PVLD Director's Blog

Librarians as Business Mentors

I just came from a meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce's Business Development Committee and was surfing through my Google Reader blog feeds while catching my breath before heading off to a meeting about how to further develop PVLD's Zerunyan Center for Business, Entrepreneurship, and Community Development when I came across this post from the personal finance blog Wise Bread.

As a Library Director who is firmly committed to reaching out to and supporting local businesses I LOVED  that Librarian was # 3 on the list:

3. Librarian

Your local library is in the business of giving information (literally), and the head librarian is usually very well versed in all kinds of free resources for those wanting to know more about local regulations, tax law, continuing education, and networking opportunities. If you haven't visited your local branch in awhile, take a day to go in and introduce yourself. Let the librarian know who you are, what you do, and how you could benefit from the library's resources. Then let them do the talking. They will most likely share all of the perks available to you, including interlibrary loan programs, free information on funding and grants, and more!

And as Chair-elect of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce it was great to see Chambers of Commerce in the #4 slot, too.

In this economy small businesses need all the support they can get, and public libraries (and Chambers of Commerce) stand ready to help! 

The Library As Skatepark

This past Sunday afternoon the roof of the Peninsula Center Library was transformed into a skatepark and skateboarding expo to the delight of nearly 700 kids (from toddlers through teenagers), parents and interested community members.   This video shows some of the skaters  -  

And here is a link to some photos (the album is in Picasa - you should be able to open it by clicking on this link, but I've never used Picasa in my blog before!)

The event was  a fundraiser for a grassroots effort to build a permanent skate park on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

I'm sure some people are asking what skateboarding has to do with the library!  The simple answer is that the library has been involved because we see the need for such a facility every day as kids with nowhere else to skate (skateboarding is illegal everywhere on the Peninsula!) find the front steps of the Peninsula Center Library an ideal place to test their skills at grinding on the edge of our planters, or using the steps as the means to launch themselves into the air...without any safety gear and at significant risk to themselves, to other library customers, and at times to the cars coming down Silver Spur Road at considerable speed.  In other words, the library (along with a number of other locations) has become a de facto skatepark...and we spend a not insignificant amount of staff time chasing the skateboards off and repairing the damage done to walkways and walls.  It would be great to be able to direct the kids to a "real" skatepark!

Apart from pragmatic self-interest, however, the event was a great way for the library to be an active and visible partner in helping address a real community need.  The event organizers and participants were very grateful to the library for making our space available, we have been able to strengthen our relationship with other community organizations like the YMCA and the Sheriff's department, and among the nearly 700 attendees I know there were many who saw the library in a newly positive light. 

It was one of those sometimes rare events where everyone "won"-from the SkateparkPV organizers who raised 2x their fundraising goal to the kids who had a blast using the rails and ramps to the vendors who got exposure for their businesses to the garage bands who were exposed to a new audience to the library itself which for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon was the sickest place to be!

Now, I wonder how our Board and our Facilities Manager would react to a request to do it again sometime?

Celebrating 80 Years of Magic at the Holiday Parade

It was truly a magical evening when PVLD won the Mayor's Trophy at the 2009 Rolling Hills Estates Holiday parade!  With a rabbit coming out of a top hat, a wizard and a fairy godmother, and more magicians than you can shake a wand at library staff members outdid themselves creating an amazing parade entry on a shoestring.  

A great big thank you to Dori Medina for her leadership and costume sewing skills; Laszlo Latkoczy, Louise Beebe, Brenda Sibert and the Facilities staff who conjured up the top hat and created the float; Merna Marshall for organizing a fabulous taco dinner for participants and guests; Kaitlin Waldron for being such a fabulous magician's rabbit; Charles Crouse for being a good sport and agreeing to play a wizard at the last minute; Charles and James Davis for carrying the banner; and to everyone (staff, Trustees, volunteers, partners, kids, grandkids and friends who drove, rode, marched or cheered us on!

Enjoy the slideshow - and the brief video at the end - and look for us to be the float to beat next year!

Tough times for schools

I confess that I spent more time working during my vacation than I probably should have, but I spent a lot of time waiting around...for my nephew to go on rides at Knott's Berry Farm (I am a confirmed coward in his mind since I won't go on anything scarier than the log ride) and while he tried on shoes and clothes (he's a shopper, and I'm definitely not!)so checking my email on my Iphone not only helped pass the time, it made my re-entry today much smoother.

I also had the privilege of attending some of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's management retreat on Thursday morning while my young visitors slept in.  I appreciated the opportunity to spend time with PVPUSD administrators and Principals, and to learn in more depth about some of the challenges our local schools are facing.

School Superintendent Walker Williams presented the "State of the District and there were many parallels between the PVPUSD tale and ours - from declining revenues to fewer programs to cash flow challenges to what Walker termed "enterprise" efforts to generate revenue through  fee-based programs to the Peninsula Education Foundation's commitment to double their level of support.

