PVLD Director's Blog

Telling our stories

There is a seemingly endless stream of alerts about proposed cuts to library funding (whether local, state or federal) flowing across Library Association email lists, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds...and each new alert accompanied by a plea to contact legislators and tell them how wonderful libraries are and why it is a mistake to cut our funding.

In that context I found this blog post by Nancy Dowd on her "M Word" blog particularly compelling. 

As she so rightly points out, the people whose support we need to enlist are our community members...and many of them are facing serious fiscal crises of their own.  When families are facing pay cuts, layoffs, increased healthcare costs, and in some places tax hikes they truly do need to be convinced that the "sacrifice of having to pay taxes to support my library is worth it to my family if you want my support."

As Nancy so eloquently points out, this means telling the stories about the real difference we make in people's lives...not spouting platitudes or reeling off statistics.

This was brought home to me again at an excellent fundraising leadership development workshop (part of the Annenberg Foundation's Alchemy program) that I had the privilege of attending as part of a team from the Peninsula Friends of the Library this week.  We spent some time at the workshop trying to hone our 3-5 minute "pitch" about why a donor should give to the Friends.  We were with a couple of dozen other non-profits, and it was clear that the most compelling pitches were those that conveyed how the organization transformed lives.

This is an area where most libraries, and I count PVLD among them, really could do better.  We need to talk about the seriously ill woman who is so grateful to one of our librarians for the help she has gotten in researching her condition that she has sent not one but two bouquets of flowers over the past months; about the people who use our computers to write their resumes and send in online job applications because it is the only computer access they have; about the child transformed from reluctant to avid reader thanks to the patience of the childrens' librarians who worked hard to find him a book that captured his imagination.

Even better we need to get those people whose lives we have transformed to tell their own stories - loudly and publicly!

Definitely something I am going to think about as part of the ongoing Alchemy process and our library marketing efforts.

Happy Anniversary Peninsula Center Library Book Sale!

This coming weekend marks the 15th anniversary of the monthly Peninsula Friends of the Library book sales at the Peninsula Center Library (not the first book sale for the Library District - those began at the Malaga Cove Library many years ago). 

According to volunteer John Stolpestad, who along with his wife Lore manages the Peninsula Center Library book sales and devotes hundreds of hours of volunteer time to the sales each year, the 180 book sales that have taken place over the course of those 15 years have generated an amazing $1,576,000 in revenue!

The first sales in November and December 1995 brought in $5,000 and $3,600 respectively and that number has grown to well over $10,000 each month.   That number grew to a record $15,620 generated by the September 2010 sale. 

In 1996, the first full year of operation for the Peninsula Center sale, $57,000 was raised.  John reports that total sales for 2010 are projected to reach $150,000 - an all-time high.

These amazing results would not be possible without the generous donations of high-quality books that we receive from the community.  More importantly they would not be possible without the thousands of hours of volunteer time contributed by a large number of volunteers over the years.  It takes a huge effort to sort, organize, price and sell the books and this is done entirely by volunteers. 

All of the funds raised by the Friends of the Library book sales are dedicated to enhancing the services and programs of our PVLD libraries.  WIthout the revenues generated by the book sales at all of our libraries (monthly sales at Peninsula Center and Malaga Cove and the perpetual sale at Miraleste), the Library Shop, and the other fundraising activities of the Friends our communities would not enjoy Sunday library hours at Peninsula Center Library, the many special programs and events we offer each month, or access to state of the art technology and facilities.  Our collection of books, magazines, movies, CDs and online resources would also be much poorer.

To everyone who has had a part in making the Peninsula Center Library book sales such a success - congratulations on 15 outstanding years, and a heartfelt thank you!

 

Wasn't that a party!

Saturday night the Peninsula Center Library glowed as we celebrated "80 Years of Magic" at the Palos Verdes Library District.  From cocktails in the library to sit-down dinner and entertainment on the library roof over 500 guests had a truly magical time.  Many of our guests had not been in the library in years, if ever, so it was fun to show them all that we offer. 

We're still crunching the numbers, but we think it was a financial success,too!

The event would not have been possible without many, many hours of hard work by the Event Committee under the leadership of Cc Yu; library staff (especially Merna Marshall, Charles Crouse and the Facilities Team, and our IT staff); and dozens of other volunteers. 

We also were fortunate to have sponsors and advertisers  who generously supported the event.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed!

