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Collection Development Manual > Libraries & collections

Neighborhood Libraries

Scope of collections

Neighborhood libraries, ranging from small to medium size, offer a selection of materials and serve as an anchor for the communities they serve. Customers can expect to find basic collections including the electronic collection available at each of Multnomah County Library's neighborhood branches. Users should find:

Collection descriptions of neighborhood libraries:

Albina

Albina Neighborhood Library serves a densely populated and culturally diverse urban neighborhood in central North/Northeast Portland. It is the smallest branch in the Multnomah County Library system and has a broad but small collection, which is very well used by the community.

Popular subjects and materials at Albina Library include African-American popular fiction, graphic novels, young adult fiction, home remodeling, general nonfiction, music CDs, and children's books. The branch has a small Spanish language collection and materials of interest to the African American community.

Belmont

Belmont Neighborhood Library is located in central Southeast Portland, and is a small branch with a large circulation. The library's collection covers a broad range of practical and popular subjects.

The two major audiences the library serves are students doing their homework and recreational readers. Belmont Library has small collections in Spanish for children and adults.

Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill Neighborhood Library is a mid-sized neighborhood library situated in the southwest corner of Multnomah County.

The library's adult collection is a well-tended mix of general fiction and current non-fiction. New fiction, mysteries and classics have a high usage, as do travel guides, cookbooks and self-help materials. Study guides for citizenship, GED and GRE exams are also in high demand, as are resume and business-related titles. Alternate formats - audio books, music CDs, videos and DVDs - are popular and generally in good supply thanks to collections shared system-wide. The children's and teen collections are rich with a variety of familiar classics, and new titles. The teen collection features audio books, non-fiction, graphic novels, and fiction.

Internet usage in the library continues to increase, especially for job searching and preparing resumes

Residents in the Capitol Hill neighborhood are economically, educationally and culturally diverse. The library is a resource for adult students from PCC and its ESL program, the Nanny Academy, and for local elementary and high school students.

Capitol Hill Library has adult world language collections in both Spanish and Arabic. Children's world language books are primarily Spanish, but include Arabic, Somali and French.

Fairview

Fairview-Columbia Neighborhood Library is located in Fairview, Oregon and provides library service to the cities of Fairview, Wood Village and parts of Gresham and Troutdale. The collection contains approximately 21,000 items and is housed in a 4,000 square foot facility that serves as a small neighborhood library.

Circulating materials focus on popular print and recorded items. With all ages in mind, the collection provides books and recordings for children, teens, adults and seniors to enjoy. A small collection of reference materials, combined with access to subscription databases and websites, supply library users with resources to meet their information needs.

To meet the needs of Fairview's growing Spanish speaking population, the library also maintains a collection of books, videos and CDs in Spanish.

Gregory Heights

Gregory Heights Neighborhood Library's collection consists of general popular fiction and genres, general non-fiction, good collection of Spanish and Vietnamese language materials, general collection of children's materials in all formats and categories, and a good general collection of young adult materials.

The library serves the local neighborhood residents, including a large population of Spanish and Vietnamese speaking patrons. There are many middle-school age children and teenagers who use the collection heavily.

There are both Spanish and Vietnamese language collections at Gregory Heights Library.

Holgate

Holgate Neighborhood Library serves residents of Southeast Portland, and the library's collection consists of popular fiction and nonfiction works.

Holgate Library has the highest population of children within a two-mile radius of any other library in Multnomah County, so many of the library's users are quite young. The neighborhood around the library has large populations of people who speak Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Spanish. The area to the immediate southeast of the library is designated as an urban renewal area.

All in all, Holgate's patrons are a socially, ethnically, and economically diverse group.

Holgate Library has a moderate collection of Spanish language materials, with smaller collections in Russian, Vietnamese, and Chinese.

In response to the changing demographics of the neighborhood, the library hopes to increase its world languages collections, with a particular focus on Vietnamese and Chinese materials.

North Portland

North Portland Neighborhood Library serves residents of inner North and Northeast Portland. The library's collection is primarily general popular fiction and non-fiction for adults and children.

