Library Director’s Report- March 2008

The City Council conducted their follow up budget priority session in March. A few budget options were requested—none for the library—and a status quo budget, which city staff have recommended, was generally agreed upon. Priorities were formally adopted; the only change was to add a Youth and Education priority (previously it was under another heading).

Lighting at the Downtown Library is under review. The hanging fixtures have proven to be very expensive to maintain and are not very effective nor efficient.

The library had four staff graduate from the Supervisor’s Academy: Sarah LaTorra, Roz Kutler, Maria Diaz and Kasia Pereira.

Discussions are underway with Parks and Recreation on how best to manage the five community rooms at the Redwood Shores Library. Issues are how to schedule, charging for use, creating a consistent policy with PRCS, allowing private events/groups, allowing PRCS to hold fee-based programs (e.g.: toddler exercise, or art classes). A report to the Board will be forthcoming on recommendations.

A follow up meeting with the City Manager regarding the joint meeting with the Library Board and City Council, resulted in recommendations that will be forwarded to the Council sub-committee. These will include increasing Library Board representation to seven and codifying hiring procedures for the Library Director.

The Youth Agenda team (Police, PRCS, Library, City Manager) will be presenting work to date to City Council in May. The Council is very excited and supportive of this collaborative approach to programs for youth and families. Sarah LaTorra and Kathy Endaya are our two standing members of the team; and all youth service staff have been involved. All four Department Heads are committed to this project. We have adopted a youth asset-based model. A presentation will be made at the May Library Board meeting.

The City’s General Plan process kicked-off in March. Sarah LaTorra will represent the library for departmental/staff input. This is a very ambitious project, with many opportunities for community and Board members to participate.

The highlight of the month (and the year) for the Traveling Storytime Program was receiving the City Proclamation and being honored for the work that the program does in the community. Board President Rudy Madrigal and program coordinator Jan Pedden, along with about 20 volunteers and library staff, were at the City Council meeting on March 24, and listened as Mayor Rosanne Foust read the proclamation and thanked the volunteers for their continued dedication to the children of Redwood City. The Traveling Storytime Program received a beautiful framed copy of the Proclamation for the office.

The Redwood City Library Foundation received a $112,000 donation from the Beverley Hemphill Trust, the largest gift from an individual in the Foundation’s ten-year history. $50,000 of the gift will be applied to the Campaign for the Opening Day Collection. A long-time Redwood City resident, Ms. Hemphill had a great love of books and history. She devoted countless hours as a volunteer for the Archives Committee of the Library, taking and transcribing oral histories of colorful local residents, among other efforts. In addition to the unrestricted gift to the Foundation, Ms. Hemphill left $51,000 to the Library which will be used for the new Teen Center and to purchase a self-checkout unit for the Children’s Room.

We have hired, on a temporary basis, Leslie Zane, formerly the program director at Montalvo, to help with special projects such as re-opening the coffee cart, programming the Library Plaza, planning a library card campaign, branding and marketing the library, and seeking partnerships. Several exciting opportunities are being developed.

The Library will have a table at the weekly Farmer’s Market.

The Library’s website has been redesigned to better align with the City’s site.

Jacky Averill screened over 500 bird photographs from 32 photographers for use in the Interpretive Center of the Redwood Shores Library. A bird photo selection meeting with Librarian Roz Kutler and three volunteers was held. Although the quality of the photographs was excellent, it was decided to open the photography contest to a local birding list serve before making the final photo selections. Jacky joined the list serve and posted the announcement of the contest. The new deadline is April 6.

Fair Oaks
• Armando Ramirez secured a donation of new Spanish materials for Fair Oaks.
• Maria Diaz and Armando worked on programming for April and May. We will celebrate Day of the Children/ Day of the Book with Yuyi Morales. She will do two programs for us on April 30th - one at Fair Oaks at 6 p.m. and one at the Downtown Library at 7:00 p.m.
• Continued to work with Fair Oaks School on the author visit at Open House on May 22nd.
• Maria has been following up with Trish Girardi, Associate Director at Garfield School on some dates for our joint collaboration program and author visit at the school.
• Maria continues to work creating and printing flyers and bookmarks for our programs and the CAHSEE program materials, an online service we will be offering to help kids pass the high school equivalency exam.
• Maria was invited to join the San Mateo County Historical Museum Immigrant Advisory Committee. At the meeting in March the group continued to work on the 2008 Immigrants Day Festival to be held on Saturday, May 17th. http://www.historysmc.org/annualimmigrants.html
• Exploring possible sites for a Tech Lab for the Fair Oak community, Maria came across TecnoUNO (2800 Middlefield Road). Maria, Armando and Maria Kramer have made an attempt to visit and find out what type of service they offered. They provide a variety of computer services, sales, repair upgrade, and so on but the hours are operations are not listed and they have not been opened when he has stopped by.
• Saturday March 8th, 11:00 a.m. – Música, Cuentos y Activiades didácticas en Español. The 2nd Saturday of the month program with Valeria Causo Chalian was attended by 9 families and 15 participants.
• Armando’s Lunes Luminosos – Monday at 6:00 p.m. Average attendance is over 25 per week.
• Elisa’s Cuentos con Gusto – Tuesday Morning at 10:30 at the Fair Oaks Community Center Pre-School and 11:00 at the Library. On the overage Elisa has 64 participants in addition to the two new families that have joined us during the last month.
• Cristina’s Thursday Thrills – Thursday at 5:30. The program has been increasing in attendance this last week Cristina had 22 participants that stayed for the whole program and 11 who came late or left early.

