Welcome to the OSU Libraries News and Events page!

OSU Libraries Partnering on Postcard to Public Health Workers Project

OSU Libraries' staff/students are partnering with College of Public Health & Human Sciences staff/students on the Postcards to Public Health Workers project. Virtual or physical postcards are accepted, and there are physical dropboxes at the Valley Library and the Guin Library.

Postcards to Public Health Workers is a way for the OSU community to recognize our public health workforce and how hard they have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask students, faculty, and staff to make/contribute postcards of gratitude. The PPHW team will compile the postcards and send them to all 32 local public health agencies across Oregon.

OSU Libraries Partnering on Postcard to Public Health Workers Project

OSU Libraries' staff/students are partnering with College of Public Health & Human Sciences staff/students on the Postcards to Public Health Workers project. Virtual or physical postcards are accepted, and there are physical dropboxes at the Valley Library and the Guin Library.

Postcards to Public Health Workers is a way for the OSU community to recognize our public health workforce and how hard they have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask students, faculty, and staff to make/contribute postcards of gratitude. The PPHW team will compile the postcards and send them to all 32 local public health agencies across Oregon.

OSU Libraries Partnering on Postcard to Public Health Workers Project

OSU Libraries' staff/students are partnering with College of Public Health & Human Sciences staff/students on the Postcards to Public Health Workers project. Virtual or physical postcards are accepted, and there are physical dropboxes at the Valley Library and the Guin Library.

Postcards to Public Health Workers is a way for the OSU community to recognize our public health workforce and how hard they have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask students, faculty, and staff to make/contribute postcards of gratitude. The PPHW team will compile the postcards and send them to all 32 local public health agencies across Oregon.

Additional week-long laptops available

Got a project to finish up over the Thanksgiving holiday? Valley Library has added 15 laptops to its Chromebook collection of week-long laptops! Visit the Laptop Loanable Equipment page to check availability of all week-long (and 1-day) laptops. Check out the Laptop Policies page to learn about the software installed and the process for on-campus login before leaving campus.

OSU Libraries selects DeEtta Jones to advance organizational development and growth

After a national search, OSU Libraries has selected a consulting firm to work with the Libraries to guide its exploration of ways to build and maintain itself as an organization that respects work-life balance, supports innovation and creativity, and practices reflection and inclusiveness. DeEtta Jones and Associates, based in South Florida, was selected and the partnership with DJA will commence in the fall term of 2020.

“The Libraries were pleased to be able to draw from an extremely strong pool of applicants following a national call for responses,” according to University Librarian Faye A. Chadwell. “We are looking forward to working with DeEtta Jones and Associates in the coming months to help us realize sustainable development in our organization. Their experience framing and integrating equity, diversity and inclusion as a component of change and growth is key to our success.”

DeEtta Jones and Associates is a minority- and woman-owned business founded in 2005. They offer deep expertise shaping practice around integrated and sustainable approaches to equity, diversity and inclusion, and leadership development leading to individual and organizational transformation. For the past 15 years, DJA has worked with libraries as well as library leaders on strategy design and implementation. Recent academic library or higher education clients include: Columbia University, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University, University of Pennsylvania, Code for Science, Association of College and Research Libraries, SPARC, National Library of Medicine, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, University of Southern California, Yale University, and CAVAL, a consortium of Australia’s most prestigious universities.

Funding was generously provided by the Gray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services, which has been supporting innovation at OSU Libraries and Press since 2003.

Anti-racism resources from OSU Press and beyond

Avel Louise Gordly, the first African American woman elected to the Oregon State Senate, begins her book, Remembering the Power of Words, with an epigraph from poet Audre Lorde: “While we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.”

That words have power is a constant undercurrent in Gordly’s memoir and a truth she learned early in her life. “Growing up, finding my own voice,” she writes, “was tied up with denying my voice or having it forcefully rejected.” For too long, black voices have been diminished in America.

Today, amidst the widespread outrage and sorrow over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and other victims of police brutality, it’s time to amplify those voices.

OSU Press stands in solidarity with all who fight for racial justice. To help Oregonians to better understand our state’s long history of racial exclusion, white supremacy, and the efforts at resistance, we recommend the following books that are available at http://osupress.oregonstate.edu/books. After that, there is a short list of other resources and further reading.

