November/December 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report-November/December 2011

 The Latino Community Council of Redwood City will once again work with the Foundation on a fundraiser and community event on Sunday, April 29. They have renamed it “Kermes Dia del Nino.” This event has many community and business sponsors, including the Library and Parks, Recreation and Community Services.

 The Library Foundation has raised $160,000 towards the goal of $200,000 for books and materials for the Fair Oaks Branch Library. They will hold a fundraiser on February 9 to hopefully finish off the campaign.

 As you probably know, the Governor announced the “budget trigger,” mechanism on for “Tier 1” and a portion of the “Tier 2” budget items. This will result in a reduction of $15,866,000 to the State Library budget for local assistance. Fortunately we have been planning for this, although it reduces our general revenue by $100,000 and impacts our Project READ grant ability to seek matching funds. The recent court ruling abolishing redevelopment agencies will also create undetermined local ripple effects. We are working with the State Library and colleagues across the state, reviewing the current California Library Services Act (state funding) to see how it can be updated and/or amended to bring it into the 21st century. Two effects will be the loss of federal money (had to be matched with state), and the loss of reimbursing those jurisdictions that net-lend materials to other jurisdictions, which may lead to charging non-residents a use fee.

 Our Link+ system went live in December. Link+ is another one of our strategies to streamline time-intensive processes and enhance service. It is a service which allows customers to borrow books from participating public and academic libraries providing access to a single searchable catalog for books. This replaces a staff intensive process and allows our customers access to a much bigger selection of titles that we do not own. 

 In collaboration with the County, the “Food-for-Fines” program ran through December. This year we cleared 900 delinquent accounts, slightly lower than last year. We also collected nearly 30,000 pounds of food, feeding more than 1,000 families for one week each.

By our calculations, around 1,725 people saw Santa at the Redwood City libraries this year. It was a year that marked collaborations: between the library and the Redwood Shores Community Association, and within the library, between adult and children’s programming and the Friends of the Library. There is nothing quite as magical as watching a child get their turn on Santa’s lap to tell him what they want for Christmas. It is a great event that truly does bring in whole families, not just dads, but extensive entourages of relatives. As with Halloween, many people get their first exposure to the customs of Christmas (such as Flying Poodles) because of the library.

Israel Quic – Library Director for the Biblioteca Comunitaria “Rija’tzuul Na’ooj” which is located in San Juan La Laguna, Solola – Honduras visited our library at the end of November. He was part of a group lead by William Cartwright President of the Riecken Community Libraries Foundation. They were touring areas in the US that have a growing number of immigrants from Honduras. Mr. Quic was interested in learning about our programs and we had a good exchange of information and ideas. At the end of their visit Mr. Quick presented us with a donation of books to be added to our collection. 

The Fair Oaks Library started the month of November with a wonderful program to celebrate the Day of the Dead.  Over 200 participated in the “Sugar Skull” presentation by Rosario González. Day of the Dead is a joyful commemoration of ancestors and a celebration of the continuity of life. The program started out with a power point presentation and explanation of how the holiday is celebrated in different parts of Mexico and Latin America. Next we had a demonstration of the art of making and decorating sugar skulls, making pasta skeletons and other Day of the Dead paper crafts. Participants decorated over 150 skulls. A special thanks to Library Board Member Reina Barragan for helping to make the program a success by volunteering her time to help out the participants who were making crafts. 

 Continuing our partnership with the San Mateo County Credit Union on Nov. 16th the library hosted “First Time Home Buyers“, one of a series of Bilingual Financial Education Workshops provided.

 Parents are often confounded in this day and age about how to get their children to improve their grades and their reading skills. And schools are often frustrated in their attempts to convince parents of the importance of reading in their children’s lives. It’s especially difficult for parents for whom English is their second language. Enter the library, of course. RCPL was invited by Hawes School to send a librarian to talk to a parent group about the importance of reading, and how to get kids to do it. In many ways this is an easy task for any librarian as it’s so easy to talk up all the library has to offer, and because we believe so strongly in our mission to connect kids to books. But in so many ways it is a challenge. There is so much competing for the attention not only of children, but also their folks, and so many barriers to true literacy, real and perceived.

 Saw this in the Silicon Valley blog of the Merc today: “I feel that learning with books is as important a rite of passage as learning to eat with utensils and being potty-trained.”

Ari Wallach, whom the New York Times describes as a tech-obsessed New York entrepreneur, allows his daughters to read only print books. Other parents mentioned in the NYT article say they are concerned about things such as the sensory experience of reading a print book, as well as distractions that can come from electronic gadgets. Meanwhile, e-readers and tablets for beginning readers — and sometimes those who cannot yet read — abound. Bay Area-based Leapfrog recently released the LeapPad, a tablet on which kids can read e-books, among other things. In addition, e-readers and Apple’s iPad commonly appear on kids’ wish lists.

From a letter in the Mercury News. In their article “Education reform is key to solving budget crisis,” (Insight, 4/10/11), the authors state that ”teachers in classroom determine the quality of education for California’s children.”

Their premise is only partially correct. The teachers with the far bigger influence are the parents. Between birth and age 16, kids spend only 9 percent of their lives in school, 91 percent of their lives outside of school. Classroom teachers, meanwhile, must teach 25 to 30 students or more, many with wide-ranging challenges and skills. Most parents, on the other hand, deal with just one to four kids.

With fewer than 60 percent of American families reading to their kids in a regular basis, clearly our students’ poor academic performance points to a lack of literacy customs in the home. If even 80 or 90 percent of our state’s parents read to their young kids for at least 20 minutes a day, and made sure that their older kids both finished their homework and read for pleasure each day, our state’s dismal educational ranking of 47 would soar. Teachers would rediscover the joy of teaching, and we would save many millions on tests.

 Teen Center Stories
An overweight teen who was often teased at school found a group of peers that respected him when he came to the teen center.

A group of our teens were worried about a friend who is a cutter.  They brought the issue up with us asking how they can help their friend.  We talked to them about different resources in the community for him as well as let them know that we are available to talk with him too.

Last year our staff noticed that the teens would become rowdy in the evenings due in large part to being hungry and grumpy. Our solution was to purchase cup of noodles for the teens and ask them for a $0.50.

Our staff helps teens with a wide range of homework problems in addition to the traditional problems of math, science, English, and history. We have helped teens post an ad for a car on Craig’s List, sign-up for online courses at the local community college, apply for college, apply for jobs online, and write resumes for jobs.

Our teens tell us that they enjoy coming to the teen center because they have made friends from many different schools. We have homeschooled kids that feel welcome and are able to increase their circle of peers.

The teen center staff is specially trained to work with teens and to build caring relationships. Often our teens come in asking for a specific employee because they have really connected with that person.

The teen center has become a place where the teens feel at home and can be themselves. They have caring adults they know are there to look out for them. We strive to be the family/gang that many teens are seeking.

Project READ Accomplishments- Ending 2011 and starting the New Year! 

• Project READ/Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC):
  The holidays were in full swing at FLIC this December. Families and learning pairs worked tirelessly to complete end of the year projects, papers and of course get ready for the holiday season. It was a busy and exciting time for our learners and tutors. This month students from PreK-4^th grade participated in our new monthly Reading Group facilitated by the Junior League community tutors and several FLIC teen tutors. Students and tutors were all given the same book to read aloud or listen to as they followed along. Students and tutors then worked on a pre-literacy craft to give as gifts for friends or families for the holiday season. It was a fun and engaging activity for everyone. Learners were able to bring home their new book.

 

• Project READ Families For Literacy Story Hour (FFL):

The December Story Hour was a holiday event to remember. Close to 150 families and friends came to join us in singing, dancing, art and more. Cotton Candy Express, the award-winning children’s band, started the night off for us with music and dancing. Children were able to perform for their families up on “stage.” After the entertainment, 15 volunteers including HOBA members, Starbucks volunteers and Junior League members, helped the students take part in our gift-making workshop, where students made presents for their friends and families. While the children were making crafts, parents were “shopping” for books and gifts for their children in our “secret shopping” area that was filled with donated gifts to ensure that all our children has something to open for the holidays. To make this event even more festive, our generous Junior League volunteers gave gift bags filled with scarves, hats and games to our families, and Starbucks brought peppermint hot chocolate to served to all the families. It was truly the gift of giving.

• A Special Holiday Gift…

A Project READ family is especially thankful this holiday season for the generosity of Project READ supporters. Thanks to their heartfelt donations, a Project READ fifth grader was able to receive an eye exam as well as the necessary lenses and frames vital to her continued academic success.  She is so thankful for the glasses and for the help they have given her with reading!

• Celebrating the Gift of Time…

Our teen and preteen tutors completed over 930 hours of community service tutoring in the KIP program during the Fall 2011 semester! Their time has been well spent tutoring the little elementary students.

In recent follow up assessments, designed to note progress and refocus goals, KIP students share the accomplishments in their own words:

            “I’ve learned to do my letters and read more words.” (Dayrin, grade 2)

            “I’ve gotten better at reading, math, science and taking tests.” (Jade, grade 2)

            “I’m better at reading and I’m getting smart.” (Rosa, grade 1)

          “I learned to write my last name…I know how to borrow…I’m getting better at  reading…I’m getting better at writing because I didn’t know about the spaces before but now I do know…I can also count to 100 now!” (Perla, grade 2)

Over 100 KIP learners, tutors and families came together to celebrate this successful semester of tutoring, learning and community service at our annual Gift-Making Workshop & Story Hour Celebration. Lori and RJ of Cotton Candy Express kicked the evening off with festive songs, musical instruments and unparalleled audience participation.  Two of our youngest students, who are typically very shy, actually volunteered to come up and sing along with Lori and RJ right into the microphone!

As Lori and RJ kept the crowd occupied, staff secretly ferried moms, dads, aunties and uncles over to the school’s community room where a group of volunteers had displayed a beautiful arrangement of brand new books, games, and puzzles. These amazing donated gifts ranged from infant board books, puzzles, art books and chapter books, truly ensuring that there be a meaningful and relevant item for each individual.  As the kids enjoyed the music, adults “shopped” for gifts for the whole family, thus ensuring that every Project READ family enjoy the gifts of reading and learning this holiday season! 

This much appreciated shopping experience was made possible by local businesses and kind-hearted donors, and was especially enhanced this year by the generous donations from Ormondale Elementary School of Portola Valley.  As part of Ormondale’s 2011 Book Fair, students and parents made contributions to a fund that went toward books and materials for the families of Project READ.  Back in October, Project READ staff had the opportunity to shop for over $1,500.00 worth of books and gifts to be given out to Project READ families!   The KIP parents were exuberant in their expressions of gratitude and we thank all who made this holiday brighter for these families! Meanwhile, back in the cafeteria, the students caught the spirit of giving as they participated in five crafts specifically designed to be gifts and keepsakes.

On the Ice in Downtown Redwood City!

Our preteen tutors and AmeriCorps members were thrilled with Redwood City’s new Courthouse Square Ice Skating Rink!  In order to reward the preteens for doing double-duty as both learners and tutors this year, Project READ staff and tutors enjoyed an afternoon on the ice. 

 

 

 

 

 

Adult, Families For Literacy and Adult Inmate FFL:
We has 2 new FFL matches. As well as 6 women graduating the poetry class and compiled an anthology. In the men’s facility 6 men passed GED tests and 2 men completed all testing and received their GEDs. 15 books/recordings were sent home to children of mother’s housed at Women’s Transitional Facility.

 

 

 

October 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- October 2011

Sadly, Yvonne Chen, Redwood City Public Library Director from 1995-2003, passed away last month. We owe a lot to Yvonne for setting the stage for our library’s transformation, and for securing the state grant for the Redwood Shores Branch Library.

Lupita Vega, Michelle Acosta, Elizabeth Padilla and Veronica and Karina Nuñez-Chacon had the whole theater cheering at Project READ’s annual Trivia BEE on October 14^th, as they received the Spirit of Project READ Award for their outstanding service. Below is a description of their amazing and continued contribution to Project READ and the KIP program:

Each of these young women started their association with Project READ as elementary students in our programs. They were such curious and eager children who always came to tutoring sessions ready to learn. Upon entering high school, all five became KIP tutors in order to help and mentor youngFair Oaksstudents, as a way to give back to their community and show appreciation for the support they had received. These outstanding young ladies not only tutor in KIP, but they also excel in their academic studies. Because of their hard work, both in the community and in high school, they are all looking forward to attending college in the fall. They are not only an inspiration to us all, but a joy and hope for our future.

I gave a short presentation to City Council about our innovative approach to challenges the library faces: thriving not just surviving; managing a diverse group of volunteers; and making a difference in the reading proficiency of our youth. See the video at http://www.redwoodcity.org/government/council/meetings.html

At the end of this report are indicators from the 10-11 fiscal year. The library’s performance was very favorable compared to other libraries.

The marketing committee of the Library Board has created a tagline and boilerplate for use on posters, flyers, correspondence, emails, etc. Malcolm will use the boilerplate to end his press releases and other media-related items.

Tagline
Connecting Community through Literacy and Learning

Boilerplate

The Redwood City Public Library inspires learning through innovative and visionary programming and services—literacy programs, support for school success, access to technology, safe, inviting spaces for youth and families, and gathering places that connect the members of the community with a love of reading and learning.

 All staff gathered to attend training on safety and dealing with problem customers. This was a good first step in identifying further training sessions as needed.

The Youth Agenda team has taken on a new active partner: Redwood City 2020. We have reinvented what we are doing and are continuing to move aggressively forward to deliver effective youth services. We have new goals which will hopefully be adopted as part of the Redwood City 2020 agenda and will be the basis for a community coordinated effort. We have also adopted indicators that are quantitative measures of our success. We are striving to go beyond coordination and embrace collaboration, sharing goals, resources and responsibility to “move the needle” on indicators that tell us our youth are thriving. Our adopted goals and key indicators of success are:

• Children, youth and families are safe
• Children, youth and families sense of safety (City survey, other after-school program data)
• Children, youth and families are healthy
• Children’s physical fitness (RWCSchool Districtphysical fitness tests in 5^th and 7^th grades)
• Children and youth are succeeding in school and preparing for responsible adulthood
• Children reading at grade level by 3^rd grade; reduction of chronic absenteeism (RWCSchool District data)

We have submitted a Letter of Intent to Apply for a 2012 All-America City Award. By submitting this letter, our community is eligible for training and technical assistance to develop a plan to move the needle on third-grade reading success. A grant application for additional resources will follow. Our collaborative work over the past 20 years places us in a unique position to continue and enhance our efforts to address the areas of school readiness, chronic absence, and summer learning.

Redwood City Library is partnering with the San Jose Museum of Art to provide a series of classes for teens. Project Read and theTeenCenter selected 20 teens to participate. The teens are able to try different art forms and will visit the museum for a personal tour.

The library was represented at the Olive Festival and the PortFest.

Guests sang along and moved in time to the music as gifted young pianists played old favorites at a September afternoon tea to honor Library Foundation donors. The event, held in the community room of the Redwood Shores Library, paid tribute to supporters making contributions to library collections and programs for five or more years. Guests were served mini sandwiches, sweets and varieties of tea, followed by a short program of music and guest comments.  Rouslana Yaroslavsky, co-president of the Foundation, spoke about the positive impact the Redwood Shores Library has had on her family and the Redwood Shores neighborhood. 

In keeping with a space travel theme, charter members of the Foundation’s Benefactors’ Circle were recognized as “stars” at a reception in October at the Fox Theatre inRedwood City.  During the festive evening, guests enjoyed a reception, followed by a presentation in the auditorium by author Mary Roach speaking on her latest book, “Packing for Mars.” A handsome plaque in the shape of an open book listing the names of the 40 charter members of the Benefactors’ Circle was unveiled at the reception. The names represent those who joined during the Circle’s initial years (2009 and 2010). Circle member donate $1,000 or more annually to the Foundation. The plaque will hang in the lobby of the Downtown Library.

