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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996/10/16 - Agenda Packet - Library Board of Trustees - Special AdjournedAGENDA CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL AND LIBRARY BOARD Special Adjourned Meeting October 16, 1996 - 5:30 p.m. Tri Communities Room 10500 Civic Center Drive Rancho Cucamonga, California Pledge of Allegiance Roll Call: Alexander , Biane __ Davies , Gregory A. CALL TO ORDER Curatalo __, Gutierrez __, Williams , Howdyshell __, Muna-Landa ___, Swistock B. ITEMS OF DISCUSSION DISCUSSION OF LONG RANGE VISIONS Assessing the Needs (In-house survey, Grapevine survey) Expanding Existing Facility (Second floor expansion - Literacy Center, Technology Center and Parking Concerns) Expanding Services (Technology Center, Young Adult Services Opportunity) Funding Challenges (Grant .Opportunities, Library Referendum, Services: New Money?) Facilities for the Future (Central Park, Branch Locations) DISCUSSION OF ITEMS OF MUTUAL INTEREST Fundraising: TELETHON, New C. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC This is the time and place for the general public to address the City Council and Library Board. State law prohibits the Council and Library Board from addressing any issue not previously included on the agenda. The Council and Library Board may receive testimony and set the matter for a subsequent meeting. Comments are to be limited to five minutes per individual. D. ADJOURNMENT 1, Debra J. Adams, City Clerk of the City of Rancho Cucamonga, hereby certify that a true, accurate copy of the foregoing agenda was posted on October 10, 1996, seventy-two (72) hours prior to the meeting per Government Code 54954.2 at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA STAFF REPORT DATE: October 4, 1996 TO: Rancho Cucamonga Public Library Board of Trustees FROM: Deborah Kaye Clark, Library Manager · SUBJECT: Iopics for Discnssion at ,Joint Meetint: Below is the major topic of Long Range Visions, followed by 5 subtopics I believe the Board has expressed concerns about or interest in over the past two years. No accident, the 5 topics would allow one topic per Board member. Staff would be happy to present the salient points under each item for Board members to present, with opportunity to hear Council opinion on the subjects as well. I am trying to encourage full participation by this approach. What do you think? Please call Vivian if you wish to change direction for this meeting, add or delete items, etc. I. LONG RANGE VISIONS A) ASSESSING THE NEEDS In house survey Grapevine survey B) EXPANDING EXISTING FACILITY Second floor expansion Literacy Center Technology Center Parking concerns c) D) E) EXPANDING SERVICES Technology Center Young Adult Services opportunity FUNDING CHALLENGES Grant opportunities Library Referendum Fundraising: the TELETHON New services: new money? FACILITIES FOR THE FUTURE Central Park Branch locations From: DEBORAH CLARK To: LIBRARY Date: 10/17/96 10:28am Subject: JOINT BOARD/COUNCIL MEETING Last evening, the Library Board met in joint session with the City Council. Many topics were covered (see attachment for text) but the most significant issue was to determine if the Council was ready to support a planning process that would end in a ballot measure to gain funds to build either a Main or a branch facility in a five year window. The Council was very supportive (it is stilt unfortunate that we are so close to an election, since it makes folks nervous to talk about "taxes" before votes are taken). However, we stressed we were looking at a ballot measure-which is the wave of the future, regardless of whether prop. 218 passes or not. Anyway, Council was supportive and the land a half hour session went very well. Well enough that we will be following up with a second session in November--after the election! JOINT MEETING CITY COUNCIL/BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES LONG RANGE VISIONS Opening of session by Mayor Introduction of topics by Board President Howdyshell A) ASSESSING THE NEEDS - Rebecca Davies presenting The new Rancho Library opened its doors in 1994. Now open for two years, we measure our success in various ways. We know we are serving between 1,000 and 1,300 individuals each day. We know we circulated over 600,000 items last year and we know we have registered over 55,000 patrons. Now we're interested in what we don't know. We don't know what our patrons think of their facility. We don't know what new services they might want and we don't know where they want us to go in the future. Through our Planning Committee, composed of Gina Gregory and Rebecca Davies, we have designed two surveys to help us measure our progress. The In-House survey asks questions of our current users. Conducted by volunteers in the library, this survey asks our borrowers to tell us what they like about the library and what they think needs improvement. We have asked how they feel about the facility, what kind of services they have received from the staff and we have asked for suggestions about how we can improve our services. Our second survey, designed as an insert to the Winter issue of Grapevine of this year, asks similar questions, but this time we have included questions for our non-users. In addition to the standard questions of service and facility adequacy, we ask our non-users if they currently use a different library, which library and why they have chosen that library. We ask if we can add services or improve services to better suit their needs and finally, we ask users and non-users alike to help plan our future over the next 3 to 5 years by prioritizing services and telling us what services they might be willing to pay for. We will be compiling the results of these two surveys in our Planning Committee sessions, and presenting some conclusions to the Library Board in early 1997. Questions for the Council: Are there any questions you would like answered by the survey? Are there any plans to perform a city-wide survey of all services and public satisfaction in the future? B) EXPANDING EXISTING FACILITY - Bob Howdyshell presenting Meanwhile, in dealing with our current users, our daily traffic and after school demands makes looking at the empty space designated originally for meetings a requirement. In December, the HUD funded project to open three quiet study areas for literacy tutoring will be in construction. When completed, the three study rooms, a Literacy Office and a new larger storage area will help to organize the second floor into more usable space. To support a book collection that has grown to 105,000 volumes, that same project will see increased shelving in the lower level, as we add shelving for Fiction, Biographies and non-fiction. Parking