Sherwood Public Library sees rising attendance, expands community programs and digital services

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Over the span of decades, city libraries have evolved from offering card catalogues to providing more of a digital footprint, complete with internet services and tech-friendly choices. 

Under the direction of Library Manager Adrienne Doman Calkins, the Sherwood Public Library offers several features, including computer access, board games, Blu-Rays, DVDs, audio books, e-books, and a Library of Things with gadgets and tools. With these amenities, library attendance is picking up as more Sherwood residents discover the library, located on the first floor of the Civic Building, with City Hall upstairs. 

Figures from the latest fiscal year that ended last June show 193,000 annual visits to the library, translating to 457,000 annual checkouts. The value of these checkouts total $7.8 million with 13,500 library cards registered. 

Doman Calkins, who started as library director in 2014, has seen the Sherwood Public Library evolve over the years. 

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done, the changes that have been made – we’ve made changes to make the library more browsable, and easier to find what people are looking for,” Doman Calkins said. “There is a lot more variety and more activities for children – there are a lot more library programs and events that happen in the library, sometimes before we open or sometimes after we close.” 

Doman Calkins says a lot of planning goes into the running of the library and that a Strategic Planning process was launched in 2023. 

“The process this time around was meant to be much more inclusive, compared to how we did it previously,” she said. “We still had feedback from the Library Advisory Board and we still tried to align with the city council goals, getting broad public input through surveys.” 

In formulating Strategic Planning, which is an ongoing process, the library conducted interviews and listened to community members and stakeholders via one-on-one conversations. 

“Some of those were done by myself, some were done by librarian staff,” she said, noting the library met with leaders and educators in the community and that interviews focused on early literacy, serving teens, those with disabilities, and older adults. 

“Those were rising up as themes throughout the pandemic of who needed the most help,” Doman Calkins said. 

The Sherwood Public Library is also looking at more citizen engagement in the months ahead. 

“The thing that the Library Advisory Board and I have been talking about the most is convening community engagement sessions at the library,” she said. “We hope to reach out to people and invite them into our space and have dialogue with groups where we might facilitate some conversations. Largely, our role would be to listen.” 

Among the goals the library is working toward: Participating in a countywide Washington County Cooperative Library (WCCLS) funding and governance evaluation project to identify mid- and long-term funding for the library cooperative. 

The Sherwood Public Library is a member of the WCCLS. 

Other library goals include cross-training staff with tech assistance skills, skill building with AI and using AI tools where appropriate, partnering with the Sherwood Library Foundation to raise funds for an ADA-accessible meeting pod and providing job discovery and volunteer opportunities for people with a wide variety of abilities. 

Adding support for the library, the Sherwood Library Foundation started a few years back to raise money for the library to help supplement city and county funds. 

According to Doman Calkins, “Right now, the foundation is fundraising for a new meeting pod. The meeting pod would be in the library. It would be purchased and gifted to the library and the city, and the public could use it.”  

For the meeting pod, the foundation is fundraising $30,000. The price, however, has increased by 7% compared with last year when the fundraising started. 

The Sherwood Library Foundation differs from the Sherwood Library Advisory Board. 

“The Library Advisory Board is more about advising,” Doman Calkins said. “They’re advising the city council; they’re not involved with fundraising.” 

The Sherwood Library Foundation and Friends of the Library are both 501(c)(3) nonprofits. 

Friends of the Library handles donated materials and sells used books and household items in their ongoing sale to help support library programming. 

These days, the library experience is much different from years past. To address the digital needs of the community, the Sherwood Public Library has 14 public computer stations. 

“It can be so many things,” Doman Calkins added. “The library is a learning place for all different types of learning. We know that it’s really important to be able to interact with one’s neighbors and community members. It’s not just about coming to check out the books, though for many people that’s the most important thing.”