October 2009 Report

November 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report-October 2009

Circulation	Downtown	Fair Oaks	Schaberg	Shores	Total
Sept 2008	63,198	6,297	14,046	44,116	127,657
Sept 2009	74,824	10,199	16,801	47,825	149,649
Oct 2008	63,358	7,430	14,206	45,130	130,124
Oct 2009	73,948	10,218	15,939	52,096	152,201

Visitors	Downtown	Fair Oaks	Schaberg	Shores	Total
Sept 2008	38,611	6,131	6,337	21,270	72,349
Sept 2009	42,074	9,805	7,127	26,483	85,489
Oct 2008	40,622	7,758	5,876	21,164	75,420
Oct 2009	44,880	9,448	7,148	29,216	90,692

It Takes a Community

An amazing success story – a learner who was previously in our Adult-Inmate program is taking steps to change his life. After contacting us upon release to continue his work with Redwood City Project READ we were able to introduce him to the Chancellor of San Mateo County Community Colleges, Ron Galatolo. The Chancellor has been working with Project READ’s Inmate program to help our inmate learners and tutors start work on a college education. The Chancellor offered to take our learner out to lunch and provided him with information regarding culinary programs offered at community colleges in the area. The meeting was so successful that our learner is now being enrolled in a college level culinary program! He is just steps away from accomplishing his goal of starting a culinary business featuring Sweet Potato Pie from his family recipe. A very special “thank you” to Chancellor Ron Galatolo for his support and volunteer efforts with the Project READ program to ensure a college education for all who seek it in our community.

Downtown Library closure

The Redwood City Downtown Library will be closed for approximately 35 days for the installation of a new heating and air conditioning system, beginning Monday, November 30^th, 2009, with an expected reopening on Monday, January 4^th, 2010. This is a major construction project, and so in the interest of public safety the Library must be closed while it is in progress. The new system will be significantly more efficient, saving the City energy, reducing the building’s carbon footprint, and saving money on power bills.

During this temporary closure, the Library will also be building a new teen center, adding three new study rooms, expanding the area used by the Project READ literacy program, and upgrading the technology lab. All of this work is designed to create a more comfortable, inviting, usable, and improved experience for the tens of thousands of library patrons who visit each year.

Two branch libraries (Schaberg and Fair Oaks) will have extended hours to help accommodate more customers. All public programs that normally take place at the Downtown Library will be suspended for the construction period, but the library’s collection of books and other materials can still be accessed online – items placed on hold for library patrons can be picked up at the Schaberg Branch Library instead of the Downtown Library. The book drops at the Downtown Library will remain open for returning materials.

Budget

On Monday, October 19, the Council voted to participate in the securitization program, thereby restoring $2.9M in lost revenue and in essence preserving the budget that they adopted in July. However, they understand that our revenues are weakening, and that the State may still try to take more of our revenues this year. With that in clear focus, the Council accepted our recommendation to make additional cuts and increase parking citation fines, which total up to $1M in deficit reduction on an annualized basis. The library reduction was a Library Service Supervisor that was assigned to the Library Foundation.

This has been a very challenging time for the entire organization, and as one of our Council members said, these are extraordinary times, and no one wants to see services reduced or our organization challenged in damaging ways. Our path toward economic sustainability is still long, but we hope it is beginning to level out as a result of the Council’s vision and commitment. As a result of their decisions Monday night, our projected cuts for next fiscal year have dropped from $3.2M to $2.2M. We are aware that if revenues continue to soften, we could see that deficit grow. So, now more than ever, we must pull together and re-focus back to the long-term changes in costs and revenues that will be needed to avert more and more cuts in staffing and services. And, we need to be willing to sit down and talk about the things that make us all uncomfortable: salaries and benefits for active employees, and post-employment benefits for future retirees.

Trivia BEE

Project READ’s 20th annual Trivia BEE, a Redwood City Friends of Literacy’s fund raising event to support Redwood City Public Library’s Project READ program took place on October 16th at the beautiful Cañada College campus. This year 30 Trivia BEE teams competed. Redwood City’s Project READ Trivia BEE event is the original Trivia BEE competition and since its inception 20 years ago Project READ has packaged up all the details and materials of their annual Trivia BEE and sent the information to literacy programs all over California and to other literacy based non-profits around the United States and as far away as India helping literacy programs to raise much needed funds. All monies raised go directly to instructional costs, programs, learning materials, eyeglasses and educational evaluations for our learners.

The evening started with a warm welcome delivered by Tom Mohr, Cañada College President. Councilmember Jim Hartnett presented two learners and their families with the Spirit of Project READ award for their successful work with Project READ, volunteer hours donated and spirit of community service. Our Fueling the Fire of Hope Award was presented to our Master of Ceremonies, Jim Hartnett, in recognition of his support and tireless efforts to promote literacy and education in our community. As Master of Ceremonies Jim kept the event moving with his quick wit and hilarious sense of humor that has come to be the spirit of the Redwood City Trivia BEE.

Our appreciation and deepest gratitude goes to our sponsors of the Trivia BEE, the event volunteers, the Mayor and Council members, Cañada College President Tom Mohr, our AmeriCorps members, and the college staff and faculty. Our appreciation is especially extended to the library staff for their help before, during and after the Trivia BEE.

Four great family programs

Our Dia de los Muertos program at the library drew 250 people on Sunday evening, November 1. Community groups built an altar in the library, and then convened at Courthouse Square for a procession, singing and dancing to the Downtown Library. At the library the event started with Aztec dances and culminated with rice with mole sauce, Day of the Dead bread, buñuelos and atole (corn meal drink). This program was sponsored by Casa de La Cultura QUETZALCOATL, the Mexican Consulate/Plaza Comunitaria, and the Friends of the Library.

On Wednesday night, October 28^th, the 23^rd annual Halloween Costume Parade drew a crowd of 400 children and parents to the Downtown Library for an evening of merriment. The Halloween revelers marched through and in front of the library before returning to the Family Place where they were treated to the music of the Raytones, a kid-friendly rock band that had the kids dancing, stomping their feet and singing along to the infectious music. The event was held in the Family Place rather than the Community Room which allowed for a larger crowd to fill the room without being piled upon each other. At the end of the performance everyone was treated to a Kit Kat candy bar to send them home on a sugar high over and above the energy buzz from the performance and Halloween spirits.

Approximately 400 children, parents, and lovers of music attended the “Williams Tell” concert held in Carrington Hall at Sequoia High School on Thursday evening, October 29^th. Singer/storytellers Bill Harley and Willy Claflin shared the stage for an evening of music, storytelling and puppets that had the appreciative audience in rapt attention. While each performed individually, the two Williams spent the majority of the evening performing together in song, puppet antics, and a spontaneous improv story made up around story elements suggested by the audience. The library would like to acknowledge the hard work of Sharon Levin, Library Board member, to make this event a great success!

Two Redwood City schools were lucky enough to receive a visit from renowned author Pam Muñoz Ryan, whose award winning books include reader favorite Esperanza Rising. Pam’s appearances at schools are extremely rare these days. We owe her visit to the successful pursuit of the ALSC’s 2009 Margaret Hayes Author/Illustrator Award by the intrepid Maria Kramer and intern Leslie Kanno.

Muñoz Ryan kicked off this year’s Family Author Nights with an appearance at Garfield that drew 160 parents, teachers, and students. Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library and their continued support of Family Author Nights, each sixth, seventh, and eighth grader at Garfield received a copy of Esperanza Rising. The kids waited excitedly in line after the presentation for a chance to meet the author and get their books signed.

Pam visited Hoover school the next morning. Close to 300 students attended that assembly, sitting still while Pam said that she re-writes each draft of her book up to 30 times. A complete hush fell over the auditorium while Pam read her picture book Nacho and Lolita aloud. The communal “Awww” that erupted at the happy ending, even from the coolest 8th graders, was something to hear.

There are many signs that bringing a writer to a school has an impact. One was from Margarita, the office manager at Garfield, who brought her granddaughter, an 8th grader who goes to John Gill. Margarita explained excitedly that her granddaughter had read Esperanza Rising aloud to her. “It’s my mother’s story!” she said. There was also the Garfield teacher who brought his 5th grade student to the reception for Pam hosted by the library. His student — a boy, no less! — had read Esperanza in 3rd grade and simply could not believe that the person who wrote a book he loved so much was actually at his school. I wish everyone could have seen his touching meeting with Pam. And then there was the Hoover teacher who said, “You know, this is the third author that the library has brought to Hoover. I heard my kids talking about it after the assembly. I think they’re actually starting to get it that real, live people — who look like them — write real, live books. It really makes them think.” Testimonials don’t get much better than that.

Thanks go out to all the library staff that helped make this author visit such a success and our liaisons at the schools make things possible, including Carmen Contreras and the indispensible Parents Group at Garfield.

One Book, One Community – Redwood City 2009 Highlights

More than 500 folks checked out a copy of the book, Mistress of Spices, from the library; and 300 attended one of the programs including:
The Indian dance group at Redwood Shores–dancers who performed high energy dances for a full 40 minutes and 25 youngsters jumped, twisted and bounced along with the performers.
Vicki Virk of Dholrhythms led a Punjabi-inspired community harvest dance that had the most of the folks dancing.
The Fair Oaks Library community loved the Bookmaking at the Fair Oaks Library where participants made “My Spice Box” with real spices, and their own book listing the spices in the box.
Dorothy Fadiman, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, presented her documentary, Woman by Woman: New Hope for the Villages of India to an enthusiastic and diverse crowd, including many from surrounding communities.
We have confirmed our 2010 One Book, One Community selection: Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a “…Houdini-esque escape, comic book history, an intriguing plot, wry humor, snappy dialogue, and numerous heroes and villains…will keep readers flipping the pages of this winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.”

More Project READ highlights

Project READ Kids In Partnership (KIP) Tutor Learner Matches – There are 73 youth, including teen tutors, preteen tutors and elementary-aged students participating in the KIP program. In October 60 KIP learners and preteen tutors were matched with teen tutors and AmeriCorps members. These students are receiving individualized support from these amazing volunteers. The pairs work together on reading, homework and other self-stated student learning goals.
KIP Services during Fair Oaks School Intersession in October – 55 KIP tutors and learners took learning outside of the 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 hay labyrinth, pet and fed real animals and experienced train, pony and hayrides!
At the October KIP story hour, over 92 KIP learners, tutors and family members came together for musical storytelling, crafts and books. The Mike Eppley and Anjaline duo had the whole crowd singing and playing along with their festive story telling. Families then got in the autumn spirit with the monthly book, Skeleton Hiccups, as well as the hands-on crafts which included, black cat paper statues, water color bats, and Day of the Dead skeletons.
Teen and community tutors also expanded their community service efforts by coming out and helping with Project READ’s annual trivia BEE on October 16th. The teen tutors were especially excited to cheer for their former peer, Vanessa Torres who was one of the recipients for the Spirit of Project READ Award. Below is a summary of Vanessa’s outstanding contribution to Project READ and the KIP program:
Vanessa Torres, a recent graduate of Woodside High School, contributed three outstanding years of community service as a teen tutor in the Kids In Partnership program. Her enthusiasm for learning and her willingness to share her time and talents have transformed the lives and hopes of many KIP students. Vanessa went beyond tutoring and discovered a way to give even further to Project READ and the KIP students by taking advantage of a Starbucks program that links employee volunteer hours with grant money. She took the initiative to write about her KIP tutoring experience and request a Starbucks Partner Grant to further benefit her students. Vanessa has also been a shining role model to her peers as she tirelessly sought scholarship opportunities to reach her own dream of attending a four-year university. She has been recognized as a recipient of the Sequoia Award and the Soroptimist International Scholarship for young female volunteers. She was placed on the waiting list at Stanford University and is now happily attending UCLA. We honor Vanessa’s longtime commitment, thank her for her warm-hearted service and wish her well as she continues her own educational journey at UCLA. Congratulations Vanessa!!!
Project READ’s Adult, Family, and Inmate Programs – This was a great month for accomplishments in Project Read’s Adult tutoring program. A community tutor is helping to expand his learner’s horizons by exposing him to the wealth of opportunities at the community college level. This particular pair is working on accumulating credits for the learner’s high school diploma. For a field trip this pair visited Canada College. They toured around the campus and even got to see college classes in action! When we asked the learner what his favorite part of the trip was he reflected that his most favorite part of the trip was how peaceful the campus seemed to be. “There was no fighting,” he said.
Another adult learner increased three reading levels in seven months! This was a wonderful accomplishment and great news to receive on his birthday!

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September 2009 Report

October 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- September 2009

“Daddy I don’t want to go, these books too interesting.” -10 year old girl in the children’s section.

In September, the Library Board elected Reina Barragan, President, Alex Schernig, Vice-President, and Jeanne Gross, Secretary. During the time that Rudy Madrigal served as President of the Board, the Redwood City Public Library was awarded a 5-star rating and the new Shores Library opened to critical acclaim. I, and the Board, want to thank Rudy for his steady leadership, and representing the library in the community so well.