continues to be an issue, since during peak hours, no parking is available. The Board will continue to examine any logical and cost effective solutions for parking, but must comment that a solution that would add 50 parking spaces or more would also likely add 100 users or more to an already crowded facility. As we monitor our parking situation, we are also monitoring our use inside the facility. If we presently have no available parking--but we also find we have no available tables, chairs or seating space within the library, then parking is not the only problem we have to solve. Questions for the Council: What is a practical sum to spend to enhance parking at the current site? At what point do we need to look at additional facilities? C) EXPANDING SERVICES - Gina Gregory presenting Expanding services today means expanding our technology. "Intemet Access" are the buzzwords on everyone's lips and how to get onto.that information highway is a question staff is asked repeatedly. For Spring of 1997, Staffproposes turning the second floor area currently unused into a Technology and Discovery Center. To provide the necessary equipment, the Library will be partnering with APS, the business that currently supplies copy machines and public access computers in the Library. Ten computer terminals are planned for this fee-based Technology Center, linked to both standard and color printers. Full internet access will be available to our patrons, including the capability of e-mail. In addition to Internet, software programs on Literacy, learning languages, job search strategies and many other Lifelong learning subjects will be highlighted. The software and furnishings of the Center will be determined by the success of our grant application for HUD funding and of our Spring fundraiser, the Library Telethon. For our library, expanding services has meant "finding grant funding" to try new things. Our Literacy program continues strong in year two ofa 5 year grant. We will be emphasizing family literacy in 1997, and will begin to focus on "lifelong learning" which includes learning computer skills and job retraining while adding to adult literacy skills. The Literacy program, housed next to the next Technology Center, will be a vital part of the stuffing and use of the Center. In the near future, the State Library is offering a grant opportunity in 1997/98 to create Young Adult or Youth At Risk programs. The Library staff is anxious to apply for those funds when the window of opportunity appears. Finally, in expanding our services, the newest legislation to be passed at the Federal Level for libraries is the LSTA Act: or the Library Services and Technology Act. This legislation will allow for the competitive grant funding of technology projects across the country, beginning in 1997. Robert Karatsu, our Principal Librarian, will be working on this project and we will most likely attempt to parmer with the schools to create a competitive proposal for these funds. Questions for the Council: Are there any services you would like to see the Library offer that are not currently available or in the planning stage? Depending on our financial stability, might the Council approve additional funding to support new programs? D) FUNDING CHALLENGES - Laura Muna Landa presenting Staff will continue to search out grant opportunities to increase the services and budget of their library. However, grant funds are only a temporary patch in funding. To create on-going programs, additional funding is necessary. In 1997, the Library will be using its final year of bond funds available to purchase book materials. The bond defeasement funds used to make the annual payment to the County of San Bemardino will be exhausted in 1998, however the contract demands continue to the year 2004. The multiple three year subscriptions of periodicals and index tools purchased by bond funds in 1994 will expire in 1997. These three items alone, will impact the library budget by approximately $300,000 in 1998/99. The Friends of the Library has been an amazing support group. However, even donating approximately $40,000 each year, the Friends alone cannot close the funding gap. The Board has been actively pursuing fundraising this year, working on the ambitious Telethon project. Scheduled for broadcast over Marks Cablevision in March of 1997, we hope the Telethon will be able to raise $10,000 to $20,000 in it's first year to help fund the Technology Center. But that's not enough to help close the gap. The Board is concerned about securing stabilized funding for library programs. Questions for the Council: What do you believe will be the impact on Library services if Proposition 218 passes? If the City faces economic stability next year, do you see the potential for the library requesting funding above its current level of support? E) FACILITIES FOR THE FUTURE -Ede Swistock presenting It's difficult to believe that two years have already passed since we opened the doors of our new facility. In many ways it is satisfying to see every chair filled, all books on a topic borrowed, all computers in use, all parking spaces full... But it also means it is time to look at our future--at the original Library Services Master Plan. Still on the back burner is the Central Park Library. Also still in our future is the need for an additional branch at the developing East end or Etiwanda side of town. Planning takes time. Finding a funding source takes time. Building takes more time. We believe that now is the time to begin to address some of these issues and to tackle our future. The Board and Staff are exploring the possibilities of secured funding to support existing programs and to provide new programs. The California Library Association is offering a workshop on placing library funding issues on the ballot. The Library Board President will be attending, along with the Library Director. Questions for the Council: Would the Council be willing to consider and support a Library ballot issue to bring stable funding and future expansion for the Library? Is there a direction the Council would like the Library Board to pursue in investigating this issue. NOTICE OF ADJOURNMENT Notice is hereby given that the Library Board of Trustees at their regular meeting held Thursday, October 3, 1996, adjourned said meeting to Wednesday, October 16, 1996, at the hour of 5:30 p.m., to be held in the Tri Communities Room at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California, for a joint meeting with the City Council. Said adjournment was passed by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTA1N: Davies, Howdyshell, Muna-Landa, Swistock None Gregory None Vivian Garcia, Library Administrative Secretary Rancho Cucamonga Public Library October 3, 1996