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.

September 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report-September 2008

We are fortunate to host a Management Exchange staff member, Sarah Nunes, for the next three months. Sarah is a Division Manager for the Human Resources Department at the City of San Jose. She will be developing a customer service training program for the library, along with helping us with other organizational issues such as succession planning, team building and organizational structure.

The grand opening of the Redwood Shores Branch Library was a huge success. On Saturday September 6, more than 1,200 people came to enjoy the grand opening festivities; 500 of these visitors received new library cards; and 10,000 items were checked out on Saturday and Sunday. I want to personally thank our Library staff, City Council, Library Foundation, Redwood Shores Community Association and all City staff that contributed to this great community building project. We should be very proud to be working and living here. For a community to have four unique libraries (and a brand new beautiful one!), and to receive the support we enjoy, is very rewarding and reflective of our wonderful community.
• We also welcomed newly hired staff at the Redwood Shores Branch Library:
o Raymond Delara, Library Assistant
o Lucy Palasek, Library Assistant
o Leticia Torres-Yee, Library Assistant
o Kristin Hope, Senior Library Page
• In September, the Shores Library checked out 44,116 library materials, and issued 1,164 new library cards.
• 21,270 customers visited the Shores Library during the month of September.
• 75% of all users are families on the weekends and kids after school.
• Sundays are the second busiest day, Saturdays the busiest.
• Saturdays and Sundays have been busier than the Downtown Library!
• Customer comments are overwhelmingly positive and grateful.
• The Parks, Recreation and Community Services department is collaborating with the Shores Library by offering classes in meeting rooms of the new library. This month baby skills, yoga, karate and mad science classes were held.
• 40 people attended the first monthly bird walk from the Shores Library led by a Sequoia Audubon Society volunteer. Participants identified 23 species of birds! This will be a monthly program.
• Jacky Averill has been working to secure the building permit for the Interpretive Center for a November installation. She met with consultants and city engineers and even went under the floor to take photos to gather the needed information for the completion of the technical installation drawings.
• With the Redwood City Library Foundation, Jacky secured a $100,000 grant from Oracle for the Redwood Shores Library Interpretive Center, and we have now raised $282,000, ten thousand dollars shy of the total cost!
• Jan Pedden held a reception to thank the Shores volunteers for their hard work at the grand opening. Over sixty people, including staff, attended the event and enjoyed desserts from La Tartine. We will continue to development volunteer opportunities, including Interpretive Center docents/monitors.
• Rochelle Carr, a local artist with her own gallery downtown, has donated a large painting “love of reading” to the Shores Library. She painted it specifically for the new library as she watched it being built (she lives two blocks away!). We will hang it in the family place above the toddler computers.

Although cities and counties escaped huge cuts from the State budget, there is still uncertainty as another deficit looms for next year. 5% reductions in literacy, PLF (public library fund) and TBR (transaction based revenue—money we receive for lending our materials to other libraries) were implemented this year. The State also took money from all city redevelopment agencies, which will affect all funds. Local and regional economic indicators are uncertain at best, and the City Manager will be keeping the organization updated when solid data is in hand.

The Downtown and Fair Oaks libraries will be cutting over to the new fiber optic network in October. This is huge project, and every computer has to be newly configured.

Also this month, 12 new public computers and 2 toddler computers will be installed at Fair Oaks. All upholstered chairs and benches at Fair Oaks have been replaced; the service desk has been completely re-faced; and the lighting has been upgraded. I am negotiating an early date for carpet replacement. The Library Foundation has committed raising $250,000 to replace and augment the library’s book and media collection; and our Library Friends gave $16,000 for library programs for the Fair Oaks community, including continuing our literacy partnerships with schools in the neighborhood.

With the arrival of the Italian Circus setting up next to the Downtown Library from October 17 – 27, parking lot B will not be available for library customers. Here is press release:
Redwood City, CA – The Circus is coming to town! Redwood City is proud to welcome “Zoppé – an Italian Family Circus” from October 23rd through October 26th for spectacular two-hour performances that will enthrall the entire family! The Circus tent will be set up right next to the Downtown Library (1044 Middlefield Road) in Redwood City and will host a gala benefit performance on October 23rd, followed by 2 shows on October 24th and 3 shows on both October 25th and 26th.
Showtimes:
Thursday, October 23, Special Gala Benefit Performance (details to be announced);
Friday, October 24, 4 pm and 8 pm;
Saturday, October 25, noon, 4 pm, and 8 pm;
Sunday, October 26, noon, 4 pm, and 8pm.

Here is an article Malcolm Smith wrote for the newest edition of the city newsletter:
Spotlight on the Redwood City Public Library
With the grand opening last September of the new Redwood Shores Branch Library, Redwood City’s library system has expanded to four branches, now serving every corner of our community!

And these are not your grandparents’ libraries…at Redwood City libraries, there’s music and fun, a variety of programs and presentations, homework help, computer labs, tutoring, a café, workshops and speakers and activities, specialty programs for kids, teens, families, and seniors, special events, videos, DVDs, and CDs, multi-lingual materials, games, Internet workstations – and that’s just the beginning!

Each library is really a community destination, offering an incredible variety of wonderful materials, services, and activities. All together, there are over 64,000 library card holders in Redwood City, who have access to over 300,000 books, CDs, videos and DVDs. Do you have your library card? If not, just visit any branch to get yours, and then enjoy the wondrous and vast opportunities at the Redwood City Public Library.

During the last year, over one million items were loaned out from your libraries – that’s an average of about 13 items for every man, woman, and child within Redwood City. An incredible 116,000 children and families attended library programs or received homework help – and there were nearly 600,000 visits to our libraries, and over 300,000 computer uses by community members.

The Library is also a place for volunteers – over 1,200 library volunteers participated just in the last year, mostly tutoring or reading to children, and they all add great value to the community. For example, tutors from the renowned Project READ program held a total of 57,000 tutoring sessions with their adult learners, while 60 Traveling Storytime volunteers read to over 675 children each week. In fact since 2001, Storytime volunteers have done over 7,000 sessions, reaching a total audience of over 100,000 children!

Other volunteer’s efforts include the Redwood City Library Foundation – their latest success is the raising of an incredible $850,000 to fully stock the new Redwood Shores branch. There’s also the Redwood City Friends of the Library, who raised $50,000 last year in support of programs for adults and youth. And 157 kids in the Library’s Teen Volunteer Program put in nearly 1,200 hours, helping out in our four libraries.

