2007 has been yet another marker year in the South Pasadena Public Library chronology. It has been a time filled with highlights and steady enhancements in key service areas. The Library's many achievements as well as its service and performance improvements during the past year stem from the coordinated, cohesive work of the fine library staff with so many other supportive groups and individuals. Collaborators include our dedicated corps of volunteers, fellow City staff members and departments, the local media, community organizations and businesses, statewide groups and, of course, the public we serve. Worthy of special mention are the Friends of the South Pasadena Library, Inc. The City Council and City Manager's Office deserve recognition as well, due in no small part to the increase in the Library's overall budget from $1,323,049 in FY 2006/07 to $1,508,795 in FY 2007/08. These increases couldn't have been possible without the outstanding support of local taxpayers and voters who supported the Library's Measure L property tax initiative. Of this overall budgetary increase of $185,746, more than $105,000 went toward salaries and benefits, while most of the rest is for capital improvements.
The Library is in the enviable position of having three members of its senior staff remain for more than 15 years each. They are its Administrative Secretary, its Children's Librarian, and the Technical Services Librarian. Many other experienced staff members round out the Library's complement of public service employees. These include the Library Circulation Supervisor who was recognized by the City for 20 years of continuous service and the City Librarian who was one of only 40 alumni honored by his Library School during its 40 th Anniversary Celebration.
The Library continues to offer an ever-growing assortment of services to over 35,000 borrowers, a remarkable figure considering South Pasadena has about 25,500 residents. Worthy of note is the fact that our cardholder total includes more than 5,300 children under the age of 15 and circulation of Children's materials climbed to more than 196,000 during 07/08, as compared to 168,974 in 06/07. Participation in the Summer Reading Program grew to more than 2,200 participants (children and teens) from just a shade under 2,000 for the previous year. This total is a high water mark for the popular program that included many reading incentives for the young people, such as enticing prizes and events with educational and entertaining performers. The amount of time spent reading by program participants exceeded an impressive 1.2 million minutes.
During 06/07, 328 children's programs were presented, attracting more than 17,000 audience members to regularly-scheduled storytimes, craft workshops, music appreciation sessions, book discussion groups, journalism workshops, and a 'Grandparents and Books' read-aloud' series.
For Teen Read Week the Library presented a series of well-attended programs that featured local Young Adult authors Ron Koertge and Sarah Miller, as well as a discussion on graphic novels, extremely popular with adolescent males who are often reluctant readers. Each program featured pizza and other attractive snacks. Like last year, a well-attended Teen Paperback Exchange, sponsored by the Friends was conducted.
The Friends and the Library partnered for monthly Author Night programs that struck a chord with the community. The series kicked off in 2007 with an appearance by celebrated mystery author Denise Hamilton during the Friends' Annual Meeting. It continued with Carnegie Library scholars and husband-and-wife team Pat & Bernie Skehan, a Chinese American Author's Forum, a jazz/poetry performance by California State Poet Laureate Al Young with the Suezenne Fordham Chamber Jazz Ensemble, and South Pasadena's national bestselling parenting authors, Brent and Phelecia Hatch. Writer/Actress Kres Mersky performed her one-act "An Evening with A. Einstein" to a full community room in May, as was the case in August for Japanese-American baseball author and filmmaker Kerry Yo Nakagawa and his award-winning film "American Pastime."
Renowned author and organic farmer David Mas Masumoto, along with musicians from the Taiko Center of Los Angeles drew more than 200 attendees to the Library Park on a beautiful summer evening while the Farmer's Market next door was in full swing and bestselling author John Dean and local jazz musician Murray Middleman filled the Community Room in October. The programs were co-sponsored by such groups as the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, the California Arts Council, and Poets & Writers, Inc.
During April for the Annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon, Gary Kurutz, noted historian and Head of the Special Collections Room at the California State Library in Sacramento presented a memorable talk on the early health seekers of Southern California. For Veterans Day, the Library collaborated with the Community Services Department to present a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at the War Memorial Building with the Mayor and other members of the City Council and special guest presenters Domingo Samudio (known as 'Sam the Sham') and Pulitzer Prize nominated author Peter Collier in a salute to veterans. Prior to the event, Library staff moved and organized many of the artifacts and unique historical resources that had been in storage for many years. Some of the most attractive items, particularly World War I posters, were publicly displayed for the first time in years.
In December the Library presented a bilingual program for all ages with Juan Felipe Herrera in the Community Room. Professor Herrera has written award-winning books in Spanish and English for children, teens, and adults. Vecinos de South Pasadena provided refreshments and Spanish language introductions and translations, as well as valuable help with outreach. The show was opened by flamenco guitarist Gabriel Reyna, one of the many talented musicians who played during the Author Nights. In addition, Library Adult Services has hosted a series of book discussion programs in which community members have gathered to share their thoughts regarding pre-selected books.