There is more going on than meets the eye at many of our programs. A weekly craft program is only in its second month, already a huge success, with regular attendance of anywhere from 65 to 70 people each week. The craft program has quickly become not just something that provides kids with the benefits of using their hands and motor skills plus creativity to make something they are proud to take home, which is most certainly does. It has also become a wonderful family program, with parents – both moms and dads – helping their kids with the craft du jour, and many times begging for the materials to make the craft themselves. It’s also a regular Berlitz class, with primarily English speaking kids being encouraged by their folks to practice their Spanish, and for Spanish speaking parents to practice their English, and non-native English or Spanish speakers getting exposure to both languages! It is a very cool thing to see all these diverse members of our community mix it up over glue and scissors. Many attendees have become regulars, and many bring their friends and neighbors, too. The program is so popular that is has attracted two regular volunteers who add their skills and patience to the scene. And it is a scene! To experience theFamily Place at its most lively, drop by any Tuesday afternoon between 3:30 and 5:00. You will likely find yourself unable to reside diving in and making the craft yourself!

The library hosted four parenting workshops presented by theParents Place of thePeninsula. These were very informative talks on “Being and Making Friends”, “Breaking the Cycle of Bullying”, “Positive Discipline”, and “Understanding Your Child’s Learning Style”. Attendees included not only interested parents but also students from Cañada’s Early Childhood Education program, who got credit for being at the lectures.

The Traveling Storytime program has experienced a bump in interested volunteers. In just the last month, seven positions reading to daycares have been filled. The program’s director has also been training students fromCañadaCollege to present storytimes to the children of the college’s CBET students. These kids are with their parents as they take night classes to improve their English. Win-win for all, and a great new partnership with Cañada.

The library has begun a new partnership with Sequoia Hospital’s Health and Wellness Center to promote library programs and storytimes, to provide library card applications, and, of course, pump the importance of reading with children from the get-go.

Jim Howland’s new storytimes at Schaberg are very popular and well attended. They also have the added benefit that the older children he reads to are now asking him to recommend other good books for them to read on their own. He is able to take the time and care to help these now hooked on reading kids pick books they love.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 assorted Spidermen, ninjas, princesses, cat princesses, ghouls, tiny twin lions, little pumpkins, and even a few game dressed-up parents haunted the library tonight for our big Halloween program. Things started off with the traditional costume parade where we marched inside and outside the library to scare the grownups, and wound up in the Family Place for a concert by the rocking Raytones, featuring Ray the Rhino, who had every superhero and fairy on their feet and dancing. Everyone went home with a treat having had a ghouliscious time. Halloween (and KinderCard) is our biggest night of the year and the excitement as kids come in decked out in their costumes is palpable. Stacey Chan from the Patch came by to film the action. The best part of this year’s celebration were the several families who thanked the librarians as they left, saying that this was their first Halloween in this country. We are so glad they came to the library for their introduction.

Of all such events hosted by other cities since 2006, this years’ One Book, One Community program was the most glamorous, so Redwood City gets credit for putting on a great party. Attendees mentioned the chemistry between the two great speakers and their appreciation for the Fox Theater venue.

Continuing our partnership with the San Mateo County Credit Union, Fair Oaks hosted “The Importance of Building Credit.” This is one of a series of Bilingual Financial Education workshops.

We continue to collaborate with El Concilio and their Bi-National Health Month program.  Children visited the library and listened to stories and learned about exercise, nutrition and healthy eating habits.

Project READ October 2011 Accomplishments

Project READ Kids In Partnership program (KIP) KIP Tutor Learner Matches & On-going Tutor Training

KIP is in full swing at both the Redwood City Public Library and Fair Oaks Elementary School Library! Over one hundred youth, including teen tutors, preteen tutors and elementary-aged students are currently participating in the KIP program! Throughout the week, 56 KIP tutor-learner pairs work together on individualized plans that help students improve reading and homework skills as well as other self-stated learning goals.

Meanwhile, staff and AmeriCorps members continue to work to provide training and support to the teen and preteen tutors.  These trainings allow teen tutors to refine their tutoring skills while also revisiting and reviewing basic skills that help them in their own academic lives.  Teens and preteens have a voice in the content of these trainings as well.  Per their suggestions and self-stated needs, some of the trainings so far have included:

• Being reflective and reporting on tutoring progress
• How to individualize tutoring sessions
• Using learning games to help build students’ specific skills

KIP Health Literacy Component Pilot Program

Based on student feedback and recent budget cuts in our public schools, Project READ has developed a pilot program to meet the needs of students in health literacy.  Students love to do hands-on and outdoor projects, but unfortunately there is little time in the classroom for these activities. This year, we added PE and a KIP Cooking Class to the KIP Program in order to help meet these needs.  They have been a great success so far!

KIP Family Outreach

In October, over 70 youth and parents took learning beyond the library and school as they ventured to the Arata Pumpkin Farm in Half Moon Bay. At the farm, students and tutors picked their own pumpkin, found their way out of a hay labyrinth, pet and fed real animals and experienced train and hayrides. Some brave groups even ventured into the haunted barn!  It is great to have the parents giving so many volunteer hours to our KIP programs!

KIP Story Hour

At the October KIP story hour, over 85 KIP learners, tutors and family members came together for a musical celebration, crafts and books!  Lori and RJ of Cotton Candy Express returned and were better than ever, with their festive story telling.  Families then participated in the book give away as well as the hands-on crafts, which included, cupcake decorating, bookmarks and Day of the Dead cards.

Family Literacy Instructional Center(FLIC)/Families For Literacy Story Hour:

This month our families celebrated Halloween in our monthly Story Hour by making pre-literacy Halloween crafts made with recycled and household materials. Families got into the Halloween spirit by dancing and singing along with Children’s band, Cotton Candy Express! In addition to songs and dances, families also were able to watch a puppet show performance. Each family went home with homemade crafts, self-selected books and fun Halloween memories. Over 85 families and friends joined us for October’s Story Hour, many of whom were dressed in costume. It was a fun-filled evening for all!

Family Literacy Instructional Center’s Community Partnership:

October brought about our second monthly Read Aloud with the Junior League. This month students gathered in small groups with a combination of community tutors, teen tutors and students PreK to 3rd grade. Learners and tutors read a book about jack-o’-lanterns to get ready for Halloween. After reading, tutors and students worked together creating a three-dimensional pumpkin of their own to use as a decoration at home.

Adult Literacy Programs-Inmate Literacy Services:

September marked the beginning of the largest inmate tutor training class to date. 14 men began the class, and all 14 graduated and will become tutors. The graduation of this large class may mark the beginning of a new era; the number of tutors and learners in our program will grow and so will the community jail length of incarceration as a result of the new guidelines for state facilities. The participants will also be with us longer and have more time to focus on meeting their goals and prepare for GED testing and re-entry programs. 11 Project READ learners in the men’s facility are prepared to begin GED testing next month.  They have all been working very diligently with their tutors.  Project READ’s tutors help prepare the inmates for reentry into the community as productive and successful community members! This month Project READ completed a poetry and literacy workshop at the Women’s Transitional Facility.  The poems were compiled into an anthology that turned out beautifully.  Upon giving the women their copies, we read each poem aloud in the small group.  There were tears and lots of clapping.  It was emotional for the women to see their hard work and heartfelt words scripted on paper.  Many of the women said they plan to continue writing poetry and that they’ve learned it can be a “great outlet” for them.  We started a new Poetry and Literacy small group at the men’s facility.  10 prisoners are participating.

Project READ’s Adult-Inmate Family Literacy program:

We wrapped up a Book Club in the Choices program.  The small group read The Pursuit if Happiness.  One of the themes in the book is the relationship the main character Chris Gardner has with his son.  Chris grew up without a father and doubted his own abilities to be a good father.   All of the men in the book club grew up without a father.  Many of them now have children.  The one’s who have children wrote letters recounting what they experienced on the night their first child was born.  The men also recorded themselves reading a poignant book by Nancy Tillman called On the Night You Were Born.  The books will be sent to their children along with the CD of the parent reading the book aloud and a personalized note each wrote inside the book’s front cover.

Community members participating in Project READ’s Adult Literacy Program are meeting with their tutors and making amazing progress.  The learners are coming to the Families Literacy Learning Center in between sessions to work on computer aided literacy programs and also receiving support from the Project READ staff and the AmeriCorps members.  We made 9 new tutor learner matches in October and are preparing to match our new tutors with learners as soon as the new November tutor training class has graduated.   A new tutor wrote: “his zest to learn and his sense of humor make working with him so fun and inspiring!  I usually walk out of the library on such a high!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- September 2011

 We have finished compiling our statistics for the annual state report. These benchmarks are used to compare libraries in the state which then rolls up to the national database in which our past “star ratings” are derived. Although there have been challenges this past year, the library once again performed very well and we should be very proud of ourselves. We will benchmark some of these on a per capita basis to compare with all libraries in the annual report. Some highlights include:

• 1.7 million in annual circulation, a slight increase from last year even though hours at one of our branches was decreased. More than half of the items borrowed were children’s materials.
• Over one million in annual visits to one our libraries, an increase from the past year!
• Our meeting rooms were used 1,820 times by the community.
• 110,000 volunteer hours were worked by our community members of all ages.
• 1,000 different teens used ourTeenCenter this past year for a total attendance of over 10,000. 200 teens gave 1,500 hours volunteering in theTeenCenter, planning and helping out with programs. This does not include the 50 teens that tutor younger kids daily for Project READ.
• 170,000 folks attended 7,500 library programs. Of these, 6,600 were children’s programs with 150,000 children and family members attending! All higher than the previous year’s high water mark.
• Our public computers were used 756,000 times and our website was visited 492,000 times, an increase of 30%!
• We added 26,000 books this past year to the collection.
• Initiatives this year included the annual Kindergarten Card Campaign, Library Foundation campaign forFair Oaks, and many internal organizational efficiencies.

Our top three accomplishments as I see them:

Our library is still thriving instead of surviving as many are. We are excellent at being an innovative, flexible, creative and strategic organization. Even as resources have been reduced, our service levels and outcomes have increased (we have become one of the top-ranked libraries in the country), and community satisfaction remains high. We are adept at looking for efficiencies, using volunteers, focusing on core services and always looking for ways to improve and meet the changing demand in libraries. Our management team and the development of key staff have changed the culture of the library and the library has now been fully integrated into the City organization through collaboration, shared resources and charter changes. We are also leaders in the county consortium and in the profession.

 We are exceptional in making a difference in our youth and families lives and have protected, grown and prioritized resources to all programs that deliver youth services: Project READ’s many intervention programs, Traveling Storytime, expanded children’s spaces, school support and storytimes, theTeenCenter, even creating a family-friendly library in the Shores. We are striving to collaborate through the Youth Agenda and have hundreds of community partners.

 We manage a diverse group of volunteers that help us deliver services at a reduced cost; or actually deliver service for us (local history, literacy tutors); or help raise funds to help lower the cost of services and keep our service levels high. We see the community as our partner and part of the solution, and the library as a gathering place that connects our community (the Shores Library has helped make the Shores community feel part ofRedwood City; volunteers tutoring adults and kids). This helps makeRedwood City healthy, successful and integrated. We do a wonderful job of the complexity of managing 1,400 volunteers!

Redwood City Libraries and San Mateo County Libraries will be participating in the “Food for Fines” program, collecting food for the Second Harvest Food Bank. When customers donate food, their overdue fines and hold fees will be waived. One unit of food will waive the charges on one account. The program will run from Nov 15th through Dec 31^st. Our goal is to help those in need and encourage customers to return long overdue material so that borrowing privileges can be reinstated. Only fines and fees forRedwood City and County items will be waived. Lost or damaged items, collection fee or printing fees are not included.

RFID checkout units are in use at the Downtown and Shores libraries with very positive comments from staff and customers. Schaberg andFair Oaks libraries are slated for early November. Tagging of materials has been completed at both these libraries. When fully implemented, along with self-service payment machines, self check-in of materials, and an automated sorting system, the project will reduce staff time in collecting fines and handling materials, and increase the customer experience.

The Schaberg After-School Program, a collaboration between the Library and Parks, Recreation and Community Services, is in full swing. The program is open to students in grades 1^st through 8^th and provides homework support and assistance, recreational activities, games and snacks, in a supervised and safe environment, for children after school.

Fair Oaks continues to have a wonderful well attended diversity of programs for the community, including a workshop on family finances, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, music and craft programs, class visits to the library, homework help and of course our many weekly storytimes.

In preparation for painting the outside of the Fair Oaks building, the County removed the ivy, trimmed trees, removed large rocks and dead shrubs and power washed the building. Staff has also been working on landscaping and trash issues with staff from the Human Services Agency. 

We are also working with the PD on the persistent presence of folks sleeping and hanging out in the park and plaza at the Downtown Library, causing many trash issues, and an unsafe environment for staff, our teens and our many families who use the library.

Soapbox

The Redwood City Public Library attracted more than 1 million visits last year. Users checked out nearly 1.7 million items, 17 for every resident in the city or our unincorporated neighborhoods we serve. Programs for youth and families, volunteer opportunities, access to computers and meeting room use either sustained or exceeded previous year’s high water marks. We will again be a star-rated library.

Our library continues to meet growing demands for services despite economic challenges, creating efficiencies, attracting quality volunteers and focusing on core services. In addition to providing books and access to information and entertainment, we help people find jobs and grow small businesses. We help families support their children’s educational success. Public libraries such as ours have always walked hand in hand with democratic government. Equity of access to our resources is a most important concern. If information is power, then the public library is the source of that power. Sweeping technological changes have transformed the way people get information. But the library remains a sought-after resource for literacy and learning, quality of life, and programs for children and teenagers.

As use of the public library continues to grow, its impact on the economic vitality of our region is high. Building brainpower — through early childhood reading and learning, which helps grow local workers needed for our companies,  or helping hone new skills and explore new job opportunities for our current workers, linking literacy, learning and community, serving as economic engines in downtown and neighborhoods — contributes to Redwood City’s prosperity and a high quality of life.

The library remains devoted to strengtheningRedwood City’s diverse communities. Hundreds of organizations partner with the library through sponsorships, in-kind donations, and collaborations to present high-quality programs and services to community residents at little or no cost.  A library customer told me that his local branch is his university. It is where young children on the wrong side of the digital divide keep pace with their more-advantaged peers. It is where folks who lack a high school diploma obtain the credentials they need to help themselves and their families succeed. It is a safe and engaging place for our kids. It is where folks get a boost up to succeed and a place of community and lifelong learning for those who are successful. It offers a connection for those who have, to help those who have not. It connects all of us. We build community.

 

 

August 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- August 2011

To end the summer and welcome students back, Fair Oaks Library had a “Back to School Kit” give away and gave away over 200 kits. The kits consist of a bag filled with a pencil box, pencils, crayons, erasers, pencil sharpener and a notebook. The students also received a free book from the Friends of the Library.  

Project READ hosted two Back to School supplies and backpack giveaway getting our children ready for another successful school year! With the help of generous Hands on Bay Area (HOBA) and Starbucks volunteers, we were able to give away brand new backpacks to each of our school-age children. For their Pre-K siblings, little ones were given fun, insulated lunch bags filled with crayons and board books. Students were excited to find the school supplies stuffed inside trendy backpacks. It was exciting to see the kids walking around proudly with their new backpacks n their backs.

 Thanks to the incredible generosity of Project READ donors, over 116 backpacks and 22 kiddies’ lunch bags were given out to KIP families. Students and parents continue to call and express their gratitude, explaining that if it had not been for the story hour and the continued support of dedicated contributors, their children would not have had a backpack or the necessary school supplies this year.

