Santa Ana needs a new library plan
I love public libraries. When I was growing up, in the San Gabriel Valley, my mother used to take me to the library every day. That helped me to learn English quickly. In the late 1990’s I served for five years on the Santa Ana Public Library Board, and finally had a chance to give back to the library community.
Since I left the board, the library system in Santa Ana has taken several huge hits. Today we are down to two libraries and now the Bookmobile service has been shut down. What a shame! Especially since the library personnel do such a great job. I visit the main library in downtown Santa Ana every Saturday. I always bring my two youngest children and we enjoy checking out books, comic books and even popular music CD’s. The library is always packed with parents and their young children.
It is very sad that we are not able to fully service the entire southern portion of the city. Santa Ana has more young people per capita than any other city in the OC, but the fewest libraries. And now, with the demise of the popular Bookmobile service, we are totally failing a huge number of our residents. That this is happening in the so-called “Education City” is farcical, and tragic.
What can we do? We clearly don’t have the budget to do much. Here is what I propose: it’s time to get out of the box and embrace the future. The reason libraries cost so much to run is the work involved in keeping the books in order – and public librarians are both rare and expensive. I propose that we embrace the age of the Internet.
My idea is to open at least three new library extensions throughout our fine city. These libraries should be much smaller than the main library, which will continue to be our hub. The extensions will feature children’s books and at least 12 computers per site, with high speed Internet access. Each site should have a cafe that could be leased out to enterprising business people, such as the mini-Starbucks that are found in some bookstores. There is some precedence for this, when you consider the small restaurant run by Otto Bade, at the Santa Ana Zoo. The monthly leases paid by the cafe operations will help to underwrite the new libraries.
Each new site will also participate in a book transfer service, whereby books from the main library will be made available via a daily courier that will visit each site on a scheduled basis and transfer books that are ordered by library patrons from huge selection at the main library.
The library extensions should also have several workstations available for kids who want to work on their homework. And they should be open from about 1 pm to at least 8 pm, in order to serve schoolchildren. We can save money by hiring college kids to run the library extensions. We don’t need to pay librarians to do this work. We just need caretakers to keep an eye on things. We can also ask local PTA members to volunteer their time.
Our Mayor can pressure the major computer and software companies to help us out with acquisition of computers, if he is so inclined. And each extension should also be a hotspot for wireless computers. We can ask the wi-fi companies to help out with that too.
How else can we help to pay for these badly needed library extensions? How about allowing a small newsstand service to set up shop at each one? We can give them enough space to sell a few magazines and newspapers, such as the micro-newsstands at some airports. A twenty foot wall with shelves would do it, along with a small cash register stand. Most newsstands can return unsold merchandise to the publication distributors they deal with, so their exposure won’t be too great.
Hopefully the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce and local service organizations would also get involved. And we can rent library space to local organizations that need somewhere to meet. They can use the facilities during off-hours.
Santa Ana is home to a lot of folks who live in crowded conditions, and who do not have access to many books or the Internet. Driving to the main library may also be a hardship for them. If they are to improve their lot, they need more libraries, and we can do that if we care to. It doesn’t have to cost a lot, and the return will be huge.
I had no right to succeed in life. My parents were immigrants and I did not grow up speaking English. My father was a janitor. But he and my mother knew the importance of reading, and thank God I had libraries to go to. We need to repeat this success for the young people growing up today in our city, without the means to better themselves. I ask our Mayor and our City Council to get behind this idea and for once live up to our slogan – Santa Ana can indeed be an “Education City,” but not if we don’t work at it.
As the “Education Candidate,” I wonder if Jose Solorio has any thoughts on improving the education quality-of-life in the city.
He’s done so much for education on the city council!
This is a wonderful idea Art. I too spent many days with my parents in the Children’s library in Santa Ana. It was there I learned to love to read biographies of interesting people. Your idea makes a lot of sense and I especially like the concept of having a private vender running a coffee shop within the facilities. Let’s hope our elected leaders don’t wait too long to get this going. Santa Ana was named a “Reading City” a few years ago. It’s time to back that up with some action.
