Earlier this spring, Angela Ocaña was named Director of the Eugene Public Library. She’s worked in libraries since she was a teen, and came to Eugene in 2017 to work in the library’s Youth Services department.
Speaking with KLCC’s Rachael McDonald, Ocaña talked about the teen room she helped create at the downtown branch.
Angela Ocaña: There's this notion that there isn't a place for teenagers in libraries, and also that there's not a place for teenagers in our society. What do you do when you're 14 years old? You don't have a lot of money. There's nothing for you to do.
I took that as a runway to say, actually, there is something for you to do. I want to help create the space for teenagers that I wanted as a teen. I want to play Dungeons and Dragons and meet friends and do art and, you know, eat pizza and hang out with cool adults.
So that's kind of what was my inspiration is—I want to give kids positive adult role models in their life because that helps to lead to success. And that's the motto that we've taken certainly at the Eugene Public Library. But the piece that fuels my excitement for libraries is giving people who don't find a space in our community and giving them something at the library.
Rachael McDonald: All different types of people come to the library. And so how do you balance accessibility with safety and a sense of it being for everyone?
Ocaña: Yeah, that's really hard, I think, overcoming narratives of libraries too. Right? There are still people to this day who want to shush and say that libraries should be quiet places. When I started, I actually got shushed and I was like, oh gosh, golly.
And you want to know that there's a place for everyone, right? So libraries have become more talkative. There are spaces to build community with different people and that may not resonate with folks who grew up in a library as a quiet place and this is where we come and these are the things we do.
McDonald: You've come into this position at a time when the library is facing challenges because of the city's budget woes, and the library is taking cuts already and is now looking at more cuts. So how are you coping with that?
Ocaña: We've had to look at budget reductions as a way of not removing services, but it actually has made us think and adapt in different ways—kind of like the pandemic did where we had to be more creative and more thoughtful. And, even with our upcoming hours change, where we're not removing our, we're just actually just moving them to different days that are more strategic.
And we never would have really thought about that if we had had budget reductions. We would have just kept going in the same old the same old. And now we're trying to think creatively about how we do programs, how we offer materials. And I think that's our responsibility as people in government. I know people don't always think of the library as a part of government, but we want to do our part around fiscal responsibility and make those really great moves. So our community doesn't really feel the impact of budget cuts. That's the power that we have in that kind of situation.
McDonald: Another challenge that libraries are facing is that there are people out there who want to control who can read what books, and there are book bans. How has the Eugene Public library experienced that? Have there been challenges to books that you've had to deal with?
Ocaña: I sit on the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Round Table, and I was the chair of that for a little while. And so book banning and challenges are really familiar. And, you would say, ‘oh, I live in Eugene. We don't have book bans here. We're really open to people reading,’ and that's not actually true.
One of the largest book challenges came when a book formerly called George—now called Melissa's Story—became an OBOB (Oregon Battle of the Books) book. And it became the number one nationwide most challenged book because of Oregon, and because of people saying 'we don't want our kids to read this foul book.' But, it was a book that had been vetted by teachers and librarians as important and everyone loves the Oregon Battle of the Books.
And so to say that Oregon doesn't have a part in book bannings isn't correct.
And even in Eugene, what we've seen is pieces of silent censorship. So, people not returning a book that they don't agree with, people writing disparaging things into books. And we've seen an increase in the number of challenges last year at the public library. And there's been no book banning. We haven't removed books from the shelf. But we do vet every time somebody asks, ‘hey, why is this material on the shelf?’ which is a responsible thing to do. But when it comes from a place of malice and misunderstanding, whether that's about queer characters, whether that's about strong, powerful women, it doesn't have a place for us in our community. And we have policies that help us ensure that everyone has the right to read.
As a woman—and a queer brown woman—who didn't see myself reflected in literature, I am blown away that kids can now really see themselves reflected in those books. So to think about those books being removed about kids not having the ability to ride a magical dragon and see themselves—like, that's just a real shame.
And at the library, I think that's our hope and our focus is that everyone will find something for them, something that resonates and lets them dream and imagine.