 Families for Literacy: At the annual Back-to-School Story Hour, one of the most popular programs for our families at the Downtown Library, we welcomed 130 FLIC & FFL students and families. We collaborated with the Redwood City School District to find out the necessary supplies for our students to help our learners be prepared for the year ahead. With the help our teen volunteers, we stuffed backpacks for all of our students with the required supplies, including folders, colored pencils, notebooks, erasers, pencils and glue sticks  – all the materials needed to get our kids off to a good start this school year. Project READ was able to give an additional 130 backpacks to our school age children and 32 Kiddies lunch bags to our Families for Literacy children!

A whopping 5,000 readers, including 800 teens, participated in this year’s Summer Reading program, reading at least 600 minutes over the summer for fun prizes. Prizes, and the Summer Reading Club itself, are incentives to keep kids reading over the long summer vacation. A significant amount of research shows that students who don’t pick up a book over the summer suffer “summer reading loss”, with students scoring significantly higher on standardized tests taken at the beginning of summer vacation than they do on the same tests taken at summer’s end. Naturally, the gap is even greater with students from low socio-economic families. The absence of summer school in Redwood City only makes the library’s program more crucial. The libraries also presented twenty-four programs over the summer, from puppets to a whip-cracking cowgirl; seven craft programs; and four programs from the Museum of Folk Arts. Over 2,000 people attended programs at the four libraries.

The library added a few excellent new web-based resources to our collections: Brainfuse Online Tutoring, Bookflix animated children’s books, and a greatly enhanced eBook and eaudiobook collection in our Digital Book Library.

Our Teen Advisory Council has been working with staff to plan workshops that the teens deem most important to them.

We are working with the California State Library, CALIFA, and the Link Americans Foundation to develop a new web platform designed to improve the digital literacy skills of adult patrons looking for employment online. We plan to have this platform ready for prime time beginning in December.

In August we have a break in our regular story time schedule but families at Fair Oaks were still coming in and asking about the programs. To address this, staff started Stories on Demand and 466 children participated. 

 The Shores Library has begun a collaborative effort to have afterschool and weekend advanced, hands-on science, math and language classes for youth in the library. In the works are a science project that would allow students to design an experiment to be conducted by astronauts in the international space station; Math in Action and Science in Action courses using NASA’s SmartSkies; and Fly by Math.

Through PLS, we will be going out to bid on the self-checkin and sorting systems for returned materials at the Downtown and Shores libraries.

Wonderful new lighting has been installed at the Downtown Library that is brighter (one of our biggest complaints) and more energy efficient.

Community events. The library participated in the North Fair Oaks Festival, Target Days, Farmer’s Market, several back to school events, including Hoover School’s first “Nuestra Escuela – Our School” event. The Hoover School event, of which the library is one of the most active partners, drew over 300 people family members.

The Homework Centers opened on August 29 at all four libraries, including the PRCS/Library afterschool program at Schaberg. The Homework Centers provide free, drop-in homework help and a quiet, supervised place to study. Plus crayons, puzzles, games, and activities for those times when homework is done, or a short break is needed!

 Excerpted below from the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, a huge issue especially in light of the latest statistic that 60% of the Redwood City School 3^rd grade children are not reading proficiently at grade level.

http://www.gradelevelreading.net/tools/launching-your-campaign-for-grade-level-reading/

Studies show students who don’t read on grade level by the end of 3^rd grade are four times as likely to drop out of high school. We know if children don’t read well by that point they are less likely to catch up, less likely to graduate from high school, and less likely to find a good job. If we want to close our achievement gaps, reduce our high school dropout rate, and break the cycle of poverty in our community, we need to focus on our youngest readers. Nothing is more basic, more essential, more foundational and more important in a child’s success in life than her or his ability to read well.

Schools cannot succeed alone. We need health providers, social workers, community nonprofits, faith-based groups, business and civic leaders and local foundations to help.

The process of learning, and specifically learning to read, begins long before children reach the school house door. We need to make sure children are born healthy, that parents and child care providers have the latest information on child development, that every child has access to a good preschool program and that we align what we’re teaching in preschool with the early grades. Once kids get to school, we need to make sure they get great teaching, that they attend regularly, and that they keep learning through the summer.

Three challenges contribute to this problem; 1) school readiness – too many young children show up for school not ready to learn; 2) school attendance – too many children in grades K-3 miss too many days of school; and 3) summer learning – too many children in the early grades lose ground over the summer months.

• Only 17 percent of kids who quality for free and reduced-price meals are reading on grade level by the end of third grade.
• Of those kids who are behind, only 26 percent will ever catch up. So that means if you put a group of 100 low-income third graders on stage, initially only 17 would be reading on grade level by the end of the school year, and by high school only another 22 of them would be caught up. That’s a total of roughly 39 out 100 low-income kids.

School Readiness:

• As early as 18 months, low-income children begin to fall behind in vocabulary development and other skills that are precursors for literacy and school success.
• Kids need to be ready not just academically but also socially and emotionally. That means knowing how to sit at circle time and play well with others.
• Parents play an enormous role in getting kids ready for school, as do daycare providers, pediatricians and preschools programs. Simply reading with a child goes a long way toward building their vocabulary and knowledge of the world around them, as well as an understanding that letters and sounds combine to make words and that words combine to create sentences and ideas.

Chronic Absence:

We tend to think of poor attendance as a high school truancy problem but the reality is that one in 10 kindergarten students are chronically absent, missing nearly a month of school every year.

• Even at that early age, attendance begins to affect achievement.
• Poor children are more likely to be chronically absent and more likely to feel the academic effects of missing so much school.
• While some middle-class students learn to read at home, low-income kids often need school to learn to read. And literacy lessons are front-loaded in kindergarten and first grade.

Summer Learning Loss:

• Too many kids are losing ground over the summer, particularly our low-income children.
• While all kids slip a little in math, middle-income kids tend to gain reading skills over the summer. Poor kids, though, lose more than 2 months in reading over each summer in the elementary years.
• A study of Baltimore students found that by the end of fifth grade, low-income students read at a level almost three grades behind that of middle-income students. By ninth grade, summer learning loss over the five preceding years accounted for more than half of the difference in reading skills.” This squanders the hard-fought gains these children made over the school year. And it widens the achievement gap that separates them from more-affluent peers.
• We need to work with our schools, libraries and other community partners to give disadvantaged kids more options for meaningful summer learning.

What to Do:

• The good news is that we know how to actually solve this problem. Grade-level reading is by no means a new issue and there are concrete, specific solutions that can fix this problem…
• That’s not true for every problem we face as a country – some problems feel intractable and unsolvable…But getting kids to read on grade level is NOT one of them.
• We know a lot about what works. We have proven results and great research evidence. Simply put – all of our kids have the potential to do it – it takes quality opportunities delivered consistently over time….
• It takes quality early care from birth to age 3; quality preschool; great teaching; great afterschool and summer programs; ready access to an appropriate selection of books from the library; attending school at high levels… Readiness, attendance, and summer learning are all parts of this continuum of education and care that needs to be in place, from birth to age 8.
• We have been working for a long time to ensure our youngest learners have a bright start. We can’t let budget cuts and changed priorities chip away at the progress we’ve made. Our collaborative effort, bringing together the entire community, will ensure we devote the attention and resources needed so that early learning receives the attention and resources to create the seamless, inter-connected experiences and opportunities children need from birth to 8 years old.

Project READ August 2011 Monthly Accomplishments

The Project READ staff presented Anita Arias and Mariann Jackson with the “Spirit of Project READ” award at the annual Project READ Awards Ceremony and BBQ.  As a learner and tutor pair, they’ve accomplished a lot through hard work, dedication and lots of enjoyable tutoring sessions.  They are a true dynamic duo.  Individually, these two ladies are part of the fabric of Project READ.  They both devote a lot of time to Project READ and always seem to be smiling and enjoying themselves.  Currently Mariann also tutors three other learners.  We are very grateful to Mariann for her dedication to the Project READ goal of a literate community by 2020. 

Fun and educational activities for all ages!  Crafts were a hit at the BBQ.  The children were hard at work on four different simple crafts that their parents are easily to recreate at home with their children for their family craft and reading time.  Over 125 excited children received a board book copy of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Our children ranging in age from pre-school through middle school look forward to receiving their family book and also selecting books at the Project READ story hours each month to build their home libraries.  Many of our parents are practicing and improving their reading skills by reading these books to their children each day.

Project READ Adult-Inmate Peer Tutoring program  -  This month we finished a 27 hour Tutor Training class at the Women’s Correctional Center (WCC) with all 9 inmate tutors successfully graduating the class.   This training is a challenging class that is offered at the WCC.  Each of the women who successfully completed the class will receive a unit of transferable college credit through Cañada College after tutoring their Project READ learner a minimum of 24 hours under the guidance of the Project READ Staff and AmeriCorps member.

 Two of the Project READ learners met their goal this by passing the GED tests and receiving their General Education Diploma.  Their next goal…. College classes.

Project READ was able to provide 40 novels at various reading levels to start building an in-facility library for the women housed at Women’s Transitional Facility.   The Women’s Transitional Facility is a new program of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office designed to help women who are eligible for release or to programs.  Project READ if collaborating with the Sheriff’s office to provide the appropriate educational programs to prepare the women for a successful transition. 

Project READ organized a start up of services to the Women’s Transitional Facility with various small group instruction literacy programs.  The writing group has met 3 times this month, for 1.5 hours each session.  The group has worked on using a journal to organize thoughts, tips and techniques for goal setting, and completed affirmation poetry workshop.  One woman said, “I hope you can find a way to sustain this class for the future.”  Another woman commented the she appreciated the inclusive nature of the class, stating, “We’re all at different ages and different reading levels, but it seems like everyone is getting something out of the group.

Project READ redesigned the Poetry and Creative Writing small group classes that are offered at the Women’s Transitional Facility in addition to the tutoring and other workshops that are current pilot programs offered at the facility.  This class not only focuses on non-violent communication and creative writing, but also builds vocabulary.   The inmate learners are able to include their poetry and artwork in a Poetry anthology that will be created at the conclusion of classes.

Our family literacy programs designed to help our inmate learners improve their reading skills and read to their children while incarcerated is offered at the WCC. The  Mothers & Families learners completed 16 hours of instruction in literacy and nonviolent parenting skills.

We mailed more than 30 new children’s books with recordings of the parent reading the book aloud to the children of incarcerated men and women at the San Mateo County Correctional Facilities.  This program give inmate parents a way to improve their literacy skills, learn non violent parenting techniques and continue to be a part of their children’s lives through recorded books read by the inmate parent and the book sent home to build the child’s home library.  Project READ was also able to provide 45 children’s books for the women to practice during the week and read to their children during child’s visit on Sunday.

And finally an article from the Patch:

Anyone who has been a 15-year-old girl knows: girls can be vicious. Having a displaced curl or shoes that don’t quite match to the latest Teen Vogue issue can lead to high school humiliation.

But for 15-year-old Chelsea Lollar, the only criticism she receives from her peers is that she’s just too nice.

“I want to be different,” Lollar said. “I don’t want to fade into the back, but I want to do it in a special way.”

Lollar’s kindhearted nature led her to become a volunteer with Project READ, a tutoring and literacy program at the Redwood City library. She began tutoring K-8 students this year as a way to make a difference.

“I don’t just like to tutor, I make them my little friends,” Lollar said, “I just enjoy seeing their smiles and seeing them happy.”

The Sequoia High School sophomore has a deep love for reading, a fan of the Hunger Games and the Blue Blood series; she has always been a child of the library.

“They’re like a big family here,” Lollar said of the Redwood City library.

Her father, Stewart Lollar, has worked at the local library for more than 25 years. Her family’s strong enthusiasm for helping others has fueled her desire to become as positive a role model for others as her family has been for her.

“My family always puts other people before them, and I try to do that,” she said.

But Stewart Lollar said he simply got lucky with a child who has a drive to better her surroundings.

“We’re just really lucky she’s someone who just wants to do the right thing,” he said. “She’s her own motivator, we’re just her keepers.”

Stewart Lollar describes his daughter as a very honest person and a concerned perfectionist.

“She’s been a leader since she was too young to even lead anyone,” Stewart Lollar said.

Though the younger students are grateful for Chelsea’s service, many of her friends can’t understand why each week she spends at least four hours tutoring younger kids, Chelsea said.

“They might not understand it now,” she said. “But it gives you a sense of gratitude.”

After each tutoring session, Chelsea said she feels a great sense of happiness from knowing that she has made a positive impact that day.

Though she is not set on which profession she wishes to pursue in the future, tutoring has also made her recognize her love for helping children.

“Working with kids I have so many more options,” she said.

While not tutoring, Chelsea loves to cook and dance for several dance teams throughout Redwood City. She also has an interest in journalism and, of course, working with children.

Though she is only about to begin her second year at Sequoia High, she has worked diligently in her advanced placement classes.

Chelsea is also in the process of learning Spanish in an effort to lessen the language barrier between her and some of the students she tutors.

“I don’t think they need to change for me, I need to change for them,” Chelsea said of learning Spanish for her students.

A mother of one of the Project READ students is currently tutoring Chelsea.

As she continues growing in years and experience, Chelsea only hopes to remain true to herself and to continue to be a role model to the students of Project READ.

“I hope they walk away with the same feeling I do,” she said. “I want them to feel accomplished.”

July 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report-July 2011

From a recent study on the effect of library service and reading improvement (full article at the end of this report): “Certainly, the factors affecting children’s reading scores are many and complex. But by using readily available data about reading scores, children’s services in public libraries, and adult educational attainment, this analysis supports the widespread belief that the efforts of public libraries to promote early literacy pays off in terms of higher reading scores during elementary school. There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between children’s services in public libraries and early reading success at school. In fact, there is even the probability of even stronger statistical evidence in the future, but first we need more ambitious research on the relationship between children’s services and early reading success. In the meantime, the evidence at hand suggests that the services of children’s librarians make a real difference in children’s lives.”

July means Summer Reading is in full swing. More than 2,000 readers, listeners, and parents have signed up at the four branches. Finishers, who have read 600 minutes, have been coming in steadily to claim their prizes and staff have been wonderful at making kids feel special and proud of their accomplishments.

 The high-octane performers at the Summer Reading programs have been pleasing large audiences at all four libraries. Over 1,600 people came to the libraries to enjoy this summer’s entertainers, who were a varied lot, ranging from a whip-cracking cowgirl to a septuagenarian circus performer (no kidding – Jean Paul Valjean was raised in a European circus family and knows a lot of tricks…). Programs end in August, but the Summer Reading Club goes on until September 1^st.

 Library Foundation co-presidents Cheryl Angeles and John Blake presented a check for $60,000 for the Fair Oaks Library to Maria Kramer, Library Division Manager, at the City Council meeting on Monday, July 11. This was the Foundation’s third gift this year to purchase collection materials for the Fair Oaks Library. The total raised in the campaign now stands at $160,000. With $90,000 left to reach the campaign goal of $250,000, Foundation members are calling on individuals, businesses, foundations and community groups to put the campaign over the top.

 The library collaborated with the Sequoia Adult School, giving out new library cards and introducing the library’s many services to a group of people who not only were largely unfamiliar with the library, but who also stand to benefit greatly from everything we have to offer, including the computer lab, the Mango ESL program available through our website and other ESL materials. Like all public agencies, Sequoia Adult School has been hit by budget cuts and was unable to offer its usual slate of summer classes, so the library filled another big gap in our community. The plan is to hold these classes regularly over the course of the year.

 The Family Place got a decorative punch this month in the form of an airy garden hanging from the skylight. Having a hard time picturing it? Then come on down to the Family Place and take a look. See how many beetles and butterflies you can find among the flowers.

 The new café at the Redwood Shores Branch Library is open! It’s called the Sea Link Café, a name which incorporates the Shores Library location on one of the Bay sloughs, and the fun, aquatic theme throughout the building. The Sea Link Café features a variety of convenient menu selections such as sandwiches, salads and pastries, and their coffee is wonderful (it is the same coffee the iconic French Laundry uses). Please stop by and say hello to the new owners, Marielena and Edgar.

