2/6/25 - Library Commission Meeting

have the requirement for graduation. All of the PUSD schools do and possibly some of the private schools. We even use it for training as well.

We put training videos online and we can yeah. Very extensive, awesome product that we like to use. I just have 1 question and might get into discussion. I’m just curious why the teen programs went so down. Like, it was 47 in 2022 and 23 in the in the data we got in the That’s a great question. I think it came up we used this data for our prior presentation, and that same question came up. And I think it was how, and, Jeff, please correct me if I’m wrong. I have some recollection, and we can get you a more definitive answer. There was a change in the how we measured the the age groups. So what the library does is we report information to the state every year.

So they give us categories, and we are trying to track all our stats based on the categories for the state report. It just makes it a lot easier. So I think there was something to do with that and possibly that we didn’t measure teens in in that period in the same way. Is that Or did you measure them in all programs? Grama that We could have done that. They could have been but we can get you a a a more accurate answer on that. 1 of your slides described interactive programs for youth as something people wanted. What does that mean exactly? So I would consider that a program I would consider that a story time program, but I would also consider it, like, our robotics and coding programs for kids, any art and craft program, anything that they’re participating in instead of just sitting and listening is how I would Okay. Like, not passive, I’m assuming.

Even in the library world, I guess you could a a passive program could still be interactive and participatory. Passive would be more of, on your own versus a staff led grama, generally. And 1 of your slides mentioned community partnerships. Do we have any community partnerships with the library? We do through our, Value Humane Society with Paws to Read. It would be 1 of the biggest ones I can think of. School district. School district. Yes. Yes.

That could definitely be a community partnership. I think we often refer to it as a district partnership, but it’s it is still a community partnership. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Are we exploring the report further than or is this our discussion area? Oh, we are. Yes. I think we were trying to segment, we have, actually some questions we’d love for you to consider. Okay.

You don’t need to respond to them all, but just, you know, kind of to kick off the discussion, but you’re, of course, welcome to discuss anything of interest. So I’ll pass it back to Jeff for that. Excellent. So we’re ready, moving on to our discussion. Using the perspective of your connections in the community and your personal experience, we would like you to input on the following. Do the planned program areas reflect the needs of our community? Are there emerging trends or community interests we should consider for future programming? And finally, what additional information would help you support outreach? And again, I’m more than happy to slide back to different slides here as needed. I guess 1 of the questions, and I’m not sure, you might have included it in the teen programs, but I know that in the past year or so, we had, the finance.

We we sort of had a couple of presentations for teens or workshops for teens that had to do have the requirement for graduation. All of the PUSD schools do and possibly some of the private schools. We even use it for training as well.

We we sort of had a couple of presentations for teens or workshops for teens that had to do with budget and managing money and learning a little bit more. And I know that I I remember they were fairly popular. I mean, there’s always been the the stock game, which is, you know, kind of interesting. It’s certainly a learning opportunity, but it seems like there’s a vast number of teens, a larger number of teens who could benefit from the the other, like, budget 1 0 1 workshop that I think that we did. And I I didn’t I wasn’t sure if that was still in here. I didn’t see it called out. But it seems to me that increasingly, that’s still an important factor. I mean, I hear more and more that that kids are coming out at coming out of college and just having absolutely no idea how to how to deal with their money. Yes. So, I know we have done programs in the past.

We do also have digital resources. Our wife’s financial ratings and reports has actually a lot of PDFs online that kind of talk about finance 1 0 1. But again, yeah, for a programming, perspective, yes, I think I think the future ultimate goal would be to to have those and to continue to have those. Yeah. Yeah. I think that having them as a group, I mean, it’s it’s great to have online resources, but we all have that. I mean, we all have that at home. But I think to have the the opportunity to have community among that age group is huge. And the fact that the ability to sort of see the fact that other people need to know the same thing. I mean, it’s 1 thing if you’re at home and you don’t know and then you’re kind of alone.

But it’s another thing if you’re in a group, and you have some community and you all say, well, gee, I really don’t know anything about this. You know, how can I get the help? I think there’s a there’s a hand holding element to that that’s valuable. It’s part of why we see so many teens in the library, like, after school and, you know, sharing about their homework and everything because it’s community. So I I would encourage us to think about, you know, continuing to do that sort of, you know, that sort of, project. Is this the adulting? Was it, like, adulting? I think it was adulting 1 0 1. Yeah. I think it was something like that.

Yes. We did have a, budget 1 0 1 type. I believe it may have even been an online, during it was sort of the Zoom era, but afterwards, we did the money out loud program. I wonder, could that be what you’re thinking of? It was the guest speaker. The guest speaker. The office. Yeah. Ishmid actually was 1 of the panelists. She did great.

I remember that you were involved in it. So Yeah. There was a lot of interest in that topic. Yeah. I I mean, I think it’s good. I think parents actually would like their kids to learn it. And maybe at that point in their lives, the parents aren’t the people that the kids are listening to. So it’s kinda nice if there’s another opportunity for that. Thank you. And I had 1 more thing.

