October 2007 Report

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.