 Redwood City, as part of PLS, is one of the partners of the King County Open Source IMLS grant. In the last couple of years KCLS has invested financial resources in the development of their own locally controlled catalog and database—the Evergreen ILS, a project that we will be working on implementing at all of our libraries. This will not only save us money, but will also allow us to customize our interface, much like a website. Currently our system will not allow any local changes to enhance customer service.

 The 8-week Storytime in the Park series drew in close to 600 families. This was a volunteer-based collaboration with PRCS to not only have storytimes in innovative settings, but to get our community familiar with all our wonderful parks in the City. There were lessons learned, but we will definitely do this again next year.

 According to recent research conducted by the University of Washington Information School and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), approximately one third of Americans use free computer and Internet access at public libraries to find work, apply to college, do homework, seek government benefits, access health information and connect with their communities. The demand for easily accessible technology at libraries continues to grow. Recently, IMLS, the International City/County Management Association and the University of Washington Information School released a guide to provide local government leaders with the tools and knowledge necessary to plan and invest wisely in digital technologies that would improve their libraries thereby enhancing their community’s quality of life. “Building Digitally Inclusive Communities: A Guide to the Proposed Framework” compiles best practices with input from more than 100 organizations and individuals with deep knowledge about public access technology and the diverse information needs of  communities.

To download the Guide:

http://www.imls.gov/pdf/DIC-FrameworkGuide.pdf

 We are partnering with the Chicana/Latina Foundation to hold computer classes in our computer labs to provide help to the underserved community of Redwood City. In addition to basic internet and computer training, they also have special programs for inexpensive home internet access and laptop computer ownership.

 New RFID self-checkout machines will be installed at the Downtown Library the week of August 22. They have been very successful at the Shores Library. We will also be installing new payment centers enabling anyone to make self-service payments and purchases without staff involvement. They fully automate the handling of bills, coins, and bankcards, and can return change for unspent funds.  Another component we will be implementing soon is self-service card applications (we already have launched this on our website) for in-house use. Our goal is to make library processes as easy and as self-serve as possible.

 Partnering with the County libraries, we will also be adding a new inter-library loan service which will make requesting items that PLS libraries do not own much easier for the customer, less staff intensive and which offers many more titles to choose from. Again, this supports our initiative to streamline our processes, and at the same time, make them even better!

 New e-reading technology being made available by a grant from the California State Library gives our young children an exciting new way to experience books and learn to love reading. Our families now have free access – at home or at the library – to BookFlix, an online e-reading program from Scholastic that pairs award-winning videos based on some of the best-selling children’s picture books of all time produced by Weston Woods with related nonfiction ebooks from the rich libraries of Scholastic. Children can watch their favorite books come to life on screen, then turning the electronic pages of an ebook to discover real-world facts and satisfy their curiosity about the world around them. With additional pairings set for release in the future, BookFlix will continue to provide fresh content to early readers. Designed to provide a constant interactive experience for young users, the unique features of BookFlix include:

• A “read-along” option that provides word-by-word highlighting so children can follow along as the fiction video is narrated and the nonfiction ebook is read aloud.
• Narrated text and definitions of key vocabulary words to support beginning and reluctant readers, as well as English Language Learners;
• Educational games and activities that encourage children to show what they have learned and to reinforce early reading skills like fluency, vocabulary development and reading comprehension;
• Biographies and interviews that introduce young readers to their favorite authors; and
• Safe, age-appropriate web links to encourage children to further explore topics that pique their interest.

 It’s almost time for the 22nd Anniversary of the Trivia BEE. Please help spread the word to get new teams involved in this wonderful and fun event that rewards folks who know the most utterly useless and most trivial of information. The Trivia BEE proceeds help Project READ serve over 538 children and over 253 adult learners and match 500 learners with 489 tutors! Reading levels are averaging over 3.5 grade levels in one year of instruction and we were also able to provide learning evaluations, eyeglasses, eye exams, educational materials, school supplies and bring awareness to the literacy intervention provided to our community.  

 And finally the article about the benefits of libraries and school success:

Is there a positive relationship between public library services and early reading success? By Keith Curry Lance and Robbie Bravman Marks — School Library Journal, 09/01/2008

 Storytimes, lap-sit programs, and other services for young children are a major part of most public libraries’ missions. And, according to children’s librarians, these services play a significant role in preparing children for success as readers. But is that really true?

Of course it’s true, most readers would respond. Just look at the well-used collections of books, audiobooks, and videos—all chosen to encourage the love of reading—that libraries provide. Or check out the abundance of kids’ programs, ranging from homework help centers to summer reading campaigns, offered at most libraries.

But anecdotal evidence aside, can we actually associate these services with measurable, long-term, positive differences in the lives of children? Do we have real evidence about the impact of our work that we can share with parents, community groups, elected officials, and library funders? Based on a first-time look at new state data from across the country, the answer is definitely yes.

Looking at the data

State-by-state data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in November 2007 provides evidence of a strong, positive link between the amount of children’s materials circulated by public libraries and fourth-grade reading scores on the same agency’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Since 1990, NCES has been collaborating with the 50 states and the District of Columbia to compile basic statistics about public libraries, including the circulation of children’s materials and attendance at children’s programs. (Beginning this year, national public library statistics will be compiled and released by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.) Since the 1970s, NCES has also conducted the NAEP, the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas and at selected grade levels, including reading. Comparison of the reading scores with children’s circulation statistics shows a strong, positive link, while comparison of the same reading scores with attendance at children’s programs demonstrates a positive, if somewhat weaker, link. These findings support the position that, the greater the amount of circulated materials and the greater the attendance at library programs, the more likely kids will do well in reading.

The correlation between reading scores and circulation of children’s materials is an impressive .514 (out of a maximum of 1.000) as well as being highly statistically significant at p < .01. What does this mean? It means that there is less than 1 chance in 100 that this relationship occurred by chance. The correlation between reading scores and attendance at children’s programs is a more moderate, but respectable .288. For you statisticians out there, this falls into the lower, but still significant, level of p < .05. In other words, there are fewer than five chances out of 100 that this was an accidental result.

Books out, learning in

Another way to get a handle on how much children’s circulation and reading scores line up is to look at which states fall in the higher and lower halves of all states on both statistics simultaneously. Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio—the three states whose programs we highlight in the accompanying sidebar—ranked in the top quartiles (the top 25 percent) in both reading scores and children’s circulation per capita.

Of states ranking in the top half of all states on reading scores, more than four-fifths (82 percent) ranked in the top half on circulation of children’s materials per capita (see Chart 1). Conversely, four out of five states (83 percent) in the bottom half on reading scores also rank in the bottom half on children’s circulation (see Chart 2).

The attendance factor

Similar to circulation of children’s materials, the relationship between children’s program attendance and test scores can be better understood by looking at both variables simultaneously.

Of states ranking in the top half on reading scores, seven out of 10 (70 percent) ranked in the top half on attendance at children’s programs per capita (see Chart 3). By contrast, seven out of 10 states (71 percent) in the bottom half on reading scores also rank in the bottom half on children’s program attendance (see Chart 4).

 The role of adult educational attainment

If children have well-educated adults in their lives, do public libraries impact their test scores? After all, better-educated adults—parents, other family members, and friends—probably exert many positive influences on children’s test scores. For starters, they encourage their children to borrow books and other materials from the public library. Plus, they tend to have more reading materials in their homes. Their children also have ready examples of readers, and these parents may take a greater interest in their children’s education. Taking these factors into consideration, is there any evidence that the link between children’s services in public libraries and reading scores is more than coincidental?

In addition to the kind of correlation analysis previously discussed, we also employed a statistical procedure called partial correlation, which weighs the relationship between one variable and another (such as the number of years of education that adults have completed and children’s test scores) while “controlling for”—or removing—the impact of a third variable (in our case, the amount of children’s materials circulated).

When adult educational attainment alone is correlated with reading scores, the correlation is .576, definitely a strong relationship in this context. That strong relationship is also highly statistically significant at the .01 level. But when the effect of children’s circulation per capita is removed, the correlation between the percentage of adults age 25 and up who graduated from high school and reading scores drops to a more moderate .376. In other words, when the impact of children’s circulation is removed from the relationship between adult educational attainment and children’s reading scores, the strength of that relationship is reduced by more than a third. This finding suggests that the impact of parents borrowing children’s books from public libraries accounts for a substantial portion of the impact of parents’ education on their children’s reading scores.

Certainly, the factors affecting children’s reading scores are many and complex. But by using readily available data about reading scores, children’s services in public libraries, and adult educational attainment, this analysis supports the widespread belief that the efforts of public libraries to promote early literacy pays off in terms of higher reading scores during elementary school. There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between children’s services in public libraries and early reading success at school. In fact, there is even the probability of even stronger statistical evidence in the future, but first we need more ambitious research on the relationship between children’s services and early reading success. In the meantime, the evidence at hand suggests that the services of children’s librarians make a real difference in children’s lives.

Author Information

Keith Curry Lance recently retired as the longtime director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library. Robbie Bravman Marks is president of Marks Information, a consulting firm based in Denver, CO.

Three of the Best

Many state library agencies and associations across the nation—as well as individual libraries—are building up their early literacy (prereading/prewriting) programs, bolstering support for services to children ages birth to six. What’s happening in Colorado, Ohio, and Minnesota—states ranked in the top quartile for both 2005 NAEP reading scores and for circulation of children’s materials per capita (see Off the Charts, p. 44)? Here is a brief sampling of some of those activities.

Ripe to read in the Rockies

Since 2004, the Colorado State Library (CSL) has spearheaded an effort to provide the state’s public libraries with enhanced early literacy skill-building resources and support, including staff-training workshops, grant funds, research reports, coalition building, and an e-list that helps practitioners share best practices. Using the American Library Association’s “Every Child Ready to Read @ your library” (ECRR) as its model, CSL encourages public libraries to develop in-house and outreach programs for children and caregivers that emphasize relevant research and prereading skills (print motivation, vocabulary, print awareness, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and narrative skills).

One outcome is the new Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL), a task force whose mission is to strengthen children’s literacy through library services and community advocacy. Made up of representatives from each of the 13 different library jurisdictions, CLEL’s steering committee is planning statewide programs, staff mentoring, a resource-sharing Web site, and advocacy help for early literacy leaders to raise awareness about ways public libraries provide valuable early literacy services.

Training and community partnering are both a focus in Colorado. In suburban Denver’s Douglas County Libraries, Training Specialist Carol Wagstaff leads formal early literacy staff-training programs, coaching the staff to feel confident in their storytime leadership skills and working with them to evaluate how well they are meeting the district’s storytime program goals. Wagstaff reports that the staff “have seen firsthand the difference that this program makes in giving children a successful foundation on which to build reading readiness.”

On Colorado’s Western Slope, in partnership with a nearby alternative high school and a local social services organization, Mesa County Libraries offer workshops designed to help teen mothers develop their children’s early literacy skills. Participants attend seven programs a year and receive at least one free children’s book to take home at each session. Children’s Services Director Maxine Curley says that through this process, library staff members help these young women feel comfortable sharing books with their children at the public library. “We reinforce that the mothers are primary role models for their children’s reading readiness,” she says.

Book-ready in the Buckeye State

Encouraged by Governor Ted Strickland’s interest in early literacy and his creation of an early childhood cabinet-level position, the Ohio Library Council and the State Library formed Ohio Ready to Read (ORTR) to provide public library-based support and advocacy for young children’s early literacy needs. State Library Consultant Ruth Metcalf says the task force wants to ensure that local librarians “have the proper tools in place to implement ORTR.” To provide at least one staff member in each of the state’s public libraries with ECRR’s basic and storytime training, workshops were held for librarians and child care providers. In mid-2008, ORTR also launched a network of regional coordinators to serve as trainers and liaisons.

Services that target specific communities have received a lot of attention in Ohio. And Kimber Fender, executive director of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, says her library’s services to young children and their caregivers have responded to those needs. Based on the results of a standardized readiness assessment given to preschoolers, the library plans to offer additional ECRR-based programs in neighborhoods where young children have shown the greatest need. Fender says libraries across the state are implementing similar programs, though “everybody is doing something a little bit different.”

Minnesota’s early literacy database

Although there’s no overarching public library-based early literacy initiative in Minnesota, individual libraries, agencies, and organizations are actively promoting early literacy services. In 2005–2006, the Minnesota State Library, through its grants, provided the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) with LSTA funds to underwrite ECRR storytime workshops for library staff and early childhood providers around the state.

Minnesota has benefited from a storytime database and a commitment to program evaluation. Hennepin County Library’s (HCL) Early Literacy Storytime Ideas Exchange database (http://www.hclib.org/BirthTo6/ELSIE.cfm) contains more than 600 annotated entries—and it’s still growing. The database offers recommendations for books, songs, and rhymes that emphasize ECRR’s six early literacy skills. Early Literacy Librarian Kelly Wussow explains that “each annotation tells why the librarian chose that resource, ways it is literacy-rich, and how they used that resource successfully.” The library plans to add more audio files of songs and hopes to include videos of fingerplays, too.

Libraries often “don’t have enough information about the outcomes of their programs,” says Gretchen Wronka, HCL’s external relations and partnerships librarian. “We have so little good evaluation about what happens in a public library preschool storytime.” Consequently, HCL has collaborated with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Early Education and Development on several storytime evaluation projects.

June 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- June 2011

The Local History Room is being successfully staffed by volunteers from the archives committee, and is open to the public on a regular basis. The transition has not been easy, but it is gratifying that our community can step up and assist the City with delivering some services in these difficult economic times.

As the fiscal year ends, we are compiling our end-of-year statistics. Even though we reduced hours at Schaberg and other services over the past few years, our total number of  library visits system-wide increased to over 1,100,000 visits. Over the past three years we have seen a 67% increase in library use!

 RFID checkout machines for Redwood Shores were installed on Friday June 24, taking advantage of the fact that the library is closed on Fridays. This allowed all groups to take their time to remove, install, and configure all RFID equipment and countertops. Staff worked closely with the project managers to review all aspects of the rollout for a smooth and successful launch the next day. The project has been well received by both staff and the public. Checkout transactions were a lot smoother and error-free (once our bleed-over issue is resolved) and users can pay fines at the machine itself, or check their account. Downtown installation is tentatively scheduled for September.

 The Shores community, led by the Redwood Shores Community Association and the Library Foundation, have stepped up and raised in a few months, the cost of the piano at the library.

 In collaboration with the county libraries and the County Office of Education, our new Portal Project will provide teachers and their classrooms access to library subscription databases and other online information and services to help students learn. The County Office will help market, develop and train teachers and school personnel. One new online service that will part of this project is BrainFuse, which not only offers homework tutoring for all grades, but allows for group collaborative studying via the internet, apps for mobile devices, and personalized log in which remembers what the student has done to date (much like a real tutor or teacher). BrainFuse also has an adult component with resume writing help in real time and training programs for most popular software.

 Another new service is BookFlix, a fun, new reading program that parents, teachers and their children can access from home. It is an online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. This engaging resource for children in grades PreK-3 will help early readers develop and practice essential reading skills and introduces students to a world of knowledge and exploration.

 Storytime in the Park is a huge success. This all volunteer program drew hundreds of adults and children to Stafford Park and Stulstaff Park who enjoyed stories, puppets and songs. After the story time, many families stayed to enjoy our beautiful parks. Storytime in the Park continues for six more weeks in parks all over Redwood City.

 Fair Oaks continues to amaze with the number of folks that attend programs and how many can fit into such a small space! Over 1,200 kids and parents attended one of the storytimes or special programs offered last month.

 The Library partnered with Parks and Rec’s afterschool programs to bring about 120 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders to the library before the end of school. Everyone either got a library card or had a lost card replaced. They all listened to stories and had a tour of the building, often including behind-the-scenes hits Waldo the Library Turtle and The Secret Elevator. This is a terrific collaboration with the terrific Parks and Rec staff which has turned into an ongoing program.