Staff spent much time in September planning some major programs to be held in October: the annual Trivia Bee (October 16^th—“bee” there!); the annual series of Family Literacy Nights (collaboration with Redwood City Schools); the Kindergarten Card Campaign; the Bill Harley concert (Oct 29); the many One Book, One Community programs; and the all-staff in-service training on customer service.

The annual 2008-2009 Library State Report was submitted. Highlights include:

1,400 volunteers this past year tutored, helped kids and adults to read and learn, read to preschools, volunteered as Foundation members that helped raise $850,000 for the new library, or as a Friend that helped raise funds for library programs.
Over 100,000 hours given by these volunteers, an equivalent of 48 full time staff!
67,000 folks have a Redwood City library card, including 17,000 children.
Our wonderful Project READ program which served more kids, families and adults than ever before this year, matched their library budget dollar per dollar with outside grants, effectively doubling their budget!
64,000 books, movies and music were added to our libraries this year.
1,500,000 items lent, an increase of 50%!
130,000 folks attended one (and of course more!) of our library programs.
370,000 sessions on one of our 125 public computers, 344,000 visits to the library web page, and another 100,000 using our Wi-Fi access.
895,000 visits to one of our libraries this year (almost as much as the combined 49ers and Raiders attendance…)
And of course a wonderful new branch library, that is becoming a model for all other libraries in the area.

Redwood City Public Library is pleased to announce the availability of MyiLibrary as the newest downloadable audiobook resource for our customers. MyiLibrary is fully compatible with iPod, iPod touch, and iPhone, as well as hundreds of other WMA and MP3 devices. Access to these titles is free of charge with a library card and is available anywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have an initial collection of over 500 fiction and non-fiction bestseller titles to choose from to start.

New interior signs for the Downtown Library have been finalized and will be installed this month. The HVAC replacement project and the 2^nd floor remodel are scheduled for November. Library closure dates will be decided soon.

The new Horizons Café at the Redwood Shores Library will open October 19.

In September, 65 youth connected with online 24/7 tutors (through our library website, tutor.com) for an average of 30 minutes each. This is one-on-one, real time tutoring; most were high school students; and all evaluated this service as excellent!

We began our first Afterschool Ecology session this month at the Shores Library, run by the Marine Science Institute and sponsored by the Redwood Shores Community Association. Our contract with Marine Science Institute specified 26 5^th and 6^th graders for the first session of classes and 44 showed up to register! The first topic was “open ocean” and the kids got to get their hands on a whale skull, a seal skin, touch a live leopard shark, and more. It is a great opportunity for these kids, and our hope is that these efforts will help lead a few of them to science when thinking about a future career. We will be offering another session soon if funding can be secured.

Over 50 folks attended the latest in a series of job seeking related workshops presented by PeninsulaWorks, the Library and sponsored by the Friends of the Library. This free two-hour workshop provided participants with tips and new skills to help unlock the job search and open new doors of employment opportunity. Other upcoming workshops for job-seekers at the Redwood City Downtown Library include “The HR Hiring Process” on October 27, and “Job Search for 55 & Older” on November 24.

Longtime library supporter and friend, Jody Ludwig died on September 1. Judy volunteered many hours for the Friends of the Library, and her husband Frank was on the Library Board for several years.

On October 29 the Peninsula Partnership Leadership Council will hold a one-year anniversary celebration of the creation of the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth of San Mateo County. Over 50 organizations, including all 20 city councils and over 15 school districts in San Mateo County have adopted the Bill. The Bill is a statement of what children need in order to become productive and contributing members of their communities, regardless of where they live, their race, ethnicity or family income. It is a non-binding resolution and acts as a set of guidelines for policymakers. This document, written in collaboration with youth, declares that the young people of our county hold specific rights by virtue of their age and stage of mental and social development. Among those rights are that:

They have a healthy mind, body, and spirit that enable them to maximize their potential.
They develop a healthy attachment to a parent, guardian, or caregiver and an ongoing relationship with a caring and supportive adult.
Their essential needs are met—nutritious food, shelter, clothing, health care, and accessible transportation.
They have a safe and healthy environment, including homes, schools, neighborhoods, and communities.
They have access to a 21st century education that promotes success in life, in future careers and a love of life-long learning.
They have training in life-skills that will prepare them to live independently, be self-sufficient, and contribute to their community.
They have employment opportunities with protections from unfair labor practices.
They have freedom from mistreatment, abuse and neglect.
They have a voice in matters that affect them.
They have a sense of hope for their future.

For the October meeting the City of Redwood City was asked by the Peninsula Partnership Leadership Council to describe how we are doing to affirm these rights.

Have you done anything differently as a result of adopting the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth? If so, please explain. If not, how does adopting the Bill affirm what you are already doing?

The Bill of Rights for Children and Youth affirms the direction that the City of Redwood City is moving towards. In each department that serve youth, Parks, Recreation and Community Services, Library, Police and Fire, we try to meet each right. We have dedicated personal that work with children and youth to develop healthy attachments. We provide safe spaces in our communities just for children and youth. Our Parks and Library departments have many afterschool programs, free tutoring services, mentoring, many with school district collaboration, that help promote success in education, youth’s futures, and to foster a love of life-long learning. Our Parks and Police Athletic League engage hundreds of our youth in positive recreational activities that fosters healthy relationships with adults. Our Police department proactively works with the school district in truancy issues. Our Fire department offers junior firefighter programs. The City of Redwood City provides many opportunities for children and youth to give back to their community through volunteering. In addition, we provide job opportunities for youth in both our Library and our Parks and Recreation departments. Through teen advisory boards and the library teen council, children and youth have a voice to affect decisions made about them. Finally, the city hopes that we are providing a sense of hope for all our children’s futures.

Have you used the Bill of Rights to make decisions? What were they? What impact did they have?

We have not used the Bill of Rights to make any specific decisions. Rather, the Bill of Rights fits well with our current goals and objectives as well as gives the city a unified way to speak with other youth services providers.

How have you involved youth in decision making and/or taken youth input into account in making policy decisions? Please give examples.

Youth grades 6^th-8^th have the opportunity to join the Redwood City Youth Advisory Board (YAB) in which they can express their ideas and fill the gap between Redwood City officials and its youth. Youth grades 9^th -12^th can join the Redwood City Teen Advisory Board (TAB); TAB is a group that meets regularly to volunteer, assist city employees in the community and to represent their peers. Teens grades 6^th-12^th can also join the Library Teen Council (LTC) to provide input about matters that affect teens as well as to plan and run events for teens. Our library literacy program through its Kids in Partnership (KIP) program, which pairs at-risk teens with younger children, involves the teens in decision making and program planning. The City has also hosted several “fishbowl” discussion programs with teens, centered on different issues.

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July and August 2009

September 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- July and August 2009

It was a busy summer:

Downtown Fair Oaks Schaberg Shores Total

Circulation

Jul-2008	78,365	8,052	15,511	211	102,139
Jul-2009	83,774	12,164	16,608	53,008	165,554
Aug-2008	69,907	6,740	14,615	180	91,442
Aug-2009	83,525	11,292	16,440	52,981	164,238

Visitors

Jul-2008	42,193	4,940	5,628	0	52,761
Jul-2009	44,991	8,546	6,976	25,927	86,440
Aug-2008	39,493	7,485	5,194	0	52,172
Aug-2009	45,103	11,974	6,619	26,609	90,305

Over 3,000 kids and parents participated in our Summer Reading Program to keep families reading over the summer!

4,000 folks attended a family program this summer at our four libraries.

The Library Foundation, in conjunction with the Fair Oaks Branch Library, hosted very successful booths at the North Fair Oaks Community Festival. The Foundation raised money; however, the greatest benefits were the connections with residents regarding the Foundation’s campaign for books, including connecting with several individuals that offered to help. It was a major undertaking that required many hands: twenty foundation members, library staff and volunteers were involved (and no one had time to sit!)

Project READ’s tutors and learners were honored in July at Project READ’s Annual BBQ and Award Ceremony. Our youth tutor and learners were specifically recognized not only for their hard work tutoring and studying during the school year, but also for their artistic talents and contributions to the BBQ decorations. These decorations, which are the culmination of a year’s worth of art projects, transformed the CAB building into a beautiful yearbook of all of the faces that form the Project READ family! Vice-Mayor Howard and Supervisor Groom very generously attended this great event.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of Project READ donors including the generous donations from the Redwood City Employee’s Giving Campaign, our volunteers helped us pack new backpacks filled with school supplies and gave them away to over 280 Project READ FFL, FLIC and KIP families. Due to the economy, this year’s backpack giveaway was greatly needed and much appreciated. Families came in throughout the week to express their gratitude and appreciation—the smiles on their faces were worth all the stuffing. Families went home ready for the first day of school with new backpacks, school supplies, and lunch bags. Parents continue to call and express their gratitude, explaining that if it had not been for this program, their children would not have had a backpack or the necessary school supplies this year. One father of three, exclaimed, “Thank you so much. I didn’t know what I was going to do because I don’t have a job anymore.”

In response to our budget situation, and to position us for the future, the Downtown Library is experimenting with new staffing models of customer service in response to becoming for efficient with our resources, similar to our branch libraries model. Other areas that our staff are working on: a more proactive model of customer service; more self-service options for our customers; a more effective way to answer phone calls; the use of technology to make our materials handling more efficient; remote and portable computer tools for staff; more meaningful opportunities for volunteers; and an increase in cross-training.

In the month of August we had a total of 41 teen volunteers that worked for a total of 318 ¾ hours! This is the largest amount of time in one month.

The Redwood City Public Library is participating with the San Mateo County Internship Program Job for Youths. This program pays for half of the interns cost. The internship program is geared to provide young adults valuable work experience and to develop employment skills. Starting in August, we have had interns working at the Downtown Library as Pages and Senior Pages. They will be working with us for several months.

Jacky Averill and Roz Kutler presented at the American Library Association Annual Conference about devoting library space to interactive exhibits. They proudly showed off our wonderful and innovative Environmental Interpretive Center at the Redwood Shores Library.

Jenny Davis has been selected to attend the 2009 Eureka! Leadership Institute, sponsored by the California State Library. This is a very competitive process and the panel commended her for her excellent application and project description. The fellows will meet in San Jose for one week in October and will focus on developing our future leaders’ skill sets using real-world applications through each participants project (Jenny’s project is to research, analyze and devise service responses for the library non-user). They will also meet via the web and attend several day meetings during the year.

Last month at City Council:

The Mayor and Council officially recognized Kathy Endaya, the Project READ staff and their volunteers for receiving a proclamation from the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors honoring our program for its work with literacy in general, and the inmate program at the Maguire Correctional Facility and Women’s County Correctional Facility, specifically. This successful volunteer-based literacy program has grown to serve over 280 inmates annually and also extends literacy services their families.
The Mayor and Council also officially recognized Liz Meeks and Brian Lee for some great Redwood Shores Library accolades: winning the Award of Merit from the American Public Works Association; the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Western Council of Construction; receiving kudos for being one of the best child- and family-friendly libraries in the Bay Area; and general all around excellence as a library! Mayor Foust was very enthusiastic about how well used and well received the library has been.
Council approved the 2^nd floor library remodeling and HVAC replacement projects. The tech lab will be redone with upgraded wiring, another entrance, a wall constructed between lab and staff space, and new lighting and paint; a teen area built; three small study rooms constructed where the old staff office is; desk relocated; Project READ tutoring space reconfigured/spruced up. Remember new signs are on order, including directories.
Council also approved upgrading the cross walk in front of the library to make it much safer for our community! It will be similar to the one in front of the post office on Jefferson.

Help Project READ continue our important services by attending the Trivia BEE on Oct 16, at Canada College; or form a team, sponsor a team or become an event sponsor. Visit www.triviabee.org for more information.

The construction work for the Redwood Shores Branch Library café space began on August 24. Construction is slated to last about 4 weeks or so and the café is planning on opening sometime during the first 1-2 weeks of October. The actual date is yet to be determined.

The Redwood Shores Community Association has generously given the library a matching grant of $1,200 to provide a series of environmental education classes led by the Marine Science Institute to 5^th and 6^th graders (fall 2009) and to 3^rd and 4^th graders (winter 2010). These classes will be promoted to Redwood Shores Library customers and to Sandpiper Elementary and Central Middle School students. The goal is to involve local students with the natural world that surrounds them in the Redwood Shores neighborhood. Each 6-week series of educational activities will focus on wetland plants and animals that live side-by-side in Redwood Shores with its residents. The idea is “the better we know our neighbors”, the more protective we will be of their homes and environment. While measuring, comparing, and interacting with fish, invertebrates, birds, and plants, students would be naturally motivated to develop eco-friendly habits such as recycling, conserving water and producing less waste. Students in the 5^th and 6^th grade series, who attend all 6 sessions, can become a volunteer docent in the library’s environmental interpretive center. Docents will guide library visitors through the interactive exhibits, augmenting the experience with additional information. Students will be admitted to the program by signing up at the library.

