October 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report- October 2008 

 

A week in the month of the library, or when it rains, folks go to the library. The following happened in one week in October:

• 40 parents met at Fair Oaks after the library was closed for a presentation about life skills, including voting, financing and how to relax in these turbulent times; arts and crafts were provided for the children. 
• Also at Fair Oaks Library, a celebration of the Day of the Dead with stories by Armando Ramirez who read to 180 children.
• The 21^st annual Halloween Costume Parade drew over 200 children and family members for a not-so-spooky stroll through the Downtown Library.
• 130 children and families attended a halloween crafts and storytime later in the week at the Shores Library; the Schaberg branch hosted the same event that day.
• 100 kids attended a Halloween program at Fair Oaks.
• At the Downtown Library a puppeteer program had almost 300 children and parents in attendance. 
• And on the same day, the Day of the Dead program that was suppose to happen at the Square Court House, moved indoors to the Downtown Library, with 300 children and adults attending.
• That same day at the Shores Library, a new photography exhibit, 2 Views in B & W, drew 100 people for the opening reception.
• The Children’s Room hosted the Insect Discovery Lab, an African insect experience. 200 preschoolers, and 4^th and 5^th graders from Hoover School, held giant African millipedes and listened to Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
• A bird walk with the Sequoia Audubon Society attracted almost 50 enthusiastic birdwatchers of all ages to the Redwood Shores Library on Sunday.
• All this, 30,000 items checked out (and in and shelved), a few adult programs and our regular daily storytimes, including storytimes at the Shores library, which are drawing 60 to 80 people!

 

Trivia BEE 2008, Redwood City Friends of Literacy’s fund raising event to support Redwood City Public Library’s Project READ program, took place on October 17th at the beautiful Cañada College campus. This year 30 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 helping literacy programs to raise much needed funds. Our appreciation and deepest gratitude goes to the event volunteers, emcee Jim Hartnett, all City Council members, Cañada College President Tom Mohr, Peter Ingram and the college staff and faculty; and especially to the library staff for their help before, during and after the Trivia BEE. A very special thank you to the 30 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 approximately $33,400 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.

 

Scattered Bullets

• Fair Oaks and the Downtown Library are now on fiber optic. Performance on the public computers, including wireless use, should be much improved. This was a huge project that PLAN, the Library and City staff assisted with.
• Flamin’ Dogs will be taking over the kiosk outside the library early in 2009.
• The archives board approved money to pay for the digital conversion of 56 microfilm rolls of old newspapers. 
• In collaboration with the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, classes are being offered and held at the Redwood Shores Branch Library in some of the meeting rooms. The Parks department is coordinating and offering a variety of classes, and the Library is providing the space in the meeting rooms to accommodate the classes, which further exposes the community to the new library and its resources. This certainly is a community building partnership amongst the departments that enhances the services provided by the City to our residents.
• We are retooling our events calendar and email list to align with the City’s. We will then have access to an additional 1,500 people who signed up to receive notices about the library from the City’s website; we are planning to expand this number.
• We signed on for the online book list service, Bookletters. BookLetters offers reviews of books, audio books, films as well as hundreds of author biographies and title lists – all easily accessible online. BookLetters also offers email newsletters that are customizable so new books in the subjects of your choosing are sent right to your inbox. BookLetters can be used at home or at the Library.
• Library staff (Liz and Maria K.) participated in a half-day Emergency Operations Center exercise. The Library shares the responsibility for the Plans section of the Emergency Operations Center.
• The library donated over 100 VHS tapes and Books on Tape from the collection to the Veteran’s Center in Redwood City. We will continue to donate tape materials as we phase these collections out.
• An incident last month made us all think about public gathering rights and policies. A Proposition W table was up in front of the Downtown Library prompting many folks to question the legality of this. Several library and city staff had different information when asked. The City Attorney’s review found that it is legal for any group to gather for whatever reason in a public space as long as there are no code violations (blocking entrances, disturbing the peace, etc).

 

Redwood Shores (Liz Meeks)

• 45,130 library materials were checked out in October.
• Two months statistics:

o   Total checkouts: 89, 871 —Adult Media: 28%, Adult Books: 20%, Children’s Media: 14%, Children’s Books: 38%.

• The library has been very active with 42,328 visitors coming through the doors in October (twice as many as last month).
• 453 new customers received library cards for the first time.
• Storytimes began this month, with close to 600 attending the Bedtime, Preschool, Hindi and Tiny Tales programs. Plans are to offer more beginning in December.
• 5^th grade student and journalist Rosie Crisman wrote a front page article about the library for her school newsletter, The Sandpiper Gazette.
• The Pilot wrote a feature article about the opening of the new library and its services.
• The Chamber of Commerce held a very successful mixer at the library on October 15 in the Community Room.
• Anderson Brulé Architects arranged for the library to be professionally photographed.  Photographs will be made available to the Library next month.
• The Redwood Shores Library Interpretive Center received $2,300+ in donations in honor of Jacky Averill’s dedication, hard work, stress and strain to the project! The Interpretive Center is in the final days of permit approval; fabrication and installation will begin in January.
• Café vendor is pending.

