Craig, Lyn

CommonKnowledge

Volume 13 , Number 2
Finding Community: Civics, Cyberspace and Change (Summer 2007) | Pages 23 - 26
July 2014
LEO: Shining Bright on Communities
Lyn Craig
Libraries of Eastern Oregon
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OLA Quarterly is an official publication of the Oregon Library Association | ISSN 1093-7374 | http://commons.pacificu.edu/olaq
Craig, L. (2014). LEO: Shining Bright on Communities. OLA Quarterly, 13(2), 23-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1161
 23
Like libraries everywhere, Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO) seeks to enhance civic engagement, social 
capital and the personal development of 
individuals—recognizing the beneﬁts to 
society of a well-informed citizenry and the 
worth of each person regardless of socio-
economic factors. 
LEO walks a ﬁne balance between 
helping remote, rural libraries maintain 
traditional, internal services and values 
that are reﬂective of the communities they 
serve—while at the same time convening 
connection with distant partners who help 
build community with unprecedented of-
ferings, delivery and promise. 
Maintaining this balance requires rural 
library staff to have passion for commu-
nity outreach, a willingness to explore new 
means of service delivery, an entrepreneur-
ial spirit, and a deep respect for the patrons 
and places they serve. 
By embracing these ideals, public librar-
ies in Eastern Oregon meet this year’s OLA 
presidential theme of “Finding Community” 
to a degree that now serves as a model for re-
mote, rural places elsewhere. As LEO and the 
region’s libraries look ahead, successes to date 
lay a clear path to a most exciting future. 
LEO emerged following two years of 
informal meetings among public librarians. 
The State Library provided funding for 
three years for an in-depth study to explore 
various governance options for a 10-county 
library district, and also provided fund-
ing for a 500-household survey. About the 
same time that initial State Library funding 
became available, the working commit-
tee organized formally in order to secure 
foundation grants for enhanced library 
services. LEO was recognized by the IRS as 
a nonproﬁt in December 2000. 
While there was insufﬁcient public 
support for the 10-county district, survey 
LEO:
Shining Bright on Communities
by Lyn Craig
Executive Director,
Libraries of Eastern Oregon
results indicated that residents value their 
libraries tremendously. Rather than disband 
after the study, board members opted to 
continue working together. Grants had 
been obtained for extended hours at several 
of the smallest libraries, Books for Babies 
programs, and other collaborative projects.
“We just didn’t want to go back to 
working largely in isolation,” remembers 
Jolyn Wynn, Harney County library direc-
tor. “We valued networking and getting 
together. It’s been great to collaborate on 
projects and stay informed as to what other 
libraries in the area are doing. LEO is im-
portant to all of us.”
LEO’s mission is “To create and deliver 
opportunities for 21st century public 
library services in Eastern Oregon.” Today 
LEO represents 47 public libraries in 14 
counties—Baker, Crook, Gilliam, Grant, 
Harney, Jefferson, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, 
Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and 
Wheeler—and is reportedly the geographi-
cally-largest library consortium in the con-
tinental U.S., covering an area of 54,680 
square miles or more than half the land 
mass of Oregon. 
Nearly the entire LEO territory is 
impoverished with many parts of the region 
having among the lowest per capita income 
in the nation. The region’s public librar-
ies continue to lag behind others in more 
populated areas with several operating 
annually at less than $15 per capita, or less 
than the cost of one hardcover book. Only 
a very few have funding for adult program-
ming in their annual budgets. Funding for 
libraries is severely impacted by persistent 
poverty, vast distances between communi-
ties and sparse population. 
After the governance study, LEO staff 
continued on in a volunteer capacity for 
several months. A strategic 
vision was developed—
 24
“Lighting Up the Libraries.” Lighting Up 
called for rural public libraries to become 
revitalized as essential 21st century learn-
ing centers and was adopted by former 
Gov. Kitzhaber as the sixth highest priority 
sustainability project under the Oregon 
Solutions program. 
Subsequently, the Oregon Legislature 
provided funding for a comprehensive, 
on-site assessment of all LEO libraries. 
LEO also obtained grants for region wide 
heritage and technology assessments. Needs 
identiﬁed in the assessments continue to 
guide LEO’s efforts. Adult programming 
was cited as one of the highest needs by 
nearly all of the libraries. 
When the Oregon Museum of Science 
and Industry (OMSI) approached LEO 
regarding interest in jointly submitting a 
federal funding request to bring science 
programs to the region through public 
libraries and schools, the answer was a 
resounding yes. 