Bookstock was a fun affair with music by the Raytones, face painting, a Friends of the Library book sale and food by Flaming Dogs. Attendance was down from past years because of the 105 degree heat, but over 250 people attended at some point during the afternoon. Thanks to PRCS for their support. The Raytones enjoyed the event so much that they offered to come back to perform again sometime in October, possibly for this year’s Halloween Costume Parade.

The Library and PeninsulaWorks has partnered to offer residents workshops in job hunting, application writing and filing, resume help and more. Last month folks learned the “do’s and don’ts” of filling out the computerized job applications used by an increasing number of employers. “Computers can become a barrier to finding new employment when job hunters get “rattled by the whole online process,” said Roz Kutler, our programming and adult services librarian.”They’re great at, say, being a trades person, but now they’re being told they have to apply online,” Kutler said. “Maybe it wasn’t really not that important that they’re literate online, but now they have to be.”

June 2009 Report

July 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- June 2009

Circulation and usage continues strong. Big demand for internet access for job hunting and resume sending; family and youth programs; lending materials.

Check outs

Downtown Fair Oaks Schaberg Shores Total

Jun-08	70186	6499	14482	179		91,346
Jun-09	79116	11249	16996	51311		158,672

Visitors

Jun-08	40840	5909	5391	0		52,140
Jun-09	44208	8118	7610	26197		86,133

On June 15, the City Council agreed to accept the City Manager’s recommended 09/10 budget (the complete document is on city website). Library reductions accepted are one full time Division Manager, a part time School Media Librarian, a part time Librarian and $50,000 for print and online reference materials. In September (when the State’s budget should be settled) Council will consider additional reductions if the State acts to take local money. The hard work will begin now. Staff is meeting to look at how we can schedule more efficiently with the resources we have. Longer term (one to two years) we will be reducing more, and now is the time to begin to think creatively and with a sense of urgency on how we do business, staying as close to our core purposes as possible (youth/family literacy; safe and welcoming facilities which includes hours, collections, programs and staff; access to technology). Anyone can reduce resources and reduce services, but the real challenge is to reduce and still keep those services that make Redwood City a great community to live in.

The City received an Award of Merit from the Silicon Valley Chapter of American Public Works Association for the Redwood Shores Branch Library. This award reflects on this great community-centered project delivered by many many folks.

This fiscal year, Traveling Storytime Program volunteers set an all-time high for the number of children read to by reaching over 19,600 children through their visits to the city’s preschools and daycares. This is over 2,000 more children than last year with a smaller Traveling Storytime staff. Reading to young children has proven to be a leading indicator of future school success. We congratulate the volunteers who continue to demonstrate their dedication to the children of Redwood City.

Supporting our kids and families to keep reading and learning over the school break, the Summer Reading, Listening, Parents and Teen Clubs was the major focus of Youth services in June. Assembly visits were presented in the schools and fliers promoting the clubs and summer programs were distributed to every student in the school district. Twenty-eight classes visited either the Downtown or Fair Oaks Library for tours to build enthusiasm for the reading club and over 650 were signed up during the visits. Twenty-four teen volunteers were trained to help out with the Reading Club sign-ups. Any reader who reads for 600 minutes (10 hours) before August 31st will receive rewards. For those who have not yet learned to read, they can join the Listening Club and listen to 10 hours of stories read to them to get the rewards. Parents have the options of either reading to their children, reading to themselves as their children read their books, or a combination of the two.

President Obama announced a summer service initiative called “United We Serve,” encouraging Americans to create meaningful change by volunteering in their communities. The initiative kicked off on Monday, June 22^nd, and runs through the new National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who plans to volunteer at a library, joins other members of the Obama administration who will participate in service opportunities nationwide. It’s easy for Redwood City community members to find meaningful and engaging volunteer opportunities at the Library by visiting www.redwoodcity.org/library.

Three great stories on how libraries can transform lives. At the Women’s Correctional Facility an inmate learner earned her GED. She came into our literacy program as an English language learner and was assessed at a level one reading level. After three weekly meetings with a trained inmate peer tutor for a period of three months she was able to pass her GED in English! Another inmate learner increased five reading levels in a matter of three months while meeting with a trained community volunteer tutor. After his reading assessment staff asked him what his new goals were, he said that he wanted to become a teacher. And just this week, one of our adult learners who has been working diligently all semester in our computer lab, researching and writing papers for his community college classes, stopped in to share his success. This semester he received an A and B in both his classes—he was beaming when he told us. “I couldn’t have done it without you guys,” he told us.

The Friends of the Library agreed to fund our Live Homework Help service. This is an essential service for the library and the Friends’ support will help us continue to offer tutoring help anytime, and anywhere.

Art in Action, a school art program, held receptions in the Downtown and Redwood Shores Libraries for over one hundred student artists and their friends and family members. Many of those attending were visiting the library for the first time. Art in Action is an afterschool program that gives kids K – 8 the opportunity to create art inspired by the work of the great masters, and is displayed in our libraries with the children’s name and school.

Staff has made a lot of progress on our collection shift at the Downtown library. The new Magazine room was constructed, and has received positive feedback from staff and customers. We have also moved collections out of the fireplace room and have begun reconfiguring the shelving to make space for the Fiction collection. The Fiction collection will be moved downstairs in the coming weeks, making this collection more accessible to our customers. The 2^nd floor is being readied for the Learning Center, comprised of an expanded Project READ area including computer lab, Teen Center and a “new neighbors” area featuring computers and citizenship and ESL materials. This project, including the replacement of the HVAC units, is out to bid.

For some time, library users have wanted a downloadable audiobook product that was compatible with the iPod. We are now piloting a subscription to MyiLibrary. We will be sharing the initial collection of 594 titles with other libraries in the County and will be adding more titles once the beta period is over.

Great to hear! On one Saturday no less than four separate families told staff that, even though each was from a town outside Redwood City, they choose to come to our library. More friendly, welcoming, knowledgeable staff, outstanding collections and user friendly.

Macy’s has partnered with Reading is Fundamental and the State Library (California State Library Literacy Services-CLLS) to raise awareness and funds for literacy programs in California. We have participated in this effort for the last two years and have received over $5,000.

Project READ’s Kids in Partnership program’s high school seniors graduated from high school this year. These young adults came into the program with a 90% chance of dropping out of school! Some are going on to community college while others are going as far as UCLA! We bid them farewell and wish them well on their next endeavors.

Project READ staff and AmeriCorps members also completed their final workshop with Education Specialist, Pat Benner. These workshops came just in time for summer KIP which began on June 29^th and will run for the next four weeks at Fair Oaks Elementary School. During this program, teens, tweens and students will work with staff and other collaborative partners in interactive classrooms with activities geared toward diverse learning styles including visual arts, dance, sports activities, reading, writing, map making and treasure hunts.

As part of our budget reduction, the City’s IT Network Manager, Ashu Tikekar, has been assisting the library in standardizing and upgrading our networks, hardware and software similar to the rest of the City for more efficient and effective management. He reports these accomplishments:

Administrative

Prepared an IT budget document to use for budgeting IT related costs and keeping a running total of all IT related expenses.
Created an Asset Inventory database for keeping track of all the IT related equipment at all the branches, their warranty information, service tags, support, date in service etc.
Provided guidance on reducing the cost of running IT operations at the Library.
Mentored library staff in managing such a large IT Infrastructure.
Worked on planning and budgeting to replace 29 staff desktop PC and 51 public workstations.
Worked with Engineering/Architects on the planned remodel of the Main Library to make sure that data connection drops are provided at the right locations and design the separation of the first floor and second floor network that will result in higher speeds, and reliability.

Technical

Network: the library is very unique in that they operate on two networks, City and PLS. These networks need to co-exist with full security so that the PLS network cannot reach City network in any way. A physical separation between the staff and public PC was created by putting staff PCs on separate switches to streamline routes to the city network so that the staff could access data quickly from City Hall. The network closet was cleaned up at the main library so that the public and staff computers can be clearly identified.
Public computers: New images were built for all public computers increasing reliability and security, saving hours of staff time in constant maintenance.
Printers: Streamlined this operation by retiring several printers connected to individual desktops and deploying centralized network printers that are designed for high volume printing. Also, all printers are connected to the server and users get mapped to these printers from the server. This has helped the library to buy fewer types of toner cartridges per year thereby reducing cost and now the users can print reliably.
Work Bench: Created an IT workbench at the main library. 10 computers can be simultaneously repaired on this workbench thereby reducing the turnaround time for repairing PC’s for public and staff.
Client/Server IT Architecture: Established network login scripts for all users for central backup.
Staff PC’s: The entire fleet of non-standard PC’s (some of them were over 5 years old) at the Main Library and branches have been replaced with standard Dell Desktops. With this replacement, trouble shooting and maintenance I streamlined. This is a standard for rest of the users in the City

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May 2009 Report

June 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- May 2009

I want to highlight library services to the Fair Oaks community this month. We implemented a new service model at the branch library a year ago that is proving to be very successful. It is a two part strategy: retooling internal library operations and aggressively getting out into the community. A high-touch customer service model combined with many community-centered programs held in the library (including outside of regular library operating hours) such as computer training in both Spanish and English, storytimes, informational presentations with child care available, and family events have resulted in an incredible 40% increase in circulation, and a 25% increase in visitors this year. Also, by partnering with the School District, our Family Author events (see description of the latest below), have resonated with kids and their families, not only by helping folks understand the power of story and reading but that learning is a community effort. Also our Project Read literacy services have many programs based in the neighborhood’s school—the largest is our KidsInPartnership program which partners elementary children in need of assistance with at-risk high school mentors. We also have many preschool and daycare sites where our Traveling Storytime volunteers read to weekly. All in all our library services, with the help of our community partners and our community-as-partner, are doing what we are charged to do—help our kids and families succeed in school and life. The Fair Oaks Branch Library staff, our Youth Services and Project Read staff, are to be commended in really making a difference in the lives of our residents by helping build a healthy community.

Thanks to the Friends of the Library, we were able this year to bring books and the real, live authors who wrote them to Hoover, Taft, Fair Oaks, and Garfield schools. With the one exception of the Hoover assembly, the programs were community events, held at night and en español so that not only students but their families could come. And come they did. We have had close to a thousand people in our community enjoy the food, festive atmosphere, and inspiring presentations that have been the Family Author Nights.

An estimated two hundred and thirty middle school students and their parents attended the final Family Author Night program at Garfield school. The speaker was Viola Canales. Copies of her autobiographical novel, the tender and funny Tequila Worm, had been given to each 6th, 7th, and 8th grader at Garfield thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library. The Friends also brought Viola Canales to Hoover for a middle school assembly, and provided copies of Tequila Worm for each and every 7th and 8th grader. By the time Viola spoke at Hoover, Sonia Sotomayor had been nominated to the Supreme Court. This gave extra resonance to the visit by Canales, a lawyer who grew up poor in a tiny barrio in Texas, gained a scholarship to an elite prep school, went to Harvard, served as a captain in the U.S. Army, worked for the Clinton administration, and now teaches at Stanford. Her talk to the kids was amazing. She spoke not only about dreaming big, but about the hard work – and hardship – it takes to get anywhere. She talked about the importance of staying in school, and about figuring out what your own stories are and letting them sustain you. She was encouraging and inspiring. Afterwards, the students asked questions and lined up excitedly to have their books signed and to make personal contact with the author.

This school year our online one-on-one homework help site has had over 1,200 sessions by our community’s students interacting with expert real time assistance. The average session was 40 minutes, and mostly used by middle and high schoolers. These grades are very difficult to help in our city’s homework centers due to the difficulty of some of the material. This is a 50% increase in use over last year, and we will again fund it this year. By getting the word out more effectively, we should see more and more use. This is a great example of how technology can help us deliver services more efficiently.

Project READ participated in the Day of the Child/Kermes celebration at Fair Oaks School. On this special day, 500 children received a book from Project READ to take home and enjoy and staff reported that children reached for the books even more eagerly than they reached for the animal crackers that were also available at the table! On Wednesday, May 20, 130 students, tutors, and family members gathered at the Fair Oaks School cafeteria to celebrate the hard work and achievements of the KIP participants. Chuck Ashton kicked the evening off, had the crowd engaged and laughing and really set the celebratory tone for the whole night. Each tutor, learner and AmeriCorps member received a handmade, personalized award certificate highlighting their specific contributions and accomplishments during this KIP year.

May was Wetlands Month and the library collaborated with the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club to create a day of celebration. The wetlands that surround the Redwood Shores Library formed a perfect backdrop for the day. Mayor Rosanne Foust presented a proclamation signed by all council members recognizing Wetlands Month. Supervisor Jerry Hill and Assemblyman Ira Ruskin also spoke to the crowd. Environmental organizations were on hand to discuss their involvement in wetlands. The Marine Science Institute brought leopard sharks, flounders, bay shrimp, red beard coral and other marine life in small touch tanks. Kids were encouraged to create a fish, flipbooks and wetland jewelry. Approximately 400 people attended.

Over 400 community respondents have responded so far to our web survey to name books on the public Book Tower sculpture that will be placed in the parking lot across from City Hall!

