October 14, 2025
Library Advisory Board Minutes: October 14, 2025
For Multnomah County Library Advisory Board
The Multnomah County Library Advisory Board (LAB) met at North Portland Library on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. The meeting began at 5:30 pm.
Board members present were: ALife Allah, David Jarvis, Domiè Newton, Ingrid Jacobson, Joe Marquez, Jose Ramirez Reyes, Kelsey Fong, Kristi Ketchum, Madison Riethman, Megan Parrott, Nikia Kae Solbjor, and Tia-Theo Thompson.
Jade Chan, Kate Fleming, London Sorcinelli, Naomi Margolis, and Taryn Sauer were unavailable.
Staff members present were: Dave Ratliff, integrated services director; Johnette Easter, HR director; Jon Worona, director of innovation & technology; Kim Sutton, MarCom director; Kirby McCurtis, location services director; Maddelyn High, management analyst; Stephen Houser, library deputy director; Elizabeth O’Neill, project management & evaluation manager; and Carly Hollabaugh, research & evaluation analyst.
Jackie Starr, Friends of the Library, was also in attendance.
WELCOME & CHECK-IN
Maddelyn welcomed attendees, who shared introductions and participated in a group icebreaker
UPDATES FROM LIBRARY LEADERSHIP & DISCUSSION
Library Deputy Director Stephen Houser shared recent systemwide updates and highlights from the Director’s Report, including:
- A highlight about a recent event at Capitol Hill Library celebrating coffee and culture from the Horn of Africa. The library had a packed house for the event, now in its fourth year. Free books in both English and Somali were on offer.
- A reminder that Library Director Anne Lewis delivered a security report (video; written overview) to the board of county commissioners on 9/30, followed by a community email update. The library is currently conducting a survey online and at Central Library to gather public perspective on proposed new security measures (specifically, weapons detection). Work on other measures like vapor sensors also continues.
- An announcement that as of October 22, MCL will join Oregon State University as one of two designated Patent and Trademark Resource Centers in the state.
PATRON VOICES PROJECT
Elizabeth O'Neill (she/her) and Carly Hollabaugh (she/her) from the library’s Office of Project Management & Evaluation (OPME) joined the meeting to share an opportunity for LAB members to serve as community researchers, conducting structured in-person interviews at library locations this fall and winter in support of MCL’s upcoming patron survey effort. This project would also entail some initial training, and data analysis work, post-survey.
O’Neill and Hollabaugh provided project details, answered questions, and asked that any interested LAB members email by October 24 to indicate their interest.
BOARD BUSINESS
LAB liaison Maddelyn High reviewed draft LAB committee membership, based on interest folks expressed via email. High will send out an updated roster, as well as scheduling polls for initial committee meetings. After the initial meeting, during which committees should elect a chair, committees will self-organize further meetings.
Several LAB members expressed interest in relaunching a LAB equity committee. Discussion about this committee ensued, including:
- A request to offer an equity lens refresher training to LAB, since the group has several new members;
- An interest in learning about digital equity at MCL; and
- Potentially using the equity committee as an internal consulting function for other LAB committees -- the LAB equity committee could use the equity lens tool to support other committees (membership and finance committees), reviewing their materials/output
High will work with the library’s Equity Manager Sonja Irvin and LAB Co-Chairs to develop a draft vision/potential function for this committee and bring that plan back to the full group for input and discussion.
CLOSING
The meeting adjourned at 6:34 pm.
Respectfully submitted by:
Maddelyn High, director’s assistant
Multnomah County Library, Oregon