Volunteer Coordinator Dori Medina put together this slide show of the event.  Enjoy!

Gene Roeder - Volunteer Extraordinaire

Peninsula Friends of the Library Vice- President Gene Roeder was today honored by the California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners for "Outstanding Volunteer Service to a Library".

Gene is Book Sale Chair, Past President of the Friends, and originator of the Books for Troops. Since he started volunteering at the library in 2002 he has contributed 14,000 hours of his time.

Congratulations Gene....and thank you!

PVLD Celebrates the 4th of July

It's Independence Day and the Peninsula Friends of the Library again have booths at the community celebrations in Palos Verdes Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes . Both are great opportunities to promote the Friends and the library - thanks to the volunteers who take time out of their holiday celebrations to set up and staff the booths!

It's Independence Day and the Peninsula Friends of the library again have booths at both the Palos Verdes Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes coomunity celebrations.

Thank you to the hardworking volunteers who take time away from their own celebrations to set up and staff the booths...and congratulations to Library Trustee Ed Long and his wife Pat for receiving the Van Dine Family Americanism Award from the Palos Verdes Estates Peninsula Independence Day Celebration Committee.

I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and relaxing 4th!

Now Available! Online Donations to the Peninsula Friends of the Library

You can now support the Palos Verdes Library District by making an online donation (using credit card or Paypal) to the Peninsula Friends of the Library! 

I'm thrilled because this comes after several years of discussion about how best to implement online/credit card giving, and also because a chance encounter that I had with a community member led to our first (and very generous!) online gift only a few days after the online donation capability went live.

At the end of a week where we further reduced our 2009/2010 property tax revenue forecast (88% of our budget) in the face of re-assessments and increased delinquencies and worked on a strategic plan that will require funds beyond what our normal revenues provide even in good years, it's great to give library users and community members another way to support the library....we need it!

To our first online donor - Thank You!

2008 - What a year!

I've been spending some time today sorting through the piles on my desk trying to create some order before I head off on vacation.  There is nothing worse than coming back from time off to a chaotic office....and somehow it is even worse when the return to work coincides with the start of a new year.

As I've waded through the mounds of paper I've been thinking about what our staff and volunteers have accomplished in the space of 12 months and it is truly amazing - 

We launched a new website, online catalog and Integrated Library System (the software that supports all of our library operations from purchasing books to issuing library cards to checking items in and out).  Any one of these would be a major project on their own, and to do them all at the same time is a real accomplishment and required the coordinated efforts of people from every department!

Our IT department upgraded all of the public computers across PVLD, added additional workstations for the library catalog and databases, increased our Internet bandwidth using a new service provider, installed several new computer servers including our first using the Linux operating system, brought our public printing services in-house to improve customer service.

The Digital Services department not only led the implementation of the new website but implemented new online services including the Value Line and Morningstar investment services, the Brainfuse online homework help service, Mango Languages, and more.  The Digital Services team also gave PVLD a presence on Facebook and Twitter, helped the Peninsula Friends of the Library establish their web pages and blog, worked with other PVLD departments to establish their department blogs, and began planning for the next versions of the website and online catalog which will go live in 2009.

Staff at all locations worked hard to improve our library collections by removing dated materials and reorganizing various areas to make them more accessible to and easily browsed by our customers.  New reference sections were created at both the Malaga Cove and Miraleste Libraries, staff at Malaga Cove began the creation of a separate biography section (a project that will be replicated at the other libraries), paperbacks were added to the library catalog, the music CD section at Peninsula Center was reorganized by type of music instead of an esoteric numbering system, we added collections of video games for circulation, and more.  This doesn't sound like much but it involves a LOT of work!

We sustained all of our popular ongoing programs and events from story times to book groups at all libraries to the Malaga Cove history discussion group, chess clubs, and origami club to the record-breaking Summer Reading program to holiday music concerts at all of the libraries to the monthly foreign films in partnership with Chadwick school to the annual Art in our Library art show.  As if that weren't enough we added lots of new programs and events including -

• An antiques appraisal event at Malaga Cove
• "Tuesdays at the Annex" programs for older adults
• "Mondays at Miraleste" teen programs at the Miraleste Library
• Expansion of the popular American Girls Teas to all libraries with a total attendance of over 520 people this year!
• Introduction of "Play Dates at the Library" at Malaga Cove
• A Chinese story time and other kids' programs in partnership with the South Bay Chinese School
• The first annual Artisan Faire at Malaga Cove
• Scrapbooking Clubs at both Malaga Cove and Miraleste
• Lots of exciting activities for teens at the Annex
• "Web 2.0" classes on blogging, Facebook, and Flickr
• And more!