The Library has also submitted a number of successful grant applications including two to the California State Library for the Local History Digital Resource Project (LHDRP) which will digitally preserve and display 400 South Pasadena historical images on the Internet and the 'Life After 50' project to help customize programs geared for our prominent Baby Boomer generation. The Library has also garnered other forms of grant support most notably from the Chinese-American Club and Poets & Writers, Inc., as well as from the Living History Centre.
A number of impressive programs have already been slated for early 2008, including a January presentation as part of the Friends Annual Meeting by South Pasadena Historian Rick Thomas; a February Centennial Celebration of Leo Politi, the famous author and artist whose first public mural resides in the Library Children's Room; a salute to Ray Bradbury, a Volunteer Recognition Luncheon with the theme of Lawrence Clark Powell --who grew up in South Pasadena and went on to become one of the great authors and bookmen of the West; and a cooperative program with the Rotary Club of South Pasadena presenting local author Susan Elizabeth Hough and her book Richter's Scale on the world famous seismologist Charles Richter. The event will also serve as an occasion to disseminate disaster preparedness materials and information to the community. In 2007 the Library partnered with the Rotary Club for the Golden State Collection project, to expand the Library's offerings of books on California-related topics.
The Library has continued to provide 7-day a week public service hours, including 3 nights, totaling more than 2,900 per year. This is a level of accessibility that would be the envy of most other small cities –and some large ones as well. All the while the annual circulation of materials –or the number of books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and other media that have been checked out— has climbed to 375,000, up about 25,000 from last year. The Library was also host to more than 261,000 visitors, about 10,000 more than last year. Non-book circulation, mainly CDs, DVDs, and magazines increased from about 85,000 to 89,000. This past year has again seen the answering of more than 63,000 reference questions at a time when reference question counts were dropping at many other libraries. On a minor note, the Library has recently added a neon OPEN sign which now makes it very easy for the public to be able to tell from the street that it is available and accessible.
The Friends, an independent, all volunteer non-profit group boasting more than 700 dues-paying members have continued their active support with a membership drive, a Technology Endowment Fund, and a terrifically successful everyday bookstore operation. The proceeds from their Annual Holiday Book Sale rose significantly this year too. The Friends and its sub-group the Restoration Concert Committee have presented monthly fundraising concerts featuring world class classical and jazz musicians. The series has been so successful that the groups have been able to purchase a beautiful Steinway Grand Piano for their forthcoming concerts. The groups are also exploring possibilities for adding window coverings in the Library's Community Room, which is regularly used not only for Library and other City functions, but also by a broad spectrum of community groups and individuals. The Friends also subsidized the Library's offering of a Live Homework Help online tutoring service for young students. Tutor.com, as the service is called, now is compatible with Mac computers, a recent enhancement.
The Library has also added the Learning Express test preparation guide database to its offerings from its website that has been greatly expanded as well, especially in regard to original content. The Library's WI-FI service has continued to grow in popularity and as a result the study seats in the Library are frequently full. Due to the City's outstanding budget support the Library was able to replace many of the Library's outdated public and staff computer workstations. Not to be overlooked is the fact that the Library continued to benefit from the strong administrative leadership and guidance of its outstanding Library Board of Trustees.
Easily one of the greatest Library achievements of the past year was the August re-carpeting of almost all the main floor and a redecoration of the interior entryway of the facility. The project was achieved by means of a partnership of the City of South Pasadena, the Friends, the Carole Kretzer Estate Fund and was accomplished in a mere 7 days. The Library re-opened with a flair with a ceremony featuring the Mayor, fellow City Council Members and other local officials, along with the public. Entertainment was provided by musicians from South Pasadena Music and the South Pasadena Juggling Club. The Library mascot, a giant stuffed ostrich was professionally cleaned and repaired, and housed in an attractive new cabinet for the occasion. The enhancements were paid for by the Friends.
By their prolific usage, local residents express their approval of library services and resources in a big way. In a more direct manner they also resoundingly approved the Library Special Tax for another 6 years. Besides its legions of devoted users, the Library also greatly benefits from The Friends of the South Pasadena Library. They also conduct special sales and fundraisers including the well-established Restoration Concert series. The Friends' longstanding Book Endowment Fund enables the collection to offer many otherwise unaffordable reference and art volumes.
Although the Library is a work in progress, it continues to build on its solid foundation and many more achievements are expected not only in 2008, but in the many years ahead.
Annual report 2008
Annual report 2007
Annual Report 2006 |
