June 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report- June 2008 

At the Monday, June 23rd City Council meeting, Library Foundation Chair Sandra Cooperman presented an $850,000 check to Mayor Foust and Library Board President Rudy Madrigal. This is a culmination of three years of fundraising by the Foundation, chaired by Mayor Foust and Paula Ucelli, for the books at the new Redwood Shores Library.

The Library Foundation voted in Cheryl Angeles and John Blake as Co-Chairs. The Foundation will be focusing on two priorities this year: raising funds for the Fair Oaks Library and building a strong organization.

Communication between the County and City is still continuing in hammering out building issues at the Fair Oaks Library. Interior and exterior maintenance, tenant improvements, and custodial issues are being discussed. Over the years adherence to the contract has shifted; and we are trying to formalize responsibilities again. In the mean time, we have painted the interior of the library, and will be reupholstering all chairs and bench seats. Major carpet tears are being replaced, the carpet deep-cleaned, and we will have the entire carpet replaced in fiscal year 2008-2009. Network wiring will be upgraded in the next few months, along with fiber to the building and a new network closet, to create efficient capacity for more public computers, including toddler computers.

The new proposed date for the remodeling of the tech center and the 2^nd floor teen center is slated for October.

Building our Teen Community. Sarah LaTorra worked with 42 volunteers for a total of 171 hours, many of them new for the summer. Teens are running the sign-in for the summer reading program and working on maintaining the library collection by shelving materials, picking up abandoned books as well as shelf-reading. Sarah secured a teen that is being paid through a grant from Job Train; and will volunteer for 50 hours. The Library Teen Council met and came up with some great ideas for upcoming programs. For fiscal year 07/08, 157 teens worked 1140 hours.

We are just completing the inmate pilot small group-reading program, “Book Club”. The pilot program has been such a success that Project READ will now offer the “Book Club” program at both the men’s and women’s correctional facilities each month. The Fathers & Families learner group is finishing up their eight literacy and non-violent parenting sessions. The dads are recording their favorite children storybook that Project READ will mail to their children. Both the fathers and their children find this experience very rewarding.

Supporting our youth assets: June was also a very special time for many Kids In Partnership tutors who graduated high school. These incredible mentors took time away from their celebrations to stop by and/or send photos so that their little learners would be able to see them in their caps and gowns.

Here is a partial list of how the library supports or collaborates with our schools. It was included as part of the City Council Budget presentation.

• Partnerships.
  • Library pays half of the School District Librarian position. This allows the school district to have a full time accredited librarian, with the public library as a resource to assist the school libraries.
• Programs
  • Literacy program at Hoover, Fair Oaks and Taft. The Library purchases books for all students; teaching time is allotted in classrooms; culminating in the author coming to the school for an evening family event.
  • Project READ’s AmeriCorp college students tutor Fair Oaks students during the school day.
  • Project READ’s Kids in Partnership match, transport and train 70 at-risk high school kids to tutor 100 Fair Oaks children needing remedial help.
  • Homework Centers in all public libraries, including 24/7 online tutoring help available from home, school or library. 24,000 sessions annually.
• Projects
  • All Kindergarten students receive a library card annually.
  • Library cards for Teens. Every year teen cards are cleared of charges to facilitate use of our libraries.
• Special Initiatives
  • The Library gives students who have completed their monthly reading goals a free book.

 

On June 16, Librarian Armando Ramirez visited 500 kindergarten through 5^th grade students at Fair Oaks School during the school assemblies and promoted the Summer Reading Club. From his efforts, the principal and teachers at Fair Oaks School have agreed to make registering for the Summer Reading Club at the library an “assignment”. Armando continues to do a stellar job promoting reading and the library.

Maria Diaz continues her fine work at the Fair Oaks Library including

• Assisting other staff with class visits and sign ups of over 100 Kinder students and 44 preschool students in the summer reading program.
• Promoting our Bilingual storytimes and other programs. We have seen an increase in attendance for all our programs. We are averaging 34 participants at storytimes and the Wednesday summer programs have also been well attended–Magic Dan had 83 participants and Juan Sanchez had 103.
• Continuing to plan other programs, including Vamos a Leer (date set for Saturday August 23^{rd), and} the Usted y su Dinero workshop.