The Shores Library again lent close to 50,000 items and had 27,000 visits in May. There has been no let down in business since the doors opened in September. Compare these numbers with Downtown (78,000 items lent, and 48,000 visits), combined with managing four busy community rooms, it is easy to see that our design for the library resulted in a great user-friendly library and an efficient and effective operation. Café improvements should start soon and a grand opening will be planned.

Sequoia High School students visited Downtown Library. These “reluctant students” approached their international social justice projects, with challenging topics like drug policy and violence in Mexico, with interest and intelligence, and had as much to offer as they had to learn. Almost every member of the class visited the library to meet with a librarian to begin to learn about research methods, including searching library databases. Most importantly, they learned that there is help to be found at the Library.

Memorial Day brought the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Union Cemetery. Local History staff attended in full historic costume and portrayed the women of 100 years ago laying flowers on the graves of the Union soldiers in the GAR plot.

Family Learning:

• 264 hours were logged in Project READ’s computer lab. These computers supplement our learners’ experiences from young children to adults. For example students may be researching end of the year papers, teens and tweens writing essays, younger students learning new words through web-based phonics programs, tutoring pairs working together on literacy software, and adults using our lab to help better manage their bills, email family members, and even find new apartments.

• Another example: a family new to the program that has transitioned over from our jail program, is working on a drop-in basis on her reading and writing skills, in addition to attending our monthly story hour with her 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. While mom works on her reading and writing, her son works with tutors on his homework and reading skills, and her youngest is exposed to reading through stories read by our tween tutors (5th through 8th graders), and taking part in pre-literacy crafts. It truly is a shared family experience!

• End of the year conferences have proved to be a very positive experience for many of Project READ’s families. One mom came in to share her 3rd grade son’s success since working with Project READ; “he has shown a 30% increase in reading, writing and math since his last conference.” His teacher wrote to us saying, “With your help he has greatly improved his test scores and his confidence has increased.”

Twenty new tutors graduated from Project READ’s May Tutor Training Workshop. In the 15-hour training, the new tutors learned all about Project READ and the materials and methods they will need to individualize their tutoring sessions based on their learner’s goals and learning style. Each new tutor will be matched one-on-one with a Redwood City adult or child who wants to improve their reading, writing and critical thinking skills.

The Youth Services Department celebrated Children’s Book Week by presenting a series of events for “Cowboy Week.” Cowboy themed craft, bookmaking and storytelling programs at all libraries attracted over 600 children. Thanks to the Girl Scouts working on community service badges and our teen volunteers who helped out.

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April 2009 Report

June 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- April 2009

Our PACT (Partnership Academy for Community Teamwork) session was very successful with 34 of 38 participants rating the library’s presentation as excellent (4 rated it good). These citizen sessions which inform residents about city services is a tremendous communication and community building program. Folks were amazed at how much the library is doing to help our community thrive. Many of the PACT participants go on to volunteer in one of the many opportunities available in the library and/or city; many become more active in our government or their neighborhoods; and all are more knowledgeable (and grateful) about city services and how they are delivered.

Library use is increasing. Visitors to our libraries are up 20% and materials lent increased 14% compared to April 2008. The Shores Library continues to be as busy as ever, with no decrease in business since opening day.

Through our PLS consortium we are applying for federal stimulus dollars to upgrade our materials checkout technology to RFID which will create many process efficiencies, enhance customer satisfaction and reduce our loss rate. Another package includes purchasing laptops for public use.

A group of 15 librarians, designers and architects from Virginia Beach, Virginia received a tour of the Redwood Shores Branch Library on April 2. The group is in the process of building a joint-use facility in Virginia Beach and wanted to see our new library. They were extremely impressed with the facility and commented and remarked on how they loved all aspects of the building. The group was very grateful for the tour and remarked how fortunate Redwood City is to have such a library.

The library completed the review process of the Request for Proposals (RFP) that were submitted for the café space at the Redwood Shores Branch Library. The library has accepted the RFP that was submitted by Fresh & Natural Food Service Group. Library staff and City staff are working and meeting with Fresh & Natural Food Service Group staff in regard to the details and logistics of the café. A “Coming Soon” sign has been placed in the café space informing library customers of the anticipated arrival.

The Dia de Los Niños/Dia de los Libros was celebrated at all the libraries with a week full of literacy events. There was a big kick-off event on Sunday April 26 in the parking lot between Fair Oaks Branch Library and the Fair Oaks Community Center where about 1,500 people attended; 910 people visited the library to listen children bilingual storytellers. All families received a bag with library information, a book, bottle of water and a box of raisins. On Monday, 4/27 there was a special presentation at all libraries by Lucia Gonzalez, author of many children bilingual books.

The Downtown Library’s adult nonfiction collection is getting an infusion of over 2,000 new items; the relocating of the fiction collection is slated for May; and the 2^nd floor remodel is being finalized to go out to bid.

We have created a new position, Library Recreation Leader, to create a positive atmosphere for teens in the library. We want these staff members to know teens by name so that teens will feel part of a community. Sarah LaTorra created an extensive manual that will help these new workers to accomplish their job.

The Customer Service Team has created customer service outcome measures and will be discussing with all staff for feedback. The outcome measures were added to this customer service goal statement to make it measurable: Provide a customer service experience that strives for the highest level of customer satisfaction. Measures include make eye contact, smile, greet/acknowledge, approachable and pleasant demeanor, positive attitude, pleasant tone of voice, make a teachable moment, walk customer to materials/locations (no pointing), circulate – roaming in public areas (do not be tied to the desk), follow-up, the use of customer satisfaction surveys and personal appearance.

Staff from the library and PRCS is undergoing training in the Youth Development Learning Network principles. We are planning the next phase of the YDLN process—an organizational review of the effectiveness of our services to youth. The inter-departmental Youth Agenda team is working on a coordinated website of city services for youth and families; a possible “youth card”; capturing data for John Gardner Center analysis; and aligning with Redwood City 2020’s strategic plan.

The library is in collaboration with Familias Unidas at Hoover School. Familias is a wonderful program developed by a Hoover teacher which is designed to introduce families to various aspects of their child’s education. Parents are taught how to read report cards and contact teachers. The whole family works on projects together, such as reading a book and illustrating the theme, the main characters, and the plot on posterboard. The creativity and variety of responses are on view in the Family Place. The program has been so successful that it has attracted grant money and expanded from one session a year to three. Cristina Thorson is part of each session to promote reading. She gave out seventeen new library cards at this past session. She also gives the closing speech at graduation. Graduation is a big party, with everyone wearing their best, and each participating parent going to the stage to receive a diploma.

The 2009 San Mateo County Reads: One Book, One Community selection is Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices, a best-selling novel set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and explores the Indian immigrant experience through prose and poetry. “Divakaruni’s prose is so pungent that it stains the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells of this brand of magic realism she deftly introduces her true theme: how an ability to accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but a society cornered by change.” Read more about the book the publisher here http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385482387

A faithful library customer, Peter Adams finished his book, An Annotated Index to Selected Articles from The Musical Courier, 1880-1940 Volume 1 and Volume 2. In the acknowledgements he states, “I am also deeply indebted to the library staff at the Redwood City Public Library, Redwood City, California, where I completed this lengthy project, especially to Carol Moniz of the Redwood City Public Library for procuring the microfilm of MC that allowed me to complete this index.

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March 2009 Report

June 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- March 2009

Several budget meetings have been held this past month and all staff have attended at least one of them. Lots of valuable feedback and discussion. Recommended options are being developed by Department Heads for Council review in June.

I can’t say enough about the success of the new Redwood Shores Library. This past month the library lent over 50,000 items, and had 27,000 visitors, more than any other month! And the facility looks great, hosts tours from libraries and architects from around the country, has hundreds of kids at storytime and teen programs, and hundreds more receiving homework help. A big thanks to the Shores staff and our PRCS facility and custodial staffs.

Liz Meeks, Chuck Ashton, Sarah La Torra, Maria Kramer and Maria Diaz-Slocum attended and participated in four (4) full days of Emergency Management Earthquake training. The staff was part of a large group of approximately 70 City of Redwood City employees that participated in the training that was presented by California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI). The training included lectures, presentations, and exercises designed to familiarize the staff with the principals of emergency management and prepare them to respond to an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the event of a disaster. These library staff members have been designated as EOC workers.

Building community—one group at a time

One of this month’s highlights for Traveling Storytime Coordinator Jan Pedden, was providing a tour and storytime at Redwood Shores for the “Schaberg Moms”. This a group of mothers and their children that first met several years ago at her Tuesday afternoon Tiny Tales at Schaberg. Over the years of attending storytimes together, these mothers formed a close-knit group that began meeting for playgroups and other activities outside of the library. A year ago, one of the original mothers announced that she was expecting her second child and they all celebrated with her. A week later the group was the first to learn that this same mother had just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. They grieved with her when she lost her baby and encouraged her as she faced many difficult medical procedures. The “Schaberg Moms” helped by providing childcare, meals and unending support. The group still meets in each other’s homes for storytimes and play groups. The event at Redwood Shores served as a celebration that she is now a cancer survivor! This is certainly an example of community building at its finest!!

Collaboration the key

Thanks to generous funding from the Friends of the Library, we had another sparkling Family Author Night in the Schools event. Upwards of 275 people jammed into the gym at Taft school to hear author and illustrator Yuyi Morales. So many people came that they ran out of chairs! The turnout included an impressive number of fathers, and older brothers and sisters. Each classroom received a set of Yuyi’s books, again courtesy of the Friends, which teachers used to stoke excitement for the visit. Judging from the turnout, the vivid artwork that decorated the gym, and the breathless anticipation of the kids, the teachers promoted the event with real dedication. Many teachers were there that night, too, waiting patiently in line with their students for Yuyi to autograph their copies of her books. Yuyi gave a multifaceted bilingual presentation that culminated in the creation of a drawing of her beloved character Señor Calvera which the principal of Taft plans to frame and display as a reminder of a wonderful night for the Taft community. A big thanks to our library staff, and, of course, our Friends for financial support.

Better than 5 Stars

This from Chuck Ashton, our Youth Services Manager: As far as Chuck and Cristina knew, they were just going to do their usual schtick at Hoover School’s Reading Assembly. Then they were asked to dress as first graders. No problem, as Cristina could borrow a white polo shirt from Homer, and Chuck had another excuse to wear drag. Yes, he found a navy blue pleated skirt, and yes, his legs look great in tights. But when they went up on stage to receive their Reader of the Month certificates, they were surprised by the presentation of a banner, beautifully hand-painted by one of the Hoover moms, congratulating the library on receiving the Five Star award! And then they were given graduation gowns, crowns, flowers, and basically kicked out of first grade, which was bittersweet, since they were just getting used to it. Seriously, it was such a wonderful surprise, and really touching. The teachers at Hoover were genuinely excited by our award, and transmitted that excitement and community pride to the kids. We got a sheaf of letters from them telling us so. The library has developed a terrific partnership with Hoover over the years, with regular assemblies, the Family Author Night, parent connections, and tons of classroom visits. And what a rewarding partnership it is! We put the banner on the wall behind the desk in the Family Place. Come down and see it and share the pride.

Two Project READ volunteers were among the teens honored at this year’s Sequoia Awards.

Molly Prado, a senior at Sequoia HS, has been a KIP tutor since 10th grade. She received the Spirit of Project READ award at the 2007 Trivia BEE for her outstanding tutoring and her initiative to do in-class presentations to recruit more high school tutors. She also volunteered during summer KIP, is a ‘regular’ at KIP story hour, and is currently matched with two 3rd grade girls, Leslie and Marlene, and is loved by all KIP students. Her sister, Melissa Prado, was a page at RCPL and is also a KIP tutor.

Vanessa Torres, a senior at Woodside HS, has been a KIP tutor since 10th grade. She has made personal book donations to Project READ, applied for a matching grant with her employer, Starbucks, to further help Project READ, and is a ‘regular’ at KIP story hour (and brings her little siblings and family). Vanessa is determined to go to college and has sought out and received several scholarships to that end. She is currently matched with a third grader, Erika, and also volunteers during summer KIP.

Fair Oaks Report (Maria Kramer)

Fair Oaks Branch circulated 10,619 items, a 30% increase compared with last March. The library had 10,111 visitors, an increase of 33%!
Dr. Francisco X. Alarcon, author of many bilingual books, English/Spanish, gave a wonderful presentation of his latest bilingual book, Animal Poems of the Iguazu / Poems de los animals de Iguazu. He was surrounded by 283 children and parents that attended the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4 at 5:30 pm in the Fair Oaks school auditorium. Dr. Alarcon presented this book in a video style. All children were amazed of the great photographs of the animals and the Iguazu waterfalls of Argentina. The greatest thing was that Dr. Alarcon made his presentation in both English and Spanish.
Students at Opportunity School Weekly Book Club were treated to a special lunch program with author Viola Canales after reading her book Tequila Worm. Viola read a chapter from the book; then she answered student’s questions.
Armando, Elisa and Cristina presented storytimes to more than 500 children that enjoyed listening to stories while lying down on the turtle floor cushion! The children love to sit and rest on it while they read books. Participants of PCRC Leadership Group that use Fair Oaks for their meetings also enjoyed a special story time. In addition, Armando continues to read to approximately 225 preschool students every week.
Computer classes with Martina on Mondays; on Tuesdays with Armando and on Wednesdays with Angelica are well attended.
Maria D-S successfully completed SEMS Introductory course and Introduction to Emergency Management: Earthquake training. Also, Maria has been busy organizing the PACT session with HR and the next Immigrants Day Festival. She and Armando met with YS team to discuss a library wide celebration of Día de los Niños / Día de los Libros (Day of the Child/Day of the Book) for which MDS has designed the flyer. Also, Maria is working with the County to resolve some Parking issues; she is getting an estimate on getting two reserved parking spaces.

