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A Most Inventive Tlme! iEnniaf County qf Los Angeles Public Library Ju/y 1992-June 1994 7 1/----~--~---~-~ / Gloria Molina Supervisor 1st District Gloria Molina Supervisor 1 st District Kenneth Hahn Supervisor 2nd District Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Supervisor 2nd District Edmund D. Edelman Supervisor 3rd District Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Supervisor 2nd District Elected in December 1 992 Edmund D. Edelman Supervisor 3rd Distnct Deane Dana Supervisor 4th District Deane Dana Supervisor 4th Distnct Michael D. Antonovich Supervisor 5th District Michael D. Antoncvich Supervisor 5th District 1992-93 Board 1993-94 Board PRESENT BOARD-1994-95 l-R Supe1Yisors: Michael D. Antonovich, 5th District; Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd District; Gloria Molina, !st District, Chair; Yvonne Brathwaite Bwke, 2nd Distn"ct; Deane Dana, 4th Distnct With regard to financing, the past two years have been among the most historic in the County of Los Angeles Public Library's 82-year history. Business indicators held remarkably strong despite an abrupt, unavoidable, and permanent shift of half of the Library's primary source of revenue, the property tax, by the state of California. The staff's strong customer focus and dedication to provision of library service provided the magic ingredients that assured business viability. Everyone pulled together to provide the best service within very challenging circumstances. Service hours were reduced in over half of the 87 libraries to 14 hours per week, no ~--Ls/ Library budget was available for purchase of materials, and there was layoff of over 300 staff members which, when combined with attrition, left hundreds of positions vacant. When legislative efforts failed to provide benefit assessment authority for financing libraries, we scrambled to find another option to provide ongoing, replacement revenue in the magnitude of $30 million annually .... a very tough challenge within California's very limited statutory authority. We succeeded, despite an impossibly short, tight time frame, in establishing a community facilities district. Additionally, one-time income from grants and donations was increased by 211 %. The Board of Supervisors, staff, volunteers. Local 660, customers, Foundation, press and media, 52 cities served. and 61 Friends of the Library groups all pulled together. Fund-raising initiatives, such as County Libraries are Worth It to keep doors from closing and Count Me In to backfill materials budgets, stirred thousands of people to come forward to help the Library. Aggressive grant seeking paid off and kept programs, such as literacy, from closing. Fee-based services such as Audio Express and FYI fortunately had strong enough years to keep them viable. Inventiveness, surpassing even the normally high levels in this Library, realigned the way we did business. Ten libraries were closed permanently to save ongoing rent. to provide one-time income from the sale of three, and to consolidate resource strength in the remaining libraries. A product, Good Reads, was launched for sale in the private sector to produce income . Several services were consolidated. Staff worked at multiple libraries each week to assure that all areas retained service hours. And all this was accomplished despite drastic loss of the normal workforce and several major natural disasters including the Northridge Earthquake. In a time when the hot management book of the year was "Reinventing Government" (by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler). the County Library was reinvented. Soaring creativity and determination to serve equipped the County staff to overcome very tough circumstances. Sandra F. Reuben, County Librarian Revenue 1992/93 1993/94 CHANGE Requirements SALARIES & EMPLOYEE BENEFITS $36,589,000 $31,580,000 (5,009,000) SERVICES & SUPPLIES 23,800,000 14,648,000 (9,152,000) OTHER CHARGES 3,734,000 1,850,000 (1,884,000) FIXED ASSETS Fund Balance 16.2% EQUIPMENT 21,000 257,000 236,000 Cancel Resen,es STRUCTURES 2,568,000 1,100,000 (1,468,000) 0.4% OTHER FINANCING USES 90,000 90,000 0 GENERAL RESERVES 11,000 0 (11,000) RESERVE EOillTY TRANSFER 400,000 0 (400,000) Property Taxes APPROPRIATION FOR CONTINGENCY 1,793,000 5,158,000 3,365,000 TOT AL REOillREMENTS 69,006,000 54,683,000 (14,323,000) Available Finance FUND BALANCE / $4,815,000 $8,854,000 4,039,000 REVENUE 8,541,000 15,682,000 Revenue 7,141,000 28.7% CANCEL RESERVES 525,000 204,000 (321,000) PROPERTY TAXES 25,733,000 29,943,000 4,210,000 AUGMENTATION FUNDS 29,392,000 0 (29,392,000) TOT AL AVAILABLE FUNDS: 69,006,000 54,683,000 (14,323,000) BUDGETED POSITIONS: 860.0 6682 (191.8) The Malibu Wik!fire November 2-5, 1993 "l am inside the Malibu Library sending this e-mail to you. 1 did not see any damage inside or outside the building ... lots of dust on the floor but there doesn·t seem to be damage to the collection. The smell is terrible. There must be hundreds of fire trucks parked around the Civic Center and firemen are resting on the front lawn. Thank you signs are hanging on the homes which are still standing." Evelyn MacMorres. Regional Administrator 1992 Aftermath qf Los Angeles Civil Unrest A healing process was necessary after the civil unrest of April 29, 1992. Though the 36 riot-closed libraries were quickly reopened, staff and public emotions took longer to resolve. The County Library positioned quickly around ways to gear up to make a difference in the healing process ..... literacy, homework help centers, career information, intracultural centers, and cultural awareness training for the entire staff. Ameni:ans spend mneilimes as much"iJnlwme vi+ogames ($1f6 bz1lion) 414Stheydo pnschool library 1993 Wiklfire / ~I \ I On November 2-3, 1993, the Malibu Library, threatened when the devastating fire came within yards of the civic center building. remained intact. Staff, evacuated much earlier in the day, were safe. Though we did not have fire damage, this library was very smoky, requiring a thorough cleaning before opening. The County of Los Angeles Public Library is a special fund department of the County of Los Angeles. Because it does not provide service to all of the County of Los Angeles, it has not normally received annual funding as part of the Board of Supervisors' budget from the County's General Fund. Neither does the Library receive ongoing financing from any of the 52 cities served. Rather, the County Library is financed primarily by a dedicated share of all property taxes collected within its 3,000 square mile service area. Monies thus collected may only be spent for the provision of library services by the County of Los Angeles Public Library. Between 1992 and 1994, the County of Los Angeles Library experienced its most challenging revenue losses than at any time in its 82-year history. The State of California permanently shifted half, or $30 million annually, from the County Library's budget. Primarily this came as the result of the State abolishing the Special District Augmentation Fund, a financing mechanism which had been put in place in 1979 following Proposition 13 to help the State's reeling special districts. Credit for keeping service remarkably strong, despite severe cuts in hours and materials, goes to the creative staff of the County of Los Angeles Public Library. They worked several locations, created increasingly cost-effective ways to deliver service, and worked on fund-raising and legislative efforts. Hats off to a caring, committed staff! Budget Perspective In 1992-1993 We managed the very difficult tasks necessary to assure that we were not only able to manage and make ends meet in 1992-93, the beginning of major property tax shifts from local government to the State of California, but we also positioned to brace for what proved to be a drastically worsening scenario in 1994-95. Aiming to increase annual revenue while streamlining workloads, a staff committee composed and the Board of Supervisors approved adjustments in various fees charged by the Library. There were significant reductions in the materials budget, belt tightening in across-the-board expenditures including contracts, balancing of service hours reductions to assure the greatest customer access, and closure of 10 libraries. Staff and supporters felt the power in pulling together for a common purpose .... namely the survival of library service in our County. In 1993-94 Following a permanent annual property tax shift of $30 million - 50% of the Library's revenue-to the State of California, there was continual effort to locate a source or sources of replacement annual revenue. The County Board of Supervisors had very few options available to provide annual replacement for the lost $30 million. Aggressive legislative efforts were made which would have put in place the statutory authority for local library governing boards to use benefit assessments to finance libraries. Unfortunately, for the second legislative session in a row, the Governor vetoed the bill. Concentrated effort kept all 87 remaining facilities open, though over half were open only 14 hours each week The entire materials budget, normally $8 million, was eliminated in order to meet payroll Instead, grants and fund-raising drives were used to attract onetime financing for purchase of materials. These efforts succeeded in amassing $803,000, allowing us to continue periodical subscriptions and purchase key titles. Especially inventive was a concept to approach professional associations having annual conferences in Los Angeles. From these conventions, we were successful in attracting donations of exhibit books, new publications, valued at over $500,000. When it became apparent that the benefit assessment legislation was unlikely to be enacted into law, staff turned to County Counsel to comb existing law to see what financing possibilities, if any, existed beyond those which required a 2/3 vote. The Board decided to use a mechanism known as a Community Facilities District (CFD) which, following a public hearing, they put in place on August 30, 1994. Sixteen of our 52 cities informed the Board of Supervisors that they wished to be included in the financing district. The CFD would improve service ~t over half of the 87 county libraries and would bnng m nearly $16 million in new, ongoing revenue. It was anticipated that additional cities would join the CFD in future years, allowing their city councils mor~ ~ime than available this year to make then dec1s10n Several cities which did not opt to join the CFD this time around, did pledge grants totalling $1.5 million to augment the service hours affordable through then share of remaining property tax dollars. Postscript: In October, 1994, when unusual midyear County budget deliberations were scheduled following news that the County's year-end figures showed more revenue than had been anticipated, the Board re-considered the CFD. The fee structure, which had been anchored at $28.50 per year per single family residence, was reduced to zero. Instead, the Board granted one-time dollars, some from the General Fund reserve and some from increasing General Fund revenue estimates, amounting to $22.5 million to enable returning all County Libraries to full service for the duration of 1994-95. The CFD mechanism was left in place should the Board wish to utilize it in future years. Together with $500,000 which the Board had allocated for materials earlier in the year, the General Fund allocation in 1994-95 amounted to $23 million - an approach to backfilling the $30 million lost. Legi.slative Front . . In 1992-93, the County Library's primary leg1slat1ve focus to provide libraries with replacement ongoing funds sufficient to replace those lost in the State tax shift was on Senate Bill 566, introduced by Senator David Roberti. Los Angeles County co-sponsored this important bill with the California Library Association. SB 566 authorized a local agency, such as a city or county, to use benefit assessment financing for library services. Following an intensive statewide effort to support this legislation, it was passed by both the Senate and the Assembly, but vetoed by Governor Wilson in October, 1993. After making key changes intended to address the Governor's concerns, Senator Roberti reintroduced the bill in February, 1994 as SB 1448. This bill was also approved by both the Senate and Assembly, but vetoed by the Governor in September, 1994. Other important legislation supported by the County Library included Senate Bill 1648 (Dills). This bill protected property tax funded libraries from future losses resulting from state property tax shifts, and was signed into law by the Governor in 1994. Also signed was SB 544, a bill which adjusted local match for Public Library Funds to mirror the loss experienced by a library in the recent tax shift Thanks to this law, the County Library contmued to qualify for annual state monies of about $700,000. Other attempts to provide statewide financial rellef for libraries, such as SB 1666 (Mello), were not successful. However, there was a high visibility of library-related bills in Sacramento and extensive support by library and community groups dunng the previous two year legislative session. County ef Los Angeles Public Library 1992-93 1993-94 Size - Square Miles 3,066 3,062 Contin~ency Total Budget 69,006,000 54,683,000 10 0 Population Served 3,206,370 3,320,330 Fixed Assets 2% Annual Circulation 15,874,726 11,510,319 Other Charges 3% In-Library Use of Materials 5,842,234 4,236,000 Registered Borrowers 1.431, 195 1,583,939 Reference Questions 8,803,454 6,476,192 Staff Full & Part Time 1.787 1,170 Salaries & Benefits Volunteers 2,341 716 58% Friends of the Library Groups 60 62 Service Fadlities Regional & Community Libraries 84 84 Institutional Libraries 1 1 Bookmobiles 3 3 Literacy Centers 13 14 Gifts Friends of the Libraries $ 251,186 $ 358,516 SeNices & Supplies Cities 212,219 202,127 27% County Library Foundation 79,887 79,095 Organizations 37,912 672,948 Individuals 274,384 396,879 Total Gifts $ 855,588 $1,679,565 SERVICE MILESTONES With the substantial revenue loss incurred by the Library and as follow-through to edge into resource allocation standards recommended by the Equity Study of 1992 and the Financial Study of 1991. it was clear that our Library needed to reposition its remaining resources. In order to serve large populations in newly developing areas, we needed to establish service points. With lowered book budgets, a mix of new materials and collection shifted from other county libraries filled the new shelves. Existing staff transferred from other areas to cover new services. As example, the existing bookmobile service ceased in Westlake Village and in the Lake Los Angeles areas with the budget shifting to operation of the new libraries. Hacienda Heights Re-opened A festive ceremony on August 29, 1992, marked the re-opening of the refurbished Hacienda Heights Library. Following a formal program in which Supervisor Dana recognized the contributions of the active Friends of the Library group, customeroriented staff, and community activists, the curious community poured into the "new" library. The bright, white paint, new carpet, and newly constructed and positioned reference and circulation desks made the same 10,000 square feet seem much more spacious. Lake Los Angeles Library Opened The Lake Los Angeles Library, was dedicated on May 30, 1992. This leased facility replaced the High Desert Mobilibrary which the community had outgrown and at the same time helped establish equitable service to this unincorporated community in the Antelope Valley On the first day open, which preceded the dedication date, 185 individuals registered for library cards. The staff was happily registering people at the rate of 50 per hour! First week circulation exceeded 3,500. Westlake Village Library Dedicated Hundreds attended the dedication of the Westlake Village Library despite chilly weather and threatening clouds on March 27, 1993. Over 200 people were registered and 693 books were circulated within the opening hours. The 6,000 sq. ft. space was creatively designed to give a feeling of spaciousness. The glass-partitioned children's area was given quite a workout and was swarming with children for the duration of the day. They seemed to move right into the specially designed Birdfish chairs .... stuffed interlocking parts which become different shapes for seating. DID YOU KNOW: Public libran·es receive less than 1 percent ef all tax dollars and are 1 used by more than 50 percent ef the population. ,__ _____ _ Lake Los Angeles on opening day Lancaster Library Construction Financing Our hopes for the very necessary expansion of the Lancaster Regional Library, dashed when Proposition 85 funds were not awarded, soared again. The