Steve chats with Stephanie Chase and Hillary Ostlund from Hillsboro (OR) Public Library, about their paths to librarianship, working with a diverse community, going deskless, and blowing up their organizational structure.

Read the transcript.

Stephanie Chase is the Director of Libraries for the City of Hillsboro, Oregon. 

With more than twenty years of experience in local and municipal government, serving communities ranging from the small and rural in New England, resort communities, and some of our largest urban centers on both the east and west coasts, Stephanie is an accomplished innovator and change leader, with significant experience leading organizational design and effectiveness and community engagement initiatives.

Prior to Hillsboro, Stephanie coordinated service strategies to libraries for BiblioCommons, was the Director of Library Programs and Services for The Seattle Public Library, a founding member and inaugural chair of national advocacy organization LibraryReads, and founded the Green Mountain (VT) Library Consortium, a statewide consortium serving 150 member libraries. In addition, Stephanie  currently serves on the Public Library Association’ Board of Directors and the American Library Association’s governing Council.

Hillary Ostlund is a Manager for the City of Hillsboro’s Library department. She currently leads the library’s Cultivate team, focused on staff development, training, and employee engagement. A continuous learner with a background in design thinking, Hillary is always looking for ways to bring inspiration and ideas into the workplace while matching people’s strengths to their work. 

Hillary is extremely passionate about public services – especially the role libraries play in communities – with notable training in leadership and development. She is excited to hold a leadership position at the City of Hillsboro’s Library and loves being part of an innovative and inspiring municipal government.

SHOW NOTES:

Hillsboro Public Library“Going Deskless” [PDF]“No More Silos” [PDF]“Hillsboro unveils tiny library kiosks across city parks”

This episode of Circulating Ideas is brought to you with support from Becky Spratford and RA for All. Readers’ advisory is a core concept for libraries and you want your staff trained by the best. Back in 2007, librarian Becky Spratford was working at a public library and teaching the readers advisory class at Dominican University but wanted to do more to compile her best ideas and save the very best of her students work, so she started a blog, RA for Allas a way to showcase and catalog it all. The blog is now one of the most trusted and respected RA tools available. After 15 years of public service, Becky transitioned into being a full time consultant in 2015 and provides RA training to library workers all over the world. If you are interested in hiring Becky to present at your library’s staff day, your state library conference, or wherever library workers are learning (either in person or virtually), go to raforall.blogspot.com to preview sample past programs, see her current schedule of events, listen to Becky talk about RA service, and obtain basic pricing. Click the RA for All logo at the top of the blog to find her contact information and if you mention Circulating Ideas, you will get 10% off if you book by the end of 2019.