Youth Services
• Teen volunteers for March: 34 volunteers for 144.75 hours. The Library Teen Council has grown to 8 teens who are engaging and enthusiastic individuals.
• Continuing our partnership with Hoover School, Cristina Thorson told stories and congratulated the kids on their achievement on meeting their reading targets for the month. Each of these classrooms had 100% participation.
• There are some great things going on in our schools! Cristina was invited to one of the best parent gatherings she has ever attended. On her own time and under her own initiative, Hoover teacher Ninfa Zuno and her husband have organized weekly “Literacy Nights” not just showing parents how to share books with their children; but also conveying some of the fundamentals of reading — the commonsense ones (put expression in your reading) — and the weird, arcane educational system ones (Lexile levels). A tasty dinner precedes each meeting, and the atmosphere is casual and fun as well as instructive. Cristina talked about the library and its services, and handed out 21 library cards.
• During his off hours Chuck Ashton visited the first and second grade classes at Nativity School in Menlo Park where over 100 students joined him in telling the stories and singing songs.
• Along with children’s singer/songwriter Andy Z, Chuck presented stories and songs to a group of several day cares and preschools who came together at the Community Activities Building specifically for the program. Nearly 100 children and their providers sang along with the songs and shouted along with the stories.
• Ten members of a local clown guild attended Chuck’s Bedtime Storytime where he modeled storytelling techniques for them. After the program the members stayed to learn other techniques they can incorporate into their clown presentation to develop children’s pre-literacy skills.
• Cristina and Jacky attended the workshop: “When the Tweens Come Marching In” at SFPL and learned the ABC’s of patron interaction: Acknowledge “I understand that you want to play StickDeath in the Family Place …”; Boundaries “…but this is a blood-free zone.”; Choice “You can choose to play another game or you can use the computers upstairs to continue.”
• The monthly Paws for Tales program has picked up a strong following since its inception in January. Presented in conjunction with the Peninsula Humane Society, the program gives children the opportunity to read to specially trained dogs and their handlers, an activity that has proven to be successful in developing the reading skills of reluctant readers and readers in general. Attendance has grown each month for the program to the point where we no longer have sign ups for the program as we have sufficient numbers of drop-ins taking part in the program (approximately 50 in March.)
• Sharks were the order of the day for the monthly Seaside Storytime presented in conjunction with the Marine Science Institute. The sharks program is always a hit, giving the children the opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with a live leopard shark. No children were reported missing or maimed after the program.
• In another wildlife program, Wildlife Associates brought several wild animals to the library for an appreciative audience of 175 to learn about. Children and their parents had the opportunity to see an arctic Fox, an African porcupine, a kestrel, and an alligator.

The KIP program change in venue, moving from Fair Oaks School to the Downtown Library has been very successful. Parents and their children had the choice to come to the library (on a bus) or play soccer at the school. All chose the library! If you see a bunch of kids with yellow t-shirts working in groups under the guidance of their teen tutors—say hi.

 Library Director’s Report- February 2008 

Collections will be a priority this year.  We recently hired a Collections Librarian, Jenny Davis, who will coordinate collection building, evaluation and promotion of our books, electronic sources and media.  Jenny has been working for us assisting with developing our programs for adults, and she has years of experience working at Kepler’s bookstore.

In July, our network will be upgraded to fiber to enhance speed, bandwidth and reliability.  Also, our clumsy network closest will be redesigned to industry specifications for future expansion; this will allow City IT, PLAN and Library IT to help maintain it.

Construction progress continues on the Redwood Shores Library.  The building is 75% complete.  Color wood panels have been installed on the exterior of the building accentuating the building’s shape and form; and the storefront windows and roof are in place.  Library staff continues to work on various aspects associated with the project:

• Dave, Liz Meeks and Jacky Averill attended the annual Redwood Shores Community Association meeting on February 12, held at the Sandpiper Community Center.  Dave spoke about the new library, volunteer opportunities and introduced library manager Liz Meeks. Jacky spoke about the Interpretive Center and provided a very thorough slide presentation. 
• Library staff (Liz, Jacky and Roz Kutler) met with members of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services department, members of the Civic Cultural Commission, City staff and project architect to discuss the feasibility and options of installing public art that functions as a birdbath (there is a sizable private donation to the city for “bird baths”) at the Redwood Shores Library.  Pending approval of the Civic Cultural Commission, the piece will be installed at the site.
• Library staff (Liz, Maria Kramer and Serena Gregorio) met with staff from the Parks, Recreation and Community Services staff to discuss logistics of booking and staffing the community meeting rooms and the after-hours area of the library.
• The sign package for the building is being reviewed and refined.  The Architectural Review Committee approved the exterior monument signs for the facility at its meeting on February 26.
• The furniture package is out to bid for various vendors, with proposals due back by March 19.  Once the package is awarded, the furniture will be ordered.
• PLAN staff toured the site on Tuesday, February 5 and met with library staff (Liz), City staff and the construction staff to review and discuss technology and wiring needs.
• Liz and Dave toured the site with Brian Lee on Tuesday, February 19, to see construction progress to date.

In a program presented jointly by the library and Hoover School, Francisco Jimenez gave a talk to 350 Hoover students, parents and teachers on his experiences as a member of a migrant farm worker family, his schooling, and becoming a writer and professor at Santa Clara University.  His first book, “The Circuit,” has won a number of awards and has been translated into a number of different languages.  Those in attendance heard not only about Dr. Jimenez’s experiences but also about the importance of a good education, not only for the individual but for society as well. 

Major kudos go to Cristina Thorson for developing this program to help with Hoover School’s efforts to strengthen reading scores at the school.  Cristina’s efforts made the evening a great success, but more importantly, gave the literacy effort at the school a big boost and opened the students’ eyes wider to the importance of a good education.  Every 6th, 7th and 8th grader at the school received from the library their own copy of “The Circuit” which was read and discussed in class, and many of the students stayed long after the presentation to have their copies signed by the author. At the end of the evening Dr. Jimenez said that he has been involved with many schools in the past but that this was his first experience with a joint effort between the public library and public school in promoting such a program and he highly commended the work of Cristina and school staff.  Thanks also to the other library staff whose efforts leading up the event and during the program made it such a success:  Caroll Webster, Ethan Annis, Jan Pedden, Maria Diaz-Slocum, Maria Kramer, Hoover staff Wendy Welker, and any others who I may have missed. Thanks for helping Cristina’s vision come to be.

 Cristina and Hoover principal Greg Land attended a City Council meeting to let them know of the successful partnership between the library and school district, and the wonderful learning experience and evening for the Hoover community that resulted. Greg and Cristina also attended a school board meeting before the Francisco Jimenez program in order to invite Board members to attend. The Board was presented with a letter from Hoover commending the library’s role in creating the event.  

Maria Diaz gave a presentation to the Library Foundation on funding options for the Fair Oaks Library.  More technology access and training on how to use it seemed to resonate with many members.  The Foundation has identified Fair Oaks as their focus for fundraising.

 Helping change lives, one life at a time.  Seven teen moms and their toddlers visited the library as part of their training with the San Mateo County Health Services.  They were treated to a story time and a tour, received library cards and a pep talk on the importance of sharing books with children, and got a good impression of the idea as a fun place in which to hang out with kids and other moms.  Each child left with a free book and goodie bag. 

Sarah La Torra visited Menlo-Atherton High School on February 25 for a library card registration drive with two staff from the Menlo Park Library.  They presented Live Homework Help to 353 students and signed up 150 students for library cards.  After the presentations Sarah told the students about all the great events we have planned at the Redwood City Public Library including the SAT/ACT workshops and Jobs for Youth’s monthly workshops.