I may as well just go, and then I’m done. With regards to outreach, I was in I I was encouraged to see that we now have a listing of all the commissioners on the city website, although Ishmeet is missing. So so we need to we need to do that. But I also thought that when we send out, you know, the library newsletter that comes out, it might be worth occasionally, like, listing the commissioners and saying, hey. Do you know these people? These are people in your neighborhood. These are people I mean, I think when we sign up to be commissioners, 1 of the things that we sign up to be is public. I mean, that that we are a library commissioner. Not that we’re giving out our personal information or anything, but but to say, do you know these people? You know, maybe these people are your friends.

You could ask them about things that are going on at the library just so that our names are more out there, because I’ve talked to several of my neighbors who didn’t know that I was a library commissioner. And, I mean, that’s not a big deal or anything, but it’s just sort of like they’re like, oh, it’s a surprise. Like, oh, you’re a library commissioner. I have a question. But unless they know who we are, they they’re not that conversation isn’t gonna happen. So it’s just a a thought that we might put that in the newsletter. Yeah. So we can definitely bring that forward. I think we have explored that. I think it would be done on a city level, you know, for consistency across commissions was sort of the feedback I got on that.

I have some seen some cities do that with their commissions. And they’ve, you know, where they have I think Livermore’s pushed out some bios. I know I have some colleagues now in Livermore, and I believe it is an opt in type situation where a commissioner who’s gone through sort of a, you know, an academy, community academy, was profiled recently, profiled in a good way. Realized all that. And, really I thought it was really neat to see it. It was on social. And, you know, it talked about how they became a commissioner, you know, what their interest in supporting the community was, what their experience was. But my understanding, it was it was just it wasn’t a consistent thing. It was just sort of a a, you know, a featured social post, that the commissioner had opted into. Yeah.

I think it I think it needs to be an opt in. Not necessarily our names because 1 of the things, like I said, if you agree to be a library commissioner, it’s a public post, so it’s not like you can keep your name secret. But, but I think any profile would need to be opt in. But I think having our names as library commissioners in the library newsletter kinda makes sense. Yeah. I can definitely explore it. Thank you. So, anyway, my thought. Did you wanna go? Oh, I okay.

In terms of outreach, 5 years ago, we had a a very clear, like like, we were we were trying to go places and let people know what what the library was all about. And, I think now I suspect that most of us would love to do more outreach, and we don’t really know where to start. And I I think if you asked us, can you go do this? And and and even when we do show up at activities, and maybe it’s on us to give you enough time. But if you if we say we’re coming, I would love it if you had a job for us. Like, not just sitting at a table waiting for people to approach us, but, like, go walk around and hand this piece of paper out or invite people to come over here. You know? Just so that if if because as someone pointed out to me today, we’re kind of library people are a little bit introverted. We need a little help reaching out sometimes, as I do. Yes.

And short notice is fine too. I think, you know, I’m I’ve been tried to be as responsive as I can when someone lets me know they’re coming. We can do a table. We can definitely provide, a task. I do hear you. Not all events have that element. So I think that is, you know, as we look at the next item, I think this is actually a perfect, well, it’s not quite a segue because we’re not quite done, but, let’s talk a little bit more, because the next item is outreach for upcoming events, and we can maybe, you know, hear from other commissioners for ideas around that. Okay. Anyone else have comments right now? I just had an idea about, the adult game and film club program.

Because our community is so ethnically diverse, I think it would be good to maybe show foreign films, ones that are really popular. That is an incredibly timely response, Sharon. We just showed a movie, a Korean film by a Japanese director, called Broker. And, we had probably the highest attendance we’ve had and probably the most engaging discussion. I I subbed in for that program, with our our our normal librarian, Chris Soda, who runs that program or coordinates that program. So, I did share that feedback and that was actually direct feedback we got via conversation was people wanted more of the foreign films. It was kind of art films. I think it won, it didn’t win the didn’t win the Palme d’Or, but it won something that’s Sundance, and then I think the, the main actor won an award. But anyway, yeah, that was an awesome film and I think I, yeah. And then now, kind of along that same line, how about, games that are popular within different, nations?

Like, is it Marjane? Marjane, yes. We do have I would love to learn that. We have 4 Marjane kits, as part of our puzzle and game, meet ups right now. I think they’ve been checked out a couple times as well. So we do they they are able to be taken home too. Yeah. Could there be, like, an event, like, come learn how to play or come learn how to play something else? Mhmm. Like chess or I don’t know.

I see. Thank you very much. Mhmm. Feedback. I just kinda wanna echo what commissioner Emerson had said about teen specific grama, because I do I understand too if it’s, like, maybe grant related and that’s why it’s in all programs and maybe they are mostly teens, but I do think just looking at the numbers, it does look like there’s just way less for teens available right now. And it sounds like in the past there’s been a lot of good things. A career thing would be cool, all of, that sort of thing. So I just wanted to echo, what commissioner Emerson said about teen related spaces. And then also, what, chair Sabatini said about, outreach and, like, thinking I know that’s the next the segue. But I will say I was really excited when I went I volunteered at, the Alviso Adobe Park, and they gave me a literal task.

And as introverted book nerds, like, it was very nice that I’d be like, oh, okay. Now we can talk about something. So, yeah, definitely agree with that. That’s why I like the game. That’s why I like the game afternoon. There’s something specific to do. Just on the question of, any emerging trends that you have heard about in the community, observed. If not, that’s fine. I just you know, it’s it’s nice to open it up if there’s something that you’ve seen or heard of or you think might be relevant. You don’t have to do it in this meeting.