City of Lancaster and the County of Los Angeles forged an agreement in which several county services, including the library, received capital funds through an expansion of Lancaster's Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and through the city floating necessary bonds. On October 20, 1993, community leaders, Library staff, and school students met at the future site of the new Lancaster Library. Following remarks by city officials and the County Librarian, attendees were treated to the unveiling of the building's architectural model. This Library, expected to be two years in construction, should be ready to open just as we emerge with realigned financial strength. New Names In January, 1994,the Maywood Library was renamed the Maywood Cesar Chavez Library to honor the late Cesar Chavez, crusader for peace and justice for the California farm worker. The HIV Information Center, located at the West Hollywood Library, was renamed to honor the memory of Ron Shipton, who initiated the idea for the HIV center. His aim was to make everyone more knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS. The HIV Information Center is now known as the Ron Shipton HN Information Center. End qf an Erafor Institutional Services In July, 1993, two long-serving libraries quietly closed their doors due to budget cuts of other County departments. The patient library at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital was a budget trim made by the Health Services Department. The library at Camp Barley Flats, located at a Probation camp site, also closed at the request of the Probation Department. We now have no service to the Health Services Department and will basically serve in the Probation Department from Central Juvenile Hall, Camp Miller, and from the Challenger Memorial Youth Facility. Change for CHIPS Effective September 10, 1993, CHIPS (Consumer Health Information, Programs, and Services) ceased offering its tel-med and tel-law service. The equipment necessary to play informational tapes in response to telephone requests was beyond repair. Budget did not exist to replace the equipment. While it was unfortunate that we had to eliminate the telephone audio tape service, all other services of CHIPS still functioned. COST EFFECTIVENESS SOARS Staff committees, known as Can Do Crews, formed as a means to plan quickly for improved and increasingly cost effective service and operations. Excellent innovations resulted such as ..... Count Me in Campaign for fund-raising, better revenue generation from traditional fee structure, streamlining of the CALL information and referral service, and an equitable charging schedule for requests. With the downsizing of staff, it was imperative that remaining resources be redeployed wisely to assure customer service. A great deal of thinking preceded the following decisions which were made for longterm service strength: ■ JTJfonnation Centers' Collaboration Reduces Cost While Strengthening Service FYI, Municipal Reference, and the Business Subject Specialty Service were merged into one unit located in the Nor walk Library building. This move consolidated similar and related services while providing more clarity of access for customers. ■ Automated Circulation StqffTraining Staff faced new roles due to transfers and redeployment. Many needed to hone skills on the automated circulation system. The ACS training unit presented 41 classes to 419 staff to assure that they possessed excellent customer service skills. ■ Community Access Library (CALL) Line Re-invented Though CALL was forced to cut expenditures by discontinuing its telephone service in August, 1993, the valuable database was maintained. The CALL office moved to Library Headquarters. This and the move of Municipal Reference allowed us to vacate and prepare for sale the Holly Park building. This also was a beginning step for making the CALL database of community information available at all Library locations through the automated circulation system. ■ Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) Though the Library's shift from our overloaded compact disc catalog to an OPAC was delayed by lack of budget, staff refused to give up. They managed to establish, between December and March, 1994, pilot OPAC service in Calabasas, Westlake Village, Masao Satow (unincorporated area 11 near Gardena). Bell Gardens. George Nye (in Lakewood}, and La Verne Libraries using available computers from closed libraries and terminals purchased with city funds. Modest cabling and installation charges were incurred. The new online catalog has up-to-the-minute information about the over 6 million items in the Library's collections. and whether or not the items are available for use or charged out to other customers. Author, title, subject and keyword searching are also available for all current holdings of the Library. Other databases. such as information on community organizations and periodical indexes, are planned to gradually become available on the online catalog. Additionally, plans proceeded to shift 31 additional libraries to the OPAC thanks to availability of computers through an Internet grant through the State Library and by successfully receiving a County Productivity Investment Fund grant to convert our eight largest libraries. ■ Realignment in Government Publications Services In October, 1993, the U.S. Government Printing Office authorized the disbanding of three of the County Library's eleven Government Depositories .... at the Gardena, Compton, and Huntington Park Libraries. These libraries, like others, have government publications as part of their collections but are no longer "designated" centers. Designated depositories continued to operate at the Lancaster, Valencia, Carson, Culver City, Norwalk, Iacoboni, Montebello and West Covina Libraries. ■ Literacy Line Available Again Through creative Partnering One of the downsides of CALL phone service being discontinued was the dilemma of how to handle the Southern California Literacy Information Line, which held responsibility for helping multiple libraries match literacy students with tutors. Creative partnerships solved the problem. On International Literacy Day, September 8, 1994, a new phone service began to give information about literacy learning centers and to match students with tutors. The NEW Literacy Line is a bilingual literacy referral service co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the County of Los Angeles Public Library. The Times provided computer equipment and programming, the toll-free phone line, start-up costs and promotion. The County of Los Angeles Public Library will maintain and update the database of more than 700 literacy programs in Southern California. ■ Centralized Billing Functions Reduced Cost While Improving Service The automated circulation system staff corrected borrower addresses to diminish the number of returned bills for overdue charges. Of the 585,800 request and overdue notices mailed in 1992-93, 29,500 were returned to us by the Post Office with forwarding addresses or other problems. The increased accuracy of records "pays" us in smooth operation of billings, too. Front line staff was freed from hours of processing overdue correspondence and recordkeeping when the functions were shifted to AutoCAP, the centralized fee collection account at Library Headquarters. Two staff members handled nearly 4,500 accounts. AutoCAP reduced time spent on each account from 70 minutes to 9 minutes. It reduced our cost per account from $18.43 to $4.43 and freed front line staff for more availability with the public. Literacy centers match students with tutors <~-- ~ --- FISCAL YEAR OPERATING BUDGET (EXCLUDES DELINQUENCY RESERVES) OPERA TING REVENUE* OPERA TING TRANSFER FUND BALANCE I CANCEL TOTAL MATERIALS EXPENDITURES &BUDGET CAPITAL PROJECTS BUDGET MATERIAL CIRCULATION REFERENCE QUESTIONS REGISTERED BORROWERS *Includes propeny truces and augmentation fund . I .,_J. 89/90 $62.400,000 $54,490,000 0 7,868,000 $62,358,000 $ 7,700,000 $1,600,000 11,000,000 9,000,000 470,000 90/91 $66,300,000 $60,931,000 0 5,405,000 $66,336,000 $10,000,000 $ 603,000 13,600,000 7,300,000 875,000 91/92 $67,500,000 $64,546,000 0 2,976,000 $67,522,000 $ 9,000,000 $ 133,000 16,100,000 7,900,000 1,200,000 92/93 $66,400,000 $60,228,000 1,000,000 5,199,000 $66,427,000 $ 2,100,000 $ 2,968,000 15,900,000 8,800,000 1,431,000 93/94 $53,600,000 $35,937,000 8,992,000 8,654,000 $53,583,000 $ 2,300.000 $ 1,299,000 11,500,000 6,500,000 1,584,000 INNOVATION KITCHEN KEPT BUSY The County Library staff is known for its inventiveness. Never before have so many ideas been implemented as were during this most challenging time period. A tenacious staff battled to realign to sustain the maximum public service possible. Beneficial partnerships with private firms and organizations were key to keeping service strong. Among the accomplishments of which we are most proud are the following: ■ Good Reads The Good Reads database improved service and created a much-needed ongoing revenue stream. Following months of creative work. Phyllis Young, Collection Coordinator. with Steve Cohen from the County's Purchasing and Central Services Branch, developed a means for national sales of the Good Reads database, an excellent computer service to help recreational readers find their next good book to read. A partnership with private sector company, Retro Link Associates. established a needed service in addition to providing our Library with a source of ongoing funds. Retro Link will manufacture in various formats the Good Reads readers advisory database, invented by "our own" Harriet Traeger, and will market same to libraries and book stores. In addition to a lump sum payment of $50,000 to the Library, we will receive ongoing royalties of 10% of sales. a tape load to mount on our automated circulation system, and hardware for 24 public access service stations over three years. ■ FYI and the American Library Association In 1993, the Library received recognition and a beautiful plaque for the successful efforts of FYI to partner with the American Library Association to boost marketing and sales of the new edition of the FISCAL Directory. These were the words used to describe our program: "This long-term agreement to co-publish the FISCAL Directory of Fee-Based Information Services in Libraries enables the County Library to utilize the publishing, marketing, and fulfillment capabilities of one of the foremost publishers in the library field to sell a great number of directories at a greater net revenue which approached $30,000." The cooperative effort also saved the County Library approximately $35,000 in up-front marketing and distribution costs. ■ Audio Express in Marathon Ii/fort Attract Business Audio Express, the Library's fee-based audio books by mail, received a couple of boosts: Modern Maturity ran an article about the service after which 500 plus new applicants requested information about the service. Efforts were successful in partnering with the rapid transit companies of the area. The commuter trains ran ads for Audio Express, hoping to give a "value added" service to riders. Audio Express also had a successful (and free) booth at the L.A. Marathon. They spread word of Audio Express to about 2,000 individuals in the course of the day. ■ Telebusiness Center The Library was one of several County agencies participating in a pilot Antelope Valley telebusiness center. Located in Lancaster, the Center aimed to eliminate lengthy commutes by linking the workers with their employers by telephone, computer and fax machines. The Library's contributions include an onsite compact disc catalog with instructions on how to link with local libraries to secure information, information about the fee-based reference services of FYI and Municipal Reference, and information about Audio Express. as we feel that these are people who will occasionally have long commutes. ■ DISC Improved through Productivity Investment Fund Monies Document Information Service Center (DISC) was a new step in our attempt to establish a center for shared electronically-accessible services. The compact disc-based periodicals resource cost $50,000 and certainly was a cost-effective means to fill in the existing gaps in the budget-strapped magazine subscriptions. The County's Productivity Investment Fund, a source of venture capital to departments, provided additional loan financing of $14,850 to increase the power of the service. This front edge inventiveness between University Microforms Incorporated and the Library occurred well before such services became available online. The service remains in place, serving County libraries without the expense of on-line charges ■ Starring Library Kids The 1992-93 Children's' Reading Program, Starring Library Kids, was tribute to the resourcefulness of Youth Services staff. Thanks to donations from 51 of our 62 Friends of the Library groups, $6,390 was raised for the 1993-94 Children's Reading Program. Though the funds are by no means the normal level of financing for this program, it enabled a bare bones program. Our long tradition of providing this program to children did not have a hiatus. A Sampling: County Library Has Stqff Qf Exemplary Accomplishment ■ Penny Markey, Youth Services Coordinator, was chosen as one of 23 outstanding librarians who serve children in the United States to help on a national project to strengthen parents' efforts in promoting family literacy. She will work primarily with the Center for the Book as one of their appointees. The project, sponsored mutually by the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the U.S. Department of Education. Department of Health and Human Services, produced a resource training package to guide Head Start agencies to use libraries to promote family literacy. Penny Markey also was awarded a very ,,.,...--... prestigious ½t;-.~~ :..:=.;_~=-=.===:;;:::::::=honoras one of ten chosen for the Children Now 1993 Honor Roll. Children Now is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy and advocacy organization that acts as a strong and 1 b The County Public Library believes in "Begi ) J independent voice for the millions of children who cannot speak for themselves in the legislature, in the media, and in the community. She received her "Oscar" .. .. a beautiful gold star encased in a larger lucite gold star.. .. at a ceremony on June 30 at the Carthay Center School in Los Angeles. ■ Steve Coffman , -.. FYI/BSSC/Muni Director, was ''-_ featured in a chapter of a 1993 '',,_ book, "Secrets of the Super i, Searchers." \ , \ ■ Mary Helen ·, Espinoza, a Baldwin Park New Reader and V I S T A volunteer for our Lite racy program, was featured on / KABC City View, ~ which won an Emmy. Mary Helen was one of eleven New Readers chosen nationally to attend "Wordless America," the Coors Media Event in New York City. As their guest, she and the other New Readers were able to speak with the media and business leaders about their views on literacy in America. ■ The Chicano Resource Center was front page news February 11, 1993. We read with pride an excellent column of Nuestro Tiempo in the ~ Angeles Times about Luis Pedroza, Director of the Chicano Resource Center. Luis described himself as, " .... a new breed librarian who is committed to changing the library to reflect changes in the community around it." ■ Staff of Begin at the Beginning With Books received a 1993 Department of Health Services Director's Award at that department's "Being the Best Awards Ceremony." Begin at the Beginning With Books was also the recipient of a Health Services Improvement Program, a marketing award, and was among the many projects depicted as part of that department's marketing slide presentation. ■ County Librarian Sandra Reuben was one of five who were honored by PEN Center USA West on December 5, 1993, at the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. She received a "Freedom to Write" Award for taking seriously her "responsibilities to safeguard access to expression and information despite an array of assaults that ranged from destruction by fire to predatory attempts to cut already-dry budgets." OUTSIDE FUNDS SUSTAINED SERVICE Fund-raising and grant seeking qforts reached an all time high in the County Library. Materials sustained through donations When the materials budget was reduced first by 60% (1992-93) and then eliminated entirely in 1993-94, the Library added 233,350 volumes (39,623 titles) in 1992- 93 and 129,333 volumes (31,543 titles) in 1993-94. All new books were added thanks to donations of the actual books or dollars to buy same or through grant funds. A sampling: A sponsorship program , called You Can Make a Difference, was formulated. It aimed to attract oneyear donations of substance to help "bridge" our operations financing until that point in time when we have dependable replacement revenue. This service and budget summary provided a standardized, handy resource for any to use when a potential sponsor came along or when communities wanted to know service costs. 