Have you visited a Redwood City Public Library branch lately? Each one offers so much for the community, so many services, and so many events and activities for the whole family:
• Fair Oaks Branch Library – 2510 Middlefield Road, 780-7261
• Schaberg Branch Library – 2410 Euclid Avenue, 780-7010
• Redwood Shores Branch Library – 399 Marine Parkway, 780-5740
• Downtown Library – 1044 Middlefield Road, 780-7018
For a look at what’s going on at the Redwood City Public Library branch near you, visit www.redwoodcity.org/library.

July 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report- July 2008

The organization has been focusing on the Redwood Shores Library.
• We put (in order!) 27,000 books on the shelves at the Shores Library in one and a half days!!!! (pictures in board packet). An additional 7,000 books will be arriving soon.
• 10,000 dvds and cds have been processed by staff.
• Staff interviews will be held first week of August.
• Technology plans in place and items ordered—computers, copy/fax, self-checkouts, flat screens, power point monitors, phones.
• Furniture arriving. Some shipping dates cutting it close.
• Interpretive Center approved by Council, ready to install later this month.
• Café Agreement on Council agenda. Tenant improvements needed and may not be ready for opening.
• Saturday, September 6, Grand Opening Celebration plans finalized—speakers (Mayor Foust, Councilmember Pierce, Board President Madrigal, State Librarian Hildreth, Shores Cub Scouts flag ceremony. Bands, children’s activities, give-aways and refreshments. Library card processing and additional checkout stations will be added to help ease crowding within the library.
• Community art wall displays set for opening and policy written for future rotation. Art in Action will display children’s art from Sandpiper School on a monthly basis in the children’s area.
• Community Room usage policy needs to be finalized.
• Children’s storytime schedule set. Future programming underway (ie movies, speakers, book club).
• Punch list activities pending; HVAC issues need to be resolved before building is turned over to the City.
• Most signage has been installed.

Meanwhile, business as usual in a busy summer:

The Summer Reading Club is in full swing with over 2,000 readers, listeners and parents signed up to make books an integral part of their summer plans.

New banners will be gracing Middlefield Road—watch for them this fall. Our plastic bags are about to become obsolete as all Redwood City libraries go green with new cloth totes, available for sale starting September 6th. RFP for coffee kiosk with ads on various websites announcing this unique opportunity.

The 2nd floor remodel (new teen room, three study rooms) and the tech lab upgrade have been approved for bid. The construction should begin in October. This project is also replacing the HVAC units for the entire library.

The Fair Oaks Library network has been upgraded to accommodate more computers without delays in speed. Fiber has been installed by ATT, and a new network closet will be added. Fabric has been ordered to replace all benches and chairs. New carpeting will go in sometime this fiscal year. It has been placed in the CIP replacement budget (first time this has happened). The Library Foundation met at Fair Oaks Branch and has formed a working team to explore and recommend funding opportunities for the North Fair Oaks community. The Library will have a booth at the North Fair Oaks Festival on August 24. Sequoia Adult school is meeting with their student parents at the library once a month after 5:00 pm on Fridays. Along with educational presentations, participants can check out library materials and children are delighted with storytelling and craft programs. Looking forward on Angelica Jaimez to return to Fair Oaks after two months of maternal leave.

Local History Librarian, Molly Spore-Alhadef. wrote an article for the local Spectrum Magazine’s “Redwood City Through the Years” section.

Start Your Own Blog was a great addition to July programming. In addition to learning basic blogging skills, all 23 participants left with a G-mail account and exposure to advanced blogging features. Thanks to Sarah for recruiting three teen volunteers who served as lab monitors for the class. More computer classes for the public will be a focus this coming year.

Youth Services
• Five weekly programs were held at all three library sites to promote the Summer Reading Club. The programs featured percussionist James Henry, musical group Hey Mom, magician Timothy James, funny man/juggler/magician Daffy Dave, the library’s own puppeteer Chuck Ashton at Schaberg, and puppeteers Swazzle at Fair Oaks and Downtown. 100 folks attended the Fair Oaks program!
• The monthly first Saturday Dad and Me @ the Library featured Chuck Ashton in a program of stories, songs and puppets. We didn’t expect much of an audience since it was the morning after the 4th of July, but some 25 library aficionados still found their way into the library for the program.
• Chuck was asked by one of his ex-students at San Jose State to present a program at the Cupertino Public Library where some 400 children and parents came to see the program of stories, songs and puppets.
• July has been a busy month for the Traveling Storytime Program with the addition of eight new volunteers to the program, four of which have already been placed in new sites. Jan also saw increased attendance at her weekly Tiny Tales, with an all-time high of 45 on July 15. Jan concluded the Tiny Tales storytime for the summer with a “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” themed day as she said good-bye to many of the children that she has been reading to for the last eighteen months. In September these children will be moving on to one our Toddler storytimes. Jan also filled in for Jacky at her storytimes.
• Long-time Youth Services staff member Cristina Thorson’s father died in late July. Cristina spent time with him at Stanford Hospital and arranging for his care before he passed away. All of our hearts go out to Cristina in her time of loss and we look forward to her return after her bereavement leave. Cristina asked that in lieu of flowers that anyone inclined to do so please make a contribution to either Project READ or to the Interpretive Center at Redwood Shores.
• 26 teen volunteers worked a total of 165 hours. On average, each volunteer worked at least 6 hours. The teens helped keep the children’s collection in order by shelving and shelf reading, they assisted at the Duct Tape program, they led the weekly art activity, three volunteers assisted at the Adult Blog program by helping adults use the computers, and finally a few of our volunteers helped with Summer Reading Club activities such as SRC sign-ups and programs.
• Sarah was contacted by Canada College’s librarian to help create an Urban and Historical Literature Bibliography. She selected titles, added descriptions of the books, and found reviews of each title. Sarah also met with Stacy Wenzel, an English teacher from Sequoia High School, to develop a series of class visits with her struggling readers during the upcoming school year. They will meet, acquire library cards, visit the library, learn about databases and Tutor.com, work on research papers, and perhaps visit the library a second time to see the completed teen space.
• Sarah led a Duct Tape Art program in which 15 teens made wallets, purses, and flowers out of colorful Duct Tape. Three lucky teens won $15.00 to Jamba Juice by entering the One Word Book Review. To enter, the teen wrote the title and author of a book and reviewed the book in one word. This 6 week raffle will continue for three more weeks.
• Sarah attended a meeting by the Youth Development Learning Network. She will meet with representatives from the group to decide if their program meets the needs of the library. If so, then she will be part of a year long program that connects services throughout the area.
• Sarah was contacted by the publisher of Bay Area Parent and asked if they could write an article about Jobs For Youth visiting the library. They hope to include an article in their Fall addition. Jobs For Youth met at the library and assisted 3 teens in developing their resumes. The teens found that by participating in sports, they had something to put on their resumes. Being in sports shows that you know how to be on time, you can be a team player, and you can take direction.