 February was a big month for the Traveling Storytime Program.  On February 13, more than 60 people celebrated the milestone of having read to more than 100,000 Redwood City children.  Volunteers and their families, providers and library staff members attend the event.  Certificates were distributed to the volunteers (seven of whom have been with the program since it began in 2001), and old fashioned Valentine goodies were enjoyed by all.  The evening was a good vehicle for the volunteers to visit with each other and hear the stories of the providers and representatives of the library.  All of the volunteers walked away with a warm feeling, knowing that they truly are “The heart of the Traveling Storytime Program”.  The Traveling Storytime Program will be presented with a City proclamation at the March 24, City Council meeting.

Project READ was selected again this year to participate in the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program.  RIF is a program designed to motivate children to read by delivering free books to those children and families who need them most.  It’s a great way to help build home libraries and instill the love of reading.  Thanks to RIF, this year Project READ will have the opportunity to distribute an additional 875 free books to the children in our programs.  Children can choose their books at one of Project READ’s story hours each month and from the children’s bookshelves in the Project READ office. 

Project READ staff is working hard to match new volunteer tutors.  Twenty-seven new student tutor pairs were matched in February. Project READ tutors report on their successes each month.  

This report is from the tutor of an 11^th grader: “Complete change in attitude in Jay this month regarding school.  He is disappointed if his grades fall below at B.  This is from the same kid who once asked me, “What’s wrong with a C?” 

One of our adult learners, Jose, originally came to us reading below a first grade level.  This month, he not only passed his Citizenship Test, but also scored a perfect 100%! This was the well-deserved achievement of a long-term goal. Abraham is an inmate learner who came to us as a low to intermediate reader.  After eight months in the program, Abraham has increased his skills enough to start taking GED tests.  He is more than just passing - he is achieving high scores.  At this time, Abraham only needs to pass the Math test before he earns his GED. 

 KIP learners, tutors and staff enjoyed an exciting and successful first week of the “KIP at the Library” Pilot Program.  This pilot program is aimed at expanding the services offered to the KIP youth by introducing them to the many resources and programs available at the library, offering more literacy-building opportunities through the use of the Project READ computer lab and extending learning beyond the classroom by boarding a bus and venturing out of the Fair Oaks neighborhood.  KIP parents were very excited about the new opportunity and over 40 parents and family members showed their enthusiasm by attending the KIP Parents Information Meeting held on January 30^th. 

Pay now, pay a lot less later:

High school dropouts cost state billions

Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 28, 2008

If California hopes to stop hemorrhaging the billions of dollars it spends by producing so many high school dropouts, the state needs to give schools better incentives to hold on to troubled students, change its graduation requirements and do more to plug the problem, researchers warn.

Each year, about 120,000 students fail to get a diploma by age 20, according to the California Dropout Research Project, which on Wednesday released detailed recommendations for state lawmakers and educators.

Each annual wave of dropouts costs the state $46.4 billion over their lifetimes because people without a high school diploma are the most likely to be unemployed, turn to crime, need state-funded medical care, get welfare and pay no taxes, according to the report.

“California uses a number of strategies to reduce dropout rates … but together they are insufficient to address the problem,” say the researchers, led by education Professor Russell Rumberger of UC Santa Barbara.

Those strategies include requiring school for kids ages 6 to 18, attaching thousands of dollars in state funding to each student and offering programs for troubled youth.

“We need to change the entire system of education in California,” he said. “Even in this poor fiscal climate,” investing in ways to reduce the number of dropouts “will have the best long-term payoff.”

More reports coming

Funded by private foundations, the California Dropout Research Project began in December 2006 and will produce more than a dozen reports through next September. Last week, the researchers showed that about 80 percent of dropouts come from just 20 percent of high schools - mainly small, nontraditional schools that often function as repositories for the neediest students.

The latest report is an effort to find solutions, and begins with a recommendation that every California school be ranked not just by its test scores but by its dropout rate as well.

Federal graduation requirements should also be tougher, the researchers say.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, high schools have to raise their graduation rate each year by one-tenth of a percentage point - or not at all if they graduate at least 82.9 percent of their seniors.

“The current annual goal is meaningless,” says the report, which concludes that at that rate it would take 376 years for the huge Los Angeles Unified School District to succeed because its graduation rate is just 45 percent.

The state should instead require schools to improve at a faster rate, the report says.

 One way to do that would be for schools to change their graduation requirements and spend less time on academics alone; they should teach more “soft skills” such as how to be punctual, persistent and work well in groups - all valuable “if California wants to truly prepare its students for life beyond high school,” says the report.

Tracking system flawed

But the researchers’ biggest complaint is that California still lacks a system to precisely measure its dropout and graduation rates.

 An accurate student-tracking system is considered the Rosetta stone for understanding the scope of the dropout problem. Currently, educators are never sure if a student who has vanished is a true dropout or may be enrolled at another school here or out of state.

The tracking system - intended to follow students from preschool through college - is still about four years away, say lawmakers, who explain its delay by pointing to its high cost.

But tracking students in schools alone won’t be enough, the researchers say. They recommend including other agencies as well, such as foster care, juvenile justice, welfare, even the workplace.

The goal would be the earliest possible identification of students at risk of dropping out, says the report.

Budget crunch an obstacle

The researchers acknowledge that their recommendations come during a fiscal crisis that is forcing school districts and other agencies throughout the state to slash budgets.

But at least one state lawmaker says several of the group’s recommendations can be addressed in the near term.  

“Personally, I have made the cause of reducing the high school dropout rate my top legislative priority,” said state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who is poised to head the Senate as president pro tem later this year.

Steinberg is the author of SB219, a law that will add dropout rates for grades eight and nine to the Academic Performance Index once the student-tracking system is in place.

“We know we’re in a very difficult budget situation, but we don’t have to wait to lay the foundation for ensuring that when we have the resources, we can end this plight,” Steinberg said.

Online resources

Recommendations: To see the full set of recommendations and other reports from the California Dropout Research Project, go to: links.sfgate.com/ZCOT     

E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.  

Library Director’s Report- January 2008

The Library said goodbye to two managers: Sean Reinhart and Scott Bauer. Sean found a position closer to his hometown, Hayward; and Scott is the new Deputy Director of Marin County Library. Recruitment has begun to fill the Downtown Library Manager position. We are also interviewing for a collections librarian. At this time we have a significant need in the area of collection development, including the marketing, merchandising, and analysis of our collections (books, periodicals, media, electronic resources, etc.) to better meet community needs.