 Another collaboration with Parks and Rec came in the form of a musical performance at the Downtown Library. The audience consisted of about equal parts kids who thrilled to the Disney tunes, and adults — some kid-free — who couldn’t resist the chance to sing along to Broadway show tunes. By the end of the event, given by Bill O’Neill and his partner who are putting on a workshop with Parks and Rec this summer, everyone was singing and dancing along to “These Are A Few of My Favorite Things”!  

 At the invitation of the Police Athletic League, librarians joined the participants of the Junior Giants program at their kickoff event. Alas, no Giants were present, but kids got to meet Kitty, the huge stuffed tiger that is one of the Summer Reading Club raffle prizes, and parents got the scoop about the library, the importance of keeping kids reading over the summer, and the opportunities to do so at the library. You can see Kitty lounging with his fellow tiger, Stripey, in the hammock over the desk in the Family Place. Yes, those are very original names for a tiger.

 Over 2,000 kids have joined our library’s summer reading club to date, a program that keeps families reading when school is out. Studies have shown that kids not reading for an extended period of time over the summer sets them back tremendously when they resume class. The weekly programs have started off with a bang — literally, thanks to the summer’s first performer, Karen Quest Cowgirl and her thunderous whip-cracking routine. Audiences were jumping out of their seats, and that can be taken literally, too. Eco-tainer Doug Nolan, aka Rock Steady Juggling, incorporated a messages about recycling and using resources responsibly into his wildly  entertaining show. The Museum of Crafts and Fine Arts brought creative programs to all of our libraries. Informative and hands-on, these workshops presented aspects of Mayan, Olmec, and Aztec, West African, Native American, and Asian cultures. Kids loved digging in and making a clay bowl decorated with rice like the 11,000 year old pots found by archeologists, or printing their own story on cloth using authentic symbols from Ghanaian folklore.

 Migrant Ed is the only elementary summer school left in the Redwood City School district, and our children’s librarians gave each student a grand welcome to the library. Staff started with a kick-off assembly, then each class visited the Fair Oaks Library to get signed up for the Summer Reading Club and to get new or replacement cards. Our new motto: “Prevent summer brain drain and read this summer!!”

 The end of the school year brought a flurry of activity, with thirteen classes — just about 400 kids — from Hoover School making the trek to the library. Many lost library cards are replaced during visits, and many an overdue fine forgiven. We have found that long-standing overdue fines are a real barrier to a child’s ability to use the library. Buffing up cards during class visits are a great way to overcome these obstacles and get kids checking out books again. Each student was pumped full of enthusiasm to keep reading over the summer. How pumped? Here are some of the comments in the thank-you cards received:

“Thank you for letting us visit the library and for giving me a new library card! Right now I’m doing some reading with the books that I borrowed and I will do some summer reading. I think I will read more than that.”

“Thank you for letting us visit the library. I had lots of fun. The books I got were awesome. I got two scary books. I didn’t get scared from the books. They were only a little bit scary. I will try to read in the summer. At least, I hope I finish one chapter book. Thanks for the field trip.”

 

May 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- May 2011

 Why our Library, PRCS and PAL volunteer-based programs are so important! This is an excerpt from a piece in the Mercury News:

Making the decision to go to college can be difficult. Some students have been raised simply knowing they will go to college, while others struggle to figure out what they will do after high school. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, by 2025, only 32 percent of the state’s working-age adults will have a college degree. However, economic projections indicate that two of every five jobs (41 percent) will require a college degree. The challenges facing the California education system call for all stakeholders to lend their support. The education system cannot solve these problems alone. Each one of us has an opportunity to lend our skills and knowledge to become a mentor, coach, or volunteer to help get local students on the path to college. For the full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18203375?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

 The library is sponsoring two scholarships to deserving library teens who cannot afford the tuition for Fresh Takes, a new summer program, teaching digital arts to youth. Kids will learn how to tell a story with their videos and instruction will focus on experiencing the various disciplines of shooting, editing, writing and directing.

 Over one thousand different teens visited the Library Teen Center during this past school year! Although about 10% of these kids were regular users, it amazes me how many of our community’s teenagers have participated. We also had over 100 regular teen volunteers giving hundreds of volunteer hours, keeping the place decorated, planning programs, or helping with library tasks. Teens learned how to interact with one another and become friends with people of different ages and from different schools. They repeatedly tell us that they make friends at the center and how important it is to be in a place that is safe, away from gang influence. The Teen Center staff created a welcoming and safe atmosphere, using the CYDI principles that Library and PRCS have been working with, and teens feel they can rely on staff to not only help them with homework but to also help them with confidential problems. The trusting environment allowed one young man to express the stress he feels at home because of his abusive father. A recent graduate from Redwood High School was delighted when staff helped her plan out the classes she would need to take at San Mateo College in order to obtain an AA degree. Our teens help us plan services–when they asked for a course on learning how to budget their expenses, we designed one to fit their needs. The Teen Center, along with Project READ’s KIP program (with over 2,500 teen volunteer hours tutoring younger kids!) and other family services, has made a difference in our youth’s lives and futures.

 Our wonderful Library Foundation has raised over $120,000 for new books for the Fair Oaks Branch Library this past fiscal year which brings the total for the campaign to $160,000!

 The Redwood Shores Community Association will provide $2,500 in matching funds for the effort to raise $12,000 to pay off the outstanding balance on the piano that the Library is currently leasing for the Redwood Shores Library. With the addition of the grand piano, the Library’s Community Room has become a very active recital venue for local music teachers and their students. The piano can also be used for community events (such as Santa Comes to the Shores) and it will likely be used for small concerts at the Library.  Another benefit of having the piano at the Library is that it generates room and piano rental fees which have gone towards the monthly lease payments.

We will be installing new software and servers to be able to update all public computers from a central desktop instead of doing each of our 150 workstations individually. This will save hours of time. We are also migrating our staff computers to City IT support and management for more efficient use of our funds.

 In a successful collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Department, the Library hosted over 150 students from five different after school programs. Parks and Rec arranged transportation, and the library provided library cards, booktalks, stories, a tour, lots of manic fun, and an excellent reminder of everything the library has to offer.

 Learn to speak pirate! In celebration of a certain movie (we love you Captain Jack) and in preparation for one of our favorite random holidays (International Talk like a Pirate Day is just around the corner) the library is offering a new Mango Language – Pirate! Pirate is bold, brazen, chock full of eccentric insults, and incredibly fun to speak. If that’s not enough reason to learn it, we’re offering this course for FREE now through June 30th! Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your parakeet… everybody loves Pirate. Then get your booty over to www.redwoodcity.org/library

Jobseekers and panelists participated in Redwood City’s first Employment Roundtable, sponsored by the Friends of Redwood City Library. The Employment Roundtable offered jobseekers an opportunity to meet Bay Area wide employers presenting on a panel. The employers represented a wide variety of industries and discussed their company, corporate culture, current/future career openings, and hiring processes. The mission of Phase2Careers is to assist the “Over 40″ Worker in the Bay Area with finding new career opportunities through job search/career development workshops, networking/recruitment events, and special career presentations.

 In collaboration with the Peninsula Symphony, on May 7^th , Quinteto Latino performed to a very enthusiastic audience at the library. Quinteto Latino is a group of five (¡cinco!) musicians who play classical and traditional music while explaining musical roots and musical instruments to kids. Several other presentations by other members of the Symphony are planned.

 Sure, teaching sign language to your baby can accelerate language acquisition, decrease frustration, build self-esteem, maybe even raise IQs, but most importantly, says sign language expert, Bill Austin-White, it strengthens the parent-child bond. Redwood City Public Library gave parents two opportunities to learn Baby Sign Language at both the Downtown Library and the Redwood Shores Branch. In all, over 100 participants (babies were slightly out-numbered by adults) attended the programs led by Austin-White. The adults learned about 50 words by repeating signs, playing games, and singing along. The babies just seemed to think it was a Meet-up. This introductory program leads into a class that folks can sign up for through PRCS.

 With the program at John Gill School on May 12, the 2011 Family Author Nights were concluded on a high note, Gill being the newest addition to the FAN lineup and bringing the total of schools reached to 7, up from 6 last year. This year brought author and illustrator Hector Viveros Lee to Hoover School, and local illustrator Elizabeth Gomez to the other six schools. As always, the presenters’ books were given away to students at each school to encourage attendance and literacy. The presentations are bilingual in order to reach parents as well as students, and to make it an event for the entire school community. It was especially wonderful to have Redwood City’s own Elizabeth Gomez present this year. She has a special gift for engaging both kids and adults. Showing slides of her own “very normal” life, she tells how she got there with the support of her father, who never went past second grade, and of her mother, who never went to school at all, because she was a girl. But both of her parents had such a commitment to education for their own children, Elizabeth continues, that not only did she and her four siblings finish college, but her mother went to school with them, too, all the way through a university degree. All thanks go to the Friends of the Library for their generous and enthusiastic support of Family Author Night in the Schools. They have enabled us to increase the impact of this pro-books, pro-literacy, pro-library outreach program from one pilot school in 2008 to seven schools this year.

 In what is becoming an annual event, several classes from Hoover made the trek to the Downtown Library in the last weeks before the end of school. One and all were instantly signed up for the Summer Reading Club and were introduced to Kitty, the gigantic stuffed tiger that will be one of the raffle prizes for kids who read 600 minutes this summer. Lost library cards were replaced and overdue fines forgiven, two of the biggest barriers preventing children from using the library.

 During the month of May, many Traveling Storytime volunteers have completed their year reading to the children in the preschools. It is always wonderful to hear about the children’s progress that the volunteers witness and the enthusiasm towards books and reading that the children demonstrate each and every week! May is also a time when a number of new volunteers are trained and placed in sites that have been on the waiting list. Traveling Storytime is now in its eleventh year. Over that time the program has presented over 9,600 storytimes and made more than 160,000 child contacts. The program continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of its loyal volunteers.

 The annual San Mateo County Reading Association’s Literacy Awards Dessert was held at the Redwood Shores Library. The Redwood City K-1 teachers received an award this year. Over 60 supporters of the Award recipients attended, and there were many, many compliments about the Redwood Shores Library.

 And finally our budget issues are solved! Check out this overdue bill….

 

 Project READ May Accomplishments

 

Project READ’s Adult & Family literacy programs

We received an email this month, in which a tutor offered a rave review of her experience: “I just wanted to say Thanks! For pairing me with [my learner.]  She’s such a super person.  When we first met, she was quite reserved, but after just a couple of months, she’s really opening up and not nearly as timid as earlier on.  She picks up on most things really quickly, and the things that don’t sink in right away she will ask questions about.  She’s also quite the self-starter. Thanks very much.  I really appreciate the thought that goes into a tutoring partnership.”

 Adult Inmate-Peer tutoring program
A 19-year-old learner who participated in one-on-one tutoring and the Poetry small group, increased 5 Bader Assessment (reading) levels in 3 months, quotes “I can say that the single most important thing I’ve learned since being in jail is how to express myself on paper.” With his new writing skills he has found a new non-violent way to express his feelings. Although he is native to the United States, he’s had virtually no schooling past elementary school. He was kicked out of several middle schools and went to one day of high school. All the while, he was being pushed through the juvenile justice system. After having participated in Project READ, he is confident in his reading and writing skills, and has spent a lot of time reading books and writing essays and poetry. I am confident he can successfully pass the GED test, which is his next goal.

 Two prisoners passed GED exams with high scores, one of whom is an FFL parent and current volunteers as peer tutor for Project READ. He works with a tutor and volunteers as a tutor for an emergent reader.

 A quote from a prisoner tutor about his peer learner: “[My learner] says that when writing personal letters, he is sounding out the words before he writes. He also read a book in its entirety and was really excited!”

 Project READ’s Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC)
This month the FLIC student’s prepared for the end of the year by working on a myriad of school projects from essays to dioramas—we even had a whole contingency of second graders who built lighthouses! Our lighthouse project was quite a group accomplishment. Many of our FLIC students are in the same grade or class. This year we had several second graders that needed to create their very own lighthouse based on a book they all read. Teachers, students and staff all came together to help out with this project. The students used donated, household materials to make environmentally friendly lighthouses. Our community tutors were so supportive and encouraging of the students; many of them came in additional days and volunteered additional hours just to ensure the projects were completed. The kids and adults were so proud of the results.

 Additionally, some of our third graders were working on diorama projects from books they had read and/or handpicked with their tutors. It was amazing to see the detail and effort both the student and tutors put into these unique book presentations. The projects reinforced the students’ comprehension of the books. When all the projects were complete, everyone in FLIC was excited to see the end results. It was a wonderful collaborative project.

 What has been tremendous to see over the past few months is the dedication the students and community tutors (both adults and teens) have given. Some of our students came in daily to research and write end of the year papers, often working with the same tutor on their projects. Such strong connections have been built this past month. Tutors and students alike have begun to check in with each other. Our community tutors and staff all waited for the students’ grades with as much anticipation as the students themselves. These are relationships that are life changing. And when Ashley, one of our 5^th graders received 220 points out of a possible 200 on her State Report, everyone celebrated!! Congratulations to our learners and tutors for accomplishing so much together this past month!

 Families For Literacy (FFL)Story Hour
Over 55 friends and family came together for May’s Story Hour where families were all given a “No, David!” book. We also created three pre-literacy crafts based around the theme of No David. All crafts used household items that could be easily recreated at home. Twelve HOBA volunteers and several local Starbucks volunteers also helped us at the event. Starbucks even donated hot chocolate with whip cream to the families—an evening highlight. We also took part in a check presentation from the Starbucks grant we recently received. An exciting night for all!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Project READ’s Kids in Partnership program (KIP)

In May, 85 learners, teen and preteen tutors, parents and siblings participated in a celebratory bowling lesson and field trip at the local bowling alley. Many kids were excited to see that they had exceeded their best bowling score from last year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As May came to a close, the KIP pairs had the opportunity to celebrate all of their hard work and accomplishments at our annual KIP Award Night! Over 175 students, tutors, and family members gathered at the Fair Oaks Cafeteria to celebrate the hard work and achievements of the KIP participants. Lori and RJ of Cotton Candy Express kicked the evening off with songs, dancing and musical instruments for all! Teen and preteen tutors presented each learner with a handmade, personalized award certificate highlighting their specific contributions and accomplishments during this KIP year. Likewise, staff presented each tutor with a custom-made award as a small token of our appreciation for their hard work and dedication. We also honored each of our AmeriCorps members with a bouquet of flowers thanking them for their tremendous work during this year of service!

 

 

 

 

 

 In May we also celebrated the accomplishments of our preteen tutors with a trip to the California Academy of Sciences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These tutors were part of our Thursday KIP at the library. This supportive environment allowed the preteens and the newest KIP learners to get to know the library and the KIP program at their own pace and with the individualized attention of staff and AmeriCorps members. This year, over 50 youth participated in this program and below are some of the tutors’ reflections on their experiences:

“I’m very proud of my little learners. I’m also proud of myself for working with two learners.”

“One thing that I learned as a KIP tutor was to be patient, help little kids and talk to them kindly.”

“I’m proud that I can show little kids how to read and show them things like activities they’ve never done and then I get to see a HUGE smile!”

All in all, the KIP teen and preteen tutors contributed over 2500 hours of community service to the KIP program this school year! Our teens and preteens have become one of the most effective and important keys to the academic success of our little learners.

April 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report- April 2011

A great quote from Michael Cart from his longer article (attached below) on community:

“To me public libraries are a place of light in the darkness, of warmth in the cold, of shelter in the storm, a necessary place of refuge and sanctuary, of a center that holds when things are falling apart, a place of unfettered access to information in its myriad varieties of form and format, a place of equalizing opportunity, a bridge across the digital and other divides, a community, and, yes, a front porch large enough for all Americans, a front porch free to all, a front porch where all can congregate, commune, and discover a common humanity.”