In addition to handling all of the set ups and clean ups associated with these programs and keeping all of our libraries clean and in great shape, the Facilities Department also carried out several enhancement projects at Malaga Cove including electrical upgrades, installation of a new fire and security alarm system, restoration of the magazine and newspaper reading area (thanks to a generous gift from the Palos Verdes Woman's Club) and refurbishment of the Tower Room (thanks to a generous gift from volunteers Pat and Bill Foltz).  Facilities Manager Erich Widmann also worked with our architect and staff to develop schematic level designs for the proposed expansion and renovation of the Miraleste Library.

The Passport Services team introduced Saturday passport hours as a way of providing more convenient hours for families and generating additional revenue, and are taking turns working Saturdays to support this service.

The Friends of the Library made many improvements to their operations, including hiring their first employee - part-time Campaign Coordinator Georgia Case.  They also improved their online presence through new web pages and a blog, launched their first ever end-of-year appeal to members and donors, introduced a Friends membership card and changed from a calendar-year to a rolling 12-month membership period, seeded an endowment fund, did a lot of planning for the capital campaign for upgrades to the Malaga Cove and Miraleste Libraries, and continued to grow their revenues from book sales and the library shop.

We particpated in a number of State Library initiatives.  Branch Manager Jennifer Addington and Customer Service/Circulation Manager Eve Wittenmyer were selected to attend the first ever Eureka Leadership Institute for emerging California library leaders, making PVLD one of only 3 libraries across the state (and the only small library system) to have two staff members selected.  Adult Services Manager Debra Petersen and Librarian Louise Beebe successfully applied for a $20,000 grant to develop services for Baby Boomers who want to start or grow a business, the Young Readers Department received a second $5,000 grant to continue the Early Learning for Families program at the Malaga Cove Library, and Coordinator of Volunteer Services Dori Medina was selected  to serve on an advisory panel for a statewide initiative to improve volunteer engagement with libraries.

Staff, volunteers, and library supporters successfully mobilized to protest the threat that the State would "borrow" local property tax revenues (which make up 87% of PVLD's budget). 

...And while all of that was going on we served the over 650,000 people who passed through our doors and checked out 845,000 items!

Whew!  What a tribute to our amazing staff, and to the volunteers who give 28,000 hours of their time to PVLD each year!  And just wait until you see what is in store for 2009....

I'll be on vacation through New Year's Day, so this will be my last post until then.  Best wishes for the holiday season!  

 

Volunteers at PVLD - A 30+ year success story

I just learned that tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the formal volunteer program at PVLD.  Volunteer support has been important at PVLD since our inception in the late 1920s and accelerated with the formation of the Peninsula Friends of the Library in the early 1960s.  It wasn't until the loss of revenue that accompanied Proposition 13 in the late 1970s, however, that volunteers became an integral part of our service model, assisting with library operations from shelving books to putting out the new magazines and newspapers to repairing books and other materials to helping catalog foreign language items providing front-line customer service through our Information Greeter program.

Long-time volunteer Janet Vogel reminded us today that many of these volunteer activities were launched with PVLD's first formal volunteer orientation on September 25th, 1978.  From that beginning our volunteer program has grown to over 200 volunteers who provided approximately 28,000 hours of service in the 2007/2008 fiscal year.

The volunteers are one of the main reasons we have been able to maintain service levels through good times and bad, and have also been a source of improvement ideas and community support.  As we face the current economic crisis and associated budget uncertainty, our volunteers are one of the reasons I am confident that we will weather the storm.

If you are interested in volunteering at PVLD click here

To all of our volunteers past, present, and future - thank you!

Donors and Library Customers

PVLD, or more accurately the Peninsula Friends of the Library, is on the cusp of launching its biggest fundraising campaign ever in support of major facilities improvements at our Malaga Cove and Miraleste branches, as well as to raise an endowment that will provide a stable source of future supplemental funding. This is unknown territory for just about everyone involved. The Friends have been highly successful with their book sales, library shop, and other "grassroots" efforts, but it has been 20 years since they have conducted a major capital campaign (for the library district's first automated system) and raising and managing an endowment is brand new.

