Remarks at the dedication of a bookmobile
Remarks at the dedication of a bookmobile
Delivered by Judge Scott R. Cooper
January 10, 2003, Crook County Library
Thank you all for coming today to mark yet another exciting chapter in the growth and development of our community library. The arrival of the bookmobile is a long-awaited and eagerly anticipated event, which makes a powerful statement about just what a unique and wonderful community ours is.
Who else in Oregon has a bookmobile? The list is relatively short, and all the usual suspects are on it: Portland, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Roseburg and Bend. Now a seventh community: Prineville-Crook County joins the list. In doing so, we have proven once again that size need not be a barrier to a community with vision.
For me personally, watching this vision translate to reality is personally poignant. Perhaps not many of you remember that Prineville was served once before by a bookmobile. From about 1968 to 1970, the Deschutes County bookmobile occasionally wandered across the county line to serve the citizens of our county.
As a child, I still vividly remember the wonder I felt at seeing this library on wheels pull up practically at our doorstep carrying opportunities for little minds like mine to expand their horizons beyond the rimrocks that bordered us on all sides.
All these memories came flooding back to me, when I stepped foot in our new bookmobile last week. Ironically, my first thought when I saw it was shock at how small it seemed. For my recollections of the bookmobile of 30 years ago are much influenced by the relative size I was then versus now. I keenly recall my disappointment that I couldn’t reach the top shelves. And for some reason, the bookmobile’s shelving units seemed to stretch forever in my minds eye, offering a dizzying arraying of reading options and chances to explore new worlds.
For me the bookmobile was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with libraries and books—a love affair fostered by mother’s unrelenting insistence on dragging me and my brothers to the library weekly to ensure our self-improvement. All that early training and exposure translated to a passion for books and learning, which remain with me to this day.
Much to my wife’s chagrin, I still insist on stopping by libraries in major metropolitan cities to admire their advanced collections of books, periodicals, research materials and even art collections. Rick to his credit has been more than patient in listening to me when I’ve returned from these various trips with my latest, greatest idea on how to improve our own library.
What I hope for from this bookmobile that we dedicate today is that just as this child was imbued with a passion for books, some child today will be equally endowed with a lifelong love of learning.
The bookmobile is a tremendous tool for Crook County, which faces great challenges. Some of those include the need to deliver services across a vast landscape with population centers spread far apart. In the absence of a public transit system, many of our citizens, especially our seniors, are placebound, and the bookmobile may well bring them opportunities for education and enjoyment which they might otherwise be denied. At a time when the sad state of our schools is the subject of Doonesbury cartoons, the bookmobile offers opportunities to supplement the meager resources of school libraries. The possibilities are bounded only by the limitations we choose to place on our own imaginations.
All of this, of course, did not happen by accident. The hard work and generous donations of a number of individuals and organizations made this possible. County Library employee Margo Ashcraft played a pivotal role in writing grants, cheerleading for the bookmobile and shepherding the project to conclusion. Throughout, she was supported in her efforts by the rest of the library staff, particularly Sharon Gowen and Library Director Rick Chrisinger. Key funding partners included the Oregon State Library, the Central Oregon Community Investment Board, which distributes lottery funds and which I am proud to be chairing for the 10th year, the Oregon Community Foundation and our very own Friends of the Crook County Library. Others who gave the project their blessing and thus made it possible include the County Court and the County Library Board of Trustees. Thank you all.
Many of you may have read with interest the governor’s recent announcement of our state’s new marketing slogan. Our new promo line is, “Oregon: We love dreamers.” It is the creation of the fabled advertising firm of Weiden+Kennedy—the company that also gave us the well known Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” Should Mr. Weiden and Mr. Kennedy be in need of future inspiration, they could do worse than a trip to Prineville, where a combination of dreamers and people with a “Just Do It” attitude are making great things happen every day.
Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful event, and congratulations to everyone who had a hand in this latest community success story.