1992-93 ■ A proposal to the U.S. Department of Education was successful with an award of $35,000 being received by the Library. The money was used to l ,; . (_) _. libran'ans create ways to generate.funds DID VOU KNOW-In 25years,JederalfandingJor libran'es comes to less than the cost ef one aircreft earner (est. $3.5 billion). ~tlt,11' llJ1I LIBR \RIES t, DISTRESS - - purchase materials in multiple Asian languages for the Carson, El Monte, Las Virgenes, San Gabriel, and Weingart (in Lakewood.) Libraries. ■ Though we serve a population of over 3 million, the County of Los Angeles Public Library has never been able to qualify for Major Urban Resource Library Funds. Why? Because these grants are only available to cities which have reached a population of 100,000 or more and have gone through a procedure of certification for same. But, we finally reached that milestone in two locations ..... Santa Clarita and El Monte. As a result, we received a MURL grant for $19,341 for collection development in both cities. We proposed to the State Library our plan for using these funds in a way that deepens the resources for the area. ■ $125,000 to the County Library of Library Services and Construction Act money enhanced library collections for children. ■ The Library Foundation provided the $6,300 we needed to print the Count Me In campaign, which gave people a way to donate money to restore our materials budget. The campaign built on the reality that the 87-branch County of Los Angeles Public Library has ONE collection for the people within the Library's service boundaries. Though various items are housed at a given time at a given location, they can be used and do move among all of our locations as needed by our customers. Count Me In assured that we could purchase some necessary reference and non-fiction titles which are not able to be purchased by individual Friends of the Library groups. ■ The County's Internal Services Department's technical library had a book sale and donated the proceeds of the sale to the Count Me In campaign of the Library Foundation. This was in addition to their previous donation of $250 to Count Me In! ■ Collection Development, building on a concept of West Covina Community Library Manager Linda Siggins, produced the complement to Count Me In, the aim of which was to raise materials "dollars." The "Library's Most Wanted List" posters allowed people to donate actual books which the local library says they need. We received donations of books and materials valued at nearly $44,072 between April and September, 1993. Though this is nowhere near our usual expenditure for materials for an equivalent period of time, these gifts have enhanced our ability to deliver service. ■ An anonymous gift of 500 shares of Oracle stock was received by the Foundation. With proceeds from the stock sale reaching $17,000, computer related materials were purchased, per the donor's request, for the West Hollywood Library. Since the County Library has "one unified collection," these books are available on request at any other community library. ■ A chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) donated $2,500 to purchase children's books for girls and young women on women's equity and for biographical books in which women serve as role models. ■ The Lions Club of Taiwan (!) donated 1,200 new Chinese books valued at over $6,000 to the Hacienda Heights Library. ■ The Marina Library received a large gift of nautical videotapes from Bennett Marine, a local business. Also, the Marina Foundation provided approximately $500 and purchased several key subscriptions for the Marina Library. ■ Various publishers donated their exhibit materials at the close of the ALA Midwinter Conference to the County of Los Angeles Public Library. How nice to see 150-200 boxes of 3,000 books and materials on the Convention Center loading dock addressed to our Library! Value was set at $90,000. I I I I DID YOU KNOW· ff the cost if gas had nsen asJast as academic library matenals (in the last 15 years), it would now cost $2.66 a gallon to put.fuel in y our car. ■ The Best Books, a used bookstore in Lancaster, donated 10% of its February sales to the Lancaster Library. This is the second year this bookstore has made such contributions. Last year, the program brought so many people into the store that the owners were forced to moved to a larger location! ■ The family of the late children's author Charles Coombs asked that his memory be earned forward by donations to the Westlake Village Library. ■ A donation of 189 adult books from Hispanic Books Distributors, Inc, was received. Also, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute donated 100 copies of the 1993-94 National Directory of Hispanic Organizations. ■ The Malibu Library received the equivalent of an eighth of an estate, or $239,000. ■ A Library Services and Construction Act grant of $20,000 was awarded to provide Service to Immigrants of Asian Descent. Funds developed Asian language collections at the Masao W. Satow Library, the Rowland Heights Library, the San Gabriel Library, and the Sunkist Library. ■ All library locations collected proofs of purchase for Motts products to help the Library. In a cooperative effort with Friends of the Library groups nationally, Motts provided new books and materials to libraries in exchange for proofs of purchase of its apple juice and apple sauce. ■ Building on an idea piloted by the Las Virgenes Friends of the Library and staff, Collection Development produced a set of flyers and forms for use at all libraries to mount a campaign for gift subscriptions of periodicals. The kit included a general poster intended to be placed in prominent places in each library, thank you receipts to give to donors and whose duplicates serve as the order form for each subscription, and flyers to place in the periodicals area to attract gifts from periodical users. The Librarywide appeal for donations of magazines was a success: 672 magazine subscriptions were donated at a value of $16,611. ■ L.A. Parent sponsored a paperback book drive for the County Library. To be eligible to win a Jamaica trip, readers donated a new or slightly used paperback to any County Library and turned in an entry fonn available at that library. ■ Valencia Library Youth Services held a book shower. Parents purchased more than a dozen books valued at over $130, which they brought to the program Coun(Y Libran·es are Worth it T-Shirt 1993-94 ■ Count Me In Campaign focused Friends of the Library groups, the Los Angeles County Library Foundation, and staff in a determined effort to raise money for materials. So far, the Count Me In Campaign has collected $19,530. In another component of the Count Me In, posters of The Library's Most Wanted List campaign brought in gifts of targeted books needed in each library. ■ Sony Studios gave 97 videos to the Culver City Library. ■ Forty of our libraries received copies of "Hooked on Phonics," thanks to a donation valued at $8,000. ■ The Daily News offered the review copies they receive to be split between the County Library and Los Angeles Public Library ■ Outside funding also made available 19,900 copies of the League of Women Voters November election pamphlet. ■ Resource Directory provided 80 copies of the 1992 ■ Bridge Publications produced "readers' theater" programs at the Culver City and Norwalk Libraries. Good sized audiences were attracted. Donations raised at the programs total over $2,000, a sum which will benefit the Library's literacy program. Books were also donated, bringing the total benefit to our Library to about $5,000. ■ The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation allocated $1,000 to the County Library to fund multicultural storytelling programs featuring the wonderfully talented storyteller, Milbre Burch. ■ ZEPHYR, a fourteen voice choral group and KIN, a modem dance ensemble, donated their considerable talents to perform a benefit on behalf of Children's Services of the County of Los Angeles Public Library Bonnie Grice, KUSC radio personality, was host and narrator for the afternoon which included a variety of poetry, a medley of "cat" songs, nonsense songs, selections from "Alice in Wonderland," and a hilarious musical rendition of "The Emperor's New Clothes." The benefit event raised nearly $2,000 to benefit children's programs. Los Angeles Resource Directory and 20 copies of the ■ Funding of $5,000 each (that's $10,000 total) Orange County Edition. established two additional Grandparents and Books sites: Baldwin Park and Rowland Heights. ■ Rose Olivas, Executive Secretary, baked her fabulous roast turkey cakes. This raffle raised $125. for the Count Me In (materials) Fund. ■ UNISYS Corporation donated over 100 copies of "Success Guide: The Guide to Black Resources." Supervisor Burke and Sandra Reuben were on hand January 31 to receive these books from Bill Patton, President of UNISYS/U.S. Division, and George Fraser, President/Founder of the Success Guide. UNISYS later gave the A C Bilbrew Library a replacement CD drive computer. which had been stolen from the Homework Center. ■ McDonnell Douglas awarded the Friends of the George Nye, Jr. and Angelo M. Iacoboni Libraries (both in Lakewood) $5,000 to enable purchase of student-related materials. ■ A grant to Aman from the Mervyns/Target Stores enabled educational and entertaining children's programs which will continue at eight library sites. ■ A $10,000 Library Services and Construction Act grant secured materials to help acclimate immigrant populations in Bell Gardens and Lynwood. ■ The board of the County Productivity Investment Fund (PIF) helped substantially by: • granting of $41,627 to establish a homework center at the Woodcrest Library. • granting of $10,000 for the Library Affirmative Action Committee proposal which will enable an excellent staff training package on the topic of Human Diversity • loaning $14,850 to expand DISC, the imaged data base of magazine articles. This centralized service gives speedier customer response and avoids costly over-purchase of duplicate magazine subscriptions. • another loan of $76,000 financed purchase of two self check-out equipment units which were placed at the Culver City and West Covina Libraries, the libraries having the most check-out transactions per hour. • a grant of $70,000 enhanced the effectiveness of the Children's Reading Program. • a grant of $227,952 enabled shifting from an overloaded CD Rom catalog to an on-line public catalog in our eight largest libraries. ■ The Friends of the San Dimas Library committed $5,000 for the ongoing purchase of audio-visual materials. ■ A grant of $500,000 of Library Services and Construction Act Funds was a great infusion for purchase of books for use in reference services in a year when the book budget was zero. Later in the year, the State Library augmented our $500,000 "Reference and Information Resources Program" grant with an additional $69,560, which was earmarked to purchase books for youth. ■ The State Library granted 23 Internet public access computer stations. Bundling the value of training, equipment, and access, this is a grant valued at around $230,000. Sites include A C Bilbrew (in South Central LA), Angelo M. Iacoboni (in Lakewood), Calabasas, Carson, Claremont, Culver City, Diamond Bar, East Los Angeles, Gardena, Hacienda Heights (in east part of the County), Hawthorne, Huntington Park, La Canada Flintridge, Lancaster, Las Virgenes (in Agoura Hills), Leland R. Weaver (in South Gate), Montebello, Norwalk, Rosemead, Temple City, Valencia (in Santa Clarita), West Covina, and West Hollywood. ■ A grant of $60,000 of LSCA Title III monies to the Library provided 1,500 new titles in Asian languages in return for our staff performing a subcontractor role for CLASS, a California library service provider. In that role, we selected titles for Project ASIA which will be added to the Statewide database residing on OCLC. ■ The Los Angeles Public Library's Librarians' Guild sent $50 contributions to help View Park and Carson Libraries in our financial crisis. The Black Resource Center also received a donation of approximately 630 books and two framed African American topographical maps from the Los Angeles Public Library, Vernon Branch/Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Library. ■ The Claremont Community Foundation approved a grant award to the Claremont Library for $2,000 to assist in acquiring periodical subscriptions and new reference books. This is an added bonus as the Friends of the Claremont Library raised $8,000 toward matching the $10,000 grant from the Hafif Family Foundation for materials. ■ $60,000 of Community Development Block Grant money was awarded to the Library by the First Supervisorial District to finance homework centers at the East Los Angeles and City Terrace Libraries. The project is called STAR, Studying, Tutoring, and Reading. ■ The Lund Foundation gave $10,000 for the A C Bilbrew Homework Center and the Black Resource Center. Grants and other outside.funds allowed 20- year literacy program to survive budget cuts: 1992-93 ■ California Families for Literacy Program - $30,000 of California Library Services Act funding continued the family literacy programs at the Baldwin Park and Quartz Hill Libraries and expanded the service to the City Terrace and Paramount Libraries. Eligible participants are adult literacy students who have children under the age of five. The program provides adults with skills for promoting reading in their homes, thus breaking the cycle of illiteracy. Another grant of $30,000 was received in 1993-94. ■ Begin at the Beginning with Books received $158,482 of Federal Library Services and Construction monies to conduct a second year of this project, which encourages expectant mothefs to begin the reading habit with their new babies. The aim is to create a family environment which encourages and supports the child's education. In just a couple of years, the program has made a difference to 4,300 families. ■ The Ahmanson Foundation granted $24,000 to continue the program at the Huntington Park Library and the San Antonio Health Clinic, and at the East Los Angeles Library and the Roybal Comprehensive Health Center. ■ An unsolicited donation of $5,000 was received for the Begin at the Beginning With Books Project from a "family" foundation. ■ $1,000 was received from SAFECO's Community Involvement Program for use in purchasing children's books for the family literacy packets. This was the second time SAFECO has helped us out. This is an award in recognition of our good track record with our literacy program. ■ The East Los Angeles literacy project, in conjunction with the Plaza Family Support Center, helped families nurture reading thanks to a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grant of $20,000 by Supervisor Molina to the Support Center. ■ The City of Santa Clarita gave a CDBG of $2,750 to enable our Library's literacy folks to work on a literacy and English as a Second Language Program in their community. ■ The State Library awarded our literacy program $77,000 in matching funds this year. This figure is based on $1.00 for each $4.62 the Library spends. This compared to $51,000 received the prior year. I I :, II 1993-94 ■ The Library Foundation conducted a direct mail effort to raise funds for literacy. The mailing was done at minimal cost so as to put the maximum dollars into the program. Returns totalled $11,350. ■ The Begin at the Beginning With Books (BBB) project was awarded $38,193 by the Productivity Investment Fund. Though federal funding ceased on September 30 for this project, this productivity grant enabled us to keep the program going at the following sites: Compton, Brakensiek in (Bellflower), Norwalk, and Carson Libraries. The Parsons Foundation also granted Begin at the Beginning With Books $42,300. ■ The Rotary Club of Los Angeles granted the Library Foundation $10,000 to finance a literacy center at the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Youth Activity League. The aim is to help youth in the High 5 Project build self-esteem through literacy skills. ■ Literacy staff and friends walked in the Human Race Walkathon to raise funds for the purchase of new literacy materials. On a day of record-breaking heat, they walked in 1994 and raised $2,250. The same walk in 1993 raised $975. CITIES GRANTED MONEY TO IMPROVE BASELINE HOURS AND TO BUY MATERIALS. 