin, iconically providing a  pivoti upon which a holistic graphic theme can revolve. The logo won't become widespread immediately, as the Library plans to exhaust its stock of stationery with the old logos on it and phase in the new look.

The library's page on its logo's history and new look can be found hither: https://multcolib.org/blog/20160705/about-new-library-logo.

We think it well done. 

[liff] Multnomah County Library Love: The Feeling's Mutual.

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Really quite gratifying things happen when you pay your library a compliment. Here's what happened when I did to mine.

Mine is, of course, the mighty and rightfully-legendary Multnomah County Library. It's good for reasons, and reasons too numerous to relate right now. As a lifelong library user and book lover, it's a nice place to be. Its reputation can hardly be gainsaid: according to the Wikipedia article on same:

According to the Public Library Association, it ranks second among U.S. libraries, based on circulation of books and materials, and ranks first among libraries serving fewer than one million residents. In this respect, it is the busiest in the nation.

The proof is self-evident; you just don't get that way by accident. MCL is good.

Our branch is the Midland Regional, at SE 122nd Avenue and Morrison Street. Being a regional library means it's one of the larger branches; this particular branch would suffice as the main public library in many mid-size American towns. Big and well-supplied, it has enough stock on the shelves that I nearly always find something even if I'm not particularly looking for anything. On Saturdays, it's our home-from-home, as we spend many happy hours finding nifty stuff. It's made me a The New Yorker habitue´. Wife catches up on the news and checks out many, many more books than she really needs to have. It's an adult advenure.

Recently, the chance presented itself to make a comment. Funny thing about things you love; you don't often stop to think to compliment these days; it's so much more energizing to have a complaint. When something works the way you think it should work, we take it for granted, and YT is just as much an addict to that sort of thinking as any other modern. But the chance to give props presented itself and I took it. Here's what I wrote (from MultCoLib's edit …)

“We make our library day the centerpiece of our week. I use the creative atmosphere to try to inspire art; my wife uses it to explore things she's interested in — and there's very little she's not interested in. She catches up on the local papers, I stay current with The New Yorker. I find out about art I want to do. She culls recipes from the newspapers. She learns about Oregon history; I discover the literature and fiction that I should have been reading when I was in high school (Proust! Pynchon!).

Above all it's the staff of this particular branch [Midland] that make it such a welcoming home.… we feel blessed of good fortune to have such warm, satisfying and smart relationships with such committed and passionate staff. We love them, not only the ones you have here now, but the ones who have moved on.
As homeowners and taxpayers thereupon we, as most local citizens, are keen on where that money goes. We know of no better value than the tax money we send out to support the County Library system — it gives back much, much more in intellectual and recreational value than we pay in. Great stock, Great people — we're proud of our Library, and feel extremely fortunate that we get to have one that is so very good.”

Not too long ago, we got a reply. Here it is:

Director of Libraries? Sweet! Thanks for the reply, Vailie. This is totally going into the scrapbook.

But that isn't all. They got a picture of our beatific countenances and posted all this to FB. You can see the post here: https://www.facebook.com/multcolib/photos/a.95676234880.76523.90704854880/10154462169439881. It's about as gratifying to see that MultCoLib's followers liked it 283 times …

But the feedback doesn't end there. Yesterday night, at the end of our Sunday Powell's City'o'Books visit, one of the clerks mentioned that she'd recognized us from the post. ***CELEBRITY!!!***

I mean, we got that goin' for us. Which is nice.

Not only is Portland the sort of place were you love books, but the books (and the purveyors thereupon) tend to love you back. And that's part of the reason why Portland's still home to me after all these years.

And so it goes.

 

[PDX_liff] The Family Pictures at Midland Library

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At the time of this writing, along the back wall of Midland Regional Library, on SE 122nd Avenue at Morrison Street, is a series of pictures. They're large format, and hard to miss.

There is a similar lineup on the other side of the building, these gorgeous photos of families. Well, as detailed by the poster in the next photo:

 

It's We Are Portland, an arts initiative by MyStory Portland, which describes itself as:

…a mobile arts organization that brings photography workshops to underrepresented Portland youth. Our programs give young people an opportunity to explore their lives through the lens of a camera, and strengthen their communities through the arts. We collaborate with community organizations in building programs that empower low-income and recently immigrated youth.

So, it's arts to the people, who always had it to begin with, but tend to get talked out of it repeatedly by our rather dysfunctional culture, which has kind of lost what it means to be an artist and to make art in many ways. So this is a thing of which you would possibly assume I approve of, and I do.

They do take great photos, don't they?

And the explanatory poster has this logo in the corner, which is just worth showing off.

Now, there are other pictures there. I didn't include them because discovery is most of the fun.

Maybe a visit to the Midland Regional Branch of the library is in order, so that they may be seen. Couldn't hurt. Got books there and everything.

[design] The Talking Leaves Of The Midland Library

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There is a big painting on the right as you enter the Midland Regional Branch of the mighty MultCoLib. It looks like this (as taken from the complete other end of the building because art, don't argue with me) …

The title is Talking Leaves. It's a biggie as one can see, stretching from about head-level to almost the ceiling. Below it, behind a clear panel, is what looks very much like conceptual sketches, in charcoal, of the creative process leading up to the panel.

The whole thing is abstracted trees and leaves, and the stories they tell about themselves. The beguiling gray and white and gradated thing on the right is noted as a 'lollipop tree', a fanciful thing. The suggestion of the lazy-8 inside always causes me to kind of space into it. Above is a leaf and another abstraction of that takes up the left. In the lower left corner, a seed.

There is another meaning of talking leaves, and I hope some of you who may be reading this arrived there before I tell you this: it's what Sequoyah called books.

It's only logical, therefore, that the motif be drawn out from the painting to cover the whole building. As it is, if you look along the high ceiling …

Th leaves alternate all the way down the center aisle, anchored by the seeds at the four corners of the design.