The City’s General Plan is moving forward. The following was input from the library for inclusion. It is good information about our library services.

Partnerships (Human Services Element)
 Seek partners in the community that can help us provide better literacy services and bridge cultural divides.

Community Building and Volunteers (Culture Element)
 Create an environment within the library that helps people meet, interact, and participate through a “third place.”
 Sustain and enhance a vibrant, community-centered Library system.
 Sustain meaningful volunteer opportunities that connect the city with the community.
 Be responsive to the community’s needs and expectations.

Education (Human Services Element)
 Assist and support life long learning for adults through computer training, programs and library collections.
 Help all community members to reach a functional level in reading, writing, math and critical thinking skills in English.
 Help raise a literate and educated next generation by sustaining or increasing library literacy storytime programs; and continuing the level of traveling storytime daycare/preschool visits each year.
 Assist all children to become School Ready by developing the love of reading, learning and libraries from birth to kindergarten.
 Actively support the efforts of students from Kindergarten through 12th grade, including emphasizing the love of reading.
 Sustain or increase the at-risk teen/elementary student tutoring program; and the after school homework help centers.
 Continue to collaborate with the School District through the sharing of library staff, expertise and programs.

External Communication (additional element to consider)
 Public Relations
 Marketing

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.

 

 

May 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report- May 2008 

Council presentations

On Monday, June 23, the Redwood City Library Foundation will be presenting an oversized check at the City Council meeting representing the $850,000 that has been raised for the Campaign for the Opening Day Collection for the Redwood Shores Library. The presentation falls at the beginning of the meeting, close to 7 p.m. The check will be received by Mayor Foust and Library Board President, Rudy Madrigal.

On Monday, May 19, Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz, Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Corinne Centeno, Deputy City Manager Magda Gonzalez and Library Director Dave Genesy presented to the City Council work-to-date on the Youth Agenda, a collaborative approach to delivering youth services. The presentation was very well received and supported by the entire Council.

On May 12, the City Council honored the organization and volunteers of Notre Dame-Americorps for their commitment to promoting literacy and education throughout the community. Project READ has been the grateful recipient of countless hours of Notre Dame-Americorps volunteer work. As part of their volunteerism in helping adults, inmates, families, and youth learn to read, these volunteers often go above and beyond their “assignments” with Project Read. For example, NDA members work in the morning with the teachers and staff of Fair Oaks Elementary School to provide tutoring for those children most in need. They then come to Project READ’s “Kids in Partnership” program for the afternoon. Many NDA members then join with Project READ in the evenings on their own time to tutor children and adults who use drop-in tutoring services.

Collaboration

Congratulations to Maria Diaz-Slocum, Armando Ramirez, the Fair Oaks staff and the Fair Oaks School Academic Task force for putting on an excellent program at Fair Oaks School. On May 22, Jorge Argueta, a celebrated bilingual author read poems from his book, A MOVIE IN MY PILLOW / UNA PELICULA EN MI ALMOHADA, and signed books for 320 children and parents. Many Salvadorian families said that they were honored to attend this presentation. Jorge spoke about his memories of growing up in El Salvador and the vivid moment when he left El Salvador to come immigrate to U.S. This program was similar to the one at Hoover School: Library and School partnering, splitting the cost for books for all 500 children to keep, teachers taking curriculum time to teach the book (huge in this day and age) and having the author come for a community building event. Special thanks go the Friends of the Library for helping sponsor such an educational event! As a result of our success we are planning other joint efforts to motivate students to read.

On Saturday May 17, the Downtown Library hosted Cañada College’s successful outreach effort by using the Tech Lab to register students. The President of the College addressed the City Council, thanking the Library, and the college administrator in charge of the program wrote a formal note to me expressing gratitude to the library, with special thanks to Magda Galindo, IT specialist, who tirelessly accommodated his every request over the last couple of months (and there were many) to make the technology involved work.

Awards for collaboration!

Project READ and Cañada College received the J. Russell Kent Award, sponsored by the San Mateo County School Boards Association, which recognizes and publicizes outstanding programs in San Mateo County public schools. Through a collaborative partnership with Canada College, the Project READ Inmate Peer Tutor Program is able to offer college credit to inmates who successfully complete the course. The course, Literacy Tutoring in the Community, is taught by Jane Weidman of Cañada College and Pat Benner of Evergreen College. Both tutors and learners report very positive results from their work together. Assessments show that reading levels increase and inmates report an increase in self-esteem, and many trained tutors and their learners continue their education while incarcerated, by taking additional classes. These new readers are then able to participate in recovery programs, GED classes and achieve other educational goals.

Project READ and Cañada College also received Certificates of Recognition from the State of California Senate and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives for their outstanding and invaluable service to the community.

A Community Destination

On May 15, the library was abuzz with kids and their families well past closing last night as Youth Services presented two highly successful events. About 90 landlubbers took part at the Pirate Music program with Ernest Kinsolving and Karl Franzen who had the Children’s Room hopping with a mix of “sea shanties, other piratical music, and information about the scurvy scum of the Seven Seas.” At the same time approximately 400 older children and parents came to hear and meet Rick Riordan, author of an immensely popular series of books based on Greek mythology, “Percy Jackson & the Olympians.” Cosponsored by Kepler’s Bookstore, the program had the Community Room splitting at the seams as the hundreds in attendance listened to how the series came to be and then took part in a quiz about Greek gods that landed a lucky dozen fans t-shirts promoting the newest book in the series. An amusing and engaging speaker, Riordan had kids and parents alike laughing and enjoying the talk. He then signed books in the YA alcove, the line of fans not only stretching up the stairs and into the Community Room but well into the night–the last fan finally getting his book signed after 9:30.

Chuck Aston writes: “Thanks to the YS staff for all their efforts, not only for last night’s programs, but for making this whole week special with pirate-related activities for Children’s Book Week. We have the best Youth Services staff and Children’s Room in the world and a bit more of the world found that out last night as many out-of-towners were in attendance at the Rick Riordan talk. A special thanks to Cristina for hanging in until nearly 10:00 to help out with the book signing line and cleanup. And an especially big thank you to Angela Kroner-Grafmiller from Kepler’s for inviting us to take part in the Rick Riordan presentation.” 

And a closing comment by a customer who was in the library that night: “This isn’t a sssshhh type of library is it? That’s the way it should be!”