I attended the Chambers’ Good Morning Redwood City at the Pacific Athletic Club. The Mayor gave an inspirational State of the City address; and the Vice Mayor presented city-wide accomplishments this past year. See and listen to both speeches at: http://www.redwoodcity.org/government/council/stateofcity.html

Budget preparations have begun at the departmental level. Revenues are not keeping up with expenditures and there is much uncertainty over the State deficit. The city held two community budget priority sessions, which will culminate in the February 25^th priority setting session during the Council meeting. The library will be streamlining our budget programs for more efficient management.

The Library Board and City Council met during the January 14^th City Council meeting to discuss possible charter changes. We also gave a presentation on annual accomplishments. View and listen at (jump to library presentation): http://www.redwoodcity.org/government/council/meetings.html

The Library Foundation is just $39,000 shy of the $850,000 needed for the Redwood Shores opening day collection! This is just a fabulous accomplishment. The Foundation will next be directing their fundraising efforts towards the Fair Oaks Library.

An additional self-checkout unit has been placed in the Children’s Room. This is a test to see if the lobby’s units are too far from the network connection, which may be causing malfunctions. The children’s unit has been a huge hit for our customers (many saying that it is a better place to check out materials for their kids). We will explore purchasing it after the testing period is over.

We continue to offer a wide variety of programs for adults thanks to Roz Kutler and Jenny Davis. This is part of our strategic plan to have more events for all ages at the Downtown Library. This month we had nine adult programs that drew 175 folks. Highlights included:

• Gail Tsukiyama - the bestselling local author of Samurai‘s Garden and Women of the Silk.
• Meditation at the Library. Berget, a teacher from Redwood City’s Insight Meditation Center led the session.
• Election Forum with the League of Women Voters. The president of the South San Mateo County League of Women Voters led a heated discussion, and when 5:00 rolled around and we needed to close up, many people did not want to leave.
• Knitting at the Library - continues to attract a crowd on Saturdays.  About 15 knitters attended, ranging from beginners, to super experienced participants who helped teach the class. 

 “What is the What” by Dave Eggers will be the featured book for One Book, One Community:  San Mateo County Reads 2008. Our selection is a fictionalized account of the life of a Sudanese boy soldier who was rescued and subsequently immigrated to the US.  (This boy, now a young man - Valentino Achak Deng – sometimes appears with the author on speaking engagements).  The book was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2006.  What is the What has been on the San Francisco Chronicle Trade Paperback list for 10 weeks now.  Eggers previous works have won awards and made the New York Times Best Seller List.  

 Maria Diaz met with Library Board Member Reina Barragan to work on promoting Citizenship classes that are being provided by the San Francisco International Institute, held at the Fair Oak Library. Reina will inform them on how to take advantage of the free services and our Citizenship collection, and distribute library card applications to all. 

Bilingual Librarian, Armando Ramirez continues to make positive strides and effect change within the lives of young students and families with his weekly outreach efforts within the North Fair Oaks area.  Every Monday morning and afternoon, Armando visits several preschool and head start classes within the North Fair Oaks service area and reads stories to young students.  This month, Armando visited and engaged 604 students from 25 classes.  Monday evenings, he provides a bilingual, Spanish/English story time session at the Fair Oaks Library, with 39 participants this month.  Armando also attended the “Family Literacy Night” held at Fair Oaks School on Thursday evening, January 31, 2008, providing an overview of the Fair Oaks Library, as well as reading stories and issuing library cards.  There were 80 people in attendance for this event. 

Sarah La Torra visited Woodside High School with Roz Kutler and Maria Diaz-Slocum for a library card registration drive on the 29^th and registered 104 kids. We will be having another library card registration drive at Menlo-Atherton High School in February.

For the months of October-December 2007, 55 teen volunteers worked a total of 343 hours.  This month we had a total of 23 teen volunteers that worked 70 hours.  All together there have been 72 different teens that have volunteered at the library since October.

This month, 336 students utilized the Schaberg Homework Center

Jan Pedden was happy to announce that in January, Traveling Storytime volunteers hit the 100,000 mark (children read to) and plans are well underway for the celebration scheduled for February 13. Invitations were sent to the volunteers, providers, Library Board, Friends, Library Foundation and the City Council. Hopefully there will be a great turnout!

Project Read highlights:

• Over 63 learners, tutors and family members came together, despite the cold, wet weather, to kick off the new year with a KIP Story Hour Celebration at Fair Oaks Community Library. 
• At the end of January, 50 parents, learners and teen tutors attended the KIP Parents Meeting where Project READ staff presented exciting KIP program enhancements to be implemented in the coming months.  Families were thrilled to hear that regular trips to the “big library with two stories” are on the horizon!
• Project READ trained 16 new community volunteer tutors during the month of January and staff is busy matching those tutors with learners on our waiting list.  Our Families for Literacy story hour was an event to remember as each of the children and their parents made crafts, choose books and enjoyed the treats.   Their favorite performer, Chuck Ashton entertained us with an “Ashton Original” puppet show and some pretty snappy songs too!  All 60+ families enjoyed the festivities.  This was a great turn-out on a stormy day!
• 84 learners used the lab in January with a total of 230 hours.
• 23 adults use the lab a total of 56 hours, 61 youth used 175 hours
• 18 Learner family members used 43 hours of computer time
• 7 tutors used 19 hours on computers. Drop-in homework help totaled 13 hours.

 They Say It Best – Inspiring anecdotes from our youth

Every June and December, KIP tutors and learners are honored at a KIP Award Night where they each receive a personalized certificate that highlights their individual qualities and contributions to the program.  One of our teen tutors, honored with the Unique Perspective Award, dropped by the Project READ office in early January to inquire about the KIP start date and rides.  As she was about to leave she turned to the KIP Coordinator and said, “Thank you so much for the award you sent.  I showed it to my mom and said, ‘see at least someone appreciates what I have to offer.’”  She laughed and added, “Seriously, though, I put it up by my bed so it’s the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.

First graders at Fair Oaks School receive take-home, color-coded readers that go along with their morning reading classes. At their first tutoring session back together in 2008, one of the first graders matched with a preteen, fifth-grader tutor, was excited to show his partner his new booklet. Below is their exchange:

Learner (1^st grader) said proudly to his tutor, “Look.  We’re on the green ones [booklets]!”

Preteen Tutor (5^th grader), sighing, smiling, and reminiscing about his time in first grade, “Ah.  The good old days.” 