Downtown Report (Maria Kramer)

Downtown library this month circulated, 76,032 items, 2.5 % more than last year. 45,252 visitors, up 10%.
Staff is working on the maintenance of the collection; this is in preparation for new non-fiction orders, to clean up the collections, and to make room for the Fiction collection to move downstairs mid-May.
A Custom Library Services analysis was done on the cost/benefits of using Baker and Taylor to catalog materials. It was decided to use the fiction collection as a pilot.
We hosted a new partnership with Peninsula Works, to offer technology-based job training programs at the Downtown Library. Employment specialists will offer monthly employment seminars such as resume writing tips, transferable job skills or sharpen your interview skills among others. Also, we are offering, by appointment, a 15 to 20 minutes session of Free Help with Resumes and Cover Letters twice a week.
Two literary events brought 30 adults to the Downtown library. The book group tackled Toni Morrison’s new novel, A Mercy, with all the rigor and toughness needed to give the challenging and lyrically beautiful work their full attention. Redwood City author, Pearl Sofaer, introduced her memoir, Baghdad to Bombay – In the Kitchens of My Cousins, with stories, songs and recipes from her upbringing, offering a rare picture of her Eastern Jewish traditions.
On the medical field, 56 people came to find out how the shoulder works and what to do about shoulder pain. Dr. Cheung from Stanford University Medical Center presented Shoulder & Elbow Trauma: Current Trends for Treatment. She is terrific speaker, making complex anatomy intelligible.
Jenny Davis and Serena Gregorio are attending the Leadership Academy.
Staff involved with programs and presentations has been trained on the new projection equipment in the Community Room.

Redwood Shores Report (Liz Meeks)

The Redwood Shores Branch Library has exceeded the 50,000 mark in circulating library materials. This month, the library circulated 51,946 library materials! This is 5,821 more library materials than the previous month. What an accomplishment!
27,844 customers visited the library this month, the highest month since opening.
739 children attended the various storytime sessions.
31 teens participated in the weekly Wednesday “Teen Activities and Gaming” program.
The Homework Center staff assisted 141 students with their homework and assignments.
The newly installed Interpretive Center has turned out to be quite an attraction and an educational component for our library customers. Open one full month now, it is heavily used. The Interpretive Center has captured the interest of library users, exposing them to the various different birds, fish, animals and wildlife in general, that inhabit the Redwood Shores area. The ever popular micro life exhibit, which demonstrates the types of wild life that live in the water, appears to be creating some budding scientists amongst some of the younger children. The aquarium serves as a focal point as people browse through the exhibit. Many library customers have expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the library staff. The Interpretive Center is open and available during the library’s regular operational hours.
Jacky met with members of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club to begin planning a public celebration of American Wetlands Month. The event will be held Saturday, May 9 at the Redwood Shores Branch Library and is billed as “Keeping Our Baylands Wet and Wild”. Local and national wetlands and ecology groups are invited to participate by giving out information and freebies, presenting family activities, showing a movie, or speaking on their area of expertise. The event will take advantage of the beautiful slough setting of the Library and will showcase the recently opened Environmental Interpretive Center.
The Redwood Shores Branch Library Book Club meets the second Thursday of each month at 12:00 noon, in the Community Room. In March, the Book Club read and discussed Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.
The Library now has a “Quiet Reading Room” for library customers that are seeking a quiet place in the library. Meeting Room C has been transformed into a “living room” of such, with leather lounge chairs; end tables; a curvy bench; and a few reader tables and chairs. Library staff has received expressions of gratitude from our library customers for creating another space in the library that has a quiet environment.
The Library welcomes Paul Gunning as a much needed Building Attendant.

Schaberg Report (Liz Meeks)

Wendy Mathers Lapp celebrated 20 years of service with the City of Redwood City.
17,081 library materials checked out, an increase of 30%. 7,642 visitors more than doubled last year’s use.
331 students utilized the Homework Center.
296 children attended the storytime sessions.
95 students visited the library during school class visits.

Youth Services Report (Chuck Ashton)

The monthly Dad and Me @ the Library program featured juggler/balancing act artist Owen Baker-Flynn who wowed an audience of 100 with his juggling abilities. The program culminated by moving to the sidewalk in front of the library where Owen juggling flaming torches before extinguishing them – in his mouth!
Daffy Dave – magician/juggling/madman – had an audience of 150 begging for more after his Family Night performance. Dave’s mix of magic, juggling and slapstick humor had the parents laughing just as much as the kids.
The library’s own Chuck Ashton presented a program of stories, songs and puppets at the 3^rd Saturday of the month Family Program at the Shores Library. Chuck was pleased to see that some of the new faces in the audience found their way back to the library for his Tuesday night storytime a few days later.
Jacky was interviewed for an article about Paws for Tales. The article will appear in the next issue of Bay Area Parent.
When you have a moment, please come check out our new sign for the children’s Program Room. Children’s book author/illustrator Bob Barner created the original art for the sign which was then blown up to fit the space and mounted on the wall by Dpi of San Francisco. The sign depicts a dinosaur head and dialog balloon saying Program Room, both of which are “popped out” about an inch from the yellow background festooned with flowers. It’s a visual treat, so come have a look. Thank you to Bob Barner for the fabulous art, his wife Cathie for finding Dpi to reproduce it, and to Louie Tse of Dpi for faithfully reproducing Bob’s artwork and for mounting it on the wall. Once Bob and Cathie get back from a trip to Maui we’ll figure out a date and time to dedicate the sign and have Bob do a presentation for the kids. With Elizabeth Gomez’s wonderful mural, Gianna Marino’s joyous pillars, and Bob’s fabulous sign we have the makings of an art museum for children that hopefully we can add to over the years. The next spot to consider for some additional artwork is the wall space in the alcove behind the Children’s service desk. Stay tuned for further developments.
Fair Oaks school’s 5 kindergarten classes made the trek to the Fair Oaks library to hear Cristina read stories. It’s been so much fun that they’ve been coming every month!
During the month of March Jan finally was able to spend some additional hours in her office and reconnect with many of her volunteers. As a result, two volunteers asked for additional placements. Jan’s storytimes at Redwood Shores continue to attract a large number of people. Jan also completed the training of the new Chinese reader for Redwood Shores and she attended her first storytime. Jan also took on the responsibility of working with two special needs students from Menlo Atherton High School. She was able to put her many years of special education experience to use and was able to create several meaningful tasks for them that would result in expanded skills for the two young men. The activities provided many teachable moments for their job coach.
Sarah has started analyzing the Summer Reading collection to make sure that the library will have enough books for our High School students. She ordered books for Woodside High School’s summer reading and is now working on Menlo Atherton High School’s list.
The Library Teen Council worked on flyers for the Mask program and discussed the upcoming Talent Show for Teens. This month during the weekly art activity, children decorated boats with crayons and sequins, they made rubbings of shamrocks, created clover wands, decorated flower magnets and created Chinese lanterns. A total of 46 people attended the art activities.
The library continues to provide job experience for 3 students from Menlo Atherton High School. Jan found many activities for the students to perform.
Sarah attended a Fishbowl Forum on Drugs and Alcohol at Menlo Atherton High School.
This month 7 people participated in a lively book discussion of Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Next month the group will read The Boyfriend List. This month teens made fantastic masks using feathers, sequins, rhinestones, etc.
Sarah led a library tour for 25 students for Teen Reach. Also as part of Teen Reach, Sarah will host a table at a career fair to let students know about the different volunteer opportunities at the Redwood City Public Library. Sarah will also present volunteer opportunities to Citizen School at the Community Affairs Building on the 27^th.

Project READ Report (Kathy Endaya)

We are just about finished with our current tutor training for March; we will have 18 new volunteer tutors to match with adults and children.

Learners’ Accomplishments:

One of our regular learners, Jaymee, a second grader, surprised us all this month a few times. Recently Jaymee’s parents came in to talk to us about Jaymee’s status in school. According to Jaymee’s teacher, she was endanger of failing this term, and was given some additional testing through the school district. Her teacher and learning specialist sent home a note to her parents and to us, highlighting the areas that she needed to work on. We created an individualized learning plan to help Jaymee progress in these areas. The next week Jaymee’s dad told us that since Jaymee has been working with Project READ, she has excelled in school, especially in the areas that we are focusing on here at FLIC. Additionally, after being tested this week, we were told that Jaymee’s multiplication skills impressed everyone—such a thrill since Jaymee works every day on her multiplication “games” with her tutors.

A Family Affair: In addition to Jaymee’s success this month, we have another family member to celebrate… Jose—Jaymee’s dad, who comes in each session with Jaymee to encourage her and learn with her. Now that we have are new computers, Jaymee’s dad asked us if he could practice his computer skills to help him “with his work, and most importantly…to help (his) kids.” Now, when Jaymee comes into FLIC, her dad is learning right beside her. One of Jose’s goals is to work with Jaymee on reading and math computer programs, so they can continue to learn together. (Jaymee’s mom is already a Project READ learner, so we now have a complete family of learners.) As we celebrate our goal of eliminating family low literacy, we celebrate this Project READ family!

Another one of our youth learners had a really productive month. Edgar, a 3^rd grader, and his mom Juana are both learners in our FLIC program, and come in regularly each week. Juana has been concerned with Edgar’s progress in school and told his teacher about his work with Project READ. His teacher has partnered with us to help Edgar succeed, and recently send a detailed letter, bulleting areas that Edgar needs to work on. After creating a learning plan that matches his teacher’s goals, we have been seeing progress in Edgar’s work, especially with his multiplication skills—a major learning goal for Edgar. Last week, we were so pleased to hear from Juana that since working with Edgar’s new learning objectives at FLIC, he has been receiving notes home from the teacher with “excellent” in these areas!! She was so happy and proud of Edgar. Everyone at FLIC can see how proud Edgar is of himself and his progress. And Edgar is now the reigning Math Bingo (multiplication) champion at FLIC—he is even giving our AmeriCorps a run for their money! He is so proud of his accomplishments, Edgar has even started graphing his Bingo results—there’s no stopping him.

Robert, one of our adult learners highlighted in our accomplishments last month, has been matched with a tutor through our Adult Program. Robert and his tutor, Gregory, meet at FLIC each week, and have hit it off from the start. We are all pleased that in addition to working with his tutor, Robert has continued to come to FLIC regularly to supplement his work with his tutor. This month Robert shared his own poetry with us, and worked on learning new words that he uses in his own writing. Inspired by Robert’s poetry, we went downstairs to find books of poetry for Robert to read. He came in this week, with a smile on his face. When I asked him what he wanted to work on, he replied proudly, “I want to read!” He took out his book of poetry and recited a beautiful poem by Neruda that he has been working on with his tutor. Later that evening he shared that he has a new goal: He wants to get his poetry published.

The Family Literacy Instructional Center (FLIC) had an exciting month. We finally launched our new computer lab, which was a huge success. We opened the lab up to a small group of students during our KIP program, as a trial run to get initial feedback from our learners before opening the lab up to all Project READ learners the first week of March. We were thrilled by the response from our KIP students and their tutors. The user accounts have been set up to make learners’ computer experience a positive one, with easy access to learning programs, and word processing software. The kids were overjoyed; everyone wanted a turn on the new computers. With our new fully functioning lab we are able to accommodate each of our 40+ KIP students, allowing a computer time slot for every learner and tutor each week. After working on a phonics-based reading game that lists the words learned in each lesson, Maricruz (KIP student), turned to her tutor with a huge smile and proudly said: “Look at the words I learned!” It looks like the computer lab was worth the wait!

This month Project Read’s adult inmate program launched its second book club collaboration with Life Learning Academy on Treasure Island. Inmate learners have completed their first round of writing compositions, which include essays and Found Poetry and are waiting for responses from their classmates on Treasure Island. Together, inmate learners and Life learning Academy students are critically analyzing writings about the prison system and are engaged in dialog focusing on ways to lower recidivism.

Project Read’s adult inmate program also hosted its first ever Scrabble tournament in March. After stiff competition, which spanned over 2 weeks, a learner/tutor pair were named Scrabble Champions. This tournament served as a community building activity for learner and tutor pairs and, helped learners discover a fun way to improve spelling skills, while simultaneously boosted their self-esteem.