Other Youth Services activities

• We had a record number of teen volunteers in May. 50 teens worked for a total of 193 ¼ hours! 
• On May 3rd the wonderful stories of Lucia Gonzalez magically came to life at Fair Oaks through her puppets and masterful storytelling. Lucia delighted the 37 participants that attended the program as we closed the Day of the Children/ Day of the Book Celebrations.
• Maria and Cristina met with Yolanda Llamas, Child Care Coordinator for the Sequoia Adult School. They discussed the needs of the school and ideas for possible joint efforts. As a result Yolanda will pursue a program for parents during a morning where Cristina can present information about the importance of reading, library services, materials, and issue library cards on site. Cristina will check about getting a Traveling Storytime volunteer to visit the site every week since its been over three years since they last had one visit and read to the children.
• Maria met with Dan Fillin executive Director of Read Write Now. Dan needs help with his current project on Community Leadership for new immigrants. Maria helped him to research some additional community and library resources to help him and his students.
• Linda Montes the Principal of Adelante School is starting a Summer Library Program to reach out to families during the summer. The Adelante library will be open on Tuesdays from 4-7 during the month of July. The library will be staffed by Rosa Araceli Zertuche who also works for the Redwood City Library. Students and parents will be able to join the RCPL Summer Reading Clubs and apply for library cards at the school library. All participants will be encouraged to visit the Public Library and to attend the Wednesday programs. Maria will coordinate the Summer Reading Clubs with Araceli and will provide her with all the needed materials and prizes.
• Cristina was the keynote speaker for the graduation ceremonies of Familias Unidas a Traves de la Lecture – Families United for Literacy, an amazing class taught at Hoover. Developed and run by teacher Ninfa Zuno, this course brought 36 families together to learn about what their children are learning, and about how school operates. This was one of the most moving events Cristina has ever attended, as proud parents received their own diplomas and the sincere applause of School Board members, and members of the school district administration. The projects produced during the class are currently on display in the Program Room of the Family Place. 
• Jacky, Cristina, and Maria Kramer attended a School Board meeting to speak in support of retaining the District Librarian position in the face of budget reductions.
• Jacky arranged for the Family Place art wall to be available to SEPTAR (Special Education Parent Teacher Association for Redwood City).  The artwork is by the children in the program. The group held a reception in the Family Place on Sunday May 25.
• Jacky arranged for children’s book author and illustrator Katherine Tillotson to display her original artwork and puppets in all four display cases. Katherine spoke at the library on May 10, for the “Second Saturday Series” of SCBWI.
• This month Sarah had three teachers come to the library with their classes. The students received library cards, and had their fines waived if needed. Sarah first visited the classes to get the information from the students and then they walked from Sequoia High School to the library. Sarah talked about Live Homework Help, appropriate books, and the new teen space. 6 separate classes visited the library with a total of 90 students participating. 
• Sarah attended the Citizen School Summer Opportunities Fair at Kennedy Middle School. She talked about the Summer Reading Program, volunteering at the library, and the new remodel of the teen space.
• Sarah was invited to the end of the year dinner with all the High School Librarians at the Kabul Afghan Cuisine Restaurant.
• This month the library hosted a SAT/ACT workshop by Kaplan—7 students attended. In addition, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Sarah held a Cinco de May Fiesta. She hired an instructor to teach the teens how to salsa dance. 12 courageous teens participated in dancing, with a total of 30 teens at the event.  Whole Foods donated chips and salsa for the enjoyment of all.
• Quick calculation of the cost of Tutor.com per session: last year (Feb 07—Dec 07, 11 months): $16.64 per session; this year (Jan 08—Apr 08, 4 months): $7.08 per session. Remember costs are split through a State Library grant. There were 160 remote sessions in May; mostly (130) high school students. Below is sample of comments:

   

5th	Thanks I appreciate this service
7th	If it weren’t for this program id be failing school@!
9th	i had a good time and i learned how to solve my problem step by step. and that really helped me alot. thanks for having the time to help me one by one!!
9th	mary rules.
9th	my tutor lost connection
9th	NICE WORK PPLZ
10th	thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11th	AWESOME!!!!
College – Intro	first tutor i felt relax with…this is good for students that sometimes hesitate to use the service. thanks again.
College – Intro	one of the best tutors. thanks
College – Intro	very helpful, and able to explain why steps are needed. thanks again.
College – Intro	very helpful.thanks

 

Redwood Shores Library Update

The Redwood Shores Library construction project is nearing completion. The construction of the building is 93% complete. The carpeting is being installed and the outside wooden decks have been completed. The wooden boat bookcase in the children’s area has been built and is in place – this is certainly an eye catching feature for this area. The customer service desk and the cabinets for the self check-out units have been installed. Interior and exterior painting is almost finished. Library staff continues to work on various aspects associated with the project:

• The furniture package has been ordered.
• Hiring of staff and scheduling is in progress.
• The library staff grand opening committee met and is working on all of the details and particulars for the grand opening which will take place on Saturday, September 6, 2008, at 10:00am.
• Liz met with Parks, Recreation and Community Services staff on site to discuss potential programs that the Parks staff can schedule at the library in the meeting rooms.
• Signage has been reviewed.
• Meeting room policies are in draft form and will be coming to the Library Board for approval next month.
• Audio visual proposals have been reviewed.
• Liz, Jenny and Maria K. visited the site to review and assess the placement of the library collections.
• Many other staff have toured the library. We are trying to get everyone through in the next month.
• Donor party being planned for Friday night, September 5.
• Ordering and selection continues. Program numbers are being met, and we are staying within budget!
  
• International Languages selection has begun or been completed for the following languages: Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Hindi. DVDs, CDs, and print materials will be available for each of these languages.
  
• All adult and children’s media has been ordered: Over 6,000 feature films, non-fiction movies, children’s films, and music.
  
• The technical services team met to discuss preparing for the large Redwood Shores media order. Each member of the team will be handling about 100 items per week in order to prepare for the September library opening.
  

Kids in Partnership

Our teen tutors have completed over 1670 hours of community service during this school year. Their efforts and commitment to tutoring, homework help and English coaching have paid off and can be seen in their learner’s tremendous growth in reading skill level. The KIP learners have gained an average of 3.5 reading levels over the course of this KIP Program year.

 

KIP Teen Tutors Reflect on their Proudest Moments of their Year of Service…

 

“I am proud that I helped someone in need, I made new friends, and helped my learner with homework and reading.”

 

“I am proud that I came and started KIP. It was so much fun!”

 

“I am so happy that I taught my learners to tell time!”

 

“I’m glad that I got a chance to work with kids from my old elementary school.”

 

KIP Teen Tutors’ Lessons Learned…

 

“Be patient and always ask for their homework because they won’t tell you that they have it.”