A kid just came up to me at the desk after using the Homework Center for the first time.“Nice tutors!” he said. “Now I know math!”

Library Director’s Report- December 2007

The Fair Oaks Library held its annual “La Gran Posada Celebration” on Monday evening, December 17. The library was bursting at the seams and was enjoyed by 350 community members, many who are new visitors to the Fair Oaks Library. Attendees participated in a variety of arts and crafts projects; Santa was available and took individual family pictures with 160 families; and bilingual stories were read. The candlelight procession was led between the Fair Oaks Library and the Fair Oaks Community Center and the evening culminated with the breaking of two piñatas. A very special thank you to the Community Library staff and the Youth Services staff for their collaboration and assistance with this wonderful community event. The program was well advertised and went smoothly, new faces/customers came in to Fair Oaks Branch, all activities were on time, and hundred’s of people enjoyed this cultural program.

For a number of years Project READ’s Families for Literacy has been incredibly fortunate to be the recipients of a Giving Campaign from Barnes & Noble. Annually BN has supplied Project READ with a special book donation during the holidays. This year we decided to distribute the books in a unique way. Many of our families struggle during the holidays to provide gifts for their children - especially meaningful books. This year we decided to sort the books into age appropriate categories and house them in a “secret” location. Parents were invited to surreptitiously visit the “secret” spot to choose a book, as a gift to give, for each one of their children. The parents were delighted, excited and very grateful. Despite many other conflicting holiday functions at schools etc .we had a fabulous turnout of over 70 people.

Construction progress continues on the Redwood Shores Library. On December 18, a delegation of City staff, Library staff, the Mayor and members from the California Coastal Commission received a site tour of the facility. Staff continues to work on various aspects associated with the project. Construction progress can be viewed by webcam accessed through www.rcpl.info.

Jacky organized a meeting with Nancy Kelly of the Redwood City Library Foundation, Michele Carson of Redwood Shores Community Association and the Sandpiper PTA, grant writer Cecily Harris and Liz Meeks to discuss the Redwood Shores Bird Photography Contest. The contest will begin with the January issue of the Pilot. The winning bird photos will be used as graphics in the new library’s Interpretive Center. Jacky met with Assistant City Attorney Joe Aranda concerning the rules and warranties for the bird photography contest.

The December 7th all staff in-service and holiday luncheon featured the presentation “What Customers Want”, several breakout sessions of staff participation, raffling of gifts, and a great turkey dinner. A document capturing staff input (attached) was generated. This gives us a lasting snapshot of the day, and although it isn’t a strategic plan, many of the ideas are certainly worth considering and/or putting into practice.
We are in the planning stages to digitalize the Local History collection for internet access. We will be contacting the State Library for assistance.

Teen and Youth Services

• This month 27 teen volunteers worked for 111 hours.
• The Gingerbread House Competition was a great success with 35 teens participating. Teens worked as a team or by themselves to create masterpieces.  Pictures of the houses were posted on the teen webpage and the teen MySpace page. Sarah received a lot of positive feed back about this program and was told that teens would like to have more programs like this in the future.
• Sarah was contacted by Peninsula Works and told of their teen program “Jobs for Youth.”  She will set up a meeting with their Redwood City representative to find ways to partner with their organization. 
• The library now has 140 friends on the teen MySpace page. Sarah continues to post events and pictures of past events on the website to let teens know about what the library is doing.
• The library and the Redwood City Mothers Club co-hosted a KIDPOWER Parent Education Workshop on “Practicing Self-Protection Skills” for children. 40 participants learned methods to improve both the safety and the quality of their children’s interactions with strangers and with people they know.
• Chuck presented a program of stories, songs and puppets for the Redwood City Mothers Club annual Christmas party with over 200 in attendance.
• Two programs were held with the San Francisco Center for the Book. One program featured health related themes and brought 80 people to the library. The second program attracted about 55 people and encouraged children to make holiday themed projects.
• 722 free books were distributed to the children that are read to by the Traveling Storytime Volunteers.
• Jan and Caroll provided holiday crafts for hundreds of children and their parents at Fair Oaks, Schaberg and Main, as well as help Santa bring cheer to all. Jan conducted one Christmas craft session for Sarah and she, along with Caroll, helped over 30 children decorate cookies.
• The Schaberg Library held a “Holiday Celebration” for 75 pre-schoolers and their families on Tuesday evening, December 18. There was a visit from Santa in which families were able to take pictures. Arts and crafts activities were set-up and a variety of holiday stories were enjoyed.

KIP teen tutors completed over 740 hours of community service during the first semester of KIP.

Parents and families got to join in on the celebration at the KIP Award Night & Story Hour, held at Fair Oaks Elementary Cafeteria. Over 100 KIP tutors, learners and families enjoyed a dessert potluck and then an interactive, musical performance by our AmeriCorps member, Jason Yano. Each KIP learner and tutor was then called on stage and given a handmade award highlighting a unique quality or contribution that he or she made to the program. The grand finale of the evening was a book give-away including a beautiful hardbound children’s classic treasury, There’s Something There - Three Bedtime Classics. Participants were thrilled to find out that they also got to choose two additional books including one from a special holiday/winter collection donated by Barnes and Noble. Learners and tutors alike were eager to take their special books home and add them to their home library collection!

Project READ was selected as a recipient agency for the San Jose Mercury News Gift of Reading Program. We would like to thank Stewart Lollar and Gene Suarez for their help in driving down to pick up the books! With their help, we received over 30 boxes of books. This important collaboration continues to provide quality books for Project READ’s learners, families and tutors!

PLS report:

• A new pilot project, Home Delivery 2.0, has been awarded a State grant to implement. The consultant for this multi-jurisdictional (all of Bay and Monterey Bay Areas) project is in the process of selecting a vendor for delivery of items. In addition to all PLS libraries, other pilot libraries include Sunnyvale, Hayward, Monterey City and Pacific Grove. These libraries have been meeting with the consultant and are planning the logistics and implementation of the project. $5.00 per item will be charged.
• Chris Alberts, of MCA Network Consultants, gave a presentation on network issues. The largest network issue is the need for more bandwidth during peak traffic times. As the use of the internet accelerates, especially in the afternoon when students come into the library, all other applications begin to slow down and at times fail. PLS needs something that will support the network for the next five to eight years, will not require more staff and will be cost-effective. Chris suggested one physical circuit with each library router upgraded to quality of service standard. The higher priority queues would be routed first with the lower priority traffic such as public internet routed next and then all other traffic. The next step would be to transition from copper to fiber and to upgrade the infrastructure at all library jurisdictions. The project will take six to nine months to implement. AT&T has agreed to waive the construction fee for terminating the T1 lines at each branch if we use them for the upgrade. The Council consensus was to proceed with the Network changes and the Finance Committee will be asked to meet to review costs.
• Consolidating Systems update.  Individual systems met to discuss what they would need to move towards consolidation. Linda Crowe described the timeframe and the State Library’s interest in proceeding with consolidation. Southern California is also very interested in consolidation of their systems. Geography is still an issue but it was felt that technology can overcome the problem. The library systems also have concerns on differing assets and how the systems would move from a JPA to a 501(c)3. Maureen Sullivan will facilitate another meeting in January. 