You can always just send an veil too. You, do you guys ever have speakers, like authors come in? That’s a great question. We have had, author talks. We have often that’s 1 of the community partnerships has been with Town Center Books. So we, we had a freedom to read event just this last year. It was fairly well attended, I believe. We worked with the Towne Center bookstore owner, and, she is usually the 1 to be able to provide some really great connections with the author world. The library has been a great place because Towne Center Books is very small. And so if it’s an author would stretch outside their doors, then often they will reach out.

So yes, we have done them. They’re well attended. We had Lisa C about a year ago. That was really neat. I know that was Well, we don’t sell tickets, but it was sold out, in essence. So, yes, thank you. That’s great feedback for author talk. Thank you. Yeah, when I first came to Pleasanton, they had a guest speaker, Jim Trelease, author of the bridal aloud handbook, and that had a huge impact on me. I think he’s passed away now, but, I don’t know if there’s a representative, you know, of of his work that could speak, but I thought that was such a wonderful tie in to the library and encouraging parents to pick good quality books for their children.

So something for parents or, you know, related to books on children? When you ask for, emerging trends, what exactly do you mean by that? So I think even, you know, just over the past few years, I’m just trying to think of a few that have popped to mind. To me, I mean, AI would be my biggest 1 that comes to me. Yeah. Topics that come up. I’m trying to think of some presentations we’ve had that are timely that I I know we have had some. But, yeah, I’m actually at a loss. Robotics and coding would probably be 1. We did steam programming for a while.

I think over time we continue to look at things, and we also look at who else does the program. I think with something like steam, you know, we did see there was, you know, a fair amount being done by the schools. There’s, you know, things on the weekend available. Some things are fee based. We do have recreation grama. Recreation has fee assistance that provides, you know, funding, for registration for longer term classes. So we we do try and tie things back, as Jeff shared, to the library, to our, you know, to literacy, to our collections, to have that sort of nexus. But there are just many things, you know, even like incorporating the TikTok videos and for our staff that are kind of eyeing what other libraries are doing. I know, I’ve known commissioners over the years that will go visit other public libraries. You know, it’s always a nice busman’s holiday to go travel to Hawaii and visit their local library.

But just any ideas or thoughts that you see throughout the year. You know, it’s not a 1 night discussion. It’s, you know, ongoing. We appreciate your impact and your input. I have an idea. I feel like people are talking more about mental health, like how to reduce stress, how to become more resilient, things like that. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Also, media literacy is a hot topic I’ve been reading a lot about on the TikTok.

So I think that could be another good 1. Thank you. This is really specific, but I had brought this up last year, with 1 of the librarians. I think it was, Chris Oda. And, it was, like, really last minute, so, like, it wasn’t gonna happen. But, like, during finals week, I know that there’s so many kids from high school that go to the library. So kind of going along that, theme of mental health, having some sort of I I don’t know. I said, like, have a hot chocolate station. So, like, you can, like, give students hot chocolate as they’re walking in. Just give them a little thing to drink while they’re doing their work.

Or it could be, like, snacks or if it’s, like, the spring semester, like lemonade or something. Just something that, you know, kinda shows that gives them a reason to kinda stop and, like, relax for a sec while they’re studying for finals. I think that would have been really helpful. We enjoy doing things for students. Yeah. We could get some of the dogs to read dogs too come in. Yes. I think we’ve explored that. Yes. I think, you know, Chris Oda did, he helped bring forward that ice cream social to kick off the school year, which was a really really neat event, to welcome students, just help them make that connection.

I think it’s really nice, particularly early in the year, but probably, like you’re saying, during finals too. Yes. Yes. The library does, do its best to adapt during finals week. Sometimes we’ll set up extra tables. We’ve opened up our meeting room. We can see upwards of over 200 students. We did a heat map. I think we saw 700 students come in between 3 and 9 in some of the peak weeks during finals week. So it is the place to be.

I think another emerging, trend that we bridal to utilize or capitalize on was, the clothing swap, the teen clothing swap. Oh, yeah. Right. And we’re trying to open that up to all ages this year, because we did get a lot of feedback that said, I wish I you know, parents, I wish we could do this or I wish this is more than just teens. So we are opening that up this year too. And a huge shout shout out to Lily who’s here tonight. She was instrumental in helping merchandise that event, just making it very attractive too, very popular. Any more comments? Do you do you see a I mean, it’s kind of more of a question for you about trends. Do you see a change?

You mentioned something about the the sort of the drop in digital since COVID, that it soared during COVID and then is kind of dropping back. Do you see that impacting, the collection in any way? I mean, is it changing from hardbound to digital to you know? We’d have to do kind of a full analysis of that. I think the last time we brought that, it was about a year ago. We did ebook and print book. I think our librarian, Chris Britzell, brought that. I think digital continues to be well used, particularly when we talk about ebooks and some of the streaming services. But some of the other tools, you know, we’re still looking at those. We analyze them.

Jeff actually works with the digital team, so I’ll defer on that 1. For print collections, print has remained steady. I would not say there’s a significant change. You know, it is obviously, when we were closed during the pandemic, you know, print, print circulation was down. But now that we’re open, you know, we are again, checking out, you know, I think it’s close to a million items a year. We’re we’re edging back up towards, to our pre pandemic levels, I would say, as well as with visitors too. We’re not quite there, but almost there. And in terms of digital resources, a lot of the vendors are, being very competitive with each other, which is great for us. They’re 1 of the things we’re looking at right now is a cost per circulation model on the Libby app, which competes with the Hoopla the Hoopla app. Because if you’re aware, Hoopla is streaming based always available, but we do pay per use.