 

“It’s important to support the kids in every way you can, but also to play with them because they like that.”

 

“Be ready to meet new people and always learn how to talk to your learner in order to help them get over shyness.”

A very nice gesture from a library patron at the Fair Oaks Library … on Thursday morning, May 22, a library patron walked in to the Fair Oaks Library and placed a vase filled with a bouquet of fresh flowers on the customer service desk. She mentioned to the staff that she “loves this library”, then she quietly left.

Viridiana Acosta, a Library Page at the Fair Oaks Library has been accepted at the University of California, Davis. She will begin her studies at UC Davis in the fall, as biology major. Viridiana has worked at the Fair Oaks Library for the past two years and is a very dedicated, highly motivated and valued employee. We congratulate her and wish her well as she moves on to the next chapter in her educational pursuit and life.

 

Investment in public education for state’s students pays off

By Deborah Stipek

Article Launched: 06/02/2008 01:32:29 AM PDT

On June 9, 50 seniors at East Palo Alto Academy will walk across the stage at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium to receive their high school diplomas. Half of the seniors have been accepted to four-year colleges, including the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, UC-Santa Cruz, Occidental College, Syracuse University and Cal Poly. Nearly all of the rest of the graduates are planning to attend community colleges.

What is so remarkable about this? The academy is a public charter school in an impoverished community where only 11 percent of the adults have college degrees. Of the academy’s students, 79 percent are Latino with varying levels of English proficiency, 13 percent are African-American, 5 percent are Polynesian and 3 percent are Asian Indian. The great majority have sufficiently low family incomes to be eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The students mirror the youths in their community. There are no entrance requirements, and they are admitted through a lottery.

This is not a miracle. The positive life trajectories of these students reflect hard work – on the part of students and teachers – and a little extra financial investment. About $3,000 per student for each of their four years in high school was raised in addition to the approximately $7,500 received from the state. For that amount, the academy has given its students the opportunity to become productive, contributing citizens, develop their talents and interests, and make a living wage.

This is not a bad return, especially in today’s market. Such an investment would not break the bank in the short term if offered to all of California’s students, and it would save billions of dollars in the long term.

Consider the cost to California taxpayers of not making this investment. According to a recent study, the roughly 120,000 California students each year who fail to earn a high school diploma before they turn 20 are costing the state $46.4 billion during the course of their lives, in greater rates of unemployment, crime, welfare and state-funded medical care, in addition to lost tax revenues.

If trends continue, one out of every six Latino males and one out of three African-American males can expect to be incarcerated for some amount of time in their lives. The cost per year for one youth incarcerated in the juvenile justice system in California is about $175,000 (an adult is a mere $41,000 a year). The cost of incarceration has more than doubled since 1998. The probability of incarceration drops dramatically for those with even some college (by 75 percent), and even more (by 95 percent) for those with a college degree.

Do the math. You won’t find a better return on an additional $12,000 per student. And this equation doesn’t include the differences in the lives and opportunities for people who go to college, compared with those who drop out or even complete high school.

East Palo Alto Academy could meet the needs of its students even better with the more than $13,000 that neighboring districts, such as Palo Alto, have to spend per student. But the charter school has shown that a great deal can be accomplished with even a modest increase over the extraordinarily low investment that California makes in education for most of its students.

The success of students at East Palo Alto Academy shows that the youths in East Palo Alto, and communities like it, want to succeed academically and are willing to work hard when given the chance. So the question is: Why do we spend so little on their education, knowing the huge economic and human costs we are encumbering?

DEBORAH J. STIPEK is the I. James Quillen Dean and Professor of Education at Stanford University. She wrote this article for the Mercury News.

April 2008 Report

Library Director’s Report- April 2008

 

We received word last week that the California Coastal Conservancy has approved a grant of $150,000 toward the cost of the Environmental Interpretive Center at the new Redwood Shores Library. With this grant, we have taken a major step toward securing the funding necessary for the entire project. The Interpretive Center will make the Redwood Shores Library a hub for environmental learning and interactive fun. In addition to the exhibits, Marine Science Institute staff has planned a series of after school classes and weekend Seaside Storytimes at the library. Volunteers from Sequoia Audubon are ready to provide birding walks, family activities and adult programs. The Library recently held a “contest” for the bird photographs needed for the Interpretive Center signs and exhibits and we received over 800 photographs that our team of experts chose the 35 pictures we needed.

 

The Library Foundation has completed raising the entire $850,000 for the opening day collection for the Redwood Shores Library. This is a significant achievement! We will formally acknowledge this commitment with the Library Board, the City Council and the community.

 

Construction progress on the Redwood Shores Library is moving along well and getter closer to completion. The building is 91.77% complete. The colorful interior painting is underway, light fixtures are in and the wood decks are being installed in back of the library. Casework is in place in some areas and metal shelving is going up. Construction progress (exteriors and parking lot landscaping) can be viewed by webcam accessed through http://rcpl.info/ebranch/redwoodshores.html

Library staff continues to work on various aspects associated with the project:

• Collection ordering is about 75% complete.
• Review of the furniture package proposals complete.
• Networking issues, wiring and technology, including audio visual needs complete.
• Signage program verified.
• Vendor for café in progress.
• Art walls in progress.
• Dave and Liz are working with PRCS on the use and procedures of the five community rooms. Four uses were identified: meeting space for non-profits (similar to Downtown Library), library programs, fee-based programs sponsored and coordinated by PRCS, and rental use for weddings and parties.
• Staff hiring and scheduling in progress. The tentative hours: Monday thru Thursday 10 – 8; closed Friday; Saturday 10-5; Sunday 12 – 5.
• An opening day celebration team formed for the September 6 event. All City Council members have verified the date.

 

PACT—the Library held it’s annual Partnership Academy for Community Teamwork session. The objectives of PACT are to involve and engage people in learning about and understanding the operation of City government. All participants gave the library very high praise on evaluation forms (included in the Board Packet). Thanks to Maria Diaz-Slocum for coordinating the program with help from Gene Suarez, Shirley Schwoerer, Chuck Ashton, Jenny Davis and Pam Patek.

 

During the week of April 27^th the library celebrated National Volunteer Week for the volunteers who serve the Redwood City Public Library: community members working for the Friends of the Library, Project Read, Traveling Storytime, Homework Centers, Teens and Outreach. The Project Read volunteers have their annual appreciation bbq; and the Traveling Storytime volunteers were recognized last month by City Council, so staff held a surprise party for the Friends of the Library who tirelessly sort donated books, staff the bookstore and have a table at the weekly farmer’s market. Many thanks to library staff that made this event possible, especially Carol Moniz and Maria Kramer; Rachel Delgado for making the banners, the displays and gift tags; Stewart Lollar, Gene Suarez, Jan Pedden and Shelia Guzman for helping with the gifts. And most of all, thank you to all our volunteers for their commitment to building community.

