Company Profile
Josephine Community Library
Company Overview
The mission of Josephine Community Library is working together to shape the future of Josephine County by connecting our diverse communities to reliable resources, technology, and information.
Company History
In May 2007, due to a dramatic cut in county O & C funding, all (4) Josephine County library branches closed their doors, leaving county residents with no access to any form of public library.
Josephine County, Oregon has been federally designated as an “economically depressed” area. The county (population approximately 82,000 residents) is largely rural, and has been hit hard by the recent national economic downturn. A high percentage of residents live below poverty level (16 to 17.5%), with 25% of children living in poverty. The unemployment rate, currently at 13.3%, is also significantly higher than the state average. The libraries in Josephine County serve not only the higher-than-usual population of senior citizens (20%) without access to current technology for such routine task as filing annual income reports and paying bills, but also the children at the poverty level, a key underserved population at high risk for missing benchmark understandings for reading acquisition. Our libraries provide a critical link in reading interactions that connect home, community and school, and establish a level playing field for economically stratified populations.
In September 2007, committed community members formed Josephine Community Libraries, Inc., a nongovernmental, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reopening and operating the libraries in Josephine County. As of December 19, 2009, all four library branches were reopened.
In Josephine County, residents are served by Josephine Community Library, formed in May 2017 as a special library district. In its first 18 months following formation, the staff and board dedicated considerable resources to the development of new systems to support long-term public administration, such as:
• improving Internet access at all four branches.
• establishing partnerships with community
and civic organizations.
• adopting a maintenance and reserve fund.
In its second full year of operations, Josephine Community Library achieved benchmark goals in library usage, program participation, and technology access, while shifting services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Benefits
vacation pay, sick pay, holiday pay, life/disability benefits, health insurance, retirement benefits, an educational assistance plan, and professional development support