1992-93 ■ Manhattan Beach granted the Library the funds to finance totally the operation of the Manhattan Heights Library, which would have been closed otherwise. This was nearly $200,000 and kept the library open through June. ■ Lakewood provided funds to keep the Weingart Library open one more month to see if community fund raisers could sustain it longer. ■ The Marina del Rey Library, located in unincorporated area, realized a great deal of grass roots support aimed at raising the finances necessary to open the library an additional day of service beyond the current two days schedule. The Marina Foundation, affiliated with the County Department of Beaches and Harbors, sponsored a Mixer on November 19 with the Marina Chamber of Commerce to raise money for extending the days open of the library. The evening was a great success, with $2,000 raised to launch public awareness related to the funding needs. ■ Malibu Friends of the Library is but one example of the work of our 61 amazing Friends groups with their cities. This group sent 6,000 letters to homes and businesses in their city asking for monetary donations. The result: response from 300 people who sent a total of $17,000 to help their library. 1993-94 Cities pledged grants totalling $543,000 for additional days of service following meetings initiated by Library managers. The cost of each day of service was computed for each location based on actual direct costs and indirect costs. Days of service per week were allocated using a formula to assure that each geographic area has service each day Monday through Saturday. ■ Bell Gardens: $11,200 for one additional day of service each week from March to June. ■ Bell Gardens: $32,800 for one additional day of service each week from September to June . ■ Cudahy: $49,500 of CRA dollars to add 2 days of service each week October to June. ■ Diamond Bar: $70,000 (including $10,000 to be used for materials) in 1992 to add 2 days of service each week February to June. ■ Gardena: $27,200 for 7 hours per week of added service for period of March to June. ■ Malibu: $50,000. a joint grant split between the City of Malibu and the Friends of the Malibu Library, added a day of service February through June. ■ Manhattan Beach: $94,000 to provide an added one day of service September to January and two days of service through June. ■ Maywood: $25,400 for Saturday service October to January. ■ Norwalk $28,800 kept the Alondra Library, the second in the city, open March to June and $21,600 for books and materials. ■ Paramount: $10,000 for materials purchases. ■ San Fernando: $15,000 for materials purchases. ■ Walnut: $102,200 for Saturday service September through January. ■ West Hollywood: $19,800 to added service February to June, 1994. County Libraries Are Worth It! In an effort to avert further closures of libraries beyond the 10 closed permanently, the Library Foundation sponsored a grassroots fund-raising campaign, known as County Libraries Are Worth It which began with National Library Week, April 18- 23, 1994. The positive, inventive spirit of staff, Friends of the Library, Local 660, and cities provided the magic infectiousness of the fund-raising campaign. We saw the power of working toward the same goal. Over $107,000 was raised including $2,839 from t-shirt sales, $13, 241 from donations from Friends of the Library groups, $1,130 from Board of Supervisors' staff and other County employees, and $25,800 from special events organized by staff. The donations came from thousands of people, including children offering fistfuls of pennies to the Lomita Fun Run which raised over $6,000. I I ' I I I 1994 Volunteers qf the Year Volunteers Sussana Campos and Matthew Medina represented the Library at the County's annual Volunteer Recognition in ApnI Active Fronts: Volunteer and Friends Qf the Library Good things come from hard times. Communities rallied for the Library in a big way with nine new Friends of the Library groups forming, including the revitalization of dormant groups. New groups included Los Amigos de la Biblioteca de Bell Gardens, Friends of the Littlerock Library, Friends of the Lake Los Angeles Library, and Friends of the South Whittier Library. Groups revitalized in East Los Angeles, Lynwood, San Fernando, West Hollywood, and West Covina. There are now 62 Friends of the Library groups supporting County of Los Angeles Public community libraries. Membership stands at over 5,000 people. Fundraising efforts included a golf tournament, international teas, and an elegant fashion show. Bookstores partnered with Friends groups to raise book donations and monetary donations. West, South and East Regions held very successful Friends Exchanges so that groups in the area could swap ideas. A Library-wide Friends Exchange was held in February, 1993 in conjunction with the conference of the American Library Association. Sandy Dolnick, Executive Director of the Friends of the Library, U.S.A., shared ideas from Friends groups around the nation. 1993 The Library's entry for the county-wide adult Volunteer Recognition Program competition in 1993 was Jane Mahon, who took the lead in establishing the Walnut Literacy Service Program at the Walnut Library. At a time when the library was severely impacted by funding curtailments, she helped the Library expand literacy services for the community. In addition to being the Library's Volunteer of the Year, Jane was awarded the 1993 Categorical Award in Education by the County Board of Supervisors. The youth volunteer entry was Rosemary Kim, who at the age of 13 started to volunteer at the Temple City Library. Rosemary was instrumental in putting barcoded labels on books for the conversion of the library to the automated circulation system. 1994 The entry for the adult volunteer recognition competition in 1994 was Sussana Campos, a developmentally disabled worker from the Temple City Library who helped with circulation functions and responsibly handled over 25,000 volumes. The youth volunteer entry was Matthew Medina, a nine-year-old from the Lynwood Library. Matthew shelves books in the children's section, preparing the newspaper for customers, filing videos, mending books, and assisting with children's crafts programs. He tells people how to use the compact disc catalog and processes discarded books. Postscript: In October, 1994 Matthew was the recipient of the Circle of Life Youth Award given at the International Conference on Volunteer Administration Conference. Matthew was one of only twelve youth so honored in California. Internal Volunteer Recruitment Beginning in 1993-94, thirty ... that's thirty!. .... staff from Library Headquarters volunteered to work one day a week on the front line to help alleviate the staff shortages caused by heavy attrition. This was especially noteworthy at a time in which Technical Services lost 12 positions due to budget cuts and still managed to catalog 39,500 new titles from gifts and grants. Volunteer Pilot at Lomita Library A Can Do Crew recently produced a new component to the Library's Volunteer Corps, to give communities the option of providing an added day of service through the mix-in of volunteer staff with paid staff. In April, 1994, the Lomita Library served as a successful pilot test of this concept. Quickly the cities of Bellflower and Hawthorne also used groups of trained community volunteers to work side-byside with Library staff to extend hours. Each city provided the continual pool of reliable volunteers from which the library staff conducted interviews and selected individuals for weekly work assignments. In another part of the Library Volunteer Corps program, sessions trained potential volunteers on the basics of shelving and telephone skills as well as covering the Library's "customer" orientation philosophy. DID YOU KNOW: Federal spending on libraries totals only 57 cents per person-- about the cost ef a pack ef gum. Library Headquarters celebrated IO years ac the Downey location. L-R Retired Supervisor, Pete Schabarum; County Libranan, Sandra Reuben and Chief ef Technical Services, Wendy Romano Seq// eryoy IO year Celebration The 1994 Afacan American 'Living Legends" celebration honoree was Teny Mc Millian, author qf Waiting to Exhale. (L-R) County Librarian, Sandra Reuben; Autumn Burke,- Supe1visor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke,Actress, Angela Bassett and author, Teny Mc Millian )'-----~-------~- Black History The 1993 Black History tribute to Black archivist Mayme Clayton followed in the tradition of excellence. The program was entertaining, with gospel presentations by Brothers Are We and an excellent original skit by The Andrew Marshall Players. Mayme Clayton, a librarian who used her initiative to amass an excellent collection of one-of-akind pieces of Black history, gave us all inspiration. The honoree at the A C Bilbrew Library's Black History Program for 1994 was author Terry McMillan. National Library Week: Libraries Change Lives Speakers and honorees at the Library's annual National Library Week breakfast in 1993 were Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, both noted mystery writers. and Milbrae Burch, storyteller. The 1994 National Library Breakfast attracted hundreds of staff, community supporters, Union and professional colleagues to the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City. Authors Saundra Sharp and Earl Ofari Hutchinson captivated the audience. Both years, this was occasion to announce the annual awards presented to our best: Charlotte Award (achievement in Children's service), Citizens Award, Librarian of the Year, Support Staff Award, Productivity Award, and Customer Service Award. Tenth Anniversary Celebration at Library Headquarters On December 1. 1993, we took some time in our busy schedules to stop and commemorate the fact that we have occupied and enjoyed the Library Headquarters in Downey for 10 years. Streamered balloons decorated the ceiling. White poinsettias brought memories of our building dedication on December 16, 1983. Display boards captured pictures from the time of construction through our present life in the building. We enjoyed three special cakes which together spelled LHO. The surprise visitor of the day was former Supervisor of the First District, Pete Schabarum. At that time, the Downey Headquarters was within the First District and Supervisor Schabarum was personally very involved in bringing the Library Headquarters project to reality. We paused to reminisce about 1983 and the decade from then to now. In 1983, we were not only moving five separate administration locations into our new administrative building but we were also opening the Point Dume Library. New libraries also emerged in La Verne and Walnut. The Hawaiian Gardens Library was renovated and the Helen Mork Children's Area was dedicated. We prepared for the Olympic Games in L.A. We shifted to the amazing compact disc catalog and ceased untangling our microfilm catalog. We began using telefax machines. We had 898,000 cardholders (now 1.4 million) and circulated 11 million items (now 16 million) We toiled to complete the Request for Proposals for the automated circulation system. The Summer Reading Club theme was Beastly Reading Feast. We added 11 literacy centers, bringing our total to 17. As our part in the LA Co-op (partnerships with neighboring universities), we brought recreational reading to the Cal State L.A. campus with our bookmobile stop. The County Museum of Art placed exhibits at 14 of our libraries. Sandra Kersley was Librarian of the Year. In the greater world in 1983, U.S. Marines were killed by a terrorist explosion in Beirut. The U.S. invaded Grenada. "Publishers Weekly" reported that summer bookstore sales gained as compared to the prior year. Big sellers (and library circulators) were In Search of Excellence. Meqatrends. The One Minute Manager, and the Little Drummer Girl. A pacific storm hit California and hurled tornadoes into Los Angeles and Pasadena. The Coalinga earthquake shook us up. The hottest August on record caused $10 billion damage to crops. The New York Metropolitan Opera was 100 years old. The PLO and Egypt made peace. Congress approved the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The U.S. assigned "No. 1 priority" to find the cause of AIDS. Sally Ride became the first woman member of the space shuttle crew and became the first American woman in space. photo above: Author-Poet Saundra Sharp celebrated National Library Week with the County Library in 1994 Awards and Kudos ■ Audio Express, a cost effective and customer oriented mail-order service for audio books, received a National Association of Counties (NACo) Award in 1992. ■ Audio Express was recognized formally at the Board of Supervisors meeting of October 20, 1992 for being one of the top ten productivity projects this year in the County. This and our many additional productivity projects were recognized at an elegant reception at the County Museum of Art the evening before. Other projects. of which we are very proud, are: the Quality Control Center for ACS database management, the Las Virgenes bookmobile grand opening, the preventive maintenance training video, area code labels, assembly of our school relations packets by students of the LA Unified School District, the Norwalk Library behind-the-scenes telephone reference, "Read to Me" cooperative training, Begin at the Beginning with Books, South Region's program of cooperative bilingual story programs, A C Bilbrew Library's Homework Help Center, and the La Puente Library Improvement Project. ■ Begin at the Beginning with Books. a literacy program aimed at breaking family cycles of illiteracy, received a National Association of Counties Award in 1993. Begin at the Beginning with Books also received one of the coveted John Cotton Dana Awards, the Library profession's recognition for excellence in public relations, at the conference of the American Library Association. in 1993. ■ County of Los Angeles Public Library Award Winners for 1993 and 1994: 1993 I 1994 Support Services Award Virgilio Angeles I Donna Eisenhut Productivity Award San Fernando Aides & Pages/ Valencia Library Aides & Pages Citizens Award Karen Garofalo I Florence Rutherford and Huell Howser Charlotte Award Gillian Ray / Evelyn Taylor Librarian of the Year Barbara Hirsch / Joanne Eldridge Customer Service Award Charles Wheeler ( 1994 was the first year this Award was given) Business Indicators Follow Fiscal Circumstances As perspective to this report, in 1991-92 there were 16,095,328 materials circulated from the County of Los Angeles Public Library Additional to these books, another 5.9 million materials were used within the libraries. This represented a 46% increase in circulation over the prior two years. It also was an immense surge from the 13 million the year before, especially considering the fact that people were allowed to keep books out longer with the new 3 week loan period. The County Library had the highest circulation in the nation. Then in 1992-93, California began the first shifts of property taxes from local governments to the State. DID YOU KNOW-Ultimately, the County of Los Angeles Public Library lost permanently half of its annual revenue. Business indicators moved downward, but not as precipitously as did the revenue, service hours, and materials budget. The rate of the trend of monthly increase in circulation began edging downward, which probably relates to the decrease in the materials purchased, somewhat longer waits for requests, difficulties in reshelving books as quickly as in the past, and fewer staff to help directly library users. Following the Library's August, 1994, workforce reduction, there was an immense increase in activity on the days open with shortened hours. Staff did an excellent job in handling the frenetic workload and service activity which happened during 14 hours of weekly service access. While more items were The County Library benefits local business. In 1992-93 the Library recorded 1,804 contracts which had a total value ef $2, J 00, 957. This total was cumulated as part ef a study ef our Minon"ty and Women-owned Businesses circulated per hour open than in times of full hours, overall circulation did not match the overall business levels we experienced when our hours and days of service were longer (and thus more customerconvenient) each week and when we were purchasing new books. Though our hours were cut by 51 % and the Library budget had not one penny to purchase materials, reference service remained at 73% (1992/93 level) and circulation remained at 73% (1992/93 level). We did register nearly 12,000 new cardholders, boosting our total number of registered borrowers to 1,459,726. In perspective, this number reflects the fact that we registered 43% fewer cardholders than we had the prior year. THE COUN1Y OF LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY IS A NETWORK OF COMMUN11Y-FOCUSED LIBRARIES THAT MEET THE INFORMATIONAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND RECREATIONAL NEEDS OF A HIGHLY DIVERSE PUBLIC. WE ARE COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING LIFELONG LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE THROUGH SELF-EDUCATION. OUR HELPFUL AND EXPERT STAFF PROVIDES INFORMATION AND OUALl1Y SERVICE AND PROGRAMS IN A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT WE OFFER A BROAD AND RELEVANT COLLECTION, AND OUR EXPANDING INFORMATION NETWORKS USE CURRENT TECHNOLOGY THE LIBRARY IS IN THE BUSINESS OF SATISFYING THE CUSTOMER'S NEED TO KNOW .- -- ~,.___,- - --= es !!!l!I' r ==- ~!!!!! ~ ~ - B' F