 

Deputy City Manager Magda Gonzales, Police Chief Lou Corbarruviaz, Parks & Recreation Director Corinne Centeno and I will be presenting to City Council on May 19. We will summarize our progress to-date about our Youth Agenda collaboration.

 

We will participate in the county-wide One Book, One Community San Mateo County Reads 2008 this October. The book will be What is the What: by Dave Eggers http://catalog.plsinfo.org/record=b1711073. On October 1 the author will be interviewed by Michael Krasny at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. 

We are always impressing other libraries. The Deputy County Librarian of Contra Costa County Library emailed me: “I was in RCL this weekend and was (again) impressed with how pretty the reference room is. I am starting a remodel of one of our libraries and wanted our staff to see this for inspiration.”

 

A collection development team comprised of staff from all branches and departments was formed to improve marketing, acquisitions, and growth of the library’s collections. The team has reviewed circulation statistics in an effort to boost circulation of under-utilized collections.

 

Programs for adults:

Meet the Author:  Don Borchert – Free for All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library
An amazing crowd of thirty-one past and present Redwood City Library staff, SJSU graduates (circa ‘96), author’s entourage and assorted library and literature lovers packed the Fireplace Room. If you missed all the earlier PR about Don’s Book:  http://catalog.plsinfo.org/record=b1769923

Stanford Health Lecture Series – Farewell to Falls

Ellen Corman, Injury Prevention Coordinator for Stanford’s Trauma Services department held the attention of 31 participants interested in maintaining their independence by avoiding falls.

Best Tip – If you are or love someone over 65 years of age, check out the Beers List – Potentially Inappropriate Medications for the Elderly. According to Ellen, a recent San Mateo County study showed that most local physicians are unfamiliar with the list: http://www.dcri.duke.edu/ccge/curtis/beers.html

Word for Word – Ancestor

“The best program I’ve ever seen at the Library.” – Program Host

                                 

       April program information -

 

Wed, April 02	7:00pm	Peninsula Writer’s Bloc		8
Sat, April 05	2:00pm	Gardening Workshop	Drought Tolerant plants	20
Thurs, April 10	6:30pm	Word for Word	Ancestor	20
Sat, April 12	1:00pm	Knitting at the Library		11
Wed, April 16	10:30pm	Kaiser Senior Health Lecture	Senior Fraud (avoiding fraud and identity theft)	20
Thurs, April 17	7:00pm	Meet the Author: Don Borchert	National Library Week / Free for All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library	31
Thurs, April 17	Noon	Book Group	Poetry of Wilfred Owen	5
Wed, April 30	7:00pm	Stanford Health Lecture Series	Fall Prevention	31

 

Total Attendance   -           146          

 Fair Oaks report:

• Armando Rameriz made 36 individual visits to Fair Oaks Pre-School and Head Start classrooms in the North Fair Oaks service area, reaching a total of 862 students and providing storytelling.  He read to 89 children and their families during his weekly Monday evening bilingual storytime session.
• The Fair Oaks Library partnered with the San Mateo County Library “Raising a Reader” program and hosted Literacy Night in the library on April 14 for a group of 38 students and their families from the Fair Oaks Head Start program.  
• Children’s illustrator Yuyi Morales delighted the 44 participants of the Day of the Children/ Day of the Book Celebration on April 30^th,
• On Sunday April 27^th the Fair Oaks Library joined Casa del la Cultura Quetzalcoatl for the 2nd   Annual “Carnaval Infantil. The celebration started with a Parade from Fair Oaks School to the Fair Oaks Community Center. The event was attended by over 300 children and many other community members.  Council members Alicia Aguirre and Barbara Pierce were also in attendance as well as Library Board Member Reina Barragan.
• Cristina Thorson will meet with staff at Hoover school and have them choose between Viola Canales and Yuyi Morales for the next library/school collaboration. She thinks that Francisco Jimenez will be a good fit for Fair Oaks and Garfield and Jorge Argueta for Taft. Cristina will write up the plan and then will work on securing the funding for all the programs.
• Maria Diaz and Cristina will be meeting with Yolanda Llamas who is the Child Care Coordinator for the Sequoia Adult School to work on a joint parent education program.
• Another project that Maria is exploring is a joint Summer Reading program with Adelante School during the month of July.  
• Maria attended the 2^nd Workshop for the Hoover Area Connection:  Linking your Neighborhood.  Many items added to the wish list will help citizens to remove barriers and make it easier for them to take advantage of our services. Here are two examples: a railroad crossing close to Fair Oaks, improvements/changes in transportation, adding bike lanes and the Woodside pedestrian bridge as well as the railroad crossing bridge. 

 Youth Services report:

• Three more classes at Hoover School made their reading goals of 100% participation at target and earned themselves a visit to their classroom by Cristina. This is Hoover’s third year holding their Reading Campaign, and participation has increased. Also up since the winter break is the number of Hoover students bringing their Reader of the Month certificates to the library in exchange for a free book. Twelve students from grades kindergarten through sixth came in the months of March and April. Most come with their proud parents and spend a great deal of time carefully choosing their prizes.
• Chuck was a guest reader at Laurel School for its annual Day of the Reader festivities.
• Finalists in the annual Youth Poetry Contest read their poems to an appreciative audience of over 100 at the McKinley auditorium. The five Grand Prize winners received trophies and $100 gift certificates to Kepler’s Bookstore. All of the finalists received medals, a poetry book, book bags, and gift certificates to eateries in downtown Redwood City.
• The audience for Cristina’s storytime at the Fair Oaks library has been growing steadily since it was started in January and also includes a cadre of faithful regulars. The overall numbers can’t yet be called large, so let’s describe the increase as exponential.
• Jacky provided a showcase for area talent with the annual Kids’ Talent Show. Forty-five kids from as far away as San Francisco participated in the 80 minute show. A professional photographer offered to take photos of the event which are/will be posted on our website.
• The monthly Dad and Me @ the Library program had one of its largest audiences ever as 175 family members attended a puppet show by Redwood City’s own Nick Barone Puppets.
• Author/illustrator Yuyi Morales gave presentations at the Fair Oaks and Downtown libraries to 80 appreciative children and parents. She spoke about her art, the games and toys she had as a child in Veracruz Mexico, and shared stories using props she had created.
• Children’s book selector Caroll Webster attended Hicklebee’s Bookstore Spring Preview and came back with a list of Valerie Lewis’s top choices for spring.
• Chuck, Sarah, and Caroll attended the annual Association of Children’s Librarians Institute. This year’s theme was “Baby Bounces:  Books and Music for the Very Young.” Staff came away with new ideas in developing preliteracy skills for toddlers and preschoolers.
• Chuck attended the Redwood City Educational Foundation’s benefit dinner at the Pacific Athletic Club. The benefit was to raise money for art and sport programs in the schools. Chuck sponsored two principals to the dinner, husband and wife Josh and Michelle Griffith (Taft School and Hawes School respectively), with whom he has worked for over twenty years in library presentations at their schools. The benefit raised over $125,000 for the schools.
• Teen Librarian Sarah LaTorra created a display of books on the topic of April Fools—practical jokes and humor. Midway through the month, Sarah changed the book display to Poetry books. Sarah acquired the 2008 High School Reading Lists from Sequoia, Menlo-Atherton, and Woodside and then compared these lists with last year’s lists to weed old books and buy new titles.
• As of the 26^th of April, there were 30 teen volunteers who worked for a total of 83.75 hours. The Library Teen Council has become a strong group of friends; almost all members are Seniors which means this group will need to be recruited again next year.
• The Teen Talent Show held on April 24^th was a great success!  45 came to the event and 7 teens participated by singing or rapping. On April 5^th, a SAT/ACT Practice Test was hosted by Kaplan. 8 students took the test and 6 came to the follow-up session.
• Jobs For Youth came to the library on the 24^th for a resume workshop. Sarah visited Peninsula Works to pick up handouts for the library as well as for a Woodside Counselor. 