On March 12th we completed another F.A.T.H E R S. course on 06 West with 6 guys from EAST and 6 from WEST. Of the original 12 students, 10 completed the entire course and received their certificate of completion from Project READ. We sent home 11 books and 10 audiocassettes of dad reading to his child. We had a graduation on last day of class and shared Pizza and soft drinks. It was a lot of fun.

Kids in Partnership (KIP) story hour at the Fair Oaks Community Library drew over 75 KIP learners, tutors and families. Everyone came out of the cold, wet weather to enjoy the lively and educational entertainment of the Lori and RJ from the Cotton Candy Express. Adults and children alike joined in the fun by singing, dancing and playing instruments. Each family received a children’s literature classic, Leo Lionni’s A Color of His Own, to take with them to add to their home library collection. Participants also used their imagination and creativity to make beautiful valentines to share with their friends and families.

We welcomed 6 new teen tutors during a mini midyear teen tutor training. These high school students are now matched and tutoring in the KIP at the library program! In addition to their individualized plans, KIP pairs also worked on math literacy through creating multiplication flipbooks, math fact dominoes and story problem vocabulary and templates.

KIP pairs were also thrilled to be the first to use the new Project READ computers! As students worked with their tutors on the educational websites, staff heard exclamations like, “I’m reading!” and “I read all these words!” Wacky Web Tales, an online version of madlibs was also very popular and many KIP pairs selected, a spooky night at the library, as the their first template.

This month at KIP, we also began our annual BBQ art service project. In the teen hour, tutors and AmeriCorps members worked together to design, paint and construct beautiful decorations for Project READ’s Award Ceremony and BBQ this July.

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February 2009 Report

March 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- February 2009

Redwood City Public Library has received a “five star rating” from the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service, a new public library national rating system instituted by the Library Journal. This makes the Redwood City Public Library the top-rated library of any size in the Bay Area, and it’s one of the two top rated mid-sized libraries in all of California. There are only five libraries in California that achieved the five star rating, which is based on per capita measurements including number of items borrowed, number of visits, number and types of programs offered, attendance at activities, and level of public Internet use. The Library Journal is the premier professional national publication for librarians, recognized as the standard resource for the industry. Its national rating of public libraries, the LJ Index of Public Library Service, identified only 85 “5-star” libraries in the entire United States. Overall, it rated 7,115 public libraries, and the top libraries in each group got three, four, or five Michelin Guide-like stars, to rank their overall achievement. Our challenge ahead is to keep providing stellar service in very perilous economic times. However, we achieved this recognition through the continuous hard work of the entire Library staff and the support of the Library Foundation, the City Council, and the community.

Why is this library, this city and this community so special? Here are three examples:

Over 180 people crowded into the cafeteria at Hoover school for the Second Annual Family Author Night, featuring Elizabeth Gomez, the wonderful local illustrator of many books and of the mural in the Family Place. Elizabeth gave a lively, funny, and moving presentation en español (with English translation available) all about how she achieved her childhood dream of being an artist, thanks to her parents who strongly believed in education. In fact, her mother believed in education so strongly that she went to school when Elizabeth did, not having had the opportunity to do so before. Eventually, Elizabeth’s mother made it all the way through the university. It was a very empowering message for the Hoover community, since Family Author Nights, as the name implies, are not just for students, but for their families as well. And whole families turned out to hear the talk; to eat dinner which was sold as a fund-raiser for outdoor education; and to cross their fingers in hope that they’d win one of the prizes from the Big Raffle. Also, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library, who sponsored the event, each student from kindergarten through fourth grade received a copy of one of Elizabeth’s books. The best news is that there will be several more Family Author nights this year, thanks again to the Friends. The next will be on March 25 at Taft school, with Yuyi Morales, followed by a May 21 appearance by Viola Canales at Garfield School.

This was our biggest KinderCard Super Saturday yet! This is an annual program that works to ensure every kid in Redwood City kindergarten—public and private—gets a library card. It’s really proven to help young kids develop an early love of reading and learning, and to understand that the library is a great place to learn and grow. 650 people attended, and over 200 kindergartners proudly got their library cards! With the help of staff, along with teen volunteers, the kids also received goody bags with library info, a book in Spanish or English, a library card holder, a pencil and eraser. We should all be proud of this program.

On Friday, February 27, the Interpretive Center Donor Party was held at the Shores Library. The interpretive center is just awesome, and even more awesome, was the collaboration and hard work of staff to make such a unique exhibit a reality; and also to put on such a great event! Thank you to our Mayor and City Manager for speaking; Library Board members and City Councilmembers attending; and thank you to our own Jacky Averill for her tireless efforts in bringing the interpretive center to reality.

Fair Oaks Branch circulated 25% more library materials compared with last year, a total 8,187 library items. Nicely done Fair Oaks staff!

Other highlights happening in our Fair Oaks area (besides the huge family author program of course!):

68 participants at Valentine Day program.
Armando continues to read to approximately 225 preschool students every week. He also leads Storytimes on Mondays, the Tuesday Bilingual Tiny Tales, Learning Together for parent and child, which is presented using computers, and the Opportunity School weekly book club.
Giving that we have a long waiting list for computer classes, Angelica is teaching Basic Intro to Computer, Internet Searching, e-mail and Word resume template.
Maria did a presentation to the parent group of the Menlo Park Head Start program.

The library was present at the First Gang Prevention and Education Conference at the Sequoia High School. Carrington Hall was packed with parents, children, teens, teachers and community leaders. Superintendent Dr. Patrick Gemma spoke about all the opportunities at the Sequoia Union High School, Chief Cobarruviaz emphasized that gang prevention starts at home and spoke of programs available for teens at the Police Department. Leaders of this conference closed by asking parents what commitment they are willing to make after attending this conference.

Redwood Shores

46,125 library materials were checked out.
24,150 customers visited the library. (Note: one of the gate counters malfunctioned two days this month. The total number of visitors is not reflected, due to the malfunction.)
1,001 children attended the various storytime sessions at the Redwood Shores Branch Library this month! This is a record number since opening.
109 students attended and utilized the Homework Center.
39 teens participated in the weekly “Teen Activities and Gaming” program.
The Redwood Shores Branch Library hosted a community blood drive on Saturday, February 7, 2009, which was sponsored by Blood Centers of the Pacific. The Bloodmobile donor coach was set-up in the library’s parking lot. A total of 21 units of blood were collected from 26 donors. We would like to thank the Redwood Shores community for their contributions.
On Saturday evening, February 7, 2009, the Redwood Shores Branch Library served as the venue for the Sandpiper Social & Auction, which was sponsored by the Sandpiper Elementary School PTA. The library was abuzz with over 200 community members in attendance.
The Redwood Shores Branch Library held a public reception on Thursday, February 19, 2009, for the new installation of art work that is on display in the art gallery. “About Nature: A Student Exhibition” features original landscape paintings by students from Notre Dame de Namur University, in Belmont. The paintings are available for viewing through April 12, 2009, during the open hours of the library.
A donor reception was held on Friday evening, February 27, 2009, to recognize and thank the donors that contributed to the Redwood Shores Branch Library Interpretive Center. Also in attendance were Library staff, Library Board members, Library Foundation members, City staff and City Council members. The Interpretive Center is an asset to the library and community, providing an interactive educational experience about bay life within the area.

Schaberg

14,330 library materials were checked out.
5,844 customers visited the library.
347 students attended and utilized the services in the Homework Center.
292 children attended and enjoyed the storytime sessions.
104 students visited the library during school class visits.

Customer Service Team

Members of the Customer Service team attended an all-day workshop entitled “Fully Engaged Customer Service”. The team members found the workshop to be very valuable, with a wealth of tips. Components of the workshop will be shared with the staff as team’s work progresses.

An early review of the Interpretive Center:

The Interpretative Center at the new Redwood Shores Public Library opens this week and it makes an already wonderful library absolutely beyond terrific. It features a supersized replica of the mud from Belmont Slough, the natural wonderland right behind the library. And at 800 times larger than life size, the faux mud teems with gigantic animals—Dungeness crab, a bat ray, orange anemones, Japanese littlenecks and other clams, spaghetti worms, snails and more—that are simultaneously fascinating and gross. In short, it’s kid heaven.

Babies and toddlers can crawl through mud tubes and press their noses against a tank with fish from the slough. Older kids can explore more than a dozen hands-on exhibits that encourage discoveries about who eats whom; how animals move through the mud; what advantages arise for birds from different types of feet, beaks and feathers; survival adaptations like camouflage; the tides and salt pond restoration; the microbial life in the slough; and that ever-popular topic—sharks. Adults can get a short course in bird-watching. And then everyone can go outside to keep an eye out for bat rays—because they have been spotted right behind the library—and to see how many birds they can identify.

Does a mini discovery museum belong in a library? Perhaps not in every library. But in this one, absolutely. It’s a perfect halfway point between the building’s unique outdoor setting and the rich, indoor resources of its books and online information. The Interpretive Center makes you want to go outside for a closer look. And at the same time, it makes you want to hit the books inside for the pleasure of more information. Please watch for future posts on kids’ bookmaking projects tied to the Interpretive Center and Belmont Slough in particular and to estuary ecosystems in general. To keep reading about the Interpretative Center—and to see more pictures—please click the link.

Of the many things I like about the Interpretative Center, I’d like to call attention to just two. First, it’s not a hyperactive, loud, in-your-face place. It’s an adjunct to a library. And it wisely resists slipping down the exhibit-as-entertainment slope.

Second, it raises more questions than it answers for inquiring visitors, kids and adults. Do egrets have any predators? Can people see leopard sharks right behind the library? Could the stinging cells in orange anemone tentacles hurt people? Is California’s drought affecting Belmont Slough? What’s a salt marsh harvest mouse look like? The obvious next step, happily, is to take a look in a book.

*You won’t find the word mud-luscious in the Interpretative Center, but you can find it elsewhere in the library. It comes from an ee cummings poem that celebrates children’s excitement about spring, called In Just Spring. The Interpretative Center was designed by Split Rock Studios, a firm of “museum outfitters” in St. Paul. Its wonderful, oozy-looking mud, known as “eco-sculpture,” was created by Minneapolis artist Gina Louise. And the go-between for the design team and library has been children’s librarian Jacky Averill, who playfully calls herself an “exhibitionist.” And in fact she’ll be speaking about her new cross-over role at the American Library Association convention, on a panel titled “The Librarian as Exhibitionist.”

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January 2009 Report

March 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report- January 2009

We are planning different ways to engage and inform staff around the upcoming City budget process. Weekly drop-in brown bags, regular unit and all-staff meetings will be held, along with frequent updates from me via email. I would like all staff to stay informed and feel like they have a say in the hard financial decisions ahead.

Sign of the times: computer use for resume writing is increasing daily. Staff is spending a lot of time assisting folks; and classes are being scheduled.

Our Youth Agenda Initiative, the collaboration with Library, PRCS, PD and the City Manager’s office, is winding down an intensive training on serving youth. We will then begin to train all staff, and look towards phase two: organization assessment on how effective our services are. This will include community surveys, on-site consultants reviewing and analyzing our programs, and making recommendations. This is very exciting, and although it is a multi-year process, should help us tremendously.

Redwood Shores use continues to be heavier than anticipated—not only in lending materials, but program attendance, visitor count and meeting room bookings. RFPs for the Café space will be reviewed in early February. We will also be adding a nice quiet room off the lobby for those who would like to read in absolute silence.

A crew from Split Rock Studios arrived January 16 with a truckload of custom fabricated mud, birds and fish which were squeezed through the doors of the Redwood Shores Branch Library. Over the next 7 days, Jacky Averill and Carlos Espinoza orchestrated installers, electricians and aquarium specialists while the Environmental Interpretive Center took shape. Work continues on several exhibits before the completed project opens to the public at the end of Feburary.

We are fortunate to have some intensive City IT assistance working at the Library during the next few months—training staff, upgrading our network and servers, and standardizing our desktops, hardware and protocols to City standards.

A contract has been signed for a small CIP project to upgrade the signage system at the Downtown Library. The learning center/teen space remodel/HVAC project has not gone out to bid yet due to issues with the rooftop placement of the new units.

The library’s Customer Service Team is meeting twice per month. The team is currently working on devising standard telephone guidelines; email guidelines; a customer service survey; and consistent circulation policies. Information will be shared and discussed with all library staff.

Thanks to generous funding from the Friends of the Library, an exciting slate of Family Author Nights in the schools is being planned for the late winter and spring. Family Author Nights are the ultimate in community building, partnering with schools to provide books and an evening presentation at the school that is open not only to students, but their entire family as well. Last year’s pilot program at Hoover School drew over 350 people to hear writer Francisco Jimenez, who not only inspired his audience but who stayed for hours afterwards to sign copies of his book – copies which had been given to every middle schooler at Hoover as part of the program. This year, the Friends have allowed us to expand the program to four schools, and to provide copies of the authors’ books to students for free. Talks are given in Spanish, with simultaneous translation provided. Support from the schools is terrific, with parent groups selling food as fund-raisers, organizing raffles and child care, and teachers generally collaborating enthusiastically in order to guarantee success. The Family Author Nights scheduled so far are:

February 12 at Hoover School: illustrator Elizabeth Gomez, local artist and painter of the mural that hangs above the Spanish books in the Family Place Downtown.
March 25 at Taft School, Yuyi Morales, just named winner of the Pura Belpre prize. Check out her website: http://www.yuyimorales.com/
May 21 at Garfield School, Viola Canales, author of The Tequila Worm, ex-army captain and currently teaching at Stanford.
Viola Canales will also be appearing at Hoover for an afternoon assembly in May.
Fair Oaks will also host a program; stay tuned for details.