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Title | County of Los Angeles Public Library Biennial Report 1992 - 1994 |
Contributors | Reuben, Sandra F. |
Date | 1994 |
Description | Report published to describe activities of the County of Los Angeles Public Library from July 1992 to June 1994. |
Subject | County of Los Angeles Public Library |
Publisher | LA County Library |
County | Los Angeles (California, United States : county) |
State | California (United States, North and Central America : state) |
Collection | Library Headquarters Documents Collection |
Source | Cabinet 6, Drawer B |
Physical Format | administrative reports |
Extent | 33 pages |
Type | text |
Language | eng |
Digital Collection | LA County Library History Collection |
Resource Identifier | BiennialReport1994.pdf |
File Format | application/pdf |
Date Digital | October 03 2018 |
Rights Statement | In Copyright. Copyright is held by the County of Los Angeles Public Library. For more information, see http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Transcription | A Most Inventive Tlme! iEnniaf County qf Los Angeles Public Library Ju/y 1992-June 1994 7 1/----~--~---~-~ / Gloria Molina Supervisor 1st District Gloria Molina Supervisor 1 st District Kenneth Hahn Supervisor 2nd District Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Supervisor 2nd District Edmund D. Edelman Supervisor 3rd District Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Supervisor 2nd District Elected in December 1 992 Edmund D. Edelman Supervisor 3rd Distnct Deane Dana Supervisor 4th District Deane Dana Supervisor 4th Distnct Michael D. Antonovich Supervisor 5th District Michael D. Antoncvich Supervisor 5th District 1992-93 Board 1993-94 Board PRESENT BOARD-1994-95 l-R Supe1Yisors: Michael D. Antonovich, 5th District; Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd District; Gloria Molina, !st District, Chair; Yvonne Brathwaite Bwke, 2nd Distn"ct; Deane Dana, 4th Distnct With regard to financing, the past two years have been among the most historic in the County of Los Angeles Public Library's 82-year history. Business indicators held remarkably strong despite an abrupt, unavoidable, and permanent shift of half of the Library's primary source of revenue, the property tax, by the state of California. The staff's strong customer focus and dedication to provision of library service provided the magic ingredients that assured business viability. Everyone pulled together to provide the best service within very challenging circumstances. Service hours were reduced in over half of the 87 libraries to 14 hours per week, no ~--Ls/ Library budget was available for purchase of materials, and there was layoff of over 300 staff members which, when combined with attrition, left hundreds of positions vacant. When legislative efforts failed to provide benefit assessment authority for financing libraries, we scrambled to find another option to provide ongoing, replacement revenue in the magnitude of $30 million annually .... a very tough challenge within California's very limited statutory authority. We succeeded, despite an impossibly short, tight time frame, in establishing a community facilities district. Additionally, one-time income from grants and donations was increased by 211 %. The Board of Supervisors, staff, volunteers. Local 660, customers, Foundation, press and media, 52 cities served. and 61 Friends of the Library groups all pulled together. Fund-raising initiatives, such as County Libraries are Worth It to keep doors from closing and Count Me In to backfill materials budgets, stirred thousands of people to come forward to help the Library. Aggressive grant seeking paid off and kept programs, such as literacy, from closing. Fee-based services such as Audio Express and FYI fortunately had strong enough years to keep them viable. Inventiveness, surpassing even the normally high levels in this Library, realigned the way we did business. Ten libraries were closed permanently to save ongoing rent. to provide one-time income from the sale of three, and to consolidate resource strength in the remaining libraries. A product, Good Reads, was launched for sale in the private sector to produce income . Several services were consolidated. Staff worked at multiple libraries each week to assure that all areas retained service hours. And all this was accomplished despite drastic loss of the normal workforce and several major natural disasters including the Northridge Earthquake. In a time when the hot management book of the year was "Reinventing Government" (by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler). the County Library was reinvented. Soaring creativity and determination to serve equipped the County staff to overcome very tough circumstances. Sandra F. Reuben, County Librarian Revenue 1992/93 1993/94 CHANGE Requirements SALARIES & EMPLOYEE BENEFITS $36,589,000 $31,580,000 (5,009,000) SERVICES & SUPPLIES 23,800,000 14,648,000 (9,152,000) OTHER CHARGES 3,734,000 1,850,000 (1,884,000) FIXED ASSETS Fund Balance 16.2% EQUIPMENT 21,000 257,000 236,000 Cancel Resen,es STRUCTURES 2,568,000 1,100,000 (1,468,000) 0.4% OTHER FINANCING USES 90,000 90,000 0 GENERAL RESERVES 11,000 0 (11,000) RESERVE EOillTY TRANSFER 400,000 0 (400,000) Property Taxes APPROPRIATION FOR CONTINGENCY 1,793,000 5,158,000 3,365,000 TOT AL REOillREMENTS 69,006,000 54,683,000 (14,323,000) Available Finance FUND BALANCE / $4,815,000 $8,854,000 4,039,000 REVENUE 8,541,000 15,682,000 Revenue 7,141,000 28.7% CANCEL RESERVES 525,000 204,000 (321,000) PROPERTY TAXES 25,733,000 29,943,000 4,210,000 AUGMENTATION FUNDS 29,392,000 0 (29,392,000) TOT AL AVAILABLE FUNDS: 69,006,000 54,683,000 (14,323,000) BUDGETED POSITIONS: 860.0 6682 (191.8) The Malibu Wik!fire November 2-5, 1993 "l am inside the Malibu Library sending this e-mail to you. 1 did not see any damage inside or outside the building ... lots of dust on the floor but there doesn·t seem to be damage to the collection. The smell is terrible. There must be hundreds of fire trucks parked around the Civic Center and firemen are resting on the front lawn. Thank you signs are hanging on the homes which are still standing." Evelyn MacMorres. Regional Administrator 1992 Aftermath qf Los Angeles Civil Unrest A healing process was necessary after the civil unrest of April 29, 1992. Though the 36 riot-closed libraries were quickly reopened, staff and public emotions took longer to resolve. The County Library positioned quickly around ways to gear up to make a difference in the healing process ..... literacy, homework help centers, career information, intracultural centers, and cultural awareness training for the entire staff. Ameni:ans spend mneilimes as much"iJnlwme vi+ogames ($1f6 bz1lion) 414Stheydo pnschool library 1993 Wiklfire / ~I \ I On November 2-3, 1993, the Malibu Library, threatened when the devastating fire came within yards of the civic center building. remained intact. Staff, evacuated much earlier in the day, were safe. Though we did not have fire damage, this library was very smoky, requiring a thorough cleaning before opening. The County of Los Angeles Public Library is a special fund department of the County of Los Angeles. Because it does not provide service to all of the County of Los Angeles, it has not normally received annual funding as part of the Board of Supervisors' budget from the County's General Fund. Neither does the Library receive ongoing financing from any of the 52 cities served. Rather, the County Library is financed primarily by a dedicated share of all property taxes collected within its 3,000 square mile service area. Monies thus collected may only be spent for the provision of library services by the County of Los Angeles Public Library. Between 1992 and 1994, the County of Los Angeles Library experienced its most challenging revenue losses than at any time in its 82-year history. The State of California permanently shifted half, or $30 million annually, from the County Library's budget. Primarily this came as the result of the State abolishing the Special District Augmentation Fund, a financing mechanism which had been put in place in 1979 following Proposition 13 to help the State's reeling special districts. Credit for keeping service remarkably strong, despite severe cuts in hours and materials, goes to the creative staff of the County of Los Angeles Public Library. They worked several locations, created increasingly cost-effective ways to deliver service, and worked on fund-raising and legislative efforts. Hats off to a caring, committed staff! Budget Perspective In 1992-1993 We managed the very difficult tasks necessary to assure that we were not only able to manage and make ends meet in 1992-93, the beginning of major property tax shifts from local government to the State of California, but we also positioned to brace for what proved to be a drastically worsening scenario in 1994-95. Aiming to increase annual revenue while streamlining workloads, a staff committee composed and the Board of Supervisors approved adjustments in various fees charged by the Library. There were significant reductions in the materials budget, belt tightening in across-the-board expenditures including contracts, balancing of service hours reductions to assure the greatest customer access, and closure of 10 libraries. Staff and supporters felt the power in pulling together for a common purpose .... namely the survival of library service in our County. In 1993-94 Following a permanent annual property tax shift of $30 million - 50% of the Library's revenue-to the State of California, there was continual effort to locate a source or sources of replacement annual revenue. The County Board of Supervisors had very few options available to provide annual replacement for the lost $30 million. Aggressive legislative efforts were made which would have put in place the statutory authority for local library governing boards to use benefit assessments to finance libraries. Unfortunately, for the second legislative session in a row, the Governor vetoed the bill. Concentrated effort kept all 87 remaining facilities open, though over half were open only 14 hours each week The entire materials budget, normally $8 million, was eliminated in order to meet payroll Instead, grants and fund-raising drives were used to attract onetime financing for purchase of materials. These efforts succeeded in amassing $803,000, allowing us to continue periodical subscriptions and purchase key titles. Especially inventive was a concept to approach professional associations having annual conferences in Los Angeles. From these conventions, we were successful in attracting donations of exhibit books, new publications, valued at over $500,000. When it became apparent that the benefit assessment legislation was unlikely to be enacted into law, staff turned to County Counsel to comb existing law to see what financing possibilities, if any, existed beyond those which required a 2/3 vote. The Board decided to use a mechanism known as a Community Facilities District (CFD) which, following a public hearing, they put in place on August 30, 1994. Sixteen of our 52 cities informed the Board of Supervisors that they wished to be included in the financing district. The CFD would improve service ~t over half of the 87 county libraries and would bnng m nearly $16 million in new, ongoing revenue. It was anticipated that additional cities would join the CFD in future years, allowing their city councils mor~ ~ime than available this year to make then dec1s10n Several cities which did not opt to join the CFD this time around, did pledge grants totalling $1.5 million to augment the service hours affordable through then share of remaining property tax dollars. Postscript: In October, 1994, when unusual midyear County budget deliberations were scheduled following news that the County's year-end figures showed more revenue than had been anticipated, the Board re-considered the CFD. The fee structure, which had been anchored at $28.50 per year per single family residence, was reduced to zero. Instead, the Board granted one-time dollars, some from the General Fund reserve and some from increasing General Fund revenue estimates, amounting to $22.5 million to enable returning all County Libraries to full service for the duration of 1994-95. The CFD mechanism was left in place should the Board wish to utilize it in future years. Together with $500,000 which the Board had allocated for materials earlier in the year, the General Fund allocation in 1994-95 amounted to $23 million - an approach to backfilling the $30 million lost. Legi.slative Front . . In 1992-93, the County Library's primary leg1slat1ve focus to provide libraries with replacement ongoing funds sufficient to replace those lost in the State tax shift was on Senate Bill 566, introduced by Senator David Roberti. Los Angeles County co-sponsored this important bill with the California Library Association. SB 566 authorized a local agency, such as a city or county, to use benefit assessment financing for library services. Following an intensive statewide effort to support this legislation, it was passed by both the Senate and the Assembly, but vetoed by Governor Wilson in October, 1993. After making key changes intended to address the Governor's concerns, Senator Roberti reintroduced the bill in February, 1994 as SB 1448. This bill was also approved by both the Senate and Assembly, but vetoed by the Governor in September, 1994. Other important legislation supported by the County Library included Senate Bill 1648 (Dills). This bill protected property tax funded libraries from future losses resulting from state property tax shifts, and was signed into law by the Governor in 1994. Also signed was SB 544, a bill which adjusted local match for Public Library Funds to mirror the loss experienced by a library in the recent tax shift Thanks to this law, the County Library contmued to qualify for annual state monies of about $700,000. Other attempts to provide statewide financial rellef for libraries, such as SB 1666 (Mello), were not successful. However, there was a high visibility of library-related bills in Sacramento and extensive support by library and community groups dunng the previous two year legislative session. County ef Los Angeles Public Library 1992-93 1993-94 Size - Square Miles 3,066 3,062 Contin~ency Total Budget 69,006,000 54,683,000 10 0 Population Served 3,206,370 3,320,330 Fixed Assets 2% Annual Circulation 15,874,726 11,510,319 Other Charges 3% In-Library Use of Materials 5,842,234 4,236,000 Registered Borrowers 1.431, 195 1,583,939 Reference Questions 8,803,454 6,476,192 Staff Full & Part Time 1.787 1,170 Salaries & Benefits Volunteers 2,341 716 58% Friends of the Library Groups 60 62 Service Fadlities Regional & Community Libraries 84 84 Institutional Libraries 1 1 Bookmobiles 3 3 Literacy Centers 13 14 Gifts Friends of the Libraries $ 251,186 $ 358,516 SeNices & Supplies Cities 212,219 202,127 27% County Library Foundation 79,887 79,095 Organizations 37,912 672,948 Individuals 274,384 396,879 Total Gifts $ 855,588 $1,679,565 SERVICE MILESTONES With the substantial revenue loss incurred by the Library and as follow-through to edge into resource allocation standards recommended by the Equity Study of 1992 and the Financial Study of 1991. it was clear that our Library needed to reposition its remaining resources. In order to serve large populations in newly developing areas, we needed to establish service points. With lowered book budgets, a mix of new materials and collection shifted from other county libraries filled the new shelves. Existing staff transferred from other areas to cover new services. As example, the existing bookmobile service ceased in Westlake Village and in the Lake Los Angeles areas with the budget shifting to operation of the new libraries. Hacienda Heights Re-opened A festive ceremony on August 29, 1992, marked the re-opening of the refurbished Hacienda Heights Library. Following a formal program in which Supervisor Dana recognized the contributions of the active Friends of the Library group, customeroriented staff, and community activists, the curious community poured into the "new" library. The bright, white paint, new carpet, and newly constructed and positioned reference and circulation desks made the same 10,000 square feet seem