Day in the District will be Friday, January 25 and Friday, February 1. PLS offices will schedule the “meet and greets” for the legislators. A variety of community members, library people and a few of the trustees have attended these functions over the past few years. Attendance for the Day in the District is extremely important this year with the need for discussion on the impact of reduction in TBR and PLF plus any additional reductions that may occur.

A nice comment:

Hi All: I realize that everyone is focused on the break that is
beginning, but I wanted to put in a plug for the online homework help
site that is available via the RWC’s library website. We got there by
clicking “teens” and then the homework help link on the left side.

You then plug in your library card number, and on the next screen tell
it what your subject and grade for which you need help (e.g. algebra
8th grade). Then you’re hooked up with an online tutor who helps you
via a chat connection and online white board. Our experience has been
very good. My child stays on to help clarify the concept that she’s
having trouble with and does a lot of self correcting and has moments
of epiphanies. The tutor is very helpful, patient, encouraging and
enthusiastic. My child then gets off the site and is able to polish
off the homework.

Here’s to happy homework times in January!

Regards,
Georgia Jack
Parent, 8th grade Algebra, Kennedy Middle School

Library Director’s Report - November 2007 

A group of representatives from City Departments that directly interface with youth (Library, Police and Parks, Recreation and Community Services) have been meeting on a monthly basis, under the direction of the Deputy City Manager, since March 2007. The purpose of the “Youth Agenda” meeting came from comments by a City Council member after last year’s budget hearings. The Council member felt that residents see the City providing youth services, not an individual department, and so we should have one City youth “agenda” instead of separate and possibly duplicate programs from various departments. In addition, we learned that many of the Youth Agenda participants were also being asked to be involved in a number of other “youth focused” groups and meetings including:

• City Manager and Police Chief Gang Intervention Program
• Bridge to a Better Community Planning Committee and Events
• Redwood City 2020 Grant for Police Support at Hoover and Kennedy
• John Gardner Center Youth Archive

We agreed a better understanding on how all these pieces worked together would be useful and whether these various efforts are tied together and if so how. In recommending the asset based approach (included in Board packet), we understand specific funding sources may require different language, but we believe that asset building needs to be the underlying philosophy for City sponsored programs. Recommendations include:

• Ask that each City Department endorse the “Youth Assets” as a common language or framework for our work with youth. This represents a paradigm shift in thinking toward support for healthy assets vs. fixing a problem, raising a test score or keeping kids out of jail.
• Develop a common set of demographic information about the youth in our community from existing reports to inform the City Council, Boards and Commissions and department staff.
• Develop a joint report to Council on the Youth Assets approach and ask for their endorsement of the concept and our Committee.

This initiative reflects very positively on the Library, as we continue to collaborate to better help our youth and families succeed.

Community Partners

• Our “Campaign for the Redwood Shores Opening Day Collection” is advancing quickly with year-end momentum. Within two-weeks of the successful November 3rd “Neighborhood Blitz” 39 new gifts were received for the library, totaling nearly $10,000. With the total now at $340,000 we have $160,000 to go in the last push for completion of the Campaign. We are very thankful for our community partners who have graciously provided $50,000 for our Fall Match Program: Wells Fargo Bank; Max Keech Family; Lyngso Family; Peter & Paula Uccelli Foundation; San Mateo Credit Union; Rosanne, Julia, and Lydia Foust; and Lawyers for the Library. Gift matching is available for personal contributions up to $1,000 until 12/31/07 or as long as the match money lasts.  For more information, please go to www.rclfdn.org
• With the Library’s help, the Redwood City School District Libraries received an annual ongoing $10,000 donation for books.
• Families with pre-school age children from Taft School and Hoover School are visiting the Fair Oaks Library. This is part of an excellent collaboration and partnership with the Fair Oaks Library and the San Mateo County Library Family Literacy Coordinator.
• The Fair Oaks Library hosted three health workshops in Spanish in partnership with El Concilio de San Mateo – Nuestro Canto de Salud. The one hour health workshops were held on November 13, 20 and 27, providing health information to families with children ages 0-18.
• Maria Diaz will set up meetings with the coordinators of the after school programs at the schools in the Fair Oaks Service area to explore collaborative opportunities.
• Maria Diaz has also met Cristina Marquez from Garfield School to discuss new partnership and programs to increase membership, circulation and visitors to the Fair Oaks Library. 
• February 13, 2008, has been set as the time to celebrate Traveling Storytimes’ 100,000 listener, and to honor the many volunteers that have made such an achievement possible. Jan had articles published in Parenting on the Peninsula and The Bookmark, in hopes of attracting additional volunteers. The holiday book give away is underway with over 600 books already distributed to the volunteers.
• The library’s “mobile bookstore” hit the streets once more, to celebrate the Hometown Holidays festival with our fellow community members. The Friends of the Library donated their time and efforts to sell books donated by community members in support of the library, and the Archives Committee offered for sale copies of our newly published, definitive book about the history of our great community, Redwood City: A Hometown History. (Also on sale at the library and Amazon.com – a great gift!)

 Scott Bauer will be the new Deputy Director of Marin County Library. This is a very good career step for Scott, and reflects well on Redwood City. He has been instrumental in our successes and we wish him all the best.

Carla Nolasco has been appointed as a regular part-time Library Assistant at the Fair Oaks Library. Carla has a vast amount of customer service experience and knowledge of the Redwood City community; she is also a Redwood City resident. She has worked as a long-term Casual City employee for the Library since February 1997.

Construction of the Redwood Shores Library is approximately 45% complete. Library staff is working on various aspects of the project. This month staff met to review the preliminary sign package and the preliminary furniture package. Staff is also working on various IT issues, the Interpretive Center and library materials acquisitions. Construction progress can be viewed by webcam accessed through www.rcpl.info

PLS began testing some network traffic shaping algorithms to try and prioritize self-checks and other crucial traffic on the network. Slow speeds have not only resulted in poor customer service, but faulty communication between our checkout units and the database. This is just the start of that effort, so there’s not much success to report. A plan to retool the network (as opposed to fixes to existing) has been approved. This will hopefully create the bandwidth needed for current and future traffic.