 Project Read report:

• KIP learners, tutors and staff have continued to enjoy the “KIP at the Library” Pilot Program. Now in its seventh week, this new and improved KIP program has served 40 1^st-4^th graders, 6 preteen tutors and 20 teen tutors. Students and tutors alike were thrilled to receive their own personal library cards and are becoming more knowledgeable in using the library, especially with maneuvering the self-checkout system. 
• In addition, our learners continue to benefit from the one-on-one and small group tutoring taking place throughout the library. Individualized assessments were conducted during March and April, which have provided insights into students’ learning styles, preferences and aptitudes. Specific intervention plans were developed and our dedicated AmeriCorps members and tutors have been working tirelessly with Project READ staff to plan tutoring sessions that will help their learners meet their goals while also making learning fun and meaningful.
• Another highlight this month was a special nutrition presentation conducted by our longtime community partner, Second Harvest Food Bank. During this interactive show, KIP learners and tutors had the opportunity to review how our bodies use nutrients to remain healthy. We also had the chance to thank Second Harvest for providing our wonderful daily snacks.
• One Teen Tutor writes about her experience as a KIP tutor: “As I have been involved in this program for almost two years, I have grown very attached to both of my learners. I sometimes feel like they are my little brother and sister. And I can tell that they feel the same because they are always willing to tell me their thoughts and what is going on in their lives. I feel like I am their role model and that they truly look up to me.  I support them all the way and I hope that with my support, they will get ahead in their education. I work hard at KIP with these two students because I know they are learning a second language and I know how hard that can be because I was in their place and I never had anyone to help me. People from my background don’t make it very far in education here in the States and I am trying to raise that standard by giving them all the support I can…I see hope in my students. I’ve learned that if you give a child the necessary tools and support, you are setting up a road for them which they will walk on, making the correct way into their own success. And I have also learned that a little volunteer work can really go a long way…Through being in this program, I feel like I have changed. This program gives me resources in my public library and helps me with pretty much everything…I feel like I have grown along with my learners and I am excited to see what the future has in store for us.”
• A Glimpse of Life Beyond High School For Our Teen Tutors: during spring vacations we had the opportunity to give back to our teen tutors by taking them to tour several Bay Area colleges and universities. KIP teen tutors attended information sessions and toured San Mateo and Skyline Colleges. We also ventured to two distinct four-year universities, San Francisco State and Sonoma State where teens got to experience and compare the city campus with its more rural counterpart. In April, teen tutors, AmeriCorps members and Project READ staff had the pleasure of also attending an information session, tour and tasting at the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell.

 Teen Librarian Sarah LaTorra attended the Sequoia High School “Fishbowl” on Youth Violence and Safety. These notes and observations are from Chris Beth, Superintendent for PRCS. 

 There were 8 teens in the center, with about 15 other teens in the outer circle listening, and about 10 adults listening as well.  The program was facilitated by YFES (Youth Family Enrichment Services).

 There were some students who spoke up more than others, but all were very open and showed courage talking about this difficult issue.  As you read the notes below, think about how we can use the Youth Assets Model (41 Developmental Assets) to better define and provide the delivery of our programs and resources to our youth.  My feelings from listening to these kids talk was a mixture of sadness for what these kids go through; fear for my own kids’ safety as they get older; and knowing that we have a long way to go to make things better.  BUT, I also felt encouraged that we’re actively making a huge effort to give kids that were serving hope and direction through our after-school programs, PAL, library reading programs, homework centers and teen center – AND – knowing that the investments we’re making are and will make a difference for more kids in Redwood City.

 I.  Issues kids are facing at school:

 ·There is a lot of racial violence

·It’s more about race and sexuality issues rather than gang issues

·Violence is escalating

·It’s more Latinos vs. Tongans vs. Whites vs. Blacks

·Constantly there are fights about who is stronger than the other – it’s a “Ego Show”

 II.  Issues of violence in the community/City:

 ·It all depends on where you live.  Kids that show their area code (650 or 415) are showing off where they live and proving they are tougher (about pride where you are from)

·Kids want to represent something – that’s why they wear “area codes”

·Also, if someone wears red or blue and you look like you might be a gang member – kids from the opposite color (gang) will engage with you

·There are more drug fears rather than gang fears right now (drug dealers waiting around after school)

 III.  Motives for violence:

 ·To be noticed and to show off to others (show strength)

·It’s about self-esteem through force – power over others

·One teen said (and all others nodded) that “It feels good to fight because it releases my pain and anger”

·Fight to gain respect

·Trying to fit in

·Learn from siblings at home – model behavior

·Acceptance from others affects your point of view of yourself (self-image)

·“Violence is a way to get out your emotions” – it’s the only way to be heard

·Violence is a way to get back at others in order to gain respect

·Students who are victims of violence are afraid to get help and use resources (how to solve this?  Join a group at school – positive angle – join a school activity, sports, dance)

 IV.  Violence’s Affect:

 ·Always worried and scarred

·Paranoid, fear

·Fear the outcomes of violence (on the losing side)

·It affects daily life

·“Experiencing violence allows you to learn”