The Santa Clara County Library System has decided to charge non-residents (e.g.San Joseresidents) an annual fee to use the library.Californiafor years has had universal borrowing privileges to allow anyCaliforniaresident to use any public library in the state. To balance out funding inequities, the State Library funded those libraries that had more use from customers outside their jurisdiction (the formula is based on items lent vs. items borrowed).Redwood Cityis a net lender, and we bring in over $200,000 annually. At least half of this funding was eliminated in the proposed State budget, with the high likelihood that the all of it could be gone. One reason forSanta Clara’s new fee is to recoup costs, but the more important strategy is to discourage use which will free up more resources for its own customers. This sets a new precedent in these troubling times, and could result in individual jurisdictions following suit. The San Jose Mercury News article is at the end of this report.

The Gran Kermes, a family-oriented festival, held on Saturday, April 9, in the parking lot adjacent to the Fair Oaks Library drew approximately 500 children and adults. The outdoor festival, hosted by the Redwood City Library Foundation and the Latino Community Council of Redwood City, raised funds for children’s books for the Fair Oaks Library. The event featured music, dance and drama presentations, many games and crafts for children, food booths, and opportunities to donate to the children’s book campaign.  Event sponsors, representing a wide range of businesses and non-profit groups, helped make the event financially successful and an effective community building event.

Library staff hosted a volunteer recognition party for our hardworking Friends of the Library, our Traveling Storytimers and our outreach volunteers. It was announced that Tom Cooper’s name (who recently passed away) will be engraved on the Ursula Ferguson Volunteer Award. Flowers were given out to several volunteers that have been with the Traveling Storytime program for over 10 years and special recognition went to a few Friends who have been here for 25 years, with one very special award to our oldest volunteer who is 93 years old! Library Board Chair, Reina Barragan, spoke and thanked the volunteers for their hard work.

April saw three more Family Author Nights in the Schools, at Taft, Garfield, and Hawes. Hundreds of school kids and their families were treated to Elizabeth Gomez’s wonderful bilingual presentation about the satisfactions of art, education, and family, accompanied by her vibrant artwork. Folks also had a chance to buy used books from the Friends, and get new or replacement library cards, something 46 people took advantage of. One more FAN to go, at John Gill on May 12. And, Family Author Nights are getting famous.Elizabethwas contacted by a library system inMedford,Oregonand asked to give the “same great presentation” she’s been doing inRedwood City. She doesn’t know how they found out about it, but clearly word gets out about something good.

85 people came to view the movie “Papers” the story of undocumented youth. Feedback from the audience was extremely positive. People stayed after to talk with the task force members to learn more about what they can do locally. This event was a joint effort between the Sequoia High School Dream Club and the Immigrant Youth Task Force—part of Redwood City 2020. 

Staff and library teens participated in the Redwood City Teens in Action Showcase, which celebrated the positive and change-making efforts of young people in ourRedwood CityandNorth Fair Oakscommunity. Business and community leaders, educators, families, teens, service providers, elected officials and anyone who works or lives in our community attended to network, and share. Families walking past the Redwood City Courthouse were drawn in by a DJ as well as break-dancers to enjoy the fun and learn about the great work teens are doing inRedwood City. TheTeenCentervolunteers talked with community members about the library’sTeenCenter, the activities they do at the Center, and the many ways they volunteer in the many library programs. One of the volunteers was so enthusiastic about talking with the public that he walked around and offered the Redwood City Public Library promotional Frisbees to attendees and spoke to them about the Library and theTeenCenter. Staff and the teen volunteers also talked with many families about the different types of programs the library has to offer, specifically: Project Read, the Summer Reading Club, theTeenCenter, Traveling Story Time, adult programs and the many other children programs offered each week at the library. It was a great event attended by a diverse crowd of people who came to celebrate and thank our teens!

Amazon and OverDrive announced the Kindle Library Lending program, which enable Kindle customers to borrow and eBooks from our library. This will be launched later this year.

Earlier this year President Obama signed a bill eliminatingReadingis Fundamental’s funding – putting in real jeopardy our ability to provide thousands of free books to our Families in Project READ. We used these funds and in-kind books to solicit additional funds from our corporate sponsors. We remain hopeful that we can creatively support those children and families in the greatest need with books and literacy resources for many years to come.

Fair Oaks Branch Library’s programs were very well attended this past month: over 1,000 folks came to the library for storytimes, class visits, parenting classes, and special programs.

What do Elvis impersonators, hula dancers, paper airplane folders, and stand-up comedians have in common? They are all acts that have graced the “stage” of the Kids’ Talent Show at the Redwood City Public Library this past month! For the last 20 years, Children’s Librarians have been giving kids the opportunity to have their 3 minutes of fame in the annual show. Over the years more than 600 kids have shown off their quite varied talents. This year’s kids showed off their stuff by playing a musical instrument or singing or dancing. Twirling batons, pratfalls and storytelling filled out the program.

Watch a great video by Stacie Chan of the Redwood City Patch:

http://redwoodcity.patch.com/articles/video-redwood-citys-got-talent#video-5736667

RCPL Teen Center

Staff is gathering High School summer reading lists so our library will be ready for our teens reading assignments.

TeenCenterStatistics:

• Total individual teens visiting the center: 231 teens
• Average daily attendance after school: 48 teens
• Regulars (came at least once a week or 4 times): 62 teens
• Teen Volunteers: 39 teen volunteers completed a total of 235 hours

In April we played “Find the Bunny” whereby the first teen to spot the tiny stuffed bunny put their name on the calendar. The teen who finds the bunny the most often during the month will win a prize. To celebrate Earth Days teens decorated flower pots and planted seeds. In celebration of Easter the teens created a Bunny Piñata and took part in an Easter Egg Hunt. At the end of the month teen participated inBattleof the Sexes—Revenge, in which we pit the boys versus the girls to see who reigned supreme. In a collaborative effort with Redwood City 2020, the Immigrant Youth Task force and the Sequoia High School Dream Club, the library hosted “Papers” a documentary about undocumented youth in the community and the struggles they face.  Finally, teen center volunteers participated in the Teens in Action Showcase at the Redwood City Courthouse Square.

Project READ Kids in Partnership (KIP) Tutors Head Across the Bay for a College Trip

Earlier this school year, KIP tutors were polled on colleges they would like to visit.  Popular consensus selected UC Berkeley as the destination of choice. During spring break this month, 17 tutors boarded the bus and headed across the bay to tour UC Berkeley and had a question answer period with current students and recent grads. A KIP mom also approached us saying that she had always heard of Berkeley, but had never had the opportunity to go. She arranged childcare for her younger children and came along for the tour!

KIP Story Hour Celebration at Fair Oaks Community Library

During spring break, over 65 KIP learners, tutors and families came together at the monthly KIP Story Hour Celebration. This month, participants enjoyed an enchanting performance by puppeteer, Nick Barrone. The audience was especially amazed by his behind-the-scenes look at how a one-man show can involve so many characters and special effects! We were especially honored to welcome special guests and volunteers from De Anza College. These five college students assisted with Earth-Day-themed crafts and a special book give away of Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.

On-going KIP Tutoring, Training and Workshops

Meanwhile, back at the library, 110 KIP learners and tutors continued to meet to work on homework, reading and language development, and library skills. 

Our teen and preteen tutors continued to receive on-going trainings and workshops.  During April, these topics included:

• Movie making – capturing the KIP tutoring experience – finalize and wrap up!
• Strategies for reviewing place value
• Games that incorporate money sense
• How to create and play reading comprehension games
• Painting and using objects to create texture, inspired by Eric Carle’s artwork
• Brainstorming individualized awards/appreciations for learners

Project READ’s Adult Literacy Program

Thanks to the generous donations received this year we were able to help a long-time learner get her first pair of prescription glasses. For the past 5 years she’s been using reading glasses, but recently told her tutor that she gets headaches and dreads having to read because her eyes hurt so much. Without vision insurance she’s been unable to get glasses or have an eye exam. Now for the first time in years, she’s able to see!!  Progressive lenses have become her new best friend. This same learner, whose first language is Spanish, recently started teaching English literacy classes on a volunteer basis to parents at her children’s school. The participants in the class have little to no English skills. She’s been doing so well that the school has now offered to pay her to continue teaching the class.

Another woman was brought to tears of happiness after her re-assessment. She increased 2.5 reading levels. She’s been in the U.S. for almost 40 years and had not been able to functionally read or write. She is unable to read or write in her primary language. 

Since starting with her tutor 2 years ago, she says things have been going “really good” and her skills have improved tremendously. She now writes brief emails with simple text.  She also is able to read and write more at work. “At work everyone around can tell. Now that her skills have improved so much, she’s gotten a promotion at her job. My supervisors are very happy.”  She went on to say, “I wish other people could come and share in this with me. Thank God for Project READ!”

Project READ Adult-Inmate

Seven men began participating in Poetry Small Group this month. The class marks the first formal poetry instruction and practice for the participants. Several of the men write hip-hop and rap songs but were not familiar with the various styles and types of poetry. These poetry exercises are helping to prepare the inmates for the writing portion of their GED test and they are also able to share their poetry with their children and family. After each group of new poets graduate they are able to submit their favorite poem to the Project READ Poetry Graduation Book.

Adult-Inmate Families for Literacy

13 men completed the Fathers & Families in Literacy small group.  We recorded each of the men reading a book. We sent the CD recording and a new copy of the book to the children’s homes, along with a personalized message each father wrote for his child. 

A learner who improved 3.5 reading levels in 4 months passed 2 GED tests this month. Before starting with Project READ, he was unable to pass any of the 5 subject-area tests. Now, he’s passed two and scored extra points on both.

Starbucks Community Partner of Project READ

We are so thrilled to have our local Starbucks branches contribute to Project READ in various ways from tutoring, donating supplies and offering hot chocolate to our families each month at Story Hour. This month the president of Starbucks came to the Bay Area and awarded one of our Starbucks tutors and volunteers with a Community Service Award for her work with Project READ.  Additionally, Project READ received an $800 grant for the community hours our volunteer Kelsey has worked with us. Starbucks also recently recognized Project READ in their monthly bulletin. We are extremely grateful and appreciative of our special relationship with our local and now national Starbucks partners. Thank you Starbucks!

Project READ’s Families for Literacy Story hour

April brought in a lot of families and friends to Story Hour. We celebrated Earth Day, Easter and prepared for Mother’s Day this past month, with recycled crafts that the families could give as gifts. Chuck Ashton performed his famed “Yuck,” as well as a puppet show. Hands on Bay Area volunteers (HOBA) came to volunteer again this month—a huge help to us! Over 100 learners and their families shared in this fun-filled event!

Project READ’s Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC):

This month our students have been working very hard preparing for their STAR tests. Many of our students and tutors worked together even over the break preparing for the California State Test. As a much deserved study break our youth are helping us prepare for our annual BBQ by creating crafts. After they complete a craft project focused around the author Eric Carle, they are given the opportunity to “donate” their creation to Project READ, so that we can display their art at the BBQ.  It is a great project to help build community awareness and the importance of giving back.

We have welcomed several new families to FLIC this month as well as new community and teen tutors. We are always excited to have more people join our community. One of our Preteen tutors took on the role of welcoming a new community tutor, showing our adult tutor the ropes, explaining how our computers work and making the new tutor feel welcome. 

Santa Clara County Library system to begin $80 annual fee for non-residents

By Lisa Fernandez

Posted: 05/04/2011 07:33:19 AM PDT

The best part about public libraries is they’re free.

But starting July 1, thousands of South Bay residents will have to shell out $80 a year to check out books from libraries run by Santa Clara County.

Library cards will remain free for people who live in the cities served by county libraries. But if you live in Los Gatos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara or Sunnyvale, you’ll have to pay to get a county library card — or hope your own city library has enough Hemingway and Harry Potter.

“Of course, people aren’t going to like this,” Santa Clara County Librarian Melinda Cervantes said. “It’s very complex. And it’s going to make a lot of people unhappy.”

Facing a state funding cut, the 11-member Santa Clara County Library District Joint Powers Authority Board approved the fee — a rarity among area libraries that is setting off a bit of a library border war. And it’s already getting some negative reviews from patrons who consider the library up the street theirs — even if it happens to be in the town next-door.

San Jose resident Bruce Turenne nearly dropped the stack of DVDs he had just checked out at the Campbell library Tuesday when told of the new fee.

“I hate the San Jose Library, and I like the county libraries so much more. They have a collection (at Campbell), these guys have stuff,” said Turenne, a purchasing manager between jobs who described the shelves at San Jose as bare. “Money is pretty tight right now.”

State money lost

Since 1988, the state has offered a subsidy of about 30 cents for each transaction when nonresidents use county libraries. But the governor’s proposed budget would eliminate all state funding for public libraries, about a $1.3 million reduction in revenue for the county system in the next fiscal year.

There are eight library branches within the county system, which serves residents of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga and the unincorporated areas of the county.

But plenty of library users would be on the hook for the $80 fee: Out of the 356,107 county library card holders, 153,548 — or 43 percent — live outside the library district. The percentage is greater for individual branches. For example, 56 percent of the people who use the Campbell library live outside the district, including 29 percent from San Jose.

“I’d like to see it free, but if I could afford the $80, I’d contribute,” said San Jose resident Bill Caravalho, a technical support specialist who uses the Campbell library to search for jobs and fill out applications. “I think they’re a great resource.”

Nonresidents decide to use the county system for a variety of reasons, sometimes because the branch is closer to their house than their own city library. But one important reason is the county branch libraries are open between five and seven days a week. San Jose libraries are open four to four-and-a-half days a week. There is now a proposal to cut those San Jose branch library hours to three days a week.

As far as Cervantes knows, Santa Clara County will become among the few library systems in the state to charge for nonresidents, although she said San Leandro and Huntington Beach have long charged for their cards. Los Gatos and Monterey used to charge for cards, but don’t any longer.

The county decision will likely mean a drop in usage for its libraries and a possible increase at city libraries, such as the ones in San Jose and Sunnyvale.

Reciprocal fees considered

Head librarians in those cities said they are now considering charging residents from the county library district to use their libraries because of the county system’s decision to pull out of a Bay Area library cooperative called the Pacific Library Partnership.

“We haven’t really had time to adjust to this,” said Mary Nacu, assistant library director for San Jose.

Both she and Lisa Rosenblum, director of library and community services in Sunnyvale, said many of their library customers also have county library cards. They suspect that they won’t necessarily get new patrons, but that their current patrons will simply take out more books.

“We welcome the business,” Rosenblum said.

Fewer library patrons means the county system will be able to save money on book purchases and other expenses. And they aren’t planning on getting rich off the new fee.

Cervantes said the county system hopes to raise about $250,000 annually from the new charges, realizing that few people will probably decide to pay the $80 annual charge.

“We’ll be lucky to get 2 percent,” Cervantes said.

Opinion: Young readers can help sustain the power of libraries

By Vikram Kanth

Special to the Mercury News

Posted: 04/17/2011 08:00:00 PM PDT

When I was a kid, I had two dreams. One was to become a senator; the other was to be able to reach the top bookshelf at my local library. I used to be able to measure my growth based on the number of times that I needed to ask someone for help to reach a book. Although I am still quite a few years away from the first goal, I can now reach the highest bookshelf. Little did I realize then that the library would be integral to my personal growth.

Now libraries are an endangered species because of budget cuts. But teenagers like me can help to protect them, both by raising money for them and by raising our voices to support them.

My first visit to a library was when I was 60 days old. Once my parents, as new immigrants, learned about library services for children, especially story times, I became a regular visitor. I still see some of the librarians who did those story times, and they laugh at how energetic I was. The only thing that calmed me down was a book.

I became one of those kids who visited the library after school. I still remember a painting that fascinated me: an open book with all the words flying off the page in a spiral. When I looked at it, I could see myself diving into the world of books and being spun in all different directions until coming to rest in front of a door. On the other side was a paradise of knowledge and discovery.