Sarah, Roz and Maria visited Sequoia High School, set up a table, and like a college campus (eg: credit cards), signed up 61 teens for library cards. They also talked with hundreds of teens about the new remodel in the teen area, teen programming, the databases, teen literature, and volunteering. Menlo-Atherton and Woodside High Schools have expressed interest in a library card registration drive at their schools sometime next year. These drives will be held regularly on the school campuses.

The library’s MySpace page now has 133 friends, and at least one of those friends is a library teen! 

Jacky created a paper version of the Children’s Program evaluation form that will give us feedback on how our programs are meeting the expectations of our library patrons.

It’s great the library holds regular meetings, open to the public. This is the sort of programming that is great for the library: content is done by others, with our contribution, space and audience. We host the monthly Peninsula Writer’s Bloc for readings from participants, as well as opportunities to learn more about the craft of writing and getting published. We also host the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators.

Building Community:

Old Bridge library unites generations
Home News Tribune Online 11/26/07

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071126/999999999/711260424  

OLD BRIDGE — You’re never too old to rock out.

Just ask the 10 Old Bridge seniors who took up Guitar Hero III as part of the Old Bridge Library’s “Senior Spaces” program on Nov. 8.

Seniors, alongside teenage volunteers, tested their mettle in the ubiquitous air-guitar video game and various other games available for the Nintendo Wii gaming system as the first step in the library’s plan to make seniors more technologically proficient and to include them in what Allan Kleiman, assistant director of the Old Bridge Public Library, called the inevitable redesign of libraries.

“We want to get them to feel they are part of the 21st century library and not left out,” Kleiman said.

Kleiman said libraries have undergone enormous technological changes in the past decade, citing Internet databases, more electronic media access and, of all things, video-game stations.

Kleiman said gaming in libraries is becoming more and more common but using the video game to slowly introduce modern technology to seniors is a relatively new idea.

“This is a lot less frightening to play with than learning to use a computer,” he said.

Kleiman said seniors should be able to snap a photo with a digital camera or surf the Internet or use the various other technologies surrounding them. The program, he hopes, will provide the catalyst for further learning and inclusion among that community.

“We really felt this would be a way we could get seniors to get excited using new technology,” Kleiman said.

With the influx of technology available to more recent generations libraries are moving beyond books, using alternate means to get people through the doors. Though it may seem counterintuitive, using video games to bring in younger people to the library may increase the amount of books being checked out, according to Kleiman.

“If you can’t get anyone in the library you can’t get them to borrow a book,” Kleiman said.

The program bridges gaps between the ages as well, Kleiman said, allowing teenagers well versed in the ways of the Wii to teach the seniors. The two groups will find a common denominator in competition over the video games. Kleiman said the age segregation that is often found in libraries breaks down when young and old are united by the desire to win.

Kleiman said, though the seniors are undoubtedly learning from the program, they are not the only students in the room. The teenagers learn a bit about life from the seniors.

“It gives them a whole sense of what growing older can mean,” Kleiman said, challenging the stereotype of the elderly in nursing homes.

Kleiman said libraries have been losing out to the giant booksellers in recent years. But he is hopeful that some progressive ideas combined with a library’s natural assets will bring people back to libraries.

“We think we are more competitive in many ways,” Kleiman said, “because we are still free.”

The Wii program will be held again sometime during the school’s holiday break and will continue twice a month. The library owns two Wii stations and can accommodate eight people at a time. Kleiman said more stations could be added in time.

That does not mean the library is going the way of the video arcade. Kleiman said the foundation of the traditional library is still intact but the video games for seniors help “make them feel relevant to what people are doing.”

KinderCard Super Saturday was a huge success as over 500 of the city’s kindergartners and their parents descended on the library for a Saturday morning of celebration. This is the fourth year we have personally given every kindergartener in the city a library card. Youth Services staff visited every kindergarten classroom to implement this fabulous program. Even though it takes hours of staff time and loads of staff energy to pull it off, KinderCard has become a vital part of our year. And for many families an invitation to a special day breaks the barrier to making that first visit to a public library.

Trivia BEE 2007 was another great community event that not only raises our literacy program’s profile and reach, but also raises much needed funds. Project READ Director Kathy Endaya reports:

Redwood City Friends of Literacy’s fund raising event to support Project READ took place on October 12th at the beautiful Cañada College Campus. This year 34 Trivia BEE teams competed for the prestigious title of Redwood City Trivia BEE Champions. Redwood City’s Project READ Trivia BEE event is the original Trivia BEE competition. Since its inception 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 the United States. Information about this fun-filled successful event has been sent to literacy programs as far away as Australia.

This year’s event was one of the best attended. Over 540 attendees filled the Cañada College Campus to enjoy the lavish pre-BEE dessert and hors d’oeuvres. Excitement grew as the teams crossed the beautifully remodeled and landscaped Cañada College Quad to the Theater to start the Trivia BEE competition. The evening started with a warm welcome delivered by Tom Mohr, Cañada College President. The Fueling the Fire of Hope Award was presented to State Senator Joseph Simitian recognizing his accomplishments, support and passionate dedication to literacy and libraries. Delaine Easton spoke of Senator Simitian’s commitment to education and our community. As Master of Ceremonies, Councilmember Jim Hartnett kept the event moving with his quick wit and amazing sense of humor that has come to be the spirit of the Redwood City Trivia BEE.

Our appreciation and deepest gratitude goes to the event volunteers, Councilmembers Jim Hartnett, Roseanne Foust, Mayor Barbara Pierce, Diane Howard, Ian Bain, Alicia Aguirre, Cañada College President Tom Mohr, the college staff and faculty and the library staff for their help before, during and after the Trivia BEE.

A very special note of thanks goes to Redwood City Library Director, Dave Genesy, who not only personally sponsored the Trivia BEE for the third year, but also has supported the expansion of Project READ programs. Dave’s generous donation will guarantee that our children most in-need will be given the required school supplies to start their 2008/2009 school year and a backpack to carry those supplies. Dave’s encouragement and support is enabling Project READ to reach more children and their families with much needed literacy intervention.

A very special thank you to the 34 teams that participated this year, those who awarded gift grants to Project READ and the many donors who contributed to the success of this event. We are happy to say that we are still receiving BEE donations. To date the Trivia BEE has received $34,600 in sponsorships, gift grants and in-kind donations. All monies raised will go directly to instructional costs, programs, learning materials, eyeglasses and educational evaluations for our learners.

