PLAYA, Lake County Libraries, and Oregon Humanities invite you to a community conversation about place, power, home, and belonging. “This Place” conversation will take place on Saturday, October 1, 2016 at 4:00 PM at Playa’s facility in Summer Lake, immediately following PLAYA Presents. PLAYA Presents will run from 2:00 - 4:00 PM and feature artists, studio tours, and readings. The Chamber bus will run for free for the event. Call the Main Library to sign up 541-947-6019.
 
The conversation and gathering will be an opportunity for all Lake County residents to explore their relationship to the places they’ve come from and the places they’re in now; to consider how communities have lost or gained land and power, and how this has affected individuals and groups within these communities; to consider the history of neighborhoods, communities, and the state and how those places have changed over time; and to explore options for meaningful engagement with their places and communities going forward.
 
This free public program is provided in partnership with Lake County Library District, PLAYA, and Oregon Humanities. This program is sponsored in large part by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Humanities in the Public Square program and the Common Good initiative. PLAYA is a nonprofit organization supporting innovative thinking through work in the arts, literature, natural sciences and other fields of creative inquiry. 
 
For more information about this free program, please contact Library Director Amy Hutchinson at 541-947-6019 or amyh@lakecountylibrary.org, or Deb Ford at PLAYA at at deborahford@playasummerlake.org or 541-943-3983. For more information about Oregon Humanities, check out their website at oregonhumanities.org. 

for the library building.  Previously, the county library had been housed in a closet at Paisley High School.  She then worked with citizens of Silver Lake to get a library building for that community.  Silver Lake’s first stand-alone library building was donated by the ZX Ranch and moved to a site in the center of town by the local Lions Club.  Later, she worked with Christmas Valley citizens to acquire a large trailer to serve as a library building for that community.  The trailer replaced a small alcove at the Christmas Valley golf course that had been used as a county library station.  She also remodeled and expanded the main library in Lakeview and upgraded the library lighting to make reading easier in the evening.
 
As county librarian, Mrs. Price was the “Google” of the pre-information age.  She and her staff knew all the day-readers by name.  These were the people who spent long hours at the library quietly reading everything from newspapers to novels.  She also got to know generations of junior high students who came to the library in the evening to do their homework.  She even got to know the prisoners in the county jail as they were allowed to come to the library to check out books.  However, her favorite library activity was children’s story hour.  During those periods, she often dressed up as a book character to make the stories come alive for the kids.
 
For over seventeen years, Mrs. Price managed the main library in Lakeview along with the branch libraries in Paisley, Silver Lake, and Christmas Valley plus several library stations located in other communities around the county.  As a result, she knew many people from all over the county.  She always made sure readers got the book they wanted, even if it had to be ordered from the state library in Salem.  Because community libraries were important to county residents, she always got outstanding support from the library board and Lake County’s commissioners.
 
Mrs. Price was very proud of her service to Lake County.  She passed away in 2003.  The Price family presented the sculpture to the library to recognize her service and to thank county residents for their support of the library over the years.
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