Whereas Libby, we buy the rights to certain copies either for a time period or a certain amount of checkouts. So Libby is competing with Hoopla now and offering cost per search. So we’re trying to, kind of analyze what that would look like for us and use resource allocation there to, you know, better use our our funds. So if we have, let’s say, a book that has 20 people in line for it, if we have our typical Libby offerings, our purchases that we, you know, we buy the the rights to, what if we buy a cost per search version of that same title and then reduce the hold list and reduce that hold time. So we’re we’re we’re playing around with and kind of analyzing what that would look like. I do believe, in our upcoming commission meetings, we will have our, just like the program plan, we’ll have the library collection development plan for the year. So we’re gonna have those, circulation statistics for analysis. Yeah. Thought I saw that on the agenda. Does that complete our discussion on this, or is there more?

We don’t have anything further unless you do. Okay. Well, thank you very much for a great presentation. Thank you very much. Okay. So we go to item number 5, review the library programs held in February and March and discuss commissioner outreach opportunities. Yes, thank you very much, Chair Sabatini. So this is our standing agenda item that we have for each meeting, and it’s really a chance to tee up the outreach discussion, look at the next 2 months of events, so we try and provide that calendar going forward. I think it’s also a good time to talk about those programs and events, answer questions. I think the more you know about them, the better you’re able to share in the community as well.

So I think just, you know, we’ve seen this report probably 4 or 5 times. I’ll just kind of open it up to commissioner comments, questions, so we can bring you can bring back the same comments and, you know, we can dive a little bit further about opportunities for outreach, what that would look like, having a task at hand if you’re there for an event or program. So, yeah, I think you know, I don’t know, Tara, if you wanna open it up for comments and questions. Are you going to put the Oh, we certainly can. Yeah. I hadn’t thought of doing that, but thank you. Oh. Yeah. It is in your packet, but we can definitely load it up 1 quick second. Sorry.

I just never opened my computer today. It may just take us a second because we will have to go online and go into the packet. Okay. Oh, did you? I’m gonna look with her. Okay. Does not oh, Sharon need 1? Or Oh. I’ll get those shoes there. I have parts of it.

You do. I don’t need to say it. Yeah. That’s good. We’re excited. It’s Monday. Yeah. It’s good. You’re right on. So where’s Sunday?

Oh, Sunday’s over here. Okay. I literally just changed my calendar. It’s been a week to do this, and I was like, oh, god. I’m part of a trend. So now now it doesn’t. Is this February? Is this February? Yeah. That’s what I when I first looked at it, I’m gonna be at the film club looking at, I think, the baby story time.

Oh, they don’t mean Or any person. I think it’s both, I think. Ma’am. Oh, you just had a couple. Thank you. So, Roberta, you need 1? 1 last week. Oh, well. Yeah. We’re we found this, but it’s fine.

I’m not I’m not sure. Oh, well, okay. So does anyone else need 1? I think now we have a copy. Do you guys, want a copy? We’re almost there. Oh. Okay. Okay. Cool.

Thank you. It’s like a paper. Okay. Thank you. Yes. It is. Do you actually show the movies at the film club, or do they watch them before they get there? And is it in person? It’s in person. We used to just have a discussion and not show the film.

Isn’t that right, Jeff? That’s correct. Yes. And now we we do show them. Do you know what the do you know what the film is in February? Sorry. It’s an Eddie Murphy movie. I just I can’t think of the name right now. Okay. Just curious.

It’s on our home page. I’ll look at it real quick here. It’s okay. I did see it somewhere. Alright. I’ll look up the movie. I’m sorry, I’m not sure how to make it. It it’s fine. I think we all have a copy now. We would have loaded it up earlier.

Yeah. No, my my fault, I just And this adult puzzle game meet up, is this a new 1? I I knew Roberta knew about it, but I I don’t remember seeing it. Was the memory cafe. Yes. This was us pivoting and and using community feedback, to convert or, I guess, pivot this into a more inclusive, puzzle and game meet up. We have the memory kits, we have the Mahjong, sets, we have tons of different games, chess, risk, saboteur, you know, tons of different games that are, to be more inclusive there. We just need more humans. The film is Hollywood Shuffle, by the way. Hollywood Shuffle is the film.

Oh, okay. Sometimes it just starts slow and Yeah. It’s early yet. Is it advertised at the senior center? We do advertise at senior center. Yep. And there are memory kits at the senior center as well that, folks can check out. When we moved the time also, it it had been on the weekend, and then we got feedback that maybe people might be more available during the week. Mhmm. Because originally, it was for it was for people who needed, like, it was memory care related.

So we thought that there would be opportunity maybe for caregivers to come Mhmm. As well. But then we got feedback about how the weekend was a little bit tough for that. So now we moved it, so it’s a little bit it’s a little different. Yeah. Finding a time has been, a challenge. We have, I was reaching out to, adults with developmental disability groups, but we do realize that they visit the library during our story times. So we’re trying to figure out a way to, meet the needs there. Yeah. I went to the I went to the Ivy, whatever the Ivy is up on up at Stoneridge and and Foothill, and I talked to the person there.