Anonymous,
We already have it!
It is called Barnes & Noble and Borders
I think it’s a compelling idea. Still, I’d rather see more of the budget go to police than to a library.
Last time I checked there was no Barnes & Noble or Boarders book stores in Central Santa Ana and most of our kids in South Santa Ana are not going to walk to Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza.
There is a ‘Friends of the Library’ that seems to be a rather benign group. Does anyone know how to get ahold of them to maybe breathe some life into the group? As long as Dave Ream has the budget he will cut things like library funding first. A strong ‘Friends’, like that for the zoo, could offset those cuts if they had a clue.
It would be great to have a strong voice like that of Thomas Gordon on the Library Board! Go for it Tom!
Art — [I had no right to succeed in life. My parents were immigrants and I did not grow up speaking English.]
What do you mean you had no right to succeed? THIS is THE land of freedom and opportunities, not guarantees.
Like you I spent a lot of time studying in the Oxnard Public Library in the late 70s and early 80s. My mother was a single parent and no one in my family spoke English which was our third language. (My father spoke English but he was in an reeducation camp…not able to practice his linguistic skills with his communist captors.)
Over the past 15 months on the book tour/speaking circuit, I’ve visited many public libraries (Search Google using keywords: “A Sense of Duty, pham, library). The differences amongt them are local support, money, author programs and other educational offerings/classes. In Orange County, the two finest and newer libraries are in Newport Beach (1994) and Mission Viejo (1998). The Friends of the NP Beach Library and its Foundation are unmatched.
On the other hand, through observations and anecdotes from my mother who is 70 and works part-time at a public libary, some libraries have become free after-school daycare centers and a place for the homeless to hang out.
People go to the library to read, research and check out FREE materials. Meeting rooms are usually available to the public for FREE.
In April, I spoke at the Tully Library in San Jose. This is an excellent example of a modern (2005) public library located in a diverse community. I believe it has a cafe to boot. http://www.sjlibrary.org/about/locations/tully/index.htm
I would be glad to help revive/start the Friends of the Santa Ana Library or the Foundation. However, I wouldn’t recommend opening extensions until you have examined the state of the two current branches to including budgeting, staffing, acquisitions, utilization, I/T, hours, funding, programs, improvements, community interests, etc…
“The most of our kids in South Santa Ana are not going to walk to Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza.”…….. Hmmmm
Too bad anonymous!……. that is probably safest area for Santa Ana kids to be. I know you probably prefer city library full of homeless, drug addicts and child molesters.
Great post. I would like to see a better selection of music CDs, DVDs, and books on CD at the Santa Ana Library. There’s only a small handful of videos, and almost zero DVDs. Visit Newport Beach…they have a GRIP of all kinds of DVDs for checkout, even recent releases.
By the way, the Friends of the S.A. Library had a used book sale the other weekend. I’ve never picked up a better batch of “buck a bag” books…what should have been sloppy seconds from the previous day’s sale was actually a goldmine. For me. So partly out of guilt I plopped down my $5 and signed up for a family membership.
Pham (and others),
You are all quite right about the importance of FOL groups in other cities. For some reason, ours has never taken off. Perhaps that is because we don’t have that many wealthy residents. Other cities that have more well-to-do residents seem to have thriving FOL organizations.
Maybe another way to get our locals involved is to start an “Amigos de la Biblioteca.” That would be the same as FOL, but perhaps the Spanish title would attract more support.
Also, our local Chamber of Commerce needs to get behind our FOL and our libraries in general. One problem there is that the city charges non-residents for their use of the libraries, therefore limiting their involvement. They make up many of our local business-owners, and should not be disenfranchised because they don’t live in the city.
Does the SA library have its own foundation?
What does the library board do?
I just saw 75 computers in the main library. (During tonight
I am amazed that Art wants to have government use taxpayer money to provide a useful (but arguably non-essential) service to residents.
Welcome to the side of logical and dare I say MODERATE politics.