While LEO valued the partnership and 
programs OMSI could bring, OMSI valued 
working with rural libraries as the heart 
of the many remote communities where 
the metropolitan museum had not yet had 
a presence. “Our relationship with LEO 
has surpassed all of our expectations,” said 
Dr. Marilyn Johnson, OMSI director of 
research and development. “We’ve been able 
to bring programs to the furthest corners of 
Oregon. LEO managed all of the logistics 
and all we had to do in each instance was 
simply to show up.”
Thanks to the support of the entire Or-
egon federal delegation, over the past three 
years the LEO-OMSI partnership received 
$1.9 million in funding through a special 
NASA education account. Another $1.9 
million request is pending. 
LEO and OMSI named their partner-
ship STARS—Science, Technology and 
Rural Students. The STARS program serves 
students and lifelong learners of all ages. 
To date 246 teachers and librarians have 
participated in professional development 
workshops; 600+ Eastern Oregon students 
have had overnight camp-ins at OMSI; 
telescopes and global positioning units 
have been provided to all LEO libraries for 
patron check-out; OMSI’s portable plan-
etarium has been brought to 42 LEO com-
munities; and portable OMSI exhibits have 
been developed for LEO libraries. 
Additionally, LEO has used STARS 
funding to bring programs (and $15,000 
worth of meteorites) from Portland State 
University’s Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory 
throughout the region. LEO contracted with 
Bob Duke, astronomy columnist for the Or-
egonian to bring his stargazing program to 
nearly all of the LEO libraries. While STARS 
also provided funding for eight videoconfer-
encing units, LEO obtained another federal 
grant for 13 more units. 
Our partnership with LEO will 
allow library patrons to have the 
unique opportunity to examine 
objects ﬁrst-hand, question, 
discourse or chat with scholars or 
each other, and then place those 
experiences in a national context 
through a distance learning visit 
to our collection.
—SUSAN NICHOLS, 
LUNDER EDUCATION CHAIR, 
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
O R E G O N  L I B R A R Y  A S S O C I A T I O N
 25
In 2006 several STARS components 
were adopted as ofﬁcial NASA national 
education policy. NASA also provided funds 
to bring the meteorite program to rural 
communities statewide. LEO is facilitating 
that effort and is working with OMSI to 
expand STARS to other parts of Oregon 
and the Northwest. 
Participation at STARS programs in 
the LEO region has been overwhelming. 
A stargazing program held outdoors on an 
icy evening in January 2007 at Ione (pop. 
330) brought out 74 residents. Meteorite 
programs at Arlington (pop. 524) attracted 
56 attendees, at Fossil (pop. 370) 58 
persons, and at Madras (pop. 5,078) 104 
persons. A March 2007 videoconference 
program on paleontology broadcast from 
OMSI to ﬁve rural libraries attracted more 
than 200 persons. 
“Our normal attendance at an event is 
now between 50 to 100 people,” said Marie 
Baldo, director of the Hermiston Public 
Library. “Our patrons are amazed and appre-
ciative of the quality programming that has 
become available in their own small city.” 
Last year LEO launched a partnership 
with the Oregon Council for the Humani-
ties (OCH) to bring Chautauqua programs 
to libraries across the region. The program 
has been extremely well received. LEO 
provides lodging for program presenters 
and libraries agree to host a Chautauqua on 
their own the following year. OCH recently 
assisted LEO in bringing one of its On 
Principle programs to several LEO libraries. 
A mention of LEO successes on Na-
tional Public Radio early last year caught 
the attention of the Smithsonian American 
Art Museum (SAAM). LEO staff met with 
SAAM ofﬁcials in Washington, D.C. while 
there to encourage continued Congressional 
funding for the STARS program. 
SAAM’s director of education and 
distance learning manager toured the LEO 
region last fall and visited several libraries 
over 860 miles and six days. Launched in 
May ’07, SAAM videoconference programs 
were developed speciﬁcally for LEO com-
munities and broadcast to one library at a 
time for increased interaction between rural 
residents and museum staff. The Smithson-
ian art museum has not previously collabo-
rated with rural libraries and considers the 
partnership as a national model. 
“I think LEO is considered as hope and 
opportunity,” said Crook County library 
director Rick Chrisinger. “So many things 
have happened that wouldn’t have hap-
pened if we were still on our own. LEO 
is meaningful and has become one of the 
most positive things in my life.”