much more spacious. Lake Los Angeles Library Opened The Lake Los Angeles Library, was dedicated on May 30, 1992. This leased facility replaced the High Desert Mobilibrary which the community had outgrown and at the same time helped establish equitable service to this unincorporated community in the Antelope Valley On the first day open, which preceded the dedication date, 185 individuals registered for library cards. The staff was happily registering people at the rate of 50 per hour! First week circulation exceeded 3,500. Westlake Village Library Dedicated Hundreds attended the dedication of the Westlake Village Library despite chilly weather and threatening clouds on March 27, 1993. Over 200 people were registered and 693 books were circulated within the opening hours. The 6,000 sq. ft. space was creatively designed to give a feeling of spaciousness. The glass-partitioned children's area was given quite a workout and was swarming with children for the duration of the day. They seemed to move right into the specially designed Birdfish chairs .... stuffed interlocking parts which become different shapes for seating. DID YOU KNOW: Public libran·es receive less than 1 percent ef all tax dollars and are 1 used by more than 50 percent ef the population. ,__ _____ _ Lake Los Angeles on opening day Lancaster Library Construction Financing Our hopes for the very necessary expansion of the Lancaster Regional Library, dashed when Proposition 85 funds were not awarded, soared again. The City of Lancaster and the County of Los Angeles forged an agreement in which several county services, including the library, received capital funds through an expansion of Lancaster's Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and through the city floating necessary bonds. On October 20, 1993, community leaders, Library staff, and school students met at the future site of the new Lancaster Library. Following remarks by city officials and the County Librarian, attendees were treated to the unveiling of the building's architectural model. This Library, expected to be two years in construction, should be ready to open just as we emerge with realigned financial strength. New Names In January, 1994,the Maywood Library was renamed the Maywood Cesar Chavez Library to honor the late Cesar Chavez, crusader for peace and justice for the California farm worker. The HIV Information Center, located at the West Hollywood Library, was renamed to honor the memory of Ron Shipton, who initiated the idea for the HIV center. His aim was to make everyone more knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS. The HIV Information Center is now known as the Ron Shipton HN Information Center. End qf an Erafor Institutional Services In July, 1993, two long-serving libraries quietly closed their doors due to budget cuts of other County departments. The patient library at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital was a budget trim made by the Health Services Department. The library at Camp Barley Flats, located at a Probation camp site, also closed at the request of the Probation Department. We now have no service to the Health Services Department and will basically serve in the Probation Department from Central Juvenile Hall, Camp Miller, and from the Challenger Memorial Youth Facility. Change for CHIPS Effective September 10, 1993, CHIPS (Consumer Health Information, Programs, and Services) ceased offering its tel-med and tel-law service. The equipment necessary to play informational tapes in response to telephone requests was beyond repair. Budget did not exist to replace the equipment. While it was unfortunate that we had to eliminate the telephone audio tape service, all other services of CHIPS still functioned. COST EFFECTIVENESS SOARS Staff committees, known as Can Do Crews, formed as a means to plan quickly for improved and increasingly cost effective service and operations. Excellent innovations resulted such as ..... Count Me in Campaign for fund-raising, better revenue generation from traditional fee structure, streamlining of the CALL information and referral service, and an equitable charging schedule for requests. With the downsizing of staff, it was imperative that remaining resources be redeployed wisely to assure customer service. A great deal of thinking preceded the following decisions which were made for longterm service strength: ■ JTJfonnation Centers' Collaboration Reduces Cost While Strengthening Service FYI, Municipal Reference, and the Business Subject Specialty Service were merged into one unit located in the Nor walk Library building. This move consolidated similar and related services while providing more clarity of access for customers. ■ Automated Circulation StqffTraining Staff faced new roles due to transfers and redeployment. Many needed to hone skills on the automated circulation system. The ACS training unit presented 41 classes to 419 staff to assure that they possessed excellent customer service skills. ■ Community Access Library (CALL) Line Re-invented Though CALL was forced to cut expenditures by discontinuing its telephone service in August, 1993, the valuable database was maintained. The CALL office moved to Library Headquarters. This and the move of Municipal Reference allowed us to vacate and prepare for sale the Holly Park building. This also was a beginning step for making the CALL database of community information available at all Library locations through the automated circulation system. ■ Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) Though the Library's shift from our overloaded compact disc catalog to an OPAC was delayed by lack of budget, staff refused to give up. They managed to establish, between December and March, 1994, pilot OPAC service in Calabasas, Westlake Village, Masao Satow (unincorporated area 11 near Gardena). Bell Gardens. George Nye (in Lakewood}, and La Verne Libraries using available computers from closed libraries and terminals purchased with city funds. Modest cabling and installation charges were incurred. The new online catalog has up-to-the-minute information about the over 6 million items in the Library's collections. and whether or not the items are available for use or charged out to other customers. Author, title, subject and keyword searching are also available for all current holdings of the Library. Other databases. such as information on community organizations and periodical indexes, are planned to gradually become available on the online catalog. Additionally, plans proceeded to shift 31 additional libraries to the OPAC thanks to availability of computers through an Internet grant through the State Library and by successfully receiving a County Productivity Investment Fund grant to convert our eight largest libraries. ■ Realignment in Government Publications Services In October, 1993, the U.S. Government Printing Office authorized the disbanding of three of the County Library's eleven Government Depositories .... at the Gardena, Compton, and Huntington Park Libraries. These libraries, like others, have government publications as part of their collections but are no longer "designated" centers. Designated depositories continued to operate at the Lancaster, Valencia, Carson, Culver City, Norwalk, Iacoboni, Montebello and West Covina Libraries. ■ Literacy Line Available Again Through creative Partnering One of the downsides of CALL phone service being discontinued was the dilemma of how to handle the Southern California Literacy Information Line, which held responsibility for helping multiple libraries match literacy students with tutors. Creative partnerships solved the problem. On International Literacy Day, September 8, 1994, a new phone service began to give information about literacy learning centers and to match students with tutors. The NEW Literacy Line is a bilingual literacy referral service co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and the County of Los Angeles Public Library. The Times provided computer equipment and programming, the toll-free phone line, start-up costs and promotion. The County of Los Angeles Public Library will maintain and update the database of more than 700 literacy programs in Southern California. ■ Centralized Billing Functions Reduced Cost While Improving Service The automated circulation system staff corrected borrower addresses to diminish the number of returned bills for overdue charges. Of the 585,800 request and overdue notices mailed in 1992-93, 29,500 were returned to us by the Post Office with forwarding addresses or other problems. The increased accuracy of records "pays" us in smooth operation of billings, too. Front line staff was freed from hours of processing overdue correspondence and recordkeeping when the functions were shifted to AutoCAP, the centralized fee collection account at Library Headquarters. Two staff members handled nearly 4,500 accounts. AutoCAP reduced time spent on each account from 70 minutes to 9 minutes. It reduced our cost per account from $18.43 to $4.43 and freed front line staff for more availability with the public. Literacy centers match students with tutors <~-- ~ --- FISCAL YEAR OPERATING BUDGET (EXCLUDES DELINQUENCY RESERVES) OPERA TING REVENUE* OPERA TING TRANSFER FUND BALANCE I CANCEL TOTAL MATERIALS EXPENDITURES &BUDGET CAPITAL PROJECTS BUDGET MATERIAL CIRCULATION REFERENCE QUESTIONS REGISTERED BORROWERS *Includes propeny truces and augmentation fund . I .,_J. 89/90 $62.400,000 $54,490,000 0 7,868,000 $62,358,000 $ 7,700,000 $1,600,000 11,000,000 9,000,000 470,000 90/91 $66,300,000 $60,931,000 0 5,405,000 $66,336,000 $10,000,000 $ 603,000 13,600,000 7,300,000 875,000 91/92 $67,500,000 $64,546,000 0 2,976,000 $67,522,000 $ 9,000,000 $ 133,000 16,100,000 7,900,000 1,200,000 92/93 $66,400,000 $60,228,000 1,000,000 5,199,000 $66,427,000 $ 2,100,000 $ 2,968,000 15,900,000 8,800,000 1,431,000 93/94 $53,600,000 $35,937,000 8,992,000 8,654,000 $53,583,000 $ 2,300.000 $ 1,299,000 11,500,000 6,500,000 1,584,000 INNOVATION KITCHEN KEPT BUSY The County Library staff is known for its inventiveness. Never before have so many ideas been implemented as were during this most challenging time period. A tenacious staff battled to realign to sustain the maximum public service possible. Beneficial partnerships with private firms and organizations were key to keeping service strong. Among the accomplishments of which we are most proud are the following: ■ Good Reads The Good Reads database improved service and created a much-needed ongoing revenue stream. Following months of creative work. Phyllis Young, Collection Coordinator. with Steve Cohen from the County's Purchasing and Central Services Branch, developed a means for national sales of the Good Reads database, an excellent computer service to help recreational readers find their next good book to read. A partnership with private sector company, Retro Link Associates. established a needed service in addition to providing our Library with a source of ongoing funds. Retro Link will manufacture in various formats the Good Reads readers advisory database, invented by "our own" Harriet Traeger, and will market same to libraries and book stores. In addition to a lump sum payment of $50,000 to the Library, we will receive ongoing royalties of 10% of sales. a tape load to mount on our automated circulation system, and hardware for 24 public access service stations over three years. ■ FYI and the American Library Association In 1993, the Library received recognition and a beautiful plaque for the successful efforts of FYI to partner with the American Library Association to boost marketing and sales of the new edition of the FISCAL Directory. These were the words used to describe our program: "This long-term agreement to co-publish the FISCAL Directory of Fee-Based Information Services in Libraries enables the County Library to utilize the publishing, marketing, and fulfillment capabilities of one of the foremost publishers in the library field to sell a great number of directories at a greater net revenue which approached $30,000." The cooperative effort also saved the County Library approximately $35,000 in up-front marketing and distribution costs. ■ Audio Express in Marathon Ii/fort Attract Business Audio Express, the Library's fee-based audio books by mail, received a couple of boosts: Modern Maturity ran an article about the service after which 500 plus new applicants requested information about the service. Efforts were successful in partnering with the rapid transit companies of the area. The commuter trains ran ads for Audio Express, hoping to give a "value added" service to riders. Audio Express also had a successful (and free) booth at the L.A. Marathon. They spread word of Audio Express to about 2,000 individuals in the course of the day. ■ Telebusiness Center The Library was one of several County agencies participating in a pilot Antelope Valley telebusiness center. Located in Lancaster, the Center aimed to eliminate lengthy commutes by linking the workers with their employers by telephone, computer and fax machines. The Library's contributions include an onsite compact disc catalog with instructions on how to link with local libraries to secure information, information about the fee-based reference services of FYI and Municipal Reference, and information about Audio Express. as we feel that these are people who will occasionally have long commutes. ■ DISC Improved through Productivity Investment Fund Monies Document Information Service Center (DISC) was a new step in our attempt to establish a center for shared electronically-accessible services. The compact disc-based periodicals resource cost $50,000 and certainly was a cost-effective means to fill in the existing gaps in the budget-strapped magazine subscriptions. The County's Productivity Investment Fund, a source of venture capital to departments, provided additional loan financing of $14,850 to increase the power of the service. This front edge inventiveness between University Microforms Incorporated and the Library occurred well before such services became available online. The service remains in place, serving County libraries without the expense of on-line charges ■ Starring Library Kids The 1992-93 Children's' Reading Program, Starring Library Kids, was tribute to the resourcefulness of Youth Services staff. Thanks to donations from 51 of our 62 Friends of the Library groups, $6,390 was raised for the 1993-94 Children's Reading Program. Though the funds are by no means the normal level of financing for this program, it enabled a bare bones program. Our long tradition of providing this program to children did not have a hiatus. A Sampling: County Library Has Stqff Qf Exemplary Accomplishment ■ Penny Markey, Youth Services Coordinator, was chosen as one of 23 outstanding librarians who serve children in the United States to help on a national project to strengthen parents' efforts in promoting family literacy. She will work primarily with the Center for the Book as one of their appointees. The project, sponsored mutually by the Library of Congress Center for the Book and the U.S. Department of Education. Department of Health and Human Services, produced a resource training package to guide Head Start agencies to use libraries to promote family literacy. Penny Markey also was awarded a very ,,.,...--... prestigious ½t;-.~~ :..:=.;_~=-=.