The Library also received a grant from Maureen Hayes Author/ Illustrator Visit Award for $3,800 to host an additional author visit to Garfield Elementary Charter School. Noted children’s author, Pam Munoz-Ryan, has agreed to visit and we are in negotiation to include 2 more schools.

Reports from Library Managers:

Redwood Shores

46,429 library materials were checked out.
14,468 customers visited the library.
Storytimes at the Redwood Shores Branch Library continue to be very popular with 685 attending this month!
In response to our teen customers looking for programs and activities geared towards their age group, a weekly “Teen Activities and Gaming” program has begun. Each Wednesday, from 2:00pm – 5:00pm, library staff (Ray) is available in the Teen Room to work with teens from the ages of 12 through 18 and grades 6 through 12, providing gaming with the Wii and other activities of interest. This month, 44 enthusiastic teens participated in the activities. The teens are very thankful for the program and they have mentioned that that they will tell their friends about it. The library will be adding additional programs in the future.
Library staff (Leti, Lucy, Ray and Liz) received an information questions-answering training session provided by a Downtown Library staff member (Roz). The training covered the types of questions that the staff is asked during the course of their work; open-ended reference questions and responses; and information on utilizing the various databases and online services that are available. This training has proven to be very valuable to the staff.
Library staff (Lucy) is going through storytelling training and once completed, will be able to assist with and provide storytelling during the storytime sessions that are offered at the library.
104 students utilized the Homework Center this month. The Homework Center is open Monday and Tuesday, 3:00pm-6:00pm; Wednesday, 1:00pm-6:00pm; and Thursday, 3:00pm-6:00pm. Any students that need assistance with their homework or a place to do their homework in an environment that is conducive to school work are welcome.
Library staff (Kasia) has spent a significant amount of time this month working on and resolving a variety of computer related issues at all of our library facilities. The library staff is very appreciative of Kasia’s knowledge and expertise in this area.
Artwork by 3^rd grade students from Sandpiper, Belmont Oaks and Nesbit Schools is on display in the Storytelling Room. We are very pleased to have the students’ original artwork featured in the library.
The Redwood Shores Branch Library invited the community to celebrate an historic moment, by hosting a viewing of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration on Tuesday, January 20, when Barack Obama was sworn into office as the 44^th President of the United States of America. The library opened the doors to the community room at 7:00am and provided continuous coverage of the day’s events on our big screen television, as 60 community residents enjoyed each other’s company and shared stories as they witnessed history. The community was very appreciative and thanked the library for providing the venue and the opportunity for community building.

Schaberg

13,823 library materials were checked out.
5,806 customers visited the library.
235 children attended the various story time sessions that were held this month.
The Homework Center was well attended this month, with 318 students coming in to get assistance with their homework. The Homework Center is open Monday through Wednesday, 2:00pm-5:00pm; and Thursday, 1:00pm-5:00pm.
Library Assistant Carla Nolasco has transferred to the Schaberg Branch Library—welcome Carla.
Library staff (Mary Lou, Wendy and Carla) has worked diligently to keep the Schaberg library collection “refreshed” by featuring and merchandizing the collection and maintaining various displays throughout the month.

Fair Oaks:

Statistics—Fair Oaks Branch circulated 7,716 library items, 13% more compared with January 2008.

Programming—Programs continue to be successful. This month Rosca de Reyes program drew 125 participants. Other standing monthly program, Basic Computer classes on Monday evenings has 4 to 6 participants per session. Family Friday Night, a parents support group, presented Personal Finance and budgeting workshop to 62 participants. El Concilio de San Mateo continues its nutrition workshops with an average of 12 participants per session.
Beginning January 13, Armando Ramirez started a trial of Tiny Tales story time, one at 12:00 noon and another one at 3:00pm. We are testing which will be the most popular to decide on schedule. It was a great start with 6 participants to up to 16 participants.
Armando started a book club with students from the Opportunity School which helps High School students who at risk. The school is located in the Fair Oaks Community Center. This month they are reading The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, they will continue with Breaking Through to finish with Reaching Out.
Staff—two new faces are part of the Fair Oaks Library Team. Erica Gonzalez-Palafox is our newest Part-Time Library Assistant and Luis Sosa, a new Page. Staff has been working with them on providing a good customer service, keeping the collection in order and making materials available to customers as soon as possible. Also, duties performed by Carla Nolasco will be distributed among all Fair Oaks staff. Kasia have been working on fixing the problems with the public computers.
The Fair Oaks Branch received a grant from the Friends of the Library for programs. Maria Diaz-Slocum attended the Friends meeting and gave an update on all the Fair Oaks programs sponsored by the Friends and how much we have spent to date. Also, Maria as the Library Representative at the Immigrants Day Committee is working on the publicity part.
Downtown:
Statistics—Downtown circulated 67,326 library materials; 7 % less than last January 2008.
Shifting:—Jenny and Elisa coordinated a major collection shifts which: brought more capacity for materials downstairs, compacted and refreshed the fiction collection, added a gondola to the New Fiction collection and Home and Garden section. Travel DVDs are in the travel section allowing easier access to customers to this collection. New mysteries have moved to the Reading Room and the Friends of the Library have been able to expand their book selection to the public. Science Fiction paperbacks have been added to the new science fiction section. And to inform the customers where the collection moved, staff has been working on signs for both Downtown and Redwood Shores.
Plans are to move the Fiction collection downstairs for better customer service.
We instituted the Quick Picks program which will allow customers access to non-holdable items in our collection. This collection of materials is meant to keep hot-ticket items on our shelves.
Purchases—We bought new trade paperbacks, computer books for Downtown and Redwood Shores, new cookbooks, new Books on CD; working on a $50,000 acquisition of Adult DVD order for Downtown; staff has been quickly working through the large J DVD order and repackaging needs.
About 75 people attended Dr. Amy Ladd’s excellent presentation on hand arthritis. This program was co-sponsored by Stanford Health Library and the Friends of the Library. Information on the standard of care for this common ailment held interest from many in the Redwood City Community and beyond. The talk was filmed for more online users in the future.
Local Self-help author and coach, Maryam Webster returned to the Downtown Library to discuss weight loss, and increased her audience by focusing on this popular topic. A great story-teller, Maryam told about her personal journey, recovering from a major trauma and losing fifty pounds, sharing energy techniques that anyone can employ.
Panelist Moazzam Sheikh, author of The Idol Lover and Other Stories from Pakistan, complimented our questions as being “on the intelligent side,” which is saying a lot given that the subject matter was South Indian literature and poetry.
Knitting class continues to be popular; at the last class the group took up three tables in the fireplace room, including two children.
In attendance for all our January 2009 adult programs were163 participants.
Upcoming Programs—the library is partnering with PeninsulaWorks. Peninsula Works will offer a workshop on computer based job search and career research on Thursday, March 12 at noon in the Computer Lab. This workshop is being presented by Yvette Alzugaray, San Mateo County Employment Services Specialist.
Professional Development—Maria Kramer attended American Libraries Association Midwinter Conference in Denver, Colorado.
Molly Spore-Alhadef attended the 2009 Digitization Symposium held on January 9 at San Francisco Public Library. Topics of interest at this symposium were on copyright, imaging issues, digitizing newspapers & newsletters and primary resources.
Interesting questions—we had several researchers who are writing books whose subjects that touch Redwood City in some way, e.g. the man writing a book about the man who attempted a solo round-the-world bicycle trip and passed through RC making the front page of the newspaper in 1892. There was also the documentary film maker who wanted the photo of Varney the pilot who was so active at the RC airport in 1920, and subsequently founded United Air Lines.
Certainly the most memorable event was the publication of “Art Deco San Francisco” which traces the career of Timothy Pflueger the famous Bay Area architect who designed the Fire Station which houses the Downtown Library. The writer, Therese Poletti, came here to research the Fire Station construction, and graciously thanked Molly and the History Room in her Acknowledgements at the beginning of the book.

Youth Services:
- Along with planning the Family Author Nights, Cristina and all the Youth Services librarians have been busy getting ready for the KinderCard SuperSaturday on February 21. Every kindergartener in the district got a library card application and a visit from a librarian, plus an invitation to the open house.
- Caroll and Jan had a table at the Pre-School Preview Night at Red Morton on January 28. They distributed library card applications and flyers on February events and story time schedules.
- Chuck was the guest storyteller and wrap-up speaker at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s “Raising a Reader Early Literacy Conference” held at Sequoia High School on Saturday, January 24^th. 130 parents, preschool teachers and day care providers attended the event.
- Jacky and Sarah created a display of Marley and Me books, calendars, and pamphlets which were provided free from Fox Pictures to coincide with the release of the movie. All of the materials were given to surprised and happy kids and teens.
- Caroll co-hosted the San Mateo County Reading Association’s Author Breakfast featuring Cynthia Chin Li and Ashley Wolf at Redwood Shores Branch Library on January 31.
- Fearing that no one would come for a program immediately after New Year’s Day, Chuck decided to save a performers fee by putting on a puppet show himself for the monthly Dad and Me @ the Library program. Amazingly, nearly 100 kids and parents attended the Saturday morning program.
- The monthly Family Night program featured Fratello Marionettes performing a show of the classic fairytale “The Frog Prince.” The measure of a good show is how well it holds the audience’s attention. Not only was the audience completely involved in the performance, many (including two other puppeteers in the audience) stayed fifteen to twenty minutes after the show to look at the marionettes and talk with puppeteer Kevin Menegus.
- Traveling Storytime volunteer and now paid on-call storyteller Judith Roman began Wednesday morning Preschool and Tiny Tale storytimes at Redwood Shores. The storytimes were added in response to the large audiences attending Jan Pedden’s storytimes there on Thursdays.
- Teen Area and Collection: Sarah created a display with books that had faces on the covers. The display was called “Putting your best face forward in the New Year.” These attractive covers have been popular and Sarah needed to refill the display twice.
- Volunteers: Sarah worked with 38 volunteers for a total of 84.75 hours in the month of January. During the weekly art activity, Sarah noticed that the teens were not spending as much time with the kids as they should be so Sarah has started modeling behavior with the teens again. She also took them aside and talked about her expectations and what they could do to be positive role models for the children. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks they will be able to embrace these ideas. This month the children made owls from heart shapes, snowmen with buttons, polar bears covered in cotton and foam mittens. A total of 57 people attended.
- The Library Teen Council met to create fantastic posters for the Twister Event and to help develop publicity for the Valentines in February.
- School Collaboration: This month Sarah worked with an Intern (Cinthia Zamora) from Summit Preparatory Charter High School. Cinthia completed the following tasks during her 85 hours at the library: created a storytime including flannel board, queried customers for a customer service survey, analyzed data from the surveys and created a report, observed storytimes and reference desk interviews, ran Nintendo Wii gaming at the Redwood Shores Library, and created a children’s program on water sports which she will run in May or June. Cinthia will be returning for another 85 hours in May.
- Sarah attended the monthly High School Librarian’s meeting at the Menlo-Atherton Library. She is trying to find dates to run Library Card Registration day at each of the High Schools.
- Sarah started a new Teen Book Club which has been named “Talk Soup.” They will be meeting on the first Tuesday of each month. In February they will discuss Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. The first meeting was a great success with 9 teens and 2 adults attending. The rules for the group are as follows: 1. Dialog not Debate; 2. Everyone’s Opinion is Valid; 3. Have Fun; 4. Good Food. Sarah was excited to see so many teens connecting over literature.
- Jan’s Redwood Shores storytimes are being very well attended with an average total of 150 people attending her three weekly storytimes. Jan helped oversee the addition of two more storytimes at Redwood Shores by training Judith Roman in the “fine art” of reading to babies and their parents. Judith’s storytimes are also growing each week!
- Jan also has the opportunity to help the new Spanish bilingual storyteller prepare for her first event at Redwood Shores and to meet with families at the Preschool Preview event.
Project READ
- Project READ trained 16 new tutors in January. They completed 15 hours of training and will be matched in one-on-one pairs with learners from Project READ’s youth, adult and family programs to improve their literacy skills.
- In December, over 100 KIP learners, tutors and families came together to celebrate a successful semester of tutoring, learning and community service. Our teen and preteen tutors completed over 1200 hours of community service tutoring in the KIP program during the fall 2008 semester!
- In January, we kicked off the New Year with a story hour at Fair Oaks Community Library. Over 60 students, tutors and family members joined in the sing-along story time and the musical instrument crafts. Everyone also had the chance to make their very own 2009 KIP Story Hour calendars, an annual highlight.
- KIP at the Library is also up and running with 40+ pairs. All students have an assessment-based, individualized tutoring plan, which their teen tutors implement during their sessions. In addition, KIP pairs have been working on their expressive language skills, telling and writing stories in a variety of formats including using story boards, creating video books, folded booklets, and finger puppet scripts.
- In addition to KIP at the Library, 9 other students are paired with AmeriCorps members at Fair Oaks Elementary in a program that has affectionately become known as “bonus KIP.” These pairs were formed to meet a wide variety of individual needs, including students who are receiving special education services, students who are significantly behind their peers and students who are at grade level, but still need the extra support as they enter more advanced grades and make the shift from learning to read, to learning from reading.
- We continue to welcome new learners and families to our Family Literacy Center, and work together with our established community of learners. This month we have seen some amazing progress with both our adult and children learners. We are excited about getting our new computer lab up-and-running, as are our learners. In January alone, 40 learners used our lab, clocking in over 90 hours of computer usage. While learners are on the waiting list or between tutoring sessions they are now able to receive help at Project READ’s new Family Literacy Center. We are very fortunate to have our AmeriCorps members are here to help with our instruction time, both homework help, and drop-in tutoring. We also have welcomed new volunteers that help on a drop-on basis, and are looking forward to more volunteers in the upcoming months. With the help of our volunteers we were able to offer 62 hours of instruction that included homework help, one-on-one tutoring, and even some small group tutoring.
- Project READ’s first FFL Story hour of the New Year brought in a lot of laughter. Daffy Dave clowned around with the families, showing off his wacky moves. He got a lot of laughs! More than 80 learners and family members attended this month’s Story hour, and took part in five pre-literacy crafts centered around homemade musical instruments. Families were able to go home with new books to build their home libraries, including this month’s family book, “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring.” The event was a success with the help of many community volunteers, including 15 Hands On Bay Area volunteers.