And she was saying, well, the problem with the weekends is that they don’t have the vehicles, and they don’t sometimes have you know, that’s not when the caretakers have the opportunity to bring them places. So we were kind of talking about that. Now, I don’t know, it might be a different issue. Okay. So at this point you’re looking for volunteers or just people thoughts on what Oh, yes. We would always like volunteers. So if you are interested, you know, please just, you know, send me a quick email, phone call, you know, whatever is easier for you. And just, you know, let me know what time what event when you’d like to come. We could definitely set up some tabling there for some outreach and put some things out. I think some programs like film club, if you it’s really more ideal to come before the program starts.

So that, you know and really the busier the program, the more people you’re going to meet. So, you know, something like right before story time, if you get a chance, if, you know, there’s parents waiting outside, for instance. Really the big ones would be like a, you know, a big presentation over the summer, like at the magic show, that sort of thing. I think that’s where Roberta and I were 1 day, and it was a good way to meet people and answer some library questions. You know, I think it depends on how busy people are, if they’re trying to, you know, kind of, like, wrangle their kids, and, you know, and how easy is it for them to kind of connect. We’ve had a lot of luck at Gingerbread. That was probably 1 of the best outreach efforts I was a part of. I went with, our former commissioner, Sonia? Ray? Oh.

Yes. I was trying to remember who went with me. And it was really neat because we did take our iPads, and we were able to kinda show them the website and how to sign up for an ecard, so we did get some sign ups that way, which we love which I love. And then also talked a little bit about how to find the calendar on the website and see what you know, the times for things. And, there were mothers there who were new to the community, which that was really good, a a good way to meet people. And because they were there before gingerbread got out, they were kind of standing around waiting for a little bit. You know, they’re excited for their kids to get out. It’s, like, you know, sort of a gathering space. Lily used to work there and knows that it’s it’s kind of a a neat time. So in terms of, for our library programs, Paws to Read is another really good 1.

So before Paws to Read starts in the 30 minutes prior, that would be a really good time to be there and kind of meet some community members. In terms of things to do, Jeff, you worked Paws to Read. Is there a task, or would you say it’d be more of an out a true outreach? We couldn’t use sign up volunteer. Register signing or sorry. Folks that have registered, we sign them in, give them name tags. So that that is a task that we’ve had difficulty filling with a volunteer. Oh, that’s good to know. Yeah. So Yeah.

Yes. I I do see the benefit of having, you know, a task to do and then wearing your commissioner badge. I think that that is a nice connection. And I believe most of our commissioners have already gone through our volunteer process. But if you haven’t, I’d be happy to help walk you through that. If you’d like to become a volunteer, we would just ask anyone who does more routine volunteering, does go through the volunteer process. And that involves there’s an application, we do have the live scan fingerprinting, we set that up for you. We have mobile fingerprinting, we also have a place at Livermore you can go, we pay for it. And then also, I believe it’s oh, there’s a, harassment prevention training as well for volunteers. It’s online.

It’s fairly easy. So the 1 drawback to doing outreach at these programs is they’ve already figured out something about the library because they’re showing up. And I just wonder, is there any other outreach Mhmm. That you would want us to do or that you’ve thought of, or if anyone else has any ideas of how to reach people in the community? That’s a great discussion. So maybe at other community events. Yeah. I know when the weather’s nice, at some point, we people went to the farmer’s market on Saturday. Yes. Yes.

And I remember there was 1 time during the summer, there was a arts and crafts thing at 1 of the local parks, and that was another time. You know, I walked through there and, you know, there were a lot of people that were interested in talking about libraries and things like that because they had their kids there. So there was an opportunity. So I don’t remember what event that was, but those kind of things, which are not like you said, they’re not in the library. They’re coming at it from some other way. They live nearby or whatever. That’s kind of a nice opportunity. That’s kind of what I was thinking with the mobile vehicle. We could meet the vehicle there. Yes.

So that was the people who have never been to the library, it’s because it’s hard for them to get there. Mhmm. So we might be able to be able to leave the call. And I think you both have just encapsulated the vision of the mobile outreach vehicle is to provide outreach and get to places where, you know, you’ll find people who have not you know, who don’t regularly use the library, haven’t been in a while, never heard of the library. Hard to believe. So we are very excited. We will be bringing that topic to the commission, that we are getting a little closer. So, just a sneak peek. We’re going through some of the final stages. There was, you know, you know, the vehicle is, you know, not in California, so it and it had to go through some California requirement inspection.

Few adjustments that need to be made to that and some, adaptations to the sort of the wrap around the vehicle, and we’re setting up a place for it to be stored. So, you know, as we get closer, we will bring a presentation. And then I think tying tying that in, like you said, going out to meet it, that’s a great idea. If you’re interested, you could probably go on the vehicle too if you were really if that was compelling or you could drive out. We were even talking about this summer having it at the parks, you know, bringing the vehicle, you know, and incorporating it into those park activities. Any ideas from the student world? Not to put you on the spot, but of some outreach. You know, I always think about reaching youth a little bit more too. I personally think that I went to the event, I forget I think it was Juneteenth. And, was yeah.