===:;;:::::::=honoras one of ten chosen for the Children Now 1993 Honor Roll. Children Now is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy and advocacy organization that acts as a strong and 1 b The County Public Library believes in "Begi ) J independent voice for the millions of children who cannot speak for themselves in the legislature, in the media, and in the community. She received her "Oscar" .. .. a beautiful gold star encased in a larger lucite gold star.. .. at a ceremony on June 30 at the Carthay Center School in Los Angeles. ■ Steve Coffman , -.. FYI/BSSC/Muni Director, was ''-_ featured in a chapter of a 1993 '',,_ book, "Secrets of the Super i, Searchers." \ , \ ■ Mary Helen ·, Espinoza, a Baldwin Park New Reader and V I S T A volunteer for our Lite racy program, was featured on / KABC City View, ~ which won an Emmy. Mary Helen was one of eleven New Readers chosen nationally to attend "Wordless America," the Coors Media Event in New York City. As their guest, she and the other New Readers were able to speak with the media and business leaders about their views on literacy in America. ■ The Chicano Resource Center was front page news February 11, 1993. We read with pride an excellent column of Nuestro Tiempo in the ~ Angeles Times about Luis Pedroza, Director of the Chicano Resource Center. Luis described himself as, " .... a new breed librarian who is committed to changing the library to reflect changes in the community around it." ■ Staff of Begin at the Beginning With Books received a 1993 Department of Health Services Director's Award at that department's "Being the Best Awards Ceremony." Begin at the Beginning With Books was also the recipient of a Health Services Improvement Program, a marketing award, and was among the many projects depicted as part of that department's marketing slide presentation. ■ County Librarian Sandra Reuben was one of five who were honored by PEN Center USA West on December 5, 1993, at the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. She received a "Freedom to Write" Award for taking seriously her "responsibilities to safeguard access to expression and information despite an array of assaults that ranged from destruction by fire to predatory attempts to cut already-dry budgets." OUTSIDE FUNDS SUSTAINED SERVICE Fund-raising and grant seeking qforts reached an all time high in the County Library. Materials sustained through donations When the materials budget was reduced first by 60% (1992-93) and then eliminated entirely in 1993-94, the Library added 233,350 volumes (39,623 titles) in 1992- 93 and 129,333 volumes (31,543 titles) in 1993-94. All new books were added thanks to donations of the actual books or dollars to buy same or through grant funds. A sampling: A sponsorship program , called You Can Make a Difference, was formulated. It aimed to attract oneyear donations of substance to help "bridge" our operations financing until that point in time when we have dependable replacement revenue. This service and budget summary provided a standardized, handy resource for any to use when a potential sponsor came along or when communities wanted to know service costs. 1992-93 ■ A proposal to the U.S. Department of Education was successful with an award of $35,000 being received by the Library. The money was used to l ,; . (_) _. libran'ans create ways to generate.funds DID VOU KNOW-In 25years,JederalfandingJor libran'es comes to less than the cost ef one aircreft earner (est. $3.5 billion). ~tlt,11' llJ1I LIBR \RIES t, DISTRESS - - purchase materials in multiple Asian languages for the Carson, El Monte, Las Virgenes, San Gabriel, and Weingart (in Lakewood.) Libraries. ■ Though we serve a population of over 3 million, the County of Los Angeles Public Library has never been able to qualify for Major Urban Resource Library Funds. Why? Because these grants are only available to cities which have reached a population of 100,000 or more and have gone through a procedure of certification for same. But, we finally reached that milestone in two locations ..... Santa Clarita and El Monte. As a result, we received a MURL grant for $19,341 for collection development in both cities. We proposed to the State Library our plan for using these funds in a way that deepens the resources for the area. ■ $125,000 to the County Library of Library Services and Construction Act money enhanced library collections for children. ■ The Library Foundation provided the $6,300 we needed to print the Count Me In campaign, which gave people a way to donate money to restore our materials budget. The campaign built on the reality that the 87-branch County of Los Angeles Public Library has ONE collection for the people within the Library's service boundaries. Though various items are housed at a given time at a given location, they can be used and do move among all of our locations as needed by our customers. Count Me In assured that we could purchase some necessary reference and non-fiction titles which are not able to be purchased by individual Friends of the Library groups. ■ The County's Internal Services Department's technical library had a book sale and donated the proceeds of the sale to the Count Me In campaign of the Library Foundation. This was in addition to their previous donation of $250 to Count Me In! ■ Collection Development, building on a concept of West Covina Community Library Manager Linda Siggins, produced the complement to Count Me In, the aim of which was to raise materials "dollars." The "Library's Most Wanted List" posters allowed people to donate actual books which the local library says they need. We received donations of books and materials valued at nearly $44,072 between April and September, 1993. Though this is nowhere near our usual expenditure for materials for an equivalent period of time, these gifts have enhanced our ability to deliver service. ■ An anonymous gift of 500 shares of Oracle stock was received by the Foundation. With proceeds from the stock sale reaching $17,000, computer related materials were purchased, per the donor's request, for the West Hollywood Library. Since the County Library has "one unified collection," these books are available on request at any other community library. ■ A chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) donated $2,500 to purchase children's books for girls and young women on women's equity and for biographical books in which women serve as role models. ■ The Lions Club of Taiwan (!) donated 1,200 new Chinese books valued at over $6,000 to the Hacienda Heights Library. ■ The Marina Library received a large gift of nautical videotapes from Bennett Marine, a local business. Also, the Marina Foundation provided approximately $500 and purchased several key subscriptions for the Marina Library. ■ Various publishers donated their exhibit materials at the close of the ALA Midwinter Conference to the County of Los Angeles Public Library. How nice to see 150-200 boxes of 3,000 books and materials on the Convention Center loading dock addressed to our Library! Value was set at $90,000. I I I I DID YOU KNOW· ff the cost if gas had nsen asJast as academic library matenals (in the last 15 years), it would now cost $2.66 a gallon to put.fuel in y our car. ■ The Best Books, a used bookstore in Lancaster, donated 10% of its February sales to the Lancaster Library. This is the second year this bookstore has made such contributions. Last year, the program brought so many people into the store that the owners were forced to moved to a larger location! ■ The family of the late children's author Charles Coombs asked that his memory be earned forward by donations to the Westlake Village Library. ■ A donation of 189 adult books from Hispanic Books Distributors, Inc, was received. Also, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute donated 100 copies of the 1993-94 National Directory of Hispanic Organizations. ■ The Malibu Library received the equivalent of an eighth of an estate, or $239,000. ■ A Library Services and Construction Act grant of $20,000 was awarded to provide Service to Immigrants of Asian Descent. Funds developed Asian language collections at the Masao W. Satow Library, the Rowland Heights Library, the San Gabriel Library, and the Sunkist Library. ■ All library locations collected proofs of purchase for Motts products to help the Library. In a cooperative effort with Friends of the Library groups nationally, Motts provided new books and materials to libraries in exchange for proofs of purchase of its apple juice and apple sauce. ■ Building on an idea piloted by the Las Virgenes Friends of the Library and staff, Collection Development produced a set of flyers and forms for use at all libraries to mount a campaign for gift subscriptions of periodicals. The kit included a general poster intended to be placed in prominent places in each library, thank you receipts to give to donors and whose duplicates serve as the order form for each subscription, and flyers to place in the periodicals area to attract gifts from periodical users. The Librarywide appeal for donations of magazines was a success: 672 magazine subscriptions were donated at a value of $16,611. ■ L.A. Parent sponsored a paperback book drive for the County Library. To be eligible to win a Jamaica trip, readers donated a new or slightly used paperback to any County Library and turned in an entry fonn available at that library. ■ Valencia Library Youth Services held a book shower. Parents purchased more than a dozen books valued at over $130, which they brought to the program Coun(Y Libran·es are Worth it T-Shirt 1993-94 ■ Count Me In Campaign focused Friends of the Library groups, the Los Angeles County Library Foundation, and staff in a determined effort to raise money for materials. So far, the Count Me In Campaign has collected $19,530. In another component of the Count Me In, posters of The Library's Most Wanted List campaign brought in gifts of targeted books needed in each library. ■ Sony Studios gave 97 videos to the Culver City Library. ■ Forty of our libraries received copies of "Hooked on Phonics," thanks to a donation valued at $8,000. ■ The Daily News offered the review copies they receive to be split between the County Library and Los Angeles Public Library ■ Outside funding also made available 19,900 copies of the League of Women Voters November election pamphlet. ■ Resource Directory provided 80 copies of the 1992 ■ Bridge Publications produced "readers' theater" programs at the Culver City and Norwalk Libraries. Good sized audiences were attracted. Donations raised at the programs total over $2,000, a sum which will benefit the Library's literacy program. Books were also donated, bringing the total benefit to our Library to about $5,000. ■ The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation allocated $1,000 to the County Library to fund multicultural storytelling programs featuring the wonderfully talented storyteller, Milbre Burch. ■ ZEPHYR, a fourteen voice choral group and KIN, a modem dance ensemble, donated their considerable talents to perform a benefit on behalf of Children's Services of the County of Los Angeles Public Library Bonnie Grice, KUSC radio personality, was host and narrator for the afternoon which included a variety of poetry, a medley of "cat" songs, nonsense songs, selections from "Alice in Wonderland," and a hilarious musical rendition of "The Emperor's New Clothes." The benefit event raised nearly $2,000 to benefit children's programs. Los Angeles Resource Directory and 20 copies of the ■ Funding of $5,000 each (that's $10,000 total) Orange County Edition. established two additional Grandparents and Books sites: Baldwin Park and Rowland Heights. ■ Rose Olivas, Executive Secretary, baked her fabulous roast turkey cakes. This raffle raised $125. for the Count Me In (materials) Fund. ■ UNISYS Corporation donated over 100 copies of "Success Guide: The Guide to Black Resources." Supervisor Burke and Sandra Reuben were on hand January 31 to receive these books from Bill Patton, President of UNISYS/U.S. Division, and George Fraser, President/Founder of the Success Guide. UNISYS later gave the A C Bilbrew Library a replacement CD drive computer. which had been stolen from the Homework Center. ■ McDonnell Douglas awarded the Friends of the George Nye, Jr. and Angelo M. Iacoboni Libraries (both in Lakewood) $5,000 to enable purchase of student-related materials. ■ A grant to Aman from the Mervyns/Target Stores enabled educational and entertaining children's programs which will continue at eight library sites. ■ A $10,000 Library Services and Construction Act grant secured materials to help acclimate immigrant populations in Bell Gardens and Lynwood. ■ The board of the County Productivity Investment Fund (PIF) helped substantially by: • granting of $41,627 to establish a homework center at the Woodcrest Library. • granting of $10,000 for the Library Affirmative Action Committee proposal which will enable an excellent staff training package on the topic of Human Diversity • loaning $14,850 to expand DISC, the imaged data base of magazine articles. This centralized service gives speedier customer response and avoids costly over-purchase of duplicate magazine subscriptions. • another loan of $76,000 financed purchase of two self check-out equipment units which were placed at the Culver City and West Covina Libraries, the libraries having the most check-out transactions per hour. • a grant of $70,000 enhanced the effectiveness of the Children's Reading Program. • a grant of $227,952 enabled shifting from an overloaded CD Rom catalog to an on-line public catalog in our eight largest libraries. ■ The Friends of the San Dimas Library committed $5,000 for the ongoing purchase of audio-visual materials. ■ A grant of $500,000 of Library Services and Construction Act Funds was a great infusion for purchase of books for use in reference services in a year when the book budget was zero. Later in the year, the State Library augmented our $500,000 "Reference and Information Resources Program" grant with an additional $69,560, which was earmarked to purchase books for youth. ■ The State Library granted 23 Internet public access computer stations. Bundling the value of training, equipment, and access, this is a grant valued at around $230,000. Sites include A C Bilbrew (in South Central LA), Angelo M. Iacoboni (in Lakewood), Calabasas, Carson, Claremont, Culver City, Diamond Bar, East Los Angeles, Gardena, Hacienda Heights (in east part of the County), Hawthorne, Huntington Park, La Canada Flintridge, Lancaster, Las Virgenes (in Agoura Hills), Leland R. Weaver (in South Gate), Montebello, Norwalk, Rosemead, Temple City, Valencia (in Santa Clarita), West Covina, and West Hollywood. ■ A grant of $60,000 of LSCA Title III monies to the Library provided 1,500 new titles in Asian languages in return for our staff performing a subcontractor role for CLASS, a California library service provider. In that role, we selected titles for Project ASIA which will be added to the Statewide database residing on OCLC. ■ The Los Angeles Public Library's Librarians' Guild sent $50 contributions to help View Park and Carson Libraries in our financial crisis. The Black Resource Center also received a donation of approximately 630 books and two framed African American topographical maps from the Los Angeles Public Library, Vernon Branch/Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Library. ■ The Claremont Community Foundation approved a grant award to the Claremont Library for $2,000 to assist in acquiring periodical subscriptions and new reference books. This is an added bonus as the Friends of the Claremont Library raised $8,000 toward matching the $10,000 grant from the Hafif Family Foundation for materials. ■ $60,000 of Community Development Block Grant money was awarded to the Library by the First Supervisorial District to finance homework centers at the East Los Angeles and City Terrace Libraries. The project is called STAR, Studying, Tutoring, and Reading. ■ The Lund Foundation gave $10,000 for the A C Bilbrew Homework Center and the Black Resource Center. Grants and other outside.funds allowed 20- year literacy program to survive budget cuts: 1992-93 ■ California Families for Literacy Program - $30,000 of California Library Services Act funding continued the family literacy programs at the Baldwin Park and Quartz Hill Libraries and expanded the service to the City Terrace and Paramount Libraries. Eligible participants are adult literacy students who have children under the age of five. The program provides adults with skills for promoting reading in their homes, thus breaking the cycle of illiteracy. Another grant of $30,000 was received in 1993-94. ■ Begin at the Beginning with Books received $158,482 of Federal Library Services and Construction monies to conduct a second year of this project, which encourages expectant mothefs to begin the reading habit with their new babies. The aim is to create a family environment which encourages and supports the child's education. In just a couple of years, the program has made a difference to 4,300 families. ■ The Ahmanson Foundation granted $24,000 to continue the program at the Huntington Park Library and the San Antonio Health Clinic, and at the East Los Angeles Library and the Roybal Comprehensive Health Center. ■ An unsolicited donation of $5,000 was received for the Begin at the Beginning With Books Project from a "family" foundation. ■ $1,000 was received from SAFECO's Community Involvement Program for use in purchasing children's books for the family literacy packets. This was the second time SAFECO has helped us out. This is an award in recognition of our good track record with our literacy program. ■ The East Los Angeles literacy project, in conjunction with the Plaza Family Support Center, helped families nurture reading thanks to a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grant of $20,000 by Supervisor Molina to the Support Center. ■ The City of Santa Clarita gave a CDBG of $2,750 to enable our Library's literacy folks to work on a literacy and English as a Second Language Program in their community. ■ The State Library awarded our literacy program $77,000 in matching funds this year. This figure is based on $1.00 for each $4.62 the Library spends. This compared to $51,000 received the prior year. I I :, II 1993-94 ■ The Library Foundation conducted a direct mail effort to raise funds for literacy. The mailing was done at minimal cost so as to put the maximum dollars into the program. Returns totalled $11,350. ■ The Begin at the Beginning With Books (BBB) project was awarded $38,193 by the Productivity Investment Fund. Though federal funding ceased on September 30 for this project, this productivity grant enabled us to keep the program going at the following sites: Compton, Brakensiek in (Bellflower), Norwalk, and Carson Libraries. The Parsons Foundation also granted Begin at the Beginning With Books $42,300. ■ The Rotary Club of Los Angeles granted the Library Foundation $10,000 to finance a literacy center at the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Youth Activity League. The aim is to help youth in the High 5 Project build self-esteem through literacy skills. ■ Literacy staff and friends walked in the Human Race Walkathon to raise funds for the purchase of new literacy materials. On a day of record-breaking heat, they walked in 1994 and raised $2,250. The same walk in 1993 raised $975. CITIES GRANTED MONEY TO IMPROVE BASELINE HOURS AND TO BUY MATERIALS. 