 

Liz Meeks continues to effectively lead the Redwood Shores Library project. The building is 99.5% complete. The carpeting is complete; book cases and compact disc browsers have arrived and are in place. The fireplace area has been tiled and all lighting fixtures have been installed. The construction trailers have been removed, the parking lot has been striped and landscaping is underway. Library staff continues to work on various aspects associated with the project:

• Staff training related to building functions has begun in some areas.
• The recruitment process for various job positions is underway.
• The Grand Opening committee is working on planning an exciting fun-filled community event for the grand opening to be held on Saturday, September 6, at 10:00am.
• Arrangements have been made and a date has been set with Baker & Taylor to deliver the opening day collection of library materials in late July.
• Library staff participated in an all-day preliminary punch list activity reviewing the construction of the building in detail.
• Library tours are being conducted for Library staff, City staff and City Council members.
• PLAN staff is preparing to install fiber optic.
• An RFP for a café vendor is now out.

 

Adult program highlights:

• Meet the Author: Bob Calhoun – Beer, Blood and Cornmeal - 6/19. Local author and born entertainer, Bob Calhoun, brought family and at least one of the characters included in this great wrestling memoir to this memorable reading. 
• Meet the Author: Garth Stein – The Art of Racing in the Rain - Tuesday, 6/24
  People adored the program; Garth read extensively, took questions and sold books to at least half the people there.  This was our first noon author event, and several people did respond to promotions to City Hall. Thanks to Kepler’s for providing book sales for both author events!
• Live music, 6/25. Kenny Blackwell & Dorian Michael gave a fantastic unplugged concert in the temporarily unquiet room. 

 
 

Youth Services highlights

Anecdote: recently, a young woman in her early twenties came up to the Children’s Desk. “I don’t have a question,” she said. “I just wanted to thank you all for this awesome library, and tell you that I’m really sad I’m moving away and leaving it.” Turns out that after living in Redwood City for four years, she is going to grad school in Davis. Coming to RCPL has been an important part of her routine. “I hope I can come back sometime, or find another library this great wherever I end up,” she said.

The annual Summer Reading, Listening, Teen, and Parents Clubs kicked off in June with several hundred sign ups in the first few days of the clubs. Weekly programs in support of the clubs featured magician Magic Dan and singer Juan Sanchez performing at all three libraries. Weekly programs will continue through the end of July. Children and their parents who read for 600 minutes during the summer will receive a number of awards. Those visiting the library each week will receive a raffle ticket for the opportunity to win gift certificates to Kepler’s Bookstore or Toys R Us or possibly a Nintendo wii.

Art in Action held their annual Summer Art Show reception in the Family Place. This event invites the family and friends of the young artists whose work will hang in the library for the summer.

Chuck was the featured storyteller at North Star Academy’s annual Festival of the Word, at Orion School’s annual picnic at Huddart Park, and at the open house for Redwood Parents Preschool.

Four hundred and thirty six students from 4^th graders all the way down to kinder came to the library for end-of-the-year class visits. Teachers from Hoover are spreading the word that a trip Downtown is easy (only 20 minutes across the foot bridge over Woodside Rd) and makes a great – and free – fieldtrip during the last weeks of school. This year, classes from Henry Ford, Garfield, and Selby Lane came as well. Everyone was signed up for the Summer Reading Club after their stories and tour, and a good time was had by all, including the librarians.

Cristina met at Fair Oaks Library for the last time with the 7 kindergarten classes from Fair Oaks School. She was presented with a wonderful thank-you card from the kids that included things she’d completely forgotten she had done during previous visits since her brain is much, much older than that of a kindergartner. These classes have been coming faithfully every third Thursday all year. It’s become a tradition: visits are already set up for next school year, beginning in August.

Caroll was elected secretary/treasurer of the San Mateo County Reading Association. At SMCRA’s 2008 – 20009 Planning Meeting, Caroll suggested the Association hold their annual Authors’ Breakfast in March 2009 at the new Redwood Shores Library. The suggestion was met with enthusiastic approval. Caroll will arrange for a date.

KPIX Channel 5 filmed the monthly Paws for Tales program with children reading to Fezzik, Chance and Simon, the three service dogs who all paid rapt attention to the stories. The same morning the Marine Science Institute presented a program on seabirds. At one count the children’s room was alive with over 80 children and families reading to dogs, signing up for Summer Reading Program and looking for summer reading books.

