Josephy Library - a closer look

Further description of the Library and its activities

The Library is housed at Fishtrap headquarters, the Coffin House in Enterprise, Oregon, and is administratively part of Fishtrap, Inc. A separate Library Advisory group will serve under the Fishtrap Director and Board. Fishtrap founder and former Executive Director Rich Wandschneider now volunteers as the Josephy Library Director. Contact Rich at rich@fishtrap.org

The Library is based on some 2000 books and journals from Josephy home libraries in Joseph and in Connecticut. Additional holdings include the works of over 300 writers who have read and talked at Fishtrap, recordings of Fishtrap programs beginning in 1988, and other materials relating to Western and Indian history and to the themes of Western culture that Fishtrap has explored and continues to explore. Some copies of materials from the Josephy Papers at the Knight Library at the University of Oregon are in hand, and others will be added. Additional materials will be acquired through gifts and purchase. A gift policy is in place, and new purchase philosophy and procedures will be developed in the current calendar year.

The Josephy Library is a member of SAGE, a consortium of Eastern Oregon libraries administered out of Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

Shannon Maslach is the Volunteer head cataloging librarian. She and fellow volunteer Collier Nogues have cataloged the first 300 books. If you go to http://eos.eou.edu/, then scroll to "Josephy Library" in the "All Sage Libraries" window, you can go to author (try "Josephy") in the "KEYWORD" window and see what is cataloged. You can also access books by title and by subject (try "Nez Perce"). Clicking on an individual book gets full cataloging information.

The library is non-circulating but open to all.

Special readings and symposia which speak to the mission statement will occur from time to time. Proceedings from such events may be published.

Future plans include a remodel of and addition to the Coffin House. The existing facility will be updated for efficiencies of energy and use, and the library will have its own new temperature controlled space.