It was was it was 1 in the summer. I forget which 1 it was. It might have been Juneteenth. But, I wanted to echo what Chiras Abatini said. Having that task is really important to have something for us to do because you can stand I’ve stood at many tables and I’ve talked about things. You can stand at a table, but realistically, you’re not gonna get any work done unless someone comes to you. Right? And so you need to actually go to the people in order for you to make an impact. Because if I see if if there’s someone like my age with a really short attention span, they’re gonna see a table and they’re gonna see someone standing at the table and they’re gonna be like, oh, that person wants to talk to me. They’re gonna keep talking and talking.

Like, having I’m this is a you for sure. I appreciate the honesty. Right? It’s true though. So that that gives it makes it kind of discouraging for the that kid to go up unless there’s something at that table for them that’s there’s something in it for them, you know, like, oh, there’s a game. Oh, there’s this. Not just like like information. Like information I understand for the parents. I think for parents, parents are always looking for information for their children. Right?

That’s something else. But I I guess you asked from the student perspective, having activities or, I I tabled as the Teen Poet Laureate at 1 of the events. It was the Asian American Pacific Islander Month event, And we did have activities at that 1. And that 1 I saw more kids, not specifically my table, but the tables around. They had, like, art activities. They had these painting books that were really cool. Just arts and crafts like that. That tends to attract a lot of kids specifically. So stuff like that. And then the those other tables had, like, students that were volunteering with them.

So through that program and they were like, you know, having conversations with other, like, younger kids. And I think that’s cool because the younger kids are looking up to these I know that’s not possible for our outreach, I’m just saying, it’s just cool to have someone, who you can kind of relate to or look up to, and through those engaging activities. That’s something that we can definitely add to our tabling efforts if we’re specifically talking about tabling. For the mobile the mobile vehicle, I actually I’ve been looking forward to the mobile vehicle for like every single meeting. I’m like, is it made? Is it done yet? Because growing up, I had a mobile library vehicle where I used to live, and it was like the highlight of the library. Like, I used to not go to the library that much, but that vehicle came to my neighborhood every Monday or something, and we would go and we would check out books, and we would talk to the person in the vehicle. So that I like that idea because having a commissioner in that vehicle or having a commissioner going to an event with that vehicle is really, really special because those are kids that maybe don’t have access to the library as often And you being able to talk to them, talk to them about what the library can offer, 1, it encourages them to, you know, bug their parents to take them to the library. And number 2, it gives them an outlet to learn more about it.

And so that’s just personal experience speaking right there, but, yeah, those are some ideas. Thank you so much. This is so invigorating. I just have to say thank you. I love the connection between the vehicle and having it. It gives a sense of purpose too. You know, I feel the same as staff. You know, it’s something that you can connect directly to automatically. It’s something really cool for the community to come see. Can I ask where your vehicle looking forward to?

Yes. Need something positive to look for. Absolutely. It’s probably useful, at some of the events if we’re working outreach to have books that I mean, for example, if commissioner Dillard’s suggestion about having commissioners be on the vehicle or at other events to have, like, books for that age group that they can suggest. I mean, I I know the books that, like, my daughter read at that age group, you know, so to speak. But but it might be nice, you know, if there’s a a purpose driven event maybe to have books that are, you know, very useful for that particular whatever that cohort is. And I was thinking about that because of the Memory Cafe for while we had the books out, and that that was kind of useful. I was thinking to maybe maybe in the idea of outreach as chair Sabatini suggested, maybe we need someone needs to go, maybe me, whoever, needs to go to the senior center and and volunteer to be there when they’re having activities to talk about the fact that there’s this opportunity to play games at the library. And maybe maybe that’s where the outreach has to happen to attract the people to go to the program. I mean, because that’s, you know, that’s not as as, you know, once they’re there at the library already, like you said, they’re they’re already there.

It’s we have to go someplace else to get them to go to the library. So maybe that’s 1 of the things we should do. Well, thank you very much. I have an idea to maybe partner with the Firehouse Theater, like, because they have a lot of shows, and people are waiting if we are able to, like, set up a table. And then every quarter, they have, like, a kid’s show where the kids take a class, and then they perform at the firehouse. And then that’s another way to bring people in if they are okay with it. I’m sure they would be, yes, that’s another area I work with is the theaters Okay. Luckily. Are you okay with it, Leah? Yes.

I think so we have had, civic arts commissioners do go to those events as well. They don’t tend to table, you know, just a different style. They tend to wear their badges and kinda mingle in the in the lobby, which, you know, it’s a it’s a different experience. There is not a whole lot of space. I do have to say if it’s when you’re talking about the PYTC shows, the the Pleasanton Youth Theatre Company shows, those shows mostly sell out, particularly if it’s a small space and we don’t have the Amador Theatre anymore, for the main stage shows. So I would be concerned about just, like, space considerations unless it was outdoors. But, you know, that’s definitely something I can speak with a civic arts manager about, seeing you know, even perhaps kind of a collaboration between the 2 commissions because we have worked together a few times. You know, on the team poet laureate is a collaborative effort. Little Free Libraries was a collaborative effort of library and civic arts. So I like the idea.

And the bench. Yes. The the public art selection subcommittee. I think doing outside would be good. I mean, it’s a nice outdoor space as long as the weather’s It’s been so cold, I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah, kind of, piggybacking off that idea, we could explain to the young students that are there to participate in the musical or whatever that the library has CDs and DVDs of musicals, and we have sheet music. And, you know, give them that resource to expand their interest in musicals. Yeah.

