By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS — As of Thursday, Yachats’ venerable, all-volunteer library is still venerable but no longer staffed entirely by volunteers.
Traci Miller-Altson of Yachats has been hired as the city’s new, part-time library administrator.
The new administrator comes after a comprehensive study in 2020 that recommended hiring a part-time librarian, joining a statewide digital and a countywide library network and tripling the size of an earlier, proposed expansion. The library has joined the state network and the commission is nearly ready to seek bids on a 1,300 square foot expansion and remodel that could cost up to $600,000.
Now, it has accomplished the third recommendation – hiring a library administrator. Reporting to city manager Heide Lambert and the Library Commission, Miller-Altson brings to the job an extensive business background and credentials, but no formal work in library science.
“As of last year, if an Oregon library wants to take advantage of state funding and grants, it has to have at least one, part-time paid employee — preferably (but not necessarily) someone with a master’s degree in library science,” said commission chair David Rivinus.
Although the commission knew that the chances of finding someone willing to come to Yachats for a 10-hour-a-week job were small, Rivinus said, two people inquired about the job — an Oregon librarian who doesn’t live in the area, and a New York state librarian with Yachats connections.
That’s when Miller-Altson expressed interest in the job. She was already a volunteer, lives on Ocean View Drive, literally around the corner from the library and has an extensive business background.
Rivinus said she is “totally devoted to the library” and was recommended to Lambert after interviewing with the commission.
Business background
The new administrator plans to start work by visiting other Lincoln County libraries to learn about bringing Yachats into one of the library district’s consortiums, which would allow patrons to access materials from other libraries’ catalogs.
“Yachats is the only city of its size that is not a part of the county library system,” Miller-Altson told YachatsNews. “I’d like to work in that direction.”
Miller-Altson and her husband — Adam Altson, also a library volunteer and a member of the Parks & Commons Commission — moved to Yachats full-time from Portland in 2017. She worked for Portland General Electric for 14 years in project management, customer service and business analysis. Prior to that, she worked at Portland International Airport for American Airlines for 19 years setting fares and customer service, often working with people who were decidedly unhappy.
“When things start going south for travelers, it’s a challenge,” she said.
In between those two careers, Miller-Altson finished her bachelor’s degree in management and earned a master’s in business administration, both from Marylhurst University, a Portland-area institution.
The Yachats Library Commission has recommended to the city a design firm to plan the expansion of the building on West Seventh Street.
“Having a background in business is going to be invaluable in terms of data collection and organizational skills,” she said. In addition to her professional work, she also headed an all-volunteer organization for a year, which deepened her “understanding of management” for volunteer groups like the Yachats library.
Lambert praised the new administrator’s business and volunteer organizing background, as well as her “positive energy for the city.”
“She really wants to make the library more than just a place for books,” Lambert said.
The library is a heavily used and prized institution in Yachats, dating back to the 1930s and a lending library run by the Yachats Ladies Club. It moved to the 2,300 square foot building on West Seventh Street 48 years ago. Miller-Altson said she hopes more and more people will see the library as a community center, especially as it adds more space with a remodeling project the next two years.
“It’s going to be a larger library in the next couple of years, and being in on the ground floor of that is exciting,” she said.
In the meantime, she reminded residents of two services that the library has added in recent years: the ability to reserve titles online, and to access e-books. Both functions are accessible through the website of Friends of Yachats Library.
- Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com