 V.  How have you responded to violence?:

 ·As a victim of violence you feel like you need to do the same to others

·Reason for violence is that it’s the only way the other person will listen

·Seeing the consequences gives understanding why to avoid violent responses

·Violence feels good to some – “it’s channeling like sports or drugs”

 VI.  Resources – who can you talk to?:

 ·One particular teacher who is like a friend or peer

·Adults letting kids know they are there (can call too)

·Adults who reach out to kids makes it easier to talk to that person

·There is a lack of communication and trust on campus

·The key is to build a relationship with an adult who you trust

·If family trust is an issue how can they (we) expect to trust others

·Teen Resource Center is full of good, trustworthy people

·Like the environment, vibe and connection with staff at the Teen Resources Center on campus

·How much an adult invests in them makes all the difference.  It’s not just the I’m here today and gone tomorrow – it’s to be about a relationship and knowing that that person will be there for you the next day and any time

 VII.   Ways to reduce violence:

 ·Music brings people together and breaks down barriers

·Music helps to “blow off steam”

·Music gets kids involved

·Boredom makes kids want to get into trouble

·Need more student activities

·Art – expression

·Get outdoors – natural environment

 VIII.  What can students do to reduce violence? (the question was what they can do to help solve the issue of violence):

 ·Tell friends / stand up to friends

·Tell friends that it’s not cool to fight

·Warn them – scare them “I saw so and so yesterday get arrested…”

·Communicate with peers – share what resources are available – who they can trust and talk to

·Talk friends out of fighting

 IX:  Definition of violence and last thoughts:

 ·Violence not just physical but verbal too

·Other types of violence is more “personal” – and sexual

·Building trust takes time

And an article that reinforces the direction our libraries are taking:

 Excerpt:

“the next hot idea as a downtown anchor will be the fun library.”  It turns out he was right.  Close to 20 cities have constructed elegant new multi-use central libraries — among them Seattle, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Jose.  Soaring and original exterior designs, brilliantly-lit public halls and intimate spaces, conference centers, connected theaters and teen centers — all are part of the new mix.
        As Project for Public Spaces reports, “If the old model of the library was the inward-focused ‘reading room,’ the new one is more like a community ‘front porch.’” An element in the new liveliness of downtown Charlotte, N.C., for example, has been the combined ImaginOn children’s library and theater, a joint project of the Children’s Theater of Charlotte and the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County.  “Some people come to the library and find the theater; some people come to the theater and find the library,” says Beth Murray, librarian at the ImaginOn.

 Full article NEAL PEIRCE COLUMN   
 For Release Sunday, April 13, 2008
        
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group

  LIBRARIES AND NEW AMERICANS:
  THE INDISPENSABLE LINK

  By Neal Peirce

        What do immigrants and libraries have to do with each other?  As our politicians wrangle over official immigration policies, can public libraries in our cities, neighborhoods and towns help assimilate the 32.5 million foreign-born already here?
        Librarians and their allies argue “yes” — that America’s libraries are successfully carrying out their historic tradition of turning immigrants into productive citizens.
        English as a Second Language (ESL) classes are bring taught.  Special sessions on American culture are being conducted.  Materials in languages ranging from Russian to Hindi are being made available.  Librarians find themselves providing counsel on computer use, Internet access, even on-line job leads.
        In immigrant-heavy Washington, D.C. suburbs, many public libraries have recast themselves as welcome centers.  Some checkout desks have signs in Korean, Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese.  A recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic said: “I come to the library almost every day. And two days a week I follow the conversation classes. We have the opportunity not only to improve our English but to get new friends from all over the world.”
        The idea of libraries as social gathering places is hardly new.  Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate who built 2,500 free public libraries around the world in response to the immigrant flows and broad social gaps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, intended they’d be places to attract young people.  Robert McNulty, a library advocate and president of Partners for Livable Communities, reminds us Carnegie actually built gymnasiums, boxing rings and swimming pools into some of his libraries — hoping that once there, the youth would “be exposed to books and learn to read.”
        Our public libraries, argues library expert Plummer Alston Jones, “have remained a sovereign alchemist turning the base metal of immigrant potentialities into the gold of American realities.”
        But they’re more than that.  They help get children into reading habits.  They can provide authoritative information, book- or Internet-based, that’s more comprehensive and often more reliable than a normal free Google search.  And they can be a fulcrum of renewal in cities and neighborhoods.
        McNulty told me over a decade ago that “the next hot idea as a downtown anchor will be the fun library.”  It turns out he was right.  Close to 20 cities have constructed elegant new multi-use central libraries — among them Seattle, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Jose.  Soaring and original exterior designs, brilliantly-lit public halls and intimate spaces, conference centers, connected theaters and teen centers — all are part of the new mix.
        As Project for Public Spaces reports, “If the old model of the library was the inward-focused ‘reading room,’ the new one is more like a community ‘front porch.’” An element in the new liveliness of downtown Charlotte, N.C., for example, has been the combined ImaginOn children’s library and theater, a joint project of the Children’s Theater of Charlotte and the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County.  “Some people come to the library and find the theater; some people come to the theater and find the library,” says Beth Murray, librarian at the ImaginOn.
        The new champion of citywide library excellence may be Chicago, which has progressed from its landmark Harold Washington Library Center, opened in 1991, to the building or renovation of 52 neighborhood libraries.  Many replace nondescript storefronts and run-down buildings that were more blight than strong points of their neighborhoods.
        Major credit for the revival goes to Mayor Richard M. Daley and Mary Dempsey, the visionary manager/librarian he appointed library commissioner in 1994.  Based on the library’s first-ever strategic blueprint and a professional development plan for the system’s 1,300 employees, Dempsey was able to persuade the city council to approve $170 million in bond issues to upgrade the neighborhood branches.
        “I’ve purchased and knocked down more liquor stores, more no-tell motels, more really crummy and dilapidated, burned-out buildings in neighborhood after neighborhood and replaced them with libraries than I’d ever thought I’d do in my life,” Dempsey told an annual meeting of the American Library Association.
        A big recognition for Dempsey’s efforts came in 2006 when she received a Governing Magazine award as one of the 10 most outstanding U.S. Public Officials of the Year.
        “The Library is the People’s University, a place where people from all over the world can educate themselves, interact with their neighbors,” says Dempsey.  That’s why, she adds, for “more than 100 years, immigrants have seen the libraries of Chicago and other cities as an indispensable “welcoming institution.”
        For American success stories, that’s hard to top.

 

 

March 2008 Report

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.

February 2008 Report

 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.  

January 2008 Report

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!”

December 2007 Report

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