Congratulations to the 2007 Redwood City Trivia BEE Champions, SRI International, second place went to The Ineffables and third place was awarded to Britannia Arms Pub of Aptos.

Feedback from users of the new catalog interface was overwhelmingly negative. PLS director’s voted not to fund it. We have reinstated the previous interface.

Sarah LaTorra, our new Teen Services Librarian, is building a community of teens. She has created a team of 32 teen volunteers who gave 177.5 hours this month. They volunteered on the Library Teen Council, worked at Kindercard, participated in the Read 2 Kids program, shelved materials and conducted the weekly art activity.

Mario Rendon, Library Foundation Chair, announced he will be leaving in November to take a position closer to home. We will miss his leadership. Sandra Cooperman and John Blake will assume co-chair. The Foundation approved unanimously to make Celia LaRiviere, Library Resources Manager, the newly created Director of the Library Foundation. Celia already spends most of her time supporting the Foundation, and this will give her the title that will make her and the Foundation much more effective in fundraising. She will continue to be a city employee with the same benefits and salary.

The campaign for Redwood Shores received a $50,000 challenge grant from donors (including “Lawyers for Libraries” aka Jim Hartnett). We are approximately 40% completed with construction of the new library and are still on schedule to complete the building for the opening in September after the books and furniture are all installed.

The event celebrating the Redwood City: A Hometown History book was very successful. Even more important the book itself is a huge winner! Over 150 folks turned out for the party including City Council members, past Mayors, Library Board members, Port Commissioners, Planning Board members, School Board members, Redwood Shores residents, business members, community leaders, Friends, Foundation, Archives members, and library supporters. And we sold about 70 books! Thank yous to Sandra Cooperman of the Foundation and Bob Hoffman of the Archives for all their efforts in pulling the party together, and to Gene Suarez for all the many things he did in support of these efforts. Thanks, too, to all the staff that helped along the way. All those efforts made for a great event. When we look back, I think all of us will be proud that we were here when this great achievement for the Redwood City community occurred.

The redesign of the Information Desk has been completed and the desk has been reinstalled. We were careful to preserve the original materials, look and feel of the desk while reconfiguring it to better align its size and scope with current library service models, and to create new spaces for reader seating. We are now moving into the next phase of the overall renovation project, designing and furnishing a cozy and inviting “reading lounge” area in the newly opened space in the center of the room, increasing the lighting and adding new signs.

Redwood City Library’s partnership in the county-wide One Book One Community program featuring Isabel Allende and her work Daughter of Fortune took place in October. In addition to the keynote event featuring Allende live in person which drew an enthusiastic audience of 1,200 people to the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, Redwood City Library hosted multiple events at all three of our libraries throughout October. These events brought together hundreds of community members for enriching activities, such as making Chilean rain sticks, sampling Chilean cuisine, and learning about Chilean history, music, film and culture.

In response to community and staff comments and feedback, we expanded our Quiet Computer area by adding 12 more public access computers, bringing the total to 27 public access PCs for individual use. The 12 additional computers were relocated from the 2^nd floor teen area, which now has 14 total computers for social/teen use. The new Teen Space is scheduled for construction in March.

Over 225 kids and parents attended the annual Halloween Costume Parade. The festively costumed assemblage marched through the library and upstairs to the Community Room where Cotton Candy Express led them in a spirited program of funky music. Kids went home with a candy treat and a flier of November programs at the library. A similar program at Schaberg attracted 70 children and parents.

Fair Oaks Library.

• The Fair Oaks Library made special arrangements to open on Saturday, October 13, to host and participate in the annual Binational Health Fair. The Mexican Consulate and the Salvadorian Consulate set up informational tables in the library; and the Library also served as a site for health screenings. A total of 435 people came through the library doors to take advantage of the services being provided by the fair and also check out library materials.
• The Fair Oaks Library held its third annual “Halloween Party/¡Fiesta de Halloween!” on October 31. Two fun-filled hours including craft activities, scary stories, a scary movie and treats were enjoyed by 44 children. A special thank you is extended to the Friends of the Library for sponsoring the program. Party attendees and their parents thanked the library staff for providing and fun and safe event on Halloween.
• Weekly computer classes in Spanish were held at the Fair Oaks Library.
• A handmade Día de los Muertos ofrenda was exhibited at the library. Students from Garfield had the opportunity to see and enjoy it, as well as college students who stopped by to see the display, photograph it and write about it for their class assignments.
• Through her photographs and dialog Mary Andrade brought the traditions and rituals of Día de Muertos in Mexico to us, which awakened the memories of the participants and moved them to share their wonderful stories and traditions. Participants expressed gratitude for our program and for providing them with a place to gather to share their traditions and a place to listen to others’ stories and learn about how the event is celebrated in different parts of Latin America. We also received a great response to our Blog posting about this event: “I was lucky enough to attend. Wow! Thank you. It was an honor to hear Mary Andrade’s stories and see her spectacular photos. THANK YOU to those who put together the evening.”
• Maria continues to explore programming for the monthly Saturday programs at Fair Oaks.

Not to be overly pessimistic, but libraries are needed more than ever and why we focus on youth and education:

From “Reading Across the Nation: A Chartbook,” prepared by the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities for the nonprofit Reach Out and Read National Center.

http://healthychild.ucla.edu/ROR/ROR_Chartbook_2007.pdf

and

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/report-shows-less-than-half-of-40118.aspx

• Number of children age 0-5 per public library: California 2,688 National 1,368 Ranking 51
  California has the lowest number of public libraries per child under age five years in the nation.
• This is on top of having the worst level of school library staffing in the nation with 1,400 librarians for 9,000 schools.
• California ranks in the bottom half of the nation - 42nd out of 50 states and the District of Columbia - in the percentage of children who are read to daily by their parents.
• Only 44.6 percent of Californian children between birth and the age of 5 are read to every day by a parent. The national average is 47.8 percent. California brings up the rear, along with a number of Southern and Southern border states.
• Reading rates vary by race/ethnicity, with 58.5 percent of white (non-Hispanic) parents reporting daily reading, compared with a 37.9 percent average for all other groups.
• Among children living in or near poverty, about one-third from birth to age 5 are read to daily, putting California 48th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• Among children in families with middle incomes, California fares better than many other states, ranking 25th in the nation.
• Only 22 percent of California fourth graders display proficiency or better on national reading tests, putting the state 45th nationally.