 

Schaberg (Liz Meeks)

• Welcomed new Library Page Cinthya Vieyra.
• The Homework Center at the Schaberg Branch Library opened this month and newly hired Homework Center Supervisor Stacy Starr is doing a wonderful job. Averaging 60 students a week.
• 14,206 library materials were checked out.

 

Fair Oaks (Maria Diaz)

• Maria and Chuck participated in the Taft Community School Festival on October 4^th.
• Art in Action arrived at Fair Oaks on October 14^th. Jay Whitehill did a great job explaining and demonstrating the art of Sudanese Mask Making. 36 children enjoyed the sound of the African music and had a great time making the masks. 
• Our partnership with El Concilio continues to grow and we celebrated the 8th Annual Bi-National Health Week Fair on October 18^th. The library hosted workshops on nutrition, exercise and dental care in the computer area. We also had Health screenings for diabetes, HIV/AIDS and blood pressure in the periodicals area.
• Also on October 18^th we had a “Making Piñatas!” programs. This was a hands-on craft and 70 children made a piñata together with their parents. We had about 150 total participants. 
• Staff performed storytime for several groups of kids at the Olive Festival. We shared a table with Local History and had crafts for children also.  . 
• Cristina continues to do a fabulous job with the Fair Oaks School Kinder class visits. Each month we have 120 students and over 20 parents visit the library, check out materials and get treated to stories from Cristina our master storyteller.
• On October 28^th we had a CBET class visit with 20 students and 7 children.  Angelica processed the library card applications and Maria gave them a tour and introduction to the library. Maria also talked to them about the importance of reading and how the library can help them help their students to achieve academic success.
• Board Member Reina Barragan just happened to stop by that evening and she also talked to them about the library and asked them what other services they would like the library to offer. One item that came up was that the parents also want tutors to help them with their English homework so they can improve their English and be able to better help their students.
• This month both the carpet and the windows were cleaned and have greatly improved the look and feel of the library. We also have added 16 new computers in the adult area, moved the self check out and will be adding two computers for toddlers. 
• Continue to work on: Library and Schools Literacy Partnership – author for Garfield; improving customer service at the service desk; increasing attendance for programs and storytime; flyers and promotional materials.

 

Youth Services (Chuck Ashton)

• Chuck was the guest performer at Roosevelt School’s Family Night. Over 200 in attendance were treated to stories and songs. Cookies and milk were the order of the day.
• The monthly “Dad and Me @ the Library” program tied into the “One Book, One Community” theme with African drummer Onye Onyemaechi who entertained over 100 wildly enthusiastic children and their families who took part on the rhythm instruments and had the walls bursting at their seams. A Maasai dance program was also held a few days later where over 50 in attendance were feted to a wonderful program on Maasai culture.
• In a program co-sponsored by Kepler’s Bookstore, pop-up book artist David Carter shared his stories, talked about techniques of making a pop-up book, led a workshop where kids made their own pop-up, and signed autographs for over 60 children and family members.
• Jan was able to train three new volunteers (including one in Chinese) and placed two and also ordered 750  holiday books for the Traveling Storytime volunteers to give to the children that they read to. The books have arrived and will be distributed to the volunteers in November.
• This month 65 teen volunteers worked 180 hours thanks to Sarah’s support.

 

Selected Adult Program Highlight (Roz Kutler)

• 1,328 people attended the kick-off event for our One Book, One Book event at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center on October 1^. Michael Krasny interviewed Dave Eggers and Valentino A. Deng. Youth were well represented.  I was at the table where we personally handed out 300 extra-credit slips to students!
• One Book, One Community programs, Redwood City library attendance total – 610.
• Circulation statistics for What is the What: Book-on-cd—42, Book (English)—416, Book (Spanish) —16.
• OBOC:  A Great Wonder: Lost Children of Sudan, was an exemplary film program. Director, Kim Shelton, said just a few words before screening her inspiring film, set in the Northwest U.S, drawing out participants in a wonderful discussion after the film. A teen who attended asked Kim, ”Were you there?”  And made the connection about what it means to be a film director for the first time.
• Hope with Sudan, a scholarship program for Sudanese Children and Youth living in exile in Kenya and Uganda, offered Redwood City residents the rare opportunity to get a meet an adult “Lost Boy” from San Jose, who told his story in a much more intimate setting than the kick-off event, answering questions from the group.