At the same time, there were some substantial differences that made me glad I don't have Walker's job.  Per student "average daily attendance" funding from the state has declined 18% over the past two years, and there is every expectation that this could go down even further as the State economy continues its freefall and the expectation is that public agency funding will lag 12-18 months behind the general economic recovery.  PVPUSD relies on the State for 81% of its funding (by comparison only 1% of PVLD's funding comes from the State) so there is little hope of a turnaround any time soon. 

The net result is that despite the Peninsula Education Foundation raising its level of support from $1.1 million to $2 million this school year, and for the first time funding classroom teachers in additional to supplemental programs, PVPUSD will have 40 fewer teachers to support essentially the same number of students. 

Of particular interest to PVLD is that instead of having both library aides and technology aides at the elementary schools, Prinicipals will have funding for less than 15 hours/week of non-classified support staff and will have to choose how to deploy those funds with the likely scenario being another year with unstaffed school libraries.  

Yikes!  

In the face of these tough times both insitutions are facing, PVLD and PVPUSD continue to work together to  coordinate expenditures, to further our shared educational mission, and to enhance the quality of life (and the property values!) on the Peninsula, although with staff in both organizations stretched thin it isn't going to be easy.... 

PVLD Gets Creative at the Holiday Parade

Last Saturday PVLD staff and volunteers had a great time participating in the annual Rolling Hills Estate Holiday Parade.  We based our entry on the 2009 Summer Reading theme of "Get Creative" and adopted the slogan "Let Your Imagination Soar".  Volunteer Coordinator Dori Medina led the hardworking team who organized this event (which included Marisa Perley, Merna Marshall, Jesse Wolfe, Jennifer Chaffey, Mary Cohen,and Sylvia Richardson), and also outdid herself sewing pirate costumes for Trustee Bill Lama and IT Specialist John Jakobsen, as well as a bunny costume for herself.

The creativity theme didn't end with the amazing costumes and hot air balloon float as we all enjoyed the entries in our "crock pot cook-off" before the parade and dessert contest after the parade.  Branch Senior Page Jesse Wolfe did a great job organizing the food and competitions, an staff and volunteers brought some amazing dishes.  Recipes will be sent out soon!

Assistant Branch Manager Jennifer Chaffey had the inspired idea to have a silent auction of items donated by staff to add a new element of fun to the event and raise some money to fund staff activities in these tough times.  The last minute bidding was a sight to behold, and we raised about $200.  I can see that becoming an annual event.

And last but not least, we won first prize for our parade entry!

As these photos show, a grand time was had by all!

Palos Verdes Daily Photo blog

Friends of the Library board member and fellow blogger Fran Pullara (she writes the Peninsula Friends of the Library blog as well as her own Sacred Ordinary blog )introduced me to this lovely blog that features daily photos of our community.  I don't know Tash, but she has a real eye for the things that make Palos Verdes special...and of course I particularly appreciated today's photo of our Malaga Cove Library!

BUSY!

We are heading into an incredibly busy December here at PVLD. I am amazed at what the staff and volunteers are attempting:

Today (December 1^st)

    9AM – Laura Henry and Kathy Buchsbaum told holiday stories for well over 150 people at the Avenue of the Peninsula (local shopping center) breakfast with Santa

    10AM – Fire Safe Landscaping program at Peninsula Center Library AND all-ages Knit-a-thon at the Annex. Well over 50 people attended each.

    1PM – "Swazzle" puppet show at Miraleste Library. Its 1:45 as I write this, so I have no idea how many attended but my guess is a lot!

    5PM – Staff and volunteer holiday party, including marching in the Rolling Hills Estates Holiday Parade

December 4^th

    10 AM – O.W.L. program on buying holiday gifts for grandchildren at the Annex

    7 PM -- Holiday Music series kicks off with "dueling concerts"! Trio featuring Harpist Ashlin at Peninsula Center Library AND the Miraleste Intermediate School vocal ensemble at Miraleste Lib

December 5^th

    7 PM – Holiday music concert with jazz pianist Dan Platus AND Peninsula Friends of the Library biennial meeting. Both at Peninsula Center Library

December 6^th

    7PM – Les Choristes. Part of our foreign film series in partnership with Chadwick School

December 7^th

    3:45 PM – Holiday Music concert with the Palos Verdes Intermediate School Pep Band at Malaga Cove Library

December 8^th

    11 AM – "Reggie: My Story" Book talk and signing with author Angi Ma Wong at Peninsula Center Library

   

    1 PM – Windows to Vietnam: A Journey in Pictures and Verse at Peninsula Center Library

December 10^th

    7PM – Holiday Music Concert with JJ's Sunset Syncopators at Peninsula Center Library

December 12^th

    4:30 PM – Holiday Music Concert with the Amuse Brass Ensemble at Malaga Cove Library