I would say if anyone is interested and if they see a show they’d like to go to outreach, please let me know. And just reach out ahead of time. We’ll see what we can do. These are all great ideas. And our vinyl collection. And our vinyl collection. Okay. I I just have 1 more question, and this is a this is more of an unfortunate question, but I love to see all the programming that we have. We know that the budget is going to be under review. Do you guys have a plan for or how you’ve sort of structured the analysis of that to figure out if some things are not gonna be funded.

How how is your your priority structured? You know, what are you thinking about in terms of assessing that? We haven’t, engaged in that effort at this point. I think, you know, it still there are several meetings left, you know, and I think all commissioners received the email, at least I’m hoping so, for the town hall meeting on Tuesday, upcoming budget topic budget workshops as well as council meetings, to discuss the fiscal year ’20 ‘5, ’20 ‘6 budget. At this point, we just continue to analyze each program. I think, you know, it’s similar work, you know, but it would just be you know, we would just take that, you know, work and analyze it differently. So what we’re doing right now, everything we’ve been doing for the past few years, I think we’ve really, really fine tuned, like, our metrics. You know, we are measuring programs in different ways. We’re measuring services different ways. We’re collecting more analytics.

That we’ve been using up to date just to even analyze gap areas, look at programs that we may wanna expand, sometimes pause, sometimes cancel, or sometimes start anew. So I think that same lens that we use would just be used very differently. But thank you for bringing up an important topic, and I do encourage everyone to attend those meetings. Yeah. And I I saw that, and that’s what made me think, you know, there must be some thought going into the idea of looking at all of this because, eventually, there’s gonna be something that’s gonna happen who knows what. But people are gonna have to take a look at it and think about it. So I just I don’t know if that’s timing wise where that fits. But I think we also you know, the last program plan we brought, we they’re designed to be iterative. You know, we call it a living document because we do make changes, and we make changes. Sometimes we’ve made changes to add things or enhance things.

So I would assume, you know, unfortunately, if that is the case, we would need to do the same to adjust. Okay. We’ll move on. Item number 6, are there any reports on conferences, seminars attended by anyone? Okay. Item 7, teen poet laureate subcommittee update. So we had our last, no, we’re gonna have our last meeting third Tuesday this month. And what we have been working on is getting that recommendation. So in our last meeting, we, all kind of collaborated on what we wanted to finalize for the recommendation. And so now it’s just a matter of everyone, contributing their own parts to it.

And so we were gonna work with, Leah and Rachel to compile that recommendation. I actually haven’t heard back from that, but I submitted my my little section, which was like the activity programming or why, like, why the Poet Laureate program is important. So I’ll just I’ll just highlight a couple of things, but I think in the next commission meeting, we’re gonna have, like, the official recommendation. Is that right? Correct. So, at the next meeting, we will be taking it to both I think we’re gonna need to take it separately just because of the meeting timing. But we’re gonna we’re going to take it to Civic Arts Commission and Library Commission. It’s a joint effort. And then just hear from, our representative and just, the staff report that you’ll have that month will have a summary of your final meeting and the analysis and the recommendations, and that will be for the commission to consider. Obviously, any recommendation coming forward is subject to the budget process in terms of and we’ll we will be probably outlining in more detail, as we go along, as we know more, to be quite honest.

So, but yes, we are really grateful for the work. I’ve seen some sneak peeks of the notes. I’m really excited to actually meet with the group I haven’t met yet. I’ve met you, but I haven’t met the group holistically to hear, just the things you’re exploring and looking at other libraries, getting ideas, which is really neat. Other agencies too, because teen poets are run through sometimes arts groups, sometimes libraries, just depending, it sounds like. So, just a couple of highlights. We are looking at, first of all, migrating from work using teen poet laureate to youth poet laureate in accordance with, the national organization Urban Word. Now with that comes, a lot of some small implications including some talks about the budget, because you do have to pay a fee to enroll your chapter into that, national organization. But I think there’s a lot of benefits from that organization because you do I think we’ve talked about this before. You get, opportunities to apply to, like, the state and the national level, which is really important.

I thought it was really important. And then there’s some future goals we talked about, not in this recommendation, but to kind of hint at the fact that we want to have this program to be entirely youth led at some point, because it is for the youth. I’m just trying to see what the most important parts were here. And then just to come the to not lose the youth voice when writing this recommendation or, you know, implementing this program in the future because, we all kind of agreed on the fact that past teen poet laureates had echoed the sentiments of, you know, them not being able to fully do the programs that they wanted because they felt as if, you know, this is not only from me, but, like, the programs that they wanted to do, sometimes it was difficult to do them because of different reasons, you know, booking rooms and whatnot. But, the we were given amazing liaisons with the library. Shout out Chris Oda, he was amazing. But, kind of increase that capacity and allow for the teen poet laureate or youth poet laureate to define what they’re gonna do. And so make it a little bit more bridal, make it so that they have the support from the national organization as well as the city, to kind of explore their own ventures into poetry and do more, non conventional things that the Teen Poet Laureate grama hasn’t done in the past. And so that’s that’s kind of what the main, emphasis of this recommendation is going to be. You guys will see it all next meeting, which will be my last meeting.