Since I personally have virtually no fundraising experience I have been trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can by talking to people who have done it before, and by reading everything that I can lay my hands on that seems relevant. One of the blogs that I have found very useful is Donor Power, found at www.donorpowerblog.com

Today Donor Power had a link to a fascinating report by the United Kingdom fundraising think tank nfpSynergy (www.nfpsynergy.net )on "The 21^st Century Donor". The report is lengthy – the executive summary alone is 20 pages long – and I haven't yet digested it all, but I was struck by the first page, which summarizes what the 21^st century non-profit will need to do to raise money from the 21^st century donor. The list of action items follows. Read it, and then substitute the word "library" for "charity" and the word "library userr" for "donor". Guess we're not allowing in grappling with changing expectations and changing perceptions of value!

To raise money from the 21st Century donor effectively

the successful 21st Century Charity will need to…

1. Become as distinct, competitive and appealing as the best commercial brands. Charities compete with an individual's personal and leisure spending as much as with other charities.

2. Demonstrate and communicate value-for-money and impact, so that donors can see how their contribution makes a difference to clients and beneficiaries.

3. Engage donors by motivation and giving 'products', as much as on the basis of demography and wealth. Donors like and respond to opportunities to give where the price, the rewards, the package and the relationship are all clearly set out.

4. Offer a wider choice of giving products which match donors' motivation. For example, some donors want giving centred around social interaction such as challenge events and others around the impact of their donation.

5. Blur the boundaries between giving and living – create more active and rewarding lifestyle events, from fun runs to peak challenges, from dinner parties to midnight walks. The best social fundraising makes it unclear whether people are primarily fundraising or primarily having a great time.

6. Make donors stakeholders, with a real say in how they give and how their money gets spent. While this does not mean that donors have the final say in how the money gets spent (unless they are government!) it does mean that their views are really important. Therefore dialogue between donors and service deliverers becomes more important.

7. Stress what a donor can expect out of the giving experience: this might be about the emotional return of giving, the recognition process or the involvement. The more money people give, the more they want to be involved.

8. Appeal intensely to specific, defined target audiences. A lukewarm appeal to the general public is worth far less than a burning passion amongst a key demographic or attitudinal group.

9. Woo more big givers, corporate and individual, via the offer of recognition and the opportunity to change both their own lives and the lives of beneficiaries.

10. Integrate the experience of giving time, money or activism so as to retain loyal supporters able to give different things at different life stages, from nursery to nursing home. Giving and volunteering are better seen as one activity which focuses on giving time or money, depending on life-stage, circumstances and wealth.

Thank you Volunteers!

On Tuesday the Peninsula Friends of the Library hosted the annual PVLD Volunteer Appreciation lunch.  It was a wonderful opportunity to express our appreciation for work that our volunteers do to support the library.  We have over 200 active volunteers who give generously of their time.  This fiscal year we will likely surpass over 26,000 hours of volunteer support! 

Our volunteers

• Operate our monthly book sales at the Malaga Cove and Peninsula Center Libraries and our new Internet book sales
• Operate the wonderful Library Shop at Peninsula Center Library
• Serve as "Information Greeters" - the first line of assistance for customers entering the Peninsula Center Library
• Shelve books, magazines, and newspapers
• Tidy the Peninsula Center library each morning before it opens
• Provide story times at the Malaga Cove Library
• Participate in our oral story telling program at Silver Spur School
• Host monthly craft programs for kids (this is done by our teen volunteers!)
• Serve on Boards and Committees including the Friends of the Library Board, the Library Advisory Committees at each library, and the Peninsula Teen Activities Council
• Support our fundraising and community outreach efforts
• Are Docents in the Local History Room
• Collect oral histories of local residents
• Translate foreign language materials so they can be accurately cataloged
• Repair books and audiovisual materials
• Carry out special projects such as our 40Families local history project

And much more!

Many of our volunteers have given several thousand hours of their time, and volunteer extraordinaire Gene Roder has set a record with over 8,300 hours to date.

We couldn't offer the level and range of services we do without our volunteers - THANK YOU!

Thank you also to Peninsula Friends of the Library for sponsoring our volunteer program, including the Volunteer Appreciation Lunch. 

Photos of the volunteer luncheon (taken by James Davis of our Facilities Department) can be found in the photo album to the left of this posting, or by clicking on http://www.typepad.com/t/app/gallery/manage?set_id=1076294