Black Voices

Black Woman in Green: Gloria Brown and the Unmarked Trail to Forest Service Leadership by Gloria D. Brown and Donna L. Sinclair

Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Activist, Legislator, and Community Leader by Avel Louise Gordly with Patricia A. Schechter

This is Not For You: A Memoir by Richard Brown and Brian Benson (forthcoming, spring 2021)

History of Black Exclusion and Racism in Oregon

Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in Oregon by R. Gregory Nokes

The Color of Night: Race, Railroaders, and Murder in the Wartime West by Max G. Geier

Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon by Kenneth R. Coleman

A Force for Change: Beatrice Morrow Cannady and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Oregon, 1912-1936 by Kimberley Mangun

Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz, 1942-1957 by Robert Dietsche

The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California by R. Gregory Nokes

Further Reading

Association of University Presses, “Statement on Equity and Anti-Racism”

Oregon Historical Society, “History is who we are and why we are the way we are”

OSU President Edward Ray, “After another tragedy, it’s time to make real change a priority”

Vanport Mosaic, a nonprofit organization in Portland, is a memory-activism platform. Their mission is to amplify, honor, present, and preserve the silenced histories that surround us in order to understand our present, and create a future where we all belong.

Contribute your pandemic experience to archives with project by OSU Libraries

The Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) at Oregon State University Libraries and Press invites contributions from the OSU community to an archival collection that it’s creating to document experiences by individuals and organizations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those interested in participating are asked to submit text documents or digital images using a form available online at https://oregonstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3fp2jMBJwIec4OV. SCARC staff will also be collecting oral history interviews with those wishing to share a more personal account of this unique time in history. This project is similar to those happening at other universities.

Anyone with connections to OSU, viewed broadly, is welcome to participate. This includes OSU alumni, staff and faculty, students, and Bend, Corvallis and Newport community members, as well as siblings, parents, partners, and others connected through OSU programs like the Extension Service.

The materials submitted will be used by SCARC to build a collection for research and exhibitions — and will be preserved in perpetuity in accordance with the department’s standard policies and procedures. Once collected, materials will be organized according to accepted archival principles, described in a dedicated finding aid, and potentially placed online as part of a digital collection or digital exhibit.

The project will seek to collect thoughts, images and other artifacts throughout the entire course of the COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath, and it is expected to last into 2021. 


For more information about the SCARC COVID Collecting Project, see the research guide at https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/COVIDCollecting or contact project coordinator Anna Dvorak at anna.dvorak@oregonstate.edu.

Want personalized recommendations on good books to read? Try the Beavers Read program

With the Beavers Read program, you can receive personalized suggestions on books that you might enjoy reading for pleasure. During physical isolation, it can help to have good things to read — to pass the time, to calm your mind, to help you keep learning. OSU Libraries is here to help you find your next good read — and make sure it is something you can read safely from home.

Here's how it works: To get an email with personalized book recommendations, just fill out the survey at https://oregonstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4GHk9YYcjKaHSfz. Within three days, you’ll receive an email with book recommendations just for you.

OSU Libraries and the response to COVID-19

OSU Libraries and Press, like other units of OSU, is maintaining essential functions onsite to support remote teaching and learning. As of March 20, public access to library spaces at the Valley Library (Corvallis campus), Cascades Library (Bend) and the Guin Library (Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport) is temporarily suspended. The libraries will not be open to the public nor to faculty, staff and students. Building access is being controlled to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. The limited access to OSU libraries will continue into the 2020 spring term for an indefinite period.

OSU Libraries is focusing on digital services and on delivering materials to all OSU students, staff and faculty at all campus locations and for OSU users who are off-campus. For those requests that cannot be met via digital access or delivery, we encourage you to contact staff to make arrangements for pickup. Users can contact Valley Library staff through email, text, phone or chat to make arrangements. Cascades Library users can contact library@osucascades.edu. Users of the Guin Library in Newport can make arrangements by contacting staff at hmsc.library@oregonstate.edu.

For current info on the libraries' services and hours during the response to COVID-19, see https://library.oregonstate.edu/valley-library-hours.

OSU Libraries and Press has prepared a guide with more details about specific services, access to collections, and, most importantly, contact information at https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/coronavirus. We update this site continuously, so please refer to it for current information about operations. 

Resources for Families

OSU’s Family Resource Center has developed a webpage with a lengthy and useful list of resources for families, especially those with younger children, This site is at https://familyresources.oregonstate.edu/COVID-19FamilyResources. It includes a homeschooling guide developed by OSU librarians along with lists for food resources, educational resources, entertainment options, and tips for coping and talking with children.

News and Research on COVID-19

For news and research (articles, databases, and other resources) about COVID-19, go to https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/covid-19.

Protect your possessions while on campus

Don't leave your backpack or electronics unattended in the library or in other public areas on campus as thefts do occur. 

If you’d like to store your items in a secure place at the library, lockers are located throughout the Valley Library and may be reserved at the Circulation counter on the second floor near the library’s main entrance. 

If you see a theft or other crime in progress, immediately call 541-737-7000. For non-emergencies, such as to report a theft after it has occurred, call OSU Security at 541-737-3010.

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