But I hope we can I can get that 1 through? And yeah, looking forward to that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. How about a Friends of the Library update? Yes. So as you know, we have our spring book sale coming up March 20 to the 20 third, and you all were given cards, and I think Jeff is gonna bring up the, flyer so that anybody at home can see the days and times. It’s going to be held in the large room, a large meeting room at the library, as usual. So all the specific details about the book sale can be found on the website for the Friends of the Pleasanton Library.

Last fall, in September, we earned over 17,000 which is, I think, our new high, and as most of you should know, or do know, that, all our funds that we raise, either through the book sale, or a little bookstore in the library, or or our online online, books book sales, all that money goes to the library, and we support those programs that Jeff was talking about. We are a major factor in supporting those programs. We are still accepting donations, so if you have some gently used books, CDs, DVDs, albums, games, puzzles, stuffed animals, we find just about anything. You can either drop them off at the library during regular library hours, or we also have, volunteers standing by on Mondays and Thursdays at Building 157 Main Street, right next to Vicks, so you could drop them off, and the hours are listed on the website. Can I ask Sharon, you still need donations quite a bit, correct? Yes, I still do need donations. I think their friends are down a little bit. Yeah, we’re a little bit low. Normally we like about 600 boxes, which is a lot. But So we’re a better option than savers.

You can also pull right up just like you would there, and, you know, call ahead or just show up. You want a receipt. Yeah. We are still looking for volunteers, and we’ve got a good start here. Our commissioners, have a good outreach opportunity if they volunteer at the book sale, and be sure to wear your badge. And maybe we could even set up a separate table for the, commissioners with the banner. We could do that. I think traditionally Local library commissioner. Have we put up a table just with, like, friends’ information, like, with, like, brochures to sign up? We could just have it on the check out table.

On the check out table. We could do a little table I think that’s right. Next to that. And then, yeah, if you want you want to do a little outreach from there. So I did get some volunteers. This has to go this way. And there are opportunities either setting up, getting ready for the book sale, or doing the sales, which is really a lot of fun, because you get to interact with all the kids excited about their little finds, and, or you can, help tidy up the tables, make sure the merchandise looks in good order. Then we also need help at the end for cleanup, and so there’s lots of different things you can do. Let’s see, and then let’s see, we also have a, the annual general membership meeting scheduled for Sunday, April 27. Time to be determined.

But that’s just our, annual event where we just do an overview of who the friends are, what we do, how we contribute to the library, and get people to volunteer, sign up. So I think that’s about it. Oh, I did wanna mention we have, I guess, over a hundred volunteers that help with the book sale. So that sounds like a lot, but we need a lot a lot of people to help out in every way. So thank you. Thank you. Mhmm. You you, also take the I noticed that there were a lot of people who had brought bags, you know, to take the books, and that was really useful. I worked the cash register for a while, and people were always you know, they had their, you know, 42 books, and it was really helpful. Those bags were you know, people had donated them.

Through Saturday, you can bring your own bags. But Sunday, you buy the bag that the friends provide, and well, you you buy it when you leave, but it’s $7 for a whole bag of books on Sunday. But people had don’t people had donated, like, the grocery, you know? Like They were down yeah, they were down underneath. And there was some question as to whether there was a price tag associated with them. For a while, I was told, no, they were free, and another few times people said they were, yeah, 50¢ or something. Oh, yeah. Those, I think, are But people don’t think about donate but people don’t think about donating them, but a lot of us have more of those than we actually need, and it’s kind of useful to have them there, I think. Sure. That’s a good point.

Yeah. Yeah. It was a really nice thing Mhmm. The last time. Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

So, we have a list of future agenda items. We already said that the teen poet laureate program would be in April, probably not the outreach vehicle. Someday. You know, you never know. You never know. What do we know when the privacy policy’s coming back? April. Oh, okay. And what about the library collection development plan? Do we have a time on that?

So we were looking at April. I’m just going to see if it will be available at that time. And then just personally, your liaison has been working with 2 commissions, so I’ll be cycling off the second commission. So I’m hoping to do that by April as well. So we’ll just see. As you know, I worked with the Human Services Commission, and we have been deep in the, human services housing and human services grant process. So, we work with, the city in the past has provided general funding as well as, in a larger part, CDBG federal funding, low income housing funding, as well as, home funds from the county. And those, help to serve, you know, the greatest need in our community. And so the commissioners, their key role on that commission is actually to evaluate those projects, and they do it collectively with 2 other cities now. So we’ve been working with the cities of Dublin and Livermore.

We have a big meeting on Tuesday, and then we have a grant review process. And, you know, that that process, it’s, very important for the integrity of it, but it’s something that takes, you know, extensive, I would say, hundreds of hours, to work through. So, you know, I will say once I have cycled off that, I’ll be fully committed to the library commission, and we’ll be back with the privacy policy. Collection development plan would be nice to bring. For that 1, it wouldn’t begin until July 1, so I do believe we have some lead time on that. So and I’ll be working with staff on that to see when the information is available as well. Does anyone, want to see any other additional items on the agenda? This time? Yeah. I don’t have anything to add.

Okay. Well, thank you, everyone.

Author

Tom Wong

I am passionate about mentoring minority and at-risk youth and their parents, solving complex problems, and helping others achieve their potential. I aim to give back to the community by serving as a voice for parents, children, and the conservatives of Alameda County.