December 2008 Report

January 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Library Director’s Report -December 2008

Due to budget reductions the Redwood City School District decided not to fund their half of the School Media Specialist’s contract. Library staff and School staff met to strategize on how to continue to support the school’s libraries within our current budgets.

Library events and programs flyers and email blasts have the same look and feel as Parks, Recreation and Community Services. The two departments are also cross posting programs.

Thank you, thank you, to the incredible work of the Parks staff! The “Ray of Light” bird bath has been installed at the new Redwood Shores Library. Paid for out of the GR Cress Fund, this is the first acquisition and installation of public art which also functions as a working bird bath. The vision of Mr. Cress for the care and feeding of birds in Redwood City, along with the vision of the Civic Cultural Commission to enhance the aesthetics of our City through public art, has created a wonderful new attraction for birds and people alike. Another installation is in the planning stages next to the Downtown Library, across from City Hall.

Our annual Fair Oaks Library La Gran Posada del Ano was a great success. Approximately 1,000 people attended the different activities throughout the afternoon including a picture with Santa, bilingual storyteller, Victor Hugo Santos, an outside procession asking for lodging at the Fair Oaks Community Center, and more festivities with food and piñatas. Fair Oaks Branch Library also made it at the 11:00 pm news– the Spanish Television, Univision 14, aired about 5 minutes of this wonderful celebration.

The $325,000 Redwood Shores Environmental Interpretive Center is set for a January installation. All funds have been raised from corporate and community donors. Festivities slated for February.

Sarah LaTorra taught a class on Trends in Young Adult Literature at Canada College. Dave finished grading papers for his Issues in Public Libraries class at San Jose State!

We celebrated the accomplishments of the 2008 year with a Holiday staff luncheon; it was well attended by library staff.

Santa Claus was the special guest at all four libraries in December. Over 100 children made his acquaintance at Downtown, Fair Oaks and Schaberg libraries, and over 300 met him at the Shores library! He made himself available for photos ops and distributed candy canes to all.

The monthly Family Night program found 150 children and family members enjoying the antics of Nick Barone Puppets. The show featured monster puppets ready to perform a Halloween show quickly adapting their show to a Christmas/Hanukkah theme.

The monthly Seaside Storytime presented by the Marine Science Institute featured sharks, including a live leopard shark for the kids to touch if their psyches allowed. The presentation was so popular the MSI crew repeated it immediately after the first presentation for late comers.

The monthly “Dad and Me @ the Library” program featured a truncated version of the Carnival of Chaos. Usually a two person troupe, the juggling/magic/unicycle program was presented by one member as the other was laid low by a bad back. The audience of nearly one hundred was still mesmerized by the performance, especially when Mark rode an 8-foot tall unicycle while juggling five rings.

Five preschools brought their young charges into the library in December for stories and orientation. More than one mother told Chuck she remembered coming to the library when she was in preschool and/or elementary school to hear him tell stories and sing songs. Just how many more than one Chuck refuses to divulge.

The city’s Youth Forum group was audience for a presentation on what services and programs the library has to offer the city’s youth and their families. They seemed impressed by the number and types of programs the library has to offer.

Jan Pedden completed distributing 770 holiday books to the Traveling Storytime sites and spoke to a group of Redwood Shores Girls Scouts about volunteering found a placement for them at the Sequoia Adult School.

53 teens volunteered for a total of 140 ¼ hours in the month of December. The Library Teen Council planned events for the next 5 months. They created posters for the Gingerbread Houses and created flyers for the upcoming Twister event.

Here’s a preview from Roz Kutler of highlights of adult programming to come:

Authors – Upcoming Highlights

Thursday, January 29, 2009

7:00 PM

A Unique Evening with South Asian Writers

…of both fiction and poetry, representing Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India. They are the face of the a new wave of South Asian writers, tackling complex issues and challenges, both political and artistic, while resisting their work to be influenced by mainstream expectations. With: Pireeni Sundaralingam, Neelanjana Banerjee, Tanuja Mehrotra & Moazzam Sheikh

Saturday, February 7, 2009

2:00 PM

Meet the Author: Meg Waite Clayton

Bestselling Author of the Wednesday Sisters

Thursday, February 26, 2009

6:30 PM

Bluegrass Authors Symposium

With Brenda Hough, Bay Area Bluegrass Music Critic & Author, Lisa Aschmann of Nashville, TN, Creativity in Bluegrass Songwriting and Roger Siminoff, Arroyo Grande, CA, author of The Lore of Loar.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

7:00 PM

Meet the Authors: Jen Myers & Shannon

Can I Sit With You Too?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

7:00 PM

Meet the Author: Pearl Sofaer

Bagdad to Bombay In the Kitchens of My Cousins

Thursday, April 23, 2009

7:00 PM

Meet the Author: Richie Unterberger

The Golden Age of Soul

Film

I’ve attached the film schedule for the February – July 2009 Film Schedule for the Downtown Library, including the Heist Film Festival, the Bluegrass Film Festival and a film for teens, selected by Sarah LaTorra. To add interest and unique content to the program, the festival will be introduced by a filmmaker and a local film professor. The Heist films were chosen by popular survey, offered on the Library Website.

Health Programs

The successful Kaiser and Stanford Health Lecture series will continue, with new program content beginning in January from both institutions. Community health organizations continue to offer complementary therapy programs, such as meditation and yoga, which we will offer as scheduling and demand allows.

Technology and Careers

We’re seeking a consistent perfect partner to sponsor programs at the library. The Regional Occupational Program office on Main Street has closed, so they are no longer a Downtown neighbor, but may still be interested in working with us. I’m also in contact with Peninsula Works. The organization that offers resume classes for teens at the library focuses only on youth. This is an area where we urgently need more energy in 2009. See this article:

More people using libraries in tough times

Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Nona Nangalama checked out a dozen books from the San Francisco Public Library this week, saying that in better economic times, she would have gone to Borders to shop for the items.

The San Francisco resident and unemployed mother of two is using public libraries even more in these tough times. She is checking out books instead of buying them, and using the Main Library’s job and career center to begin her search for employment.

“I live right near the Borders South of Market, so that would be easy for me to go there,” Nangalama said, holding 12 books on mastering algebra and geometry that she had checked out for her daughters. “You come here and get advice, guidance and books – all for free.”

As the economy slides into a recession and families are cutting back on expenses big and small, libraries in the Bay Area and beyond are experiencing a big increase in membership and circulation.

But as demand rises, libraries are also seeing a squeeze in funding. Libraries rely on property taxes, and city coffers everywhere have been hit by the bad economy. Library officials from San Mateo to Marin County are beginning to look at ways to cut costs without reducing services.

“We’re trying to be conservative looking at the next fiscal year,” said Martin Gomez, director of library services for San Mateo County, which has 12 libraries in 11 cities. “All of our numbers, in terms of visits and circulation at branch libraries, are up by around 5 percent. But real estate drives our revenue, and property taxes are down. We’re not looking at layoffs or reduced hours of operation, but we know the economy is going to take a while to bounce back.”

San Francisco’s public libraries have seen a 27 percent increase since July in the number of people seeking library cards, and a 12 percent increase over the same period in the number of materials checked out. That amounts to 32,000 cards issued and 3.8 million books, CDs and DVDs checked out.

“We are seeing a significant increase in folks coming into the library to access our computers, to visit our job and career centers, and find information on government aid and look up credit ratings on financial institutions,” said Luis Herrera, city librarian for San Francisco, which has 27 branch libraries and the Main Library at the Civic Center.

“When the economy is down, library use is up,” he said.

More library cards

More Americans have library cards than at any time since 1990, according to the American Library Association.

“Across the country, in every kind of neighborhood and community, library use, by various measures, is up,” said Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association, which has 66,000 members and promotes libraries and librarianship. “At this point, we have an entire population affected by the recession. People are discovering they can save money by using libraries, and they can develop their knowledge and seek employment.”

Rettig said the 2 billion items checked out from U.S. libraries this year is 10 percent more than during the economic downturn in 2001. But books, DVDs and other material are only part of the story, he said.

“In 73 percent of U.S. communities, the only place a person can get free Internet access is libraries,” Rettig said. “Libraries in areas hit hard by factory closings are playing an especially important role in the economic recovery. Most job applications are now submitted online.”

Branches closing

Rettig noted that a number of cities, including San Diego, Philadelphia, Trenton, N.J., and Mesa, Ariz., are looking at closing branch libraries. “Public libraries are facing the most severe cutbacks in decades,” Rettig said.

He said the American Library Association will submit a proposal to Congress early in the new year seeking $100 million in stimulus funding. The funds would go to enhance services and materials; extend hours of operation; and offer more classes and workshops focused on financial literacy, housing counseling and small business development. He also hopes a portion of the funds would go to renovating and upgrading facilities.

San Francisco’s Herrera said the city’s funding for libraries is holding steady.

“We have support through a set-aside in the city’s general fund and property taxes,” he said. “But we are going to be very prudent in how we approach spending. San Francisco is really committed to providing library services for free.” In fact, Herrera said, San Francisco has been increasing hours and services. In November, seven of the 27 branches opened for an additional day each week. Four libraries are under renovation. The number of public computers at libraries has increased by 48 percent in the last two years.

Job seekers

Susan Cohen, a librarian for 15 years who now runs the job and career center on the fourth floor of the Main Library, is seeing more people come in asking for help with resumes and job searches. She said applications for most jobs – from dishwashers to civil service positions – are submitted online.

She has worked in recent months to increase the number of books on how to find a job, start a small business or change careers.

Standing next to stacks of job-related books, with titles including “Jobs Directory,” “Resume Book,” “Your Next Move” and “Hire Me, Inc.,” Cohen said she’s doing what she can to help those who are struggling.

“I chose this job because I thought I could be useful,” Cohen said. “It’s as satisfying as it’s ever been. But I can feel that times are tougher. There’s a nervousness that people have over the economy. I’m happy I’m in this position to be helpful.”

Popular picks at the library

The most frequently checked-out books, CDs and DVDs at San Francisco public libraries in 2008:

Fiction books

“Lao Fuzi,” by Wang Ze

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” by J.K. Rowling

“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini

“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel,” by Michael Chabon

“The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini

Nonfiction books

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” by Michael Pollan

“Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia,” by Elizabeth Gilbert

“The World Without Us,” by Alan Weisman

“In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” by Michael Pollan

“Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” by Barbara Kingsolver

DVDs

“Ba qian li lu yun he yue (Eight Thousand Li of Cloud and Moon), part 2″

“The Little Mermaid”

“Ba qian li lu yun he yue, part 1″

“SNL (Saturday Night Live)”

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

Spoken word CDs

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” by J.K. Rowling

“Ying yu jiu bai ju xing; English 900,” by Edwin T. Cornelius

“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” by J.K. Rowling

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” by J.K. Rowling

Music CDs

“Loose,” Nelly Furtado

“Not Too Late,” Norah Jones

“Stevie Wonder: The Definitive Collection”

“Help!” the Beatles

“Love,” the Beatles

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/27/BA4814U7KK.DTL&hw=libraries&sn=002&sc=659

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More people using libraries in tough times

Dave Genesy

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