 

Project READ (Kathy Endaya)

• September and October were very exciting months for Project READ! We welcomed and trained seven Notre Dame AmeriCorps members who will be assisting in both the youth and adult literacy programs. These recent college graduates have come from all over the country to give a year of service to the families of Redwood City.
• Recruitment for KIP tutors was a joint effort between returning teen tutors who did in-class presentations at Sequoia High School and Project READ staff who visited several of the Academy classes at Woodside High School. Over 54 teens expressed interest in the program!
• In September we trained a total of 48 preteen and teen tutors in the KIP program. Each of these tutors was then matched with a 1^st-4^th grader.  These pairs meet twice a week at the library for tutoring sessions. Currently, 46 KIP learners are receiving individualized support from these amazing volunteers. The pairs work together on reading, homework and getting to know the library. In order to orient the little learners to the “big” library, each tutor created a customized scavenger hunt for their learner that highlighted the location of resources that most interested the little buddy.
• In October, KIP tutors and learners took learning outside of the library on two field trips. Twenty-four teen tutors ventured to San Francisco State University where they enjoyed a presentation from an Outreach Specialist as well as a campus tour. For many of the young tutors, it was their first experience on a college campus. Meanwhile, 42 KIP learners and preteen tutors got to see literature come to life on their trip to the Arata Pumpkin Farm in Half Moon Bay. At the farm, students got to pick their own pumpkin, find their way out of a hay labyrinth, pet and feed real animals and experience train, pony and hay rides!
• At the September KIP story hour, over 65 KIP learners, tutors and family members came together for musical story telling, crafts and books. The Mike Eppley and Anjaline duo had the whole crowd singing and playing along with their festive story telling. In October, KIP families had a special treat, a 3-D performance by the AstroWizard. Over 80 youth and adults were mesmerized by the beautiful presentation

 

 

Great article on City Government:

 

San Jose Mercury News THE KEYS TO MAKING A CITY VIBRANT AND INNOVATIVE October 8, 2008      Section: Editorial    Edition: Valley Final    Page: 12A By Carol Coletta San Jose is fortunate to be one of the few U.S. cities whose economy is still growing. It is the exception to generally grim economic news that fills the map with cities that are either in recession or close to it.

 

Since cities and the metro areas produce 80 percent of the nation’s economic assets and economic drivers, it is essential to our national well-being that we get our urban strategies right. Unfortunately, many of our communities are built on outdated assumptions. We thought gas would always be cheap and plentiful, we could always grow our way out of congestion and new sources of labor would always be plentiful. We assumed Americans were willing to abandon a public life, content to live privately in their ever-expanding suburban homes.   These assumptions are no longer true. Gas is expensive and getting more so. We can’t build enough highways fast enough to significantly reduce time spent in traffic. Even though unemployment has altered the near-term outlook, long-term we can expect labor to tighten as baby boomers reach retirement age, and there are no additional college graduates or women to expand the labor force.   It turns out that the most coveted part of the workforce, highly-educated 25- to 34-year-olds, are the most mobile. Two-thirds say they first choose where they want to live, then they look for a job, when deciding where to move.   And the desire for public life is on the rise. It shows up in a number of ways. Young adults are now 33 percent more likely than other Americans to live within a three-mile radius of the central business district, where life is lived far more publicly. Citizens flood great new public spaces like Chicago’s Millennium Park, even passing referendums to tax themselves specifically for parks and public spaces.   These are the new realities. The problem is our strategies of city-making haven’t quite caught up to a new and very different world.   Our research at CEOs for Cities shows that cities best position themselves to succeed when they become very, very good at doing four key things: ·         Developing, attracting and retaining talent. ·         Connecting their citizens to opportunity, their city to the region and their region to the global economy. ·         Understanding what makes their community distinctive and then having the confidence to capitalize on it (rather than chase the same tired strategy that every other community is chasing). ·         Developing the capacity for innovation within government and within your community.   Talent, connections, distinctiveness and innovation. These are “the city vitals” — dimensions on which next generation cities will succeed. Having a strong and vibrant central city is an important accelerator of each of these vitals.   These aren’t your typical list of urban issues or urban solutions. They don’t fit easily into the organizational structure at City Hall or our civic structure.   Is there a Department of Talent in San Jose? A Director of Distinctiveness? Someone devoted to Connections?   Do you have anyone responsible for innovation not just at City Hall (although that would put your city far ahead of others) but in the public realm? Do you have a group absolutely passionate about making your central city vibrant, making it an accelerator of talent, connections, distinctiveness and innovation?   With its economy still growing, San Jose is one of the nation’s few fortunate communities. To remain that way, San Jose will need to assign responsibilities for these new success factors and ensure that its new plan is based on these new realities.     Carol Coletta is president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, and host and producer of the public radio show “Smart City.”  She wrote this article for the mercury News.