The library became a sanctuary to me, but the idea of libraries as a sanctuary to everyone did not strike me until I worked at the Calabazas Library in the summer of 2006. The variety of visitors of all ages astounded me. Some came to pick up free books and movies, others to use the Internet, still others to have a meeting place.

The library is the one free community resource that provides a platform for diverse ideas in a nonjudgmental way. It is a significant symbol of our civilization: This is why we need to mourn the destruction of the ancient Library of Alexandria, the recent demolition of the Sarajevo National Library and the obliteration of the Library of Baghdad. We should rejoice that during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, some librarians risked their lives to save rare books by burying them.

American libraries have not faced such extreme challenges. However, almost every time we face an economic challenge, libraries lose money first. I founded GROW (Give, Raise, Organize, Work), a teen-run nonprofit organization, to respond to this need.

Like many San Jose Public Library branches, the Calabazas Library was rebuilt with local bond funds. Unfortunately, they do not pay for furnishings or the materials in the library. To date, GROW has organized a concert and a teen gaming event attended by more than 400 people and has raised several thousand dollars for this cause.

Raising funds is only one aspect of this organization, however. To me, GROW represents the willingness of the West San Jose teen community to commit to building a resource that is truly a community center. We need to stand up for what we feel is important and make our opinions known.

We are the next generation. If we don’t get involved, we will see valuable institutions like libraries fall by the wayside. Twenty years from now, when another kid is struggling to reach the top shelf, there needs to be someone to give him a book and the guts to dream.

VIKRAM KANTH is a senior at Lynbrook High School and plans a career in law. He wrote this for this newspaper.

America’s Front Porch–The Public Library

Michael Cart

We have a community of interests; we exist to serve the same community, the youth of America who urgently need our help, our resources, our caring. And yet we, as professionals, too seldom communicate and too seldom cooperate. The building of this essential community can begin here where professionals begin their training. Throughout these remarks I have used the word “community” in a variety of contexts that, probably, imply a variety of meanings. “Community” is the kind of word that lends itself to that, I suppose. Most often I have used it to describe the library’s service population, its community of users, everyone who resides in its service area. But, of course, for members of cooperative systems, it might include the service populations of other library districts or jurisdictions. For libraries that deliver information and service electronically, it could describe an even larger and more geographically dispersed group. The dictionary’s first definition of community is “a group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.” But another is “a group of people having common interests” or even–a third–“society as a whole.” However we precisely define it, we have never had a more urgent need for it–a more urgent need to come together as a people to work cooperatively, as a community, to solve the economic, social, cultural, and political problems that I have outlined. To sew up the holes in the fabric of society, to bridge the divides that separate us as a people and visit inequities on opportunities and resources that we should have in common.

I applaud and echo Sarah Long’s call to action and commend Kathleen de la Pena McCook for offering, in her new book, a blueprint for library participation in community building. When I think of community, however, I always hearken back to the Logansport-Cass County, Indiana Public Library, my hometown library when I was a kid growing up in the Midwest decades ago. I have written a lot about that library because it was so important to me. Getting my first library card when I was seven provided my own first experience of civic engagement. Later, the library provided my first paid work opportunity when, at sixteen, I became a page. From the time I could read, it provided an introduction to a philosophy and an ideal expressed in the three words that I saw carved in limestone above the door every time I entered the library. The words were, simply, “Free To All.” Most personally, though, and thus, perhaps most importantly, for a kid like me who was–like so many other kids then and now–an outsider, the library provided the only place where I felt that I belonged. It provided my own personal community. And so what I thought of it then and now has come to describe my feelings about all libraries but especially about public libraries. To me they are a place of light in the darkness, of warmth in the cold, of shelter in the storm, a necessary place of refuge and sanctuary, of a center that holds when things are falling apart, a place of unfettered access to information in its myriad varieties of form and format, a place of equalizing opportunity, a bridge across the digital and other divides, a community, and, yes, a front porch large enough for all Americans, a front porch free to all, a front porch where all can congregate, commune, and discover a common humanity.

March 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report-March 2011

The state budget as it currently stands, after taking a 12 billion dollar reduction, reduced funding to the State Library by 50%. The Governor recommended taking all of the funds, but aggressive lobbying from community and the profession, convinced legislators to keep some of the funds. Although this still reduces revenue we receive from the state, it may stave off library jurisdictions charging for non-resident use, and dismantling the cooperative agreements California libraries share. The other shoe may drop, however, if revenue extensions are not agreed upon in Sacramento, and further cuts are necessitated.

Longtime Project READ teen tutor, Hannah Hamley, was honored with the Outstanding Student Award and a $10,000 scholarship in recognition of her dedication to Project READ’s KIP program and volunteerism in general. At the awards ceremony, Hannah spoke eloquently of her tutoring experience in the KIP program and even granted Project READ the $500 stipend provided by the Sequoia Awards to an organization of her choice saying, “Project READ is where I first volunteered. I think the KIP program is so important because it teaches youth from the community how to do community service.”

Our on-going major project, the conversion to a new materials handling system is progressing. When completed in 2012, this new system will make handling our three million items that are in circulation per year, much more efficient and effective—for staff and customers. We will cut over to the new system at the Shores Library first to work out bugs, before we go live at the other libraries. Staff is working extremely hard on this complex and work-intensive project, along with delivering our regular award-winning library services and programs.

The month of March saw two Family Author Nights, the very successful collaboration between the library and schools, made possible by generous funding from the Friends of the Library.

• Over a hundred students and their families came to Selby Lane School to hear local illustrator Elizabeth Gomez. In a bilingual presentation, Elizabeth delighted the kids by showing slides of herself as a girl in Mexico and talking about the joys of creativity. At the same time, she was able to reach straight to the parents to talk about the importance of education and family support for students. Her own parents were poor and struggled, she said, but they believed so much in the power of  education that they not only sent their five children all the way through college, but Elizabeth’s mother, who had only a 4^th grade education, decided to finish grade school, high school, and finally college! It was a powerful message, charmingly delivered.
• People just kept coming the following night at Fair Oaks school until there were well over 260 in attendance. Among the crowd were eleven teachers, our biggest showing ever. The Teachers’ Council had come up with a great idea: They decided not to hand out the giveaway books that are part of every Family Author Night until the night of the program. Instead, each teacher read the book aloud to his or her students – first, without showing the pictures. After the students had drawn pictures of their own, the teachers re-read the story, this time showing the pictures. The kids were primed with excitement to come and meet the illustrator. We will see if this approach can transfer to other schools – it takes lots of commitment and support from teachers, but had great results at Fair Oaks!
• Speaking of support, the program has received a great deal thanks to Library Board members Reina Barragan, who is volunteering at all the programs, and from Library Board member Diane Belknap who dropped by Selby Lane to check out the excitement. We were also very happy that Friends of the Library member Mary Scavarda was able to make it to Fair Oaks so she could see for herself all the benefits of the outreach that the Friends so generously fund. And that’s not all: The Friends are funding a SEVENTH Family Author Night this year. There are four Family Author Nights to come: April 6 at Taft, April 7 at Garfield, April 28 at Hawes, and the new addition, John Gill on May 12.
• In addition giving each child a copy of the book and the presentation, audiences are treated to a book sale, with proceeds going to the Friends, a raffle (a popular, if chaotic, part of the evening), and they have a chance to get a library card, though most folks already have one! None of this would be possible without the hard work of staff that plan and help with these events.

One of the pleasures of this job is that even in these adverse times, we continue to do great things! Over 1,000 kindergartners, their siblings and parents made this year’s KinderCard SuperSaturday the best ever! There were happy kindergartners everywhere, and we do mean everywhere. This initiative, now in its 5^th year, reached 1,680 kindergartners in 56 classrooms and at 19 schools–all visited by a librarian–with some obviously stunningly effective outreach. 500 new cards were issued, and many others were updated. Getting a library card, especially your first one, is a very important step in being part of the community–it’s really a very powerful community building tool. Here is one comment from a parent who took the time to email me:

My daughters LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this library event. My oldest was so excited to get her library card that day and she cherishes it. We go every week and pick out new books and videos and now she proudly checks the books out herself with her own card. We love living in RWC and we really love the library!

The Saturday event itself was a zoo! There were so many kids here we quickly moved the puppet show to the Community Room and added several impromptu story times; at the accounts desk, thirty new library cards for older children and parents were given out per hour; there were lots of folks from the Shores and from the private schools; the Paws For Tales dogs Ella and Annie listened to kids read them stories, and enjoyed every minute of it; Chiquy Boom did an impromptu training of our teen volunteers who are going to make balloon animals next year; there were only 11 helium balloons that got away and are bouncing around the ceilings; Clifford the Big Red Dog only made a few kids cry; none of the boy scouts wearing the Clifford costume passed out. None of the circ staff passed out.

Our Fair Oaks Library continues to provide an array of programs and classes to meet a very diverse neighborhood’s needs. Last month 1,200 folks either attended training in our new language learning software, a St. Patrick’s Day program, Stories on Demand, Paws for Tales (where kids read to dogs!), our regular storytimes and many visits from local schools.

The contract between the Fox Theatre and all libraries in San Mateo County for the venue to hold the One Book, One Community’s kick-off event at the Fox has been signed, with author Mary Roach as the headliner. One of our community partners will be the first Bay Area Science Festival, funded by the National Science Foundation:  http://www.bayareascience.org/festival/.

On Saturday, March 19, we had our first Volunteer Library Clean-up Day. The Redwood City neighborhood survey identified that people are more likely to volunteer for short term volunteer opportunities than longer term commitments. With this in mind, we have begun a quarterly Library Clean-up volunteer program. The majority of our current volunteers enter into a long term commitment at the library, so it is great we are offering other type of volunteer opportunities. At Downtown, we had ten volunteers attend. Two volunteers were scheduled to help out at Redwood Shores. As we all know, the amount of work it takes to run a library is enormous. There are so many little things that we just don’t have time to get to on a daily basis. Every helping hand helps, and volunteers are a big part of our success as an organization. I am so grateful to the people in our community who give back their invaluable time.

Although budgets are tight, staff is still participating in our city/county training opportunities, especially our leadership programs. It is very important to identify and support those staff for succession planning.

Learning Center, Teen Center and Project READ Report

We are serving more teens each month!

Ø  Total Individual Teens: 240 teens

Ø  Average afterschool attendance: 50 teens

Ø  One of our teens came to the library 27 out of 27 days the library was open in February!

Ø  Regulars (came at least once a week or 4 times): 56 teens

Ø  Teen Volunteers: 23 teen volunteers completed a total of 96 ¾ hours

Teen Programs: In the teen center in the month of February teens created valentines, including some for the Friends of the Library to thank them for funding programs, teens enjoyed decorating cupcakes, they sang love songs at our Karaoke event, they watched romance movies all week long, and they created love messages for the wall. March in the teen center saw the creation of Mardi Gras masks and origami mobiles.  During the Mardi Gras party teens were decorated with bead necklaces, they enjoyed listening to Zydeco music, they answered trivia questions and they greedily ate a three layered cake designed by one of our teen center staff.  The teen who found the baby in the cake was crowned king of Mardi Gras and later gave out spicy chips to his loyal subjects.  On St. Patrick’s Day teens were delighted to eat rice crispy treats, played hot potato, enjoyed a rousing trivia game and challenged each other to potato sack races.  In addition, teen were asked what they would wish for if they came across a leprechaun and here are their responses: to be invincible, to be rich, to be superman, to have a better job, to have a fulfilling art career, world peace, to have my own car, to be a billionaire, to be at a higher level in Runescape, to fly (3), to make every shot in basketball, world domination (2), to become a singer, to attend metal fest, to teleport, 3 more wishes, to get a degree, to stop time, and to pass my classes.

A family from our teen center is currently living in a shelter in San Mateo but still attending school down in Redwood City.  Rather than going home right away they are coming to the teen center and finding comfort and support to complete their homework and be with friends before returning to the shelter in the evening.

Project READ – Hands On Learning for Kids In Partnership Families (KIP)

During the early dismissal week at Fair Oaks Elementary, 72 KIP students and tutors as well as 10 moms, aunties, and little siblings ventured outside of the neighborhood on field trips to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose.  There, students and families enjoyed hands-on fun including a jewelry and accessory design art workshop, fire truck and ambulance exploration, water play and face painting.  One highlight of this year’s trip was the new imagination station exhibit stocked full of large foam blocks where students got to put their spatial reasoning and creativity to the test.  We discovered that we have several budding architects and designers among our KIP students and tutors!!

KIP Story Hour Celebration at Fair Oaks Community Library

Daylight savings came just in time for our spring celebration at this month’s story hour!  Over 75 students, tutors and family members came to kick off the extra hour of light with one of our KIP favorites, Andy Z. The whole crowd was up and moving throughout the library in time to Andy’s music and songs!  Families also enjoyed receiving the monthly family book, And to Think We Thought We Would Never Be Friends.  Participants finished the evening with choosing additional books for the home library and making musical instruments from household materials to celebrate the beginning of spring.

On-going KIP Tutoring, Training and Workshops

Throughout the month of March, 110 KIP learners and tutors continued to meet at the Redwood City Public Library.  These pairs work on reading and language skills, homework and library skills.  Our teen and preteen tutors continue to receive on-going trainings and workshops.  This month these topics included:

• Movie making – capturing the KIP tutoring experience
• Conflict resolution – understanding needs and finding solutions
• Using learning centers that build phonemic awareness, letter knowledge and beginning phonics understanding for beginning readers
• How to individualize a tutoring session to meet a learner’s specific needs and goals (using information from the learner’s interview and assessment to tailor tutoring sessions)

Project READ Adult Literacy Programs

Inmate Adult Literacy –

This month Project READ, in collaboration with Peacemakers’ Alliance, completed a 6-month small group pilot with 5 male prisoners.  The goal of the small group was to build critical literacy and nonviolent communication skills as well as create community inside a correctional setting.  English was a second language for one man in the class; the other four were native speakers.  The ESL learner initially assessed at a 1.0, and the four other men assessed between levels 3.5 and 4.5.  After 72 hours of small group instruction over 6 months, the average growth per learner was 5.6 levels!  One learner increased from a level 4.0 to a level 11.0!  The four native speakers are now at literacy levels that will allow them to successfully complete community college and college level classes!  The English as a second language learner now reads and comprehends at a level 5.0!

To develop creative writing and expressive language skills was another goal of the group.  All 5 learners met this goal.  Each of the men wrote several poems and journal entries over the past 6 months.  In addition, each person wrote a speech to be used when we film an educational video over the next few months.  In general confidence levels about reading and writing have improved greatly.  Communication skills, critical thinking, receptive language, and the ability to successfully work in a group have all increased as well.

Two inmate learners passed GED tests with flying colors.  One learner passed two in the same day, scoring over 500 on both!  These two men completed the Fathers and Families class at the end of 2010 and now are able to read storybooks and send the recorded stories home to their children.

Project READ Adult Literacy for Community Learners

One particular tutor has gotten especially creative this month.  He truly embraced the Project READ’s learner-center, goal-oriented approach.  This month, the pair worked on comprehension by reading and understanding the learner’s benefit package from work.  The learner is interested in geography; so the tutor brought a U.S. puzzle that he worked on with his grandchildren.  The learner can now put the puzzle together in less than 5 minutes!

Another adult learner finished reading her first library book.  She checked out House on Mango Street.  She is very enthusiastic about reading chapter books on her own and has since checked out another book by the same author, Sandra Cisneros!

Families for Literacy (FFL)

Project READ is making a concerted effort to increase learner – tutor matches over the next couple months for those parents of children under 5 seeking literacy skill improvement.  Family Literacy Instructional Center numbers have increased this year.  There currently is a stronger need for literacy improvement in families. The past two months, 6 new families have joined Project READ and been matched one-on-one with a newly trained tutor! With these matches we not only are improving the literacy needs of our parents but also help their young children as well, as the parents practice their reading and bringing books to build their home libraries.  Parents are also mentored through our monthly story hours.

Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC) our drop in tutoring center for learners on our waiting lists and for those between tutoring sessions

March was a consistently busy month at FLIC. We welcomed three new community tutors and graduated new teen and pre-teen tutors. One of our new teen tutors is part of a long-standing Project READ family and continues to meet with her tutor. When she completes her own work, she happily puts on her tutor lanyard and works with our youngest learners. It is rewarding to see our own learners taking on a tutoring/mentoring role and building confidence within them. This month our youth, adults and families logged in over 900 drop-in hours and close to 250 computer aided learning hours.

Project READ – Story Hours

In our March Story Hour we celebrated Friendship Month by distributing a beautiful hardbound book to our families that focused on community and friendship through music. We embraced the theme of community and music by making musical instruments with household products and creating friendship bracelets for friends and family. Over 85 family and friends helped us celebrate. Chuck Ashton led the night with his musical performance and mentored parents and tutor alike in the methods of not only reading to a child, but also making the story come alive! Local Starbuck stores volunteered their time and hot chocolate—a hit with the kids and parents too! Hands on Bay Area volunteers (HOBA) brought 6 new volunteers to help the children make their crafts. It was a successful event and lots of fun too!!

February 2011 Report

Library Director’s Report-February 2011

As you know the public library community is furiously working to save State library funding. We were able to get the library funding back on the table and into the budget and believe that the strong bipartisan vote on our three items will certainly help to encourage the Governor to leave the $15.2 million in the Budget for these programs. The powerful 10 member Budget Conference Committee put their final mark on a massive reduction and revenues package, addressing the Governor’s plan to close a whopping $26 billion Budget deficit. One of their final actions was approving a “Conference Compromise” to spare the three library programs – the Public Library Foundation, the California Library Services Act, and the State literacy program, from elimination. You will recall that the Governor’s January Budget recommended complete elimination of $30.4 million for these three programs, which would also jeopardize millions in federal dollars associated with the CLSA. The Assembly Version of the Budget sought to spare the three programs from deep cuts, while the Senate initially agreed to accept the Governor’s proposal to eliminate the programs. When the Conference Committee met late February, they formally approved an action to keep the following dollar amounts in these three programs:

* $8.5 million in the California Library Services Act (at this funding level, also allows the State Library to maintain its federal MOE/match)

* $3.7 million in the California Library Literacy Services program

* $3 million in the Public Library Foundation

Recognizing the incredibly daunting deficit situation, there was an understanding by CLA that keeping the library program budgets whole would be nothing short of impossible, particularly when the Governor was proposing total elimination. As you can imagine, we worked tirelessly to get this compromise in front of all of the legislative leaders, Budget Conference Committee, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, staff and countless others.  Meanwhile, CLA members and library supporters continued to call and write their legislators, encouraging them to save the three library programs from elimination. This was a constant lobbying effort that ultimately resulted in a bi-partisan vote of the Budget Conference Committee today (a 5-0 vote of the Senate Conferees, and a 5-0 vote of the Assembly Conferees). This is an important footnote in that many of the items being voted on in the Conference Committee have received votes that are split along party-lines. We believe that the strong bipartisan vote on our three items will certainly help to encourage the Governor to leave the $15.2 million in the Budget for these programs.

Staff have been working to prepare the collections for our RFID conversion, a major technology initiative to help us be more effective and efficient. The Shores Library is 75% tagged and Downtown will begin mid-March. New self-check machines will be able to have customers pay their own fines and fees at the time of transaction, similar to Safeway’s checkout machines.

Another efficiency initiative, patron self registration, will begin on March 1^st.. Customers will be able to fill out an application on-line at the library or from home and can be used to place holds on library items and have access to online resources. Staff will no longer have to input data into the system, only to verify.

Another possible efficiency savings is converting all overdue notices to email. Here is the current status of library card holders voluntarily using email notifications:

 

Library	Total Patrons	Patrons with Email	Percentage of patrons with email
County	194,441	116,912	60%
Burlingame	31,083	19,847	64%
Daly City	64,575	34,697	54%
Menlo Park	33,827	24,013	71%
Redwood City	76,916	35,314	46%
San Bruno	27,745	14,256	51%
San Mateo City	77,522	42,037	54%
South San Francisco	40,218	19,953	50%
Colleges	7,261	5,085	70%

The Redwood City Library Foundation netted over $40,000 from the “We Love Children’s Books” fundraiser! Special thanks go to Foundation Director, Georgi La Berge and Event Chair Fran Eastman. Through their guidance, and with the help of talented staff and volunteers, the evening was a smashing success. The food was great, the venue warm and inviting, auction items were impressive, and the video captured the essence of why we do what we do. Each day we hear positive comments from individuals who either attended the fundraiser or heard about it. In round numbers, we brought in $23,000 in sponsorships and $18,000 at the event (silent/live auction and donations at the door). Thank you to all Foundation Board, City Council, Department Heads, Library Board and library staff for your tremendous support. The David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation made a very significant monetary donation, and paid for nearly all the expenses of  the event, including catering, party rentals, flowers, decorations, auction basket prep and many hours of staff time. And of course, thank you Jim Hartnett!

On Saturday, February 5^th, the Library in collaboration with Bay Area Gardeners Foundation, presented a college seminar, “With Scholarships We’ll Form a Better Future”, a presentation on college funding. More than 100 in attendance listened to our Vice-Mayor, Alicia Aguirre, who talked about the importance of college education; and Margie Carrington from Cañada College who gave a good explanation and information on scholarships and other funds available for college.

The first of the season’s Family Author Night in the Schools was a big success. One hundred and seventy students and their families from the Hoover School community came out to hear a bilingual presentation by author/illustrator Hector Viveros Lee. Two hundred and forty-five copies of Hector’s book, I Had a Hippopotamus, were given away to Hoover students who eagerly stood in line afterwards to have them signed by the real, live author. A favorite moment from that night: Hector pulled out his original drawings of the animals for his book, and a light bulb almost visibly went on over each kid’s head. “Wait a minute!” said one. “You mean you made this book?!” Making that connection is what Family Author Nights are all about. Family Author Nights is a powerful partnership between Redwood City schools and the Redwood City Library which has promoted books and reading to thousands of students and their families over the last three years, a good news story in these tough times! Funded thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library, Family Author Nights will be held at six schools this year.

Youth services staff are gearing up for next month’s big event, The KinderCard SuperSaturday, an open house for all Redwood City kindergartners and their families. A library card application has gone out to each kindergartner, and librarians have begun visiting each classroom to hand out cards and invitations to the open house on March 12. SuperSaturday will feature a puppet show, balloon animals, games, and each child will leave with a free book to keep. A good, if chaotic, time is guaranteed for all.

We recently had a visit from one of “our kids”; a young man who spent so much time at the library from elementary school through high school that we feel we raised him. He’s now in college and came in looking for help on an assignment. Ivan was one of those kids we really liked, but at a certain point we just got to wishing we had a Teen Center to send him to. He felt the same way. So, after we finished working on the assignment, staff asked him if he’s seen the Teen Center yet. “What?! You finally got a Teen Center?” he said, running upstairs to take a look. He came back down looking very impressed.  “That’s exactly what we kept asking for all that time we were kids! We woulda loved that!” he said. I told him he was definitely one of the reasons it was built and I was glad he approved. “Oh, yeah!” he said. “It’s awesome. You should name it after me!”

February 2011, marks the 10th anniversary of the Traveling Storytime program at the Redwood City Public Library. Since it began, the volunteers have presented over 9,400 storytimes to more than 155,000 children. As a result of the program, the children of Redwood City enter kindergarten with a love of books and are eager and ready to learn to read!

With cuts of felt hearts and other crafts, The Fair Oaks Branch Library celebrated Valentine’s day On February, 10. 100 children and their families came to the library especially for this program.

On Saturday, 2/19, At least 50 people enjoyed Green Jazz, music and spoken word celebrating environmental justice themes presented by Tangria in the Fireplace Room.

You may remember a more fern-bar version of Tangria from the Redwood Shores opening. They are a very talented band in any incarnation

Another well attended program in the Fireplace Room this February:  Meet the Author –  Jessica O’Dwyer – Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir.  Many thanks to the author for generously waiving her honorarium, making it possible for us to extend our programming, with an additional author program in April.

Literacy and a love of reading are cornerstones of a quality education and positive youth development – and they are among the guiding purposes of the Redwood City Library Foundation. To help open the world of books to the youth of our community, the Foundation is launching its new Cards for Kids campaign to ensure that every 5^th grade student in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks has a library card. During the next few months all 5^th grade classes will be visited and new cards will be issued to each and every student. As an added bonus, any outstanding fines will be waived from students’ existing cards. Plus, kids will be excited about incentives and prizes that will be given out, including a special year-end celebration at the Downtown Library. This program is similar to the Library’s annual, and extremely successful, KinderCard campaign that provides library cards to all kindergarten students.

Project READ volunteer is another in a long line of Sequoia Award winners. In addition to her rigorous academic schedule, Hannah Hamley, of Sequioia High School, volunteers her time at numerous organizations. She was honored with this year’s prestigious Sequoia Award for devoted service to the community. “It’s such an honor to be recognized for something you’re so passionate about,” she said. As one of two top co-winners, she will receive a $10,000 scholarship at the March 17 banquet. She and fellow Sequoia Award winner, Claire Tweedy, started the organization, Gang Prevention Group, after their friend, Matthew Johnson, was murdered their sophomore year of high school.

“This organization is particularly personal because he was our friend,” Hamley said. “And death is a very hard thing to deal with.”  At Kids in Partnership, a program within Project READ, Redwood City’s literacy program, Hamley has been tutoring fifth grader Moises in everything from math to English since he was a third grader. After more than two years, Hamley said she has developed a special relationship with him, more like a guardian. Moises’ parents don’t speak English, so she fills in that role when Moises needs an adult figure to discuss his grades or test scores with his teacher. “Hannah was a natural at volunteering when she first began, then developed into a real mentor,” said Brigid Walsh, Tutor Coordinator for Project READ. Walsh said Moises decided he wanted to help out as a tutor because of his relationship with Hannah. “And beyond that, every child in the program knows Hannah because she’s so friendly and always willing to jump in when she can,” Walsh added. “We just love her.” Hamley is fluent in Spanish, having attended Adelante Immersion School, so communication with her tutee is natural. Hamley also humbly failed to mention in her interview with Patch that she was named “Tutor of the Year.” According to the Sequoia Awards Selection committee, Hamley won the Spirit of Project READ award, one of the highest recognitions the organization bestows. Yet Hamley insists she still has time to enjoy the simple teenage pleasures, like sushi dates, babysitting her three younger sisters and hanging out with her friends.

Project READ – February 2011 Accomplishments

Project READ -Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC):

This month was active for FLIC learners.  We welcomed two new community volunteers, as well as several new teen tutors. Several new families joined us this month as well, mostly from recommendations of current FLIC families, helping us build on our learning community.  We were also fortune to have received a generous handmade donation by our collaborative partner the Genesis Group. The Genesis Group, an adult developmental services program, volunteers with us each week. To help us with our monthly Story Hours, our volunteers made individual candies shaped like iPods for Valentine’s Day, so that we could hand them out to our families at Story Hour. This was such a surprise and treat for all of us!

Project READ – Families For Literacy – Story Hour:

This month was an especially exciting Story Hour for the close to 85 friends and families that attended. In addition to preparing Valentine’s Day crafts, our families rocked out alongside Cotton Candy Express, a local children’s band.  The families all joined along in song and dance; students were invited “on stage” to sing with a microphone or dance in front of the entire crowd. It was a memorable night for everyone. Additionally, Starbucks volunteered at the event and donated hot chocolate, and Second Harvest donated cookies. Hands on Bay Area (HOBA) volunteers were on board again this Story Hour to assist the children and parents in making crafts. With the help of many community volunteers, our Valentine’s Day Story Hour was a huge success and each of our families left with a beautifully illustrated hard bound children’s book to build their home library and encourage parents to practice their reading by reading the books to their little ones!

Project READ – Kids In Partnership (KIP) Story hour:

In February, the KIP story hour at the Fair Oaks Community Library drew over 65 KIP learners, tutors and families.  Everyone came out of the cold, wet weather to enjoy the musical storytelling of Anjaline and Mike Eppley.  Adults and children alike joined in the fun by singing, dancing and playing instruments. Each family received a beautiful, hardbound children’s literature newcomer, My Heart is Like a Zoo to take with them to add to their home library collection. This wonderful book also served as the inspiration for creative and thoughtful valentine crafts.

Notre Dame AmeriCorps:

Project READ’s Notre Dame AmeriCorps traveled to Washington DC in February for their annual conference and training. While they were away, Project READ staff continued with learning assessments.  We are thrilled to report that students continue to grow by an average of at least two reading levels since their previous assessment between 4 and 6 months of instruction!  During these assessments, students also have a chance to refine their own learning goals and give feedback on the program.  Below are some of their comments on what they like best about KIP:

• “I like when we get to go to the big library and then go downstairs to look at books.”
• “Playing games with tutors, like Mancala.”
• “Snacks!” I am hungry sometimes.
• “That the tutors give us all the stuff we need.”
• “Being a tutor and helping my learner.”
• “Art projects! I want to be an artist when I grow up. I do designs and then all of the kids in my group say, ‘whoa, how did you do that’?”
• “I like everything.  Especially playing games like Apples to Apples.”
• “When I’m with my buddy (Bibian) and my tutor (Lauren).”
• “Being with all of the tutors that we have.”
• “Going on the bus to the big library!”
• “When Fatima helps me.”
• “Using the jump ropes on the playground.”
• “Going downstairs at the library to look at books.”
• “Using the computers and getting books.”
• “That my tutor helps me with my homework.”
• “Reading books with my tutor.”

Kid In Partnership (KIP) Teen & Preteen Workshops:
In February, Project READ staff and AmeriCorps kicked off a pilot series of workshops designed to assist the teen tutors in creating an informational and heartfelt video about the experience of being a tutor in the KIP program. Teen and preteen tutors also continued to participate in on-going trainings and workshops.  These workshops, based on tutor feedback, are designed to refine tutoring skills, build social skills, and also help tutors reach their own academic and life goals.  This month’s topics included:

• Typing/keyboarding skill building
• Using Venn Diagrams to find similarities between me and my learner
• Problem solving while tutoring role play practice

Project READ Adult Literacy Programs:

A young-adult learner, who was matched with a Project READ tutor for the first time in October, has completed Challengers 2, 3 and 4.  He is very excited to experience this skill level gain and has already noticed how much he is enjoying reading.  At the end of the month he and his tutor started Challenger 5.  Adult-Inmate – 4 Fathers and Family program inmate learners graduated from the Fathers and Families class, after completing 16 hours of classroom instruction.  All 4 men chose a book to send home to their child.  Project READ sent the books and CDs of the men reading their chosen book aloud.

12 men graduated from Project READ Tutor Training at the Maguire Correctional Facility, earning 1 unit of transferable college credit from Canada College.  For 9 of the men, this is their first college credit.  They now have transcripts for higher education.  They will not only start to tutor a peer inmate learner, but many will also start working to pass the GED or enroll in the college level vocabulary class offered by CSM and facilitated by Project READ and Cañada College at the two County Correctional Facilities in Redwood City.

The first day of the inmate peer tutor training, most of the men set the goal of speaking in front of a group.  They were able to achieve this goal at the ceremony.  During their graduation, all of the men had the opportunity to speak to a large group of their peers (40 men).  After having struggled all of his life in special education classes, one man was brought to tears by what he’d accomplished in the inmate tutor training class.  All of the men are eager to extend the “each one teach one” philosophy to their community – they said they were ready to start giving back!