Delivered by Judge Scott R. Cooper
January 10, 2003, Crook County Library
Thank you all for coming today to mark yet another exciting chapter in the growth and development of our community library. The arrival of the bookmobile is a long-awaited and eagerly anticipated event, which makes a powerful statement about just what a unique and wonderful community ours is.
Who else in Oregon has a bookmobile? The list is relatively short, and all the usual suspects are on it: Portland, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Roseburg and Bend. Now a seventh community: Prineville-Crook County joins the list. In doing so, we have proven once again that size need not be a barrier to a community with vision.
For me personally, watching this vision translate to reality is personally poignant. Perhaps not many of you remember that Prineville was served once before by a bookmobile. From about 1968 to 1970, the Deschutes County bookmobile occasionally wandered across the county line to serve the citizens of our county.
As a child, I still vividly remember the wonder I felt at seeing this library on wheels pull up practically at our doorstep carrying opportunities for little minds like mine to expand their horizons beyond the rimrocks that bordered us on all sides.
All these memories came flooding back to me, when I stepped foot in our new bookmobile last week. Ironically, my first thought when I saw it was shock at how small it seemed. For my recollections of the bookmobile of 30 years ago are much influenced by the relative size I was then versus now. I keenly recall my disappointment that I couldn’t reach the top shelves. And for some reason, the bookmobile’s shelving units seemed to stretch forever in my minds eye, offering a dizzying arraying of reading options and chances to explore new worlds.
For me the bookmobile was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with libraries and books—a love affair fostered by mother’s unrelenting insistence on dragging me and my brothers to the library weekly to ensure our self-improvement. All that early training and exposure translated to a passion for books and learning, which remain with me to this day.
Much to my wife’s chagrin, I still insist on stopping by libraries in major metropolitan cities to admire their advanced collections of books, periodicals, research materials and even art collections. Rick to his credit has been more than patient in listening to me when I’ve returned from these various trips with my latest, greatest idea on how to improve our own library.
What I hope for from this bookmobile that we dedicate today is that just as this child was imbued with a passion for books, some child today will be equally endowed with a lifelong love of learning.
The bookmobile is a tremendous tool for Crook County, which faces great challenges. Some of those include the need to deliver services across a vast landscape with population centers spread far apart. In the absence of a public transit system, many of our citizens, especially our seniors, are placebound, and the bookmobile may well bring them opportunities for education and enjoyment which they might otherwise be denied. At a time when the sad state of our schools is the subject of Doonesbury cartoons, the bookmobile offers opportunities to supplement the meager resources of school libraries. The possibilities are bounded only by the limitations we choose to place on our own imaginations.
All of this, of course, did not happen by accident. The hard work and generous donations of a number of individuals and organizations made this possible. County Library employee Margo Ashcraft played a pivotal role in writing grants, cheerleading for the bookmobile and shepherding the project to conclusion. Throughout, she was supported in her efforts by the rest of the library staff, particularly Sharon Gowen and Library Director Rick Chrisinger. Key funding partners included the Oregon State Library, the Central Oregon Community Investment Board, which distributes lottery funds and which I am proud to be chairing for the 10th year, the Oregon Community Foundation and our very own Friends of the Crook County Library. Others who gave the project their blessing and thus made it possible include the County Court and the County Library Board of Trustees. Thank you all.
Many of you may have read with interest the governor’s recent announcement of our state’s new marketing slogan. Our new promo line is, “Oregon: We love dreamers.” It is the creation of the fabled advertising firm of Weiden+Kennedy—the company that also gave us the well known Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” Should Mr. Weiden and Mr. Kennedy be in need of future inspiration, they could do worse than a trip to Prineville, where a combination of dreamers and people with a “Just Do It” attitude are making great things happen every day.
Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful event, and congratulations to everyone who had a hand in this latest community success story.
posted by Scott Cooper | 11:58 AM
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