Each year LEO offers professional 
development workshops in library services 
and continues to write grants to serve the 
region’s libraries—such as the recent “Folk 
Art at the Libraries” project through the 
Oregon Arts Commission and ArtsEast, 
and free family museum passes for patron 
check-out. Initiatives for 2007 include early 
literacy, continued professional development 
and increased civic engagement by LEO. 
Last year LEO updated its strategic 
plan. The Ford Institute provided technical 
assistance funding for every board member 
to participate in intense fund development 
training from the Portland-based TACS. 
This year the Oregon Community Foun-
dation is providing technical assistance in 
helping LEO to establish an endowment 
fund that will help sustain library programs 
in the region for the long term. 
“If someone had done this for the 
libraries of Eastern Oregon at, say, the end 
of World War II, the libraries wouldn’t be 
lacking in funds for programs today,” said 
Dick Pugh, scientist and founder of an 
endowment fund for PSU meteorite lab. 
V o l  1 3  N o  2  •  S U M M E R  2 0 0 7
 26
To bring its partners together, in early 
2007 LEO developed “A Sense of Place” 
as an educational platform for program 
delivery. Grants are pending. The themed 
approach appeals to lifelong learners and 
diverse interests throughout the region. 
SAAM is developing programs that con-
nect art and place and in April convened 
a round table of nationally known artists, 
distributed as a live Webcast, to discuss 
what “sense of place” means to them. 
OMSI programs will focus on our place in 
the cosmos; OCH will assist with present-
ers to discuss place from a humanities point 
of view. PSU, other program providers and 
area museums will be involved. 
“‘A Sense of Place’ will provide valuable 
opportunities for Oregonians to engage in 
critical thinking and deep conversations 
that are necessary in the 21st century,” said 
OCH program director Carol Hickman. 
“It’s a stellar roster of partners and OCH is 
proud to be among them.”
Over the past four years, nearly one 
third of LEO libraries has undertaken archi-
tectural studies or has implemented facility 
expansion, renovation or construction. The 
region’s librarians continually think outside 
the box and are leaders in innovation. Ex-
amples: The Oregon Trail Library District’s 
non-mobile bookmobile placed at Irrigon 
while fund raising is underway to establish 
a branch library, and the renowned Western 
History Room at the Harney County Li-
brary, which attracts writers and researchers 
from across the West. 
At Athena, with grant resources pro-
vided by LEO a handful of citizens raised 
$900,000 in just a few months for their 
new library. Baker County Library District 
continues to serve as a regional leader and 
recently opened its espresso shop. Outreach 
services via eye-catching vans for seniors 
and preschoolers by the Hermiston Pub-
lic Library and Wallowa County Library, 
respectively, are exemplary. The Umatilla 
County Special Library District’s Up and 
Away early literacy program has already 
triggered increased skills in reading. Several 
LEO libraries have formed partnerships with 
local museums for archival preservation.
These library and LEO efforts have 
helped build community at home by pre-
senting offerings that reach across a previ-
ously underserved population. Community 
is strengthened, too, by outside partners 
who enhance library services and who value 
the region’s libraries for the important role 
they play in connecting persons and society. 
Through the public library, rural residents 
come together for civic engagement and 
shared lifelong learning experiences. 
“LEO’s mission goes far beyond sup-
porting libraries: it is to provide expanded 
horizons for individuals in our region,” said 
Jo Cowling, La Grande library director and 
LEO chair. “More than making the libraries 
themselves relevant, LEO’s work reminds 
our citizens that education, entertainment 
and communal gathering are vital to liv-
ability in all communities.”
LEO meets monthly. Its board of direc-
tors includes Jo Cowling, La Grande Public 
Library; Aletha Bonebrake, retired librarian 
from Baker County; Jolyn Wynn, Harney 
County Library; Ken Reading, Umatilla 
County Special Library District; Marie Bal-
do, Hermiston Public Library; Marsha Rich-
mond, Oregon Trail Library District; Rick 
Chrisinger, Crook County Library; Pam 
Hankins, library director for Grant, Gil-
liam, Wheeler and Sherman County school 
districts; Megan Brandsma, Grant County 
Children’s Services and Referral; and Sondra 
Lino, Greater Eastern Oregon Development 
Corporation. For further information: www.
librariesofeasternoregon.org. 
O R E G O N  L I B R A R Y  A S S O C I A T I O N


LEO: Shining Bright on Communities

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