[Libs-Or] PORTALS Council of Librarians Announces Dissolving of Consortium

[Donna Reed]

Organization: Portland Community College 
Media Contact:  Donna Reed, Director of Libraries 
Phone: 503 977-4497
Email: donna.reed at pcc.edu

News Release

For Release: November 3, 2008

PORTALS Council of Librarians Announces Dissolving of Consortium 

Effective November 1, 2008, Portland Area Library System (PORTALS) will
cease to exist.  The PORTALS consortium has been in existence since 1993
and has had a number of functions within the local library community.  

PORTALS was initially funded by the State of Oregon and the M.J. Murdock
Charitable Trust. Its purpose was to create a regional research library
in the Portland-metropolitan area, and for more than a decade PORTALS
provided resource sharing and database licensing for its member
libraries.  In recent years, PORTALS' focus has been on providing
continuing education for the library community.

PORTALS' recent activities include the creation of NWCentral
[www.nwcentral.org], a community-driven clearinghouse of training
resources for the library community in Oregon and Washington that has
been partly funded by LSTA, and sponsorship of highly popular continuing
education events.  In 2005, Portland Community College Library became
PORTALS' fiscal agent and as such has administered NWCentral and
coordinated the classes. 

On September 29, 2008, the PORTALS Council of Librarians voted that its
present organizational structure was no longer necessary to fulfill the
mission of supporting continuing education.  The Council voted to
transfer its governing authority and resources to Portland Community
College (PCC).  PCC Library accepted this responsibility because it is
consistent with the mission of the college to support work force
development and lifelong learning. PCC Library plans to align the
continuing education efforts with NWCentral under the leadership of
Roberta Richards (rrichard at pcc.edu), and to broaden the reach to include
the entire state of Oregon.

PCC Library will work with the NWCentral Advisory Group and others to
develop a plan for next steps.  It is the hope of the PORTALS Council
that this transformation will be the beginning of a new era of library
continuing education and that the effort will benefit all libraries in
Oregon and Washington.
If you have questions about the transition, please contact Donna Reed,
Director of Libraries, Portland Community College at (503) 977-4497,
donna.reed at pcc.edu.

###


Donna Reed
Library Director
Portland Community College
Sylvania Campus
12000 SW 49th Ave.
Portland, OR 97219
Mail:  P.O. Box 19000
Portland, OR 98280
donna.reed at pcc.edu
(503) 977-4497
fax: (503) 977-8398
http://www.pcc.edu/library



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