Roz and Jacky attended the Sequoia Audubon Society’s annual potluck dinner and raffle on June 12. Taking advantage of the speaker that didn’t show up, they extended their short PowerPoint chat about the Redwood Shores Library Interpretive Center into a half-hour presentation and Q&A. Several people agreed to donate their money to the project or their time to interpretive programming.

Although a large part of Jan’s twenty hours a week is spent on activities other than Traveling Storytime, she is pleased to report that the fiscal year 2007-2008 saw a 7% rise in the number of children being read to. The year recorded the second highest annual total ever. What makes this statistic so significant is that even though the staffing of the program was cut in half, the program continues to flourish. This is such a tribute to the dedicated volunteers of the Traveling Storytime Program!

A group called People to People Student Ambassador Program donated 60 new teen books to the Redwood City Public Library.  People to People was founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The honorary Chairman of the group is whichever president is currently in office. Mary Jean Eisenhower is CEO of People to People International, which serves as the umbrella organization for the Student Ambassador Program. The students are officially referred to as Student Ambassadors. They have been enrolled in the Exploring European Cultures Program, are residents of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties and attend high schools in these areas. 

Project READ Program Accomplishments:

June marks the end of the KIP school year and as KIP pairs and small groups say farewell, they also celebrate the hard work and dedication that they have shown throughout the year. The first such celebration was a KIP field trip to the local bowling alley. This trip was the first bowling experience for the majority of the KIP students and it was a huge hit! With their teen and preteen tutors there to guide and role model, the learners had a successful, fun and educational experience. The manager was so impressed with the group that he gave out passes for the students to return in the summer with their families!

 

On the last evening of the KIP program, over 130 KIP students, tutors and families ended the KIP school year with an Award Night celebration at Fair Oaks school. Teen tutors helped transform the cafeteria into a visual yearbook by hanging pictures of KIP program happenings throughout the 2007-2008 KIP school year. Guests enjoyed the photos as well as all of the dessert potluck treats donated by the participants. Special guest, Chuck Ashton, kicked off the celebration and warmed up the crowd with lively songs and stories. Afterwards, preteen and teen tutors presented their learners with a personalized certificate that highlighted each student’s contributions to the KIP program this year. Staff and Notre Dame AmeriCorps then presented the tutors with their specialized awards. The evening ended with a book give away to promote summer reading and to continue to build the KIP family libraries.

Since the end of the KIP school year festivities, staff has been busily working on creating a literature-based summer program curriculum in which students will have the opportunity to study three distinct habitats: oceans, tropical rainforests and deserts. This curriculum uses children’s literature as a starting point for exploring geography and science concepts as well as reading and writing practice. KIP summer days also include art and dance classes taught by local artists through a longstanding collaboration between SAL, Project READ and Fair Oaks Elementary School.

Project READ tutor training classes ended on June 3^rd. Congratulations to our graduating community volunteer tutors! The Project READ staff is hard at work matching our new tutors with their learners and setting up tutoring schedules.

 

Here’s a short article I wrote for the Redwood Shores community newsletter:

Redwood City Public Library PRIDE        

I just toured the new Redwood Shores Library, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of our community, our city staff and our library. It is a beautiful building and it will be a fantastic library. I was feeling so good that it was a bit of a strange emotion, one that doesn’t happen frequent enough. And I have myself to blame.

I don’t take enough time out from the busy day to reflect on how much we have accomplished. Too many times our day is encumbered with what we have to accomplish, what we have to do; and too little time to rejoice in what we have done, and literally, what we have. We all have much to be proud of—all of us—in our professional and personal lives.

I am so proud of the Redwood City community, and specifically our wonderful volunteers such as the Library Foundation, raising $850,000 dollars for the new library’s material collection. What an accomplishment!! We treasure our volunteers, folks who donate their own time, to help their community.

Speaking of volunteers, I strongly believe that the community is our partner. The new Shores Library will have plenty of opportunities to help out—reading stories to kids or helping them with their homework, assisting in the computer center or shelving books, train to be a docent for the interpretive center or continue to raise funds for programs—whatever the interest, we will try to accommodate, not only to help the library, but to help build community participation. Please contact Liz Meeks emeeks@redwoodcity.org if interested.

The grand opening of the library is scheduled for Saturday, September 6 at 10:00. Hope to see everyone sharing in the celebration. And yes, let’s try to take some time out of our busy days to reflect on all our successes.