Students, pre-school through high school, are a primary audience. Jefferson High School, Humboldt Elementary and Ockley Green Middle School are all very close to the library. Portland Community College's Cascade campus is located across the street. The neighborhood is very diverse, and includes African Americans, North and East Africans, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Pacific Rim Asians and European Americans. Residents of all ages use the library.

North Portland Library houses the Black Resource Collection: materials by, about and of special interest to African-Americans. This is a multi-media collection comprised of both current and historically significant materials. The library also has a good collection of Spanish and Vietnamese language materials, and hosts regular events and programs conducted in Spanish as part of the library's LIBROS program.

The library is seeking to increase its collection of materials for adults who are learning English language skills, and materials in Vietnamese.

Northwest

Northwest Neighborhood Library is a neighborhood branch of the Multnomah County Library System, located in Northwest Portland. It is a relatively new library which opened in October of 2001. The library's collection consists of general popular fiction, nonfiction, children's and adult materials, and a moderate collection of Spanish language materials for adults and children.

Northwest Library is well used by children and families, young professionals, students at local colleges, and a significant number of homeless people and people with mental disabilities. The library also sees patronage from employees of local businesses and schools, and visitors from other countries staying at four nearby hotels and a youth hostel.

The library is seeking to increase its collection of materials intended to serve the neighborhood's Jewish community, and its collection of children's materials in French and German.

Rockwood

Rockwood Neighborhood Library serves the people of central and eastern Multnomah County, and is located in east Portland. Rockwood's collection focuses on popular fiction and non-fiction for kids, teens, and adults. The library has a strong collection of juvenile materials, numerous audio items, and a smaller collection of periodicals.

The library's neighborhood is home to an ethnically diverse community with a growing immigrant population, including many Spanish and Russian speaking families. The community also includes immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and a number of Anglos and African-Americans. The socio-economic status of many residents reflects the increasing poverty of East County.

Rockwood Library houses the Lifelong Learning Center, a collection of materials and programs that support English language learners, adults seeking to learn to read, and people studying for the GED examination.

The library also has a Spanish language collection and Russian language collection. Use of the Spanish language collection, including children's books, videos and language tapes, is regular and growing.

St. Johns

St. Johns Neighborhood Library in North Portland is located in the heart of St. Johns directly across the street from James John Elementary School and two blocks from the St. Johns Community Center. The library maintains a collection of popular fiction and non-fiction with large sections on gardening, cooking, crafts, car repair, and an ever expanding Spanish language area, and serves a diverse and changing community with a growing Latino population and a smaller yet active Hmong community. Single adults, young families with small children, and seniors are all active users of the library.

St. Johns Library has a moderate collection of Spanish language materials and is working to increase the strength of the Spanish language collection as well as to build a collection of Hmong language materials. The library also houses a small local history collection that is loved and well used by old and new neighbors. St. Johns Library is also a repository for government documents relating to the McCormick and Baxter and Harbor superfund sites.

Sellwood-Moreland

Sellwood-Moreland Neighborhood Library is located in Southeast Portland near the border with the City of Milwaukie and Clackamas County. The library is home to a general interest collection of popular fiction and nonfiction. Neighborhood history, antiques, parenting materials, and books for children and young adults are always popular. Sellwood Library is well used by young families, small business people, kids and teens, and adults.

Woodstock

Woodstock Neighborhood Library is located in a commercial area on the southeast edge of Portland. The library has a strong collection of general popular fiction and non-fiction, including a good breadth of classic fiction and Oregon historical material. Urban agriculture, gardening, and small business information are popular subjects at Woodstock.

The library is used by a large active group of seniors who use the large print collection, adults who are looking for work, and children of all ages who do homework, participate in the Summer Reading program and use the computer resources. Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese are spoken by users who are learning English as a second language. Nearby Reed College provides a diverse group of students and faculty who do research and study at the library.

Woodstock Library has juvenile and adult material in both Spanish and Chinese. The juvenile Chinese collection is geared to the version of Chinese taught at the Woodstock Elementary School Chinese immersion program. A small collection of Russian adult material is available, and the library is seeking to add a collection of Vietnamese language materials in the near future.