December 14^th

    4 PM – Holiday Music Concert – Piano Recital with Darlene Vlasek and students

December 15^th

    10 AM – American Girls holiday tea at Peninsula Center Library

    2 PM – Reception and unveiling of our new public sculpture "Balancing Knowledge" at Peninsula Center Library

December 17^th

    7 PM – Holiday Music concert with Mark Fitchett and the Peninsula School of Music at Peninsula Center Library

December 18^th

    3 PM – Holiday Music Concert with Los Cancioneros Master Chorale at Peninsula Center Library

December 19^th

    4:30 PM – Carols and more with Stanford University a capella group "Testimony" – Afterwords Café at the Peninsula Center Library

December 20^th

    4 PM – Special holiday story time and visit from Santa at Malaga Cove Library

December 21^st

    4 PM – Holiday Music Concert with renowned pianist Anli Tong and students at Peninsula Center Library

    

WHEW! And that doesn't include our regular schedule of 15 story times each week, book discussion groups, chess club, history discussion group and everything else that goes on every month!  It also doesn't include the many community activities that some of us participate in.

Wonder what we'll be doing between Christmas and New Years? Keeping the library open and trying to catch our breath!

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

Friday musings

Every so often I go through a period where everything feels just a bit unsettled...like I have too many balls in the air, and just as soon as I manage to catch one of them someone throws another one at me. 

This has definitely been one of those times.  My week of vacation in mid-March was great - but it took another week to get on top of the backlog of emails, phone calls, and other projects, and I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

Then we have had a lot of staff changes.  The ball got started with the resignation of Customer Service Manager Jan Wierzbicki in January.  No sooner had we promoted Branch Library Assistant Eve Wittenmeyer to Customer Service Manager than our wonderful Branch Manager, Cindy Miller, resigned to take up a terrific new job as Associate Director at the Long Beach Public Library.  We are fortunate to have a pretty deep "bench" at PVLD and I was delighted to be able to appoint Jennifer Addington, most recently the Assistant Manager - Adult Services at our Peninsula Center Library - as the new Branch Operations Manager....but of course that has left the Assistant Manager job vacant.  We hope to fill that position internally, too...which will leave another hole to be filled!  We are also faced with the resignations of Kristen Waddell and Laurie Anderson - two of our terrific library school student employees who are moving on to new challenges and leaving some big shoes to be filled.

Add to the turmoil of successive staff changes the fact that we have some very big projects on our plate - including reorganization of our Young Readers department to provide District-wide services for infants through teens; installation of new carpeting at Peninsula Center Library (which involves a lot of extra work for our Circulation staff as we are lifting all of the book stacks to carpet underneath); selection and then implementation of a new "Integrated Library System" (the software that automates all of our library activities from purchasing books to the online catalog); gearing up for major fundraising to support expansion of the Miraleste Library, restoration of the Malaga Cove Library, and the creation of an endowment; and an overhaul of our employee classification and compensation structure - and its no wonder the PVLD staff are looking a bit shell-shocked!

The amazing thing is that we are continuing to make progress on all of these projects...thanks in no small part to the calibre of our staff.  The good news is that I think things will stabilize quite a bit over the next few months as we fill our staff vacancies, people settle into their new roles, and we complete some of the big projects on our plate.  The "bad" news is that as soon as we complete one project I am pretty sure we'll find something else we want to do in our quest to make PVLD the best library system of its size in the state (if not the country)! 

To our staff - I'm not sure you know how much I appreciate how you navigate the seemingly always turbulent environment at PVLD and still manage to make great progress in improving our services. 

Thank you!

Integrated Library Systems

Can't believe a week has flown by since I last posted.  We've been busy! 

We are in the process of selecting a new Integrated Library System - the software that runs all of our core library operations -including acquisition of books and other library materials, cataloging, circulation (checking books in and out), inventory control, and the public access library catalog.  So far we've had full-day demonstrations from 3 vendors with one more planned for next week.

Our current system is over 10 years old, won't be supported beyond next year, and is incapable of providing many of the services our customers are asking for without major modifications.  The new system will cost approximately a quarter of a million dollars and will need to last for the next 10 years so its a big decision! 

PVLD employees know what we want, and aren't shy about asking tough questions, so I'm sure the vendor representatives have been relieved when their day with us was over.

The good news is that while all of the systems we've seen have strengths and weaknesses, whatever we choose will be a BIG step forward, especially for our customers.  We won't be able to take advantage of all of the new features right away but these are some of the things that are on the horizon:

• Email or telephone alerts to let customers know what items will be due soon
• Online payment of fines and fees, and also online donations
• Ability for customers to post "reader reviews" on the catalog
• Ability for customers to choose to save their borrowing history so they can check if they've read something before
• Much more intuitive searching of the library catalog

We can't wait!