June 2009 Report

Library Director’s Report- June 2009 

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

Check outs

                                  Downtown         Fair Oaks     Schaberg      Shores                       Total

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

Visitors

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Administrative

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

Technical

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