At Orcas Public Library we have a collection of 125 periodicals, including both magazines and newspapers. When you visit the library, you will notice that the periodical section, or the “Sun Room” as we like to call it, is a very busy area of the library! We strive to have the best collection for local interest that space and financial constraints will allow.

My responsibility, as Periodicals Coordinator, is not only to maintain that collection, but also to tune in to public interests and improve our collection to that end. Every year, in the late spring or early summer, I start a process to determine how well our periodicals are being used and to plan which ones will be included in our collection the following year. At this time we also consider magazines that we currently do not have in our collection if we feel they it would be of interest to our library users. The library staff discusses in a July staff meeting what the next year’s periodical collection should be.

You can be a part of this process by submitting suggestions for any magazine that you feel would be of general interest to our community. I take suggestions all year, but to consider them for the next year’s collection I need them by the beginning of June so that I can share the titles with the staff before we make our decision. You can submit a suggestion directly to me in any of the following ways: via e-mail to khiller@orcaslibrary.org; through the mail to Orcas Public Library, 500 Rose Street, Eastsound, WA 98245, Attn: Karen Hiller; or by giving your suggestions to a staff member anytime you are in the library.

Another way you can be a part of this process is to donate the cost of a subscription, either for a magazine we currently have in our collection or a new title, if we feel it would be of general interest to the community AND we have the space for it. It is our goal to make this your library and provide, as much as we can, the resources that will fulfill that goal!

Karen Hiller

Periodicals Coordinator

Orcas Island Public Library