1992-93 ■ Manhattan Beach granted the Library the funds to finance totally the operation of the Manhattan Heights Library, which would have been closed otherwise. This was nearly $200,000 and kept the library open through June. ■ Lakewood provided funds to keep the Weingart Library open one more month to see if community fund raisers could sustain it longer. ■ The Marina del Rey Library, located in unincorporated area, realized a great deal of grass roots support aimed at raising the finances necessary to open the library an additional day of service beyond the current two days schedule. The Marina Foundation, affiliated with the County Department of Beaches and Harbors, sponsored a Mixer on November 19 with the Marina Chamber of Commerce to raise money for extending the days open of the library. The evening was a great success, with $2,000 raised to launch public awareness related to the funding needs. ■ Malibu Friends of the Library is but one example of the work of our 61 amazing Friends groups with their cities. This group sent 6,000 letters to homes and businesses in their city asking for monetary donations. The result: response from 300 people who sent a total of $17,000 to help their library. 1993-94 Cities pledged grants totalling $543,000 for additional days of service following meetings initiated by Library managers. The cost of each day of service was computed for each location based on actual direct costs and indirect costs. Days of service per week were allocated using a formula to assure that each geographic area has service each day Monday through Saturday. ■ Bell Gardens: $11,200 for one additional day of service each week from March to June. ■ Bell Gardens: $32,800 for one additional day of service each week from September to June . ■ Cudahy: $49,500 of CRA dollars to add 2 days of service each week October to June. ■ Diamond Bar: $70,000 (including $10,000 to be used for materials) in 1992 to add 2 days of service each week February to June. ■ Gardena: $27,200 for 7 hours per week of added service for period of March to June. ■ Malibu: $50,000. a joint grant split between the City of Malibu and the Friends of the Malibu Library, added a day of service February through June. ■ Manhattan Beach: $94,000 to provide an added one day of service September to January and two days of service through June. ■ Maywood: $25,400 for Saturday service October to January. ■ Norwalk $28,800 kept the Alondra Library, the second in the city, open March to June and $21,600 for books and materials. ■ Paramount: $10,000 for materials purchases. ■ San Fernando: $15,000 for materials purchases. ■ Walnut: $102,200 for Saturday service September through January. ■ West Hollywood: $19,800 to added service February to June, 1994. County Libraries Are Worth It! In an effort to avert further closures of libraries beyond the 10 closed permanently, the Library Foundation sponsored a grassroots fund-raising campaign, known as County Libraries Are Worth It which began with National Library Week, April 18- 23, 1994. The positive, inventive spirit of staff, Friends of the Library, Local 660, and cities provided the magic infectiousness of the fund-raising campaign. We saw the power of working toward the same goal. Over $107,000 was raised including $2,839 from t-shirt sales, $13, 241 from donations from Friends of the Library groups, $1,130 from Board of Supervisors' staff and other County employees, and $25,800 from special events organized by staff. The donations came from thousands of people, including children offering fistfuls of pennies to the Lomita Fun Run which raised over $6,000. I I ' I I I 1994 Volunteers qf the Year Volunteers Sussana Campos and Matthew Medina represented the Library at the County's annual Volunteer Recognition in ApnI Active Fronts: Volunteer and Friends Qf the Library Good things come from hard times. Communities rallied for the Library in a big way with nine new Friends of the Library groups forming, including the revitalization of dormant groups. New groups included Los Amigos de la Biblioteca de Bell Gardens, Friends of the Littlerock Library, Friends of the Lake Los Angeles Library, and Friends of the South Whittier Library. Groups revitalized in East Los Angeles, Lynwood, San Fernando, West Hollywood, and West Covina. There are now 62 Friends of the Library groups supporting County of Los Angeles Public community libraries. Membership stands at over 5,000 people. Fundraising efforts included a golf tournament, international teas, and an elegant fashion show. Bookstores partnered with Friends groups to raise book donations and monetary donations. West, South and East Regions held very successful Friends Exchanges so that groups in the area could swap ideas. A Library-wide Friends Exchange was held in February, 1993 in conjunction with the conference of the American Library Association. Sandy Dolnick, Executive Director of the Friends of the Library, U.S.A., shared ideas from Friends groups around the nation. 1993 The Library's entry for the county-wide adult Volunteer Recognition Program competition in 1993 was Jane Mahon, who took the lead in establishing the Walnut Literacy Service Program at the Walnut Library. At a time when the library was severely impacted by funding curtailments, she helped the Library expand literacy services for the community. In addition to being the Library's Volunteer of the Year, Jane was awarded the 1993 Categorical Award in Education by the County Board of Supervisors. The youth volunteer entry was Rosemary Kim, who at the age of 13 started to volunteer at the Temple City Library. Rosemary was instrumental in putting barcoded labels on books for the conversion of the library to the automated circulation system. 1994 The entry for the adult volunteer recognition competition in 1994 was Sussana Campos, a developmentally disabled worker from the Temple City Library who helped with circulation functions and responsibly handled over 25,000 volumes. The youth volunteer entry was Matthew Medina, a nine-year-old from the Lynwood Library. Matthew shelves books in the children's section, preparing the newspaper for customers, filing videos, mending books, and assisting with children's crafts programs. He tells people how to use the compact disc catalog and processes discarded books. Postscript: In October, 1994 Matthew was the recipient of the Circle of Life Youth Award given at the International Conference on Volunteer Administration Conference. Matthew was one of only twelve youth so honored in California. Internal Volunteer Recruitment Beginning in 1993-94, thirty ... that's thirty!. .... staff from Library Headquarters volunteered to work one day a week on the front line to help alleviate the staff shortages caused by heavy attrition. This was especially noteworthy at a time in which Technical Services lost 12 positions due to budget cuts and still managed to catalog 39,500 new titles from gifts and grants. Volunteer Pilot at Lomita Library A Can Do Crew recently produced a new component to the Library's Volunteer Corps, to give communities the option of providing an added day of service through the mix-in of volunteer staff with paid staff. In April, 1994, the Lomita Library served as a successful pilot test of this concept. Quickly the cities of Bellflower and Hawthorne also used groups of trained community volunteers to work side-byside with Library staff to extend hours. Each city provided the continual pool of reliable volunteers from which the library staff conducted interviews and selected individuals for weekly work assignments. In another part of the Library Volunteer Corps program, sessions trained potential volunteers on the basics of shelving and telephone skills as well as covering the Library's "customer" orientation philosophy. DID YOU KNOW: Federal spending on libraries totals only 57 cents per person-- about the cost ef a pack ef gum. Library Headquarters celebrated IO years ac the Downey location. L-R Retired Supervisor, Pete Schabarum; County Libranan, Sandra Reuben and Chief ef Technical Services, Wendy Romano Seq// eryoy IO year Celebration The 1994 Afacan American 'Living Legends" celebration honoree was Teny Mc Millian, author qf Waiting to Exhale. (L-R) County Librarian, Sandra Reuben; Autumn Burke,- Supe1visor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke,Actress, Angela Bassett and author, Teny Mc Millian )'-----~-------~- Black History The 1993 Black History tribute to Black archivist Mayme Clayton followed in the tradition of excellence. The program was entertaining, with gospel presentations by Brothers Are We and an excellent original skit by The Andrew Marshall Players. Mayme Clayton, a librarian who used her initiative to amass an excellent collection of one-of-akind pieces of Black history, gave us all inspiration. The honoree at the A C Bilbrew Library's Black History Program for 1994 was author Terry McMillan. National Library Week: Libraries Change Lives Speakers and honorees at the Library's annual National Library Week breakfast in 1993 were Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, both noted mystery writers. and Milbrae Burch, storyteller. The 1994 National Library Breakfast attracted hundreds of staff, community supporters, Union and professional colleagues to the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City. Authors Saundra Sharp and Earl Ofari Hutchinson captivated the audience. Both years, this was occasion to announce the annual awards presented to our best: Charlotte Award (achievement in Children's service), Citizens Award, Librarian of the Year, Support Staff Award, Productivity Award, and Customer Service Award. Tenth Anniversary Celebration at Library Headquarters On December 1. 1993, we took some time in our busy schedules to stop and commemorate the fact that we have occupied and enjoyed the Library Headquarters in Downey for 10 years. Streamered balloons decorated the ceiling. White poinsettias brought memories of our building dedication on December 16, 1983. Display boards captured pictures from the time of construction through our present life in the building. We enjoyed three special cakes which together spelled LHO. The surprise visitor of the day was former Supervisor of the First District, Pete Schabarum. At that time, the Downey Headquarters was within the First District and Supervisor Schabarum was personally very involved in bringing the Library Headquarters project to reality. We paused to reminisce about 1983 and the decade from then to now. In 1983, we were not only moving five separate administration locations into our new administrative building but we were also opening the Point Dume Library. New libraries also emerged in La Verne and Walnut. The Hawaiian Gardens Library was renovated and the Helen Mork Children's Area was dedicated. We prepared for the Olympic Games in L.A. We shifted to the amazing compact disc catalog and ceased untangling our microfilm catalog. We began using telefax machines. We had 898,000 cardholders (now 1.4 million) and circulated 11 million items (now 16 million) We toiled to complete the Request for Proposals for the automated circulation system. The Summer Reading Club theme was Beastly Reading Feast. We added 11 literacy centers, bringing our total to 17. As our part in the LA Co-op (partnerships with neighboring universities), we brought recreational reading to the Cal State L.A. campus with our bookmobile stop. The County Museum of Art placed exhibits at 14 of our libraries. Sandra Kersley was Librarian of the Year. In the greater world in 1983, U.S. Marines were killed by a terrorist explosion in Beirut. The U.S. invaded Grenada. "Publishers Weekly" reported that summer bookstore sales gained as compared to the prior year. Big sellers (and library circulators) were In Search of Excellence. Meqatrends. The One Minute Manager, and the Little Drummer Girl. A pacific storm hit California and hurled tornadoes into Los Angeles and Pasadena. The Coalinga earthquake shook us up. The hottest August on record caused $10 billion damage to crops. The New York Metropolitan Opera was 100 years old. The PLO and Egypt made peace. Congress approved the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The U.S. assigned "No. 1 priority" to find the cause of AIDS. Sally Ride became the first woman member of the space shuttle crew and became the first American woman in space. photo above: Author-Poet Saundra Sharp celebrated National Library Week with the County Library in 1994 Awards and Kudos ■ Audio Express, a cost effective and customer oriented mail-order service for audio books, received a National Association of Counties (NACo) Award in 1992. ■ Audio Express was recognized formally at the Board of Supervisors meeting of October 20, 1992 for being one of the top ten productivity projects this year in the County. This and our many additional productivity projects were recognized at an elegant reception at the County Museum of Art the evening before. Other projects. of which we are very proud, are: the Quality Control Center for ACS database management, the Las Virgenes bookmobile grand opening, the preventive maintenance training video, area code labels, assembly of our school relations packets by students of the LA Unified School District, the Norwalk Library behind-the-scenes telephone reference, "Read to Me" cooperative training, Begin at the Beginning with Books, South Region's program of cooperative bilingual story programs, A C Bilbrew Library's Homework Help Center, and the La Puente Library Improvement Project. ■ Begin at the Beginning with Books. a literacy program aimed at breaking family cycles of illiteracy, received a National Association of Counties Award in 1993. Begin at the Beginning with Books also received one of the coveted John Cotton Dana Awards, the Library profession's recognition for excellence in public relations, at the conference of the American Library Association. in 1993. ■ County of Los Angeles Public Library Award Winners for 1993 and 1994: 1993 I 1994 Support Services Award Virgilio Angeles I Donna Eisenhut Productivity Award San Fernando Aides & Pages/ Valencia Library Aides & Pages Citizens Award Karen Garofalo I Florence Rutherford and Huell Howser Charlotte Award Gillian Ray / Evelyn Taylor Librarian of the Year Barbara Hirsch / Joanne Eldridge Customer Service Award Charles Wheeler ( 1994 was the first year this Award was given) Business Indicators Follow Fiscal Circumstances As perspective to this report, in 1991-92 there were 16,095,328 materials circulated from the County of Los Angeles Public Library Additional to these books, another 5.9 million materials were used within the libraries. This represented a 46% increase in circulation over the prior two years. It also was an immense surge from the 13 million the year before, especially considering the fact that people were allowed to keep books out longer with the new 3 week loan period. The County Library had the highest circulation in the nation. Then in 1992-93, California began the first shifts of property taxes from local governments to the State. DID YOU KNOW-Ultimately, the County of Los Angeles Public Library lost permanently half of its annual revenue. Business indicators moved downward, but not as precipitously as did the revenue, service hours, and materials budget. The rate of the trend of monthly increase in circulation began edging downward, which probably relates to the decrease in the materials purchased, somewhat longer waits for requests, difficulties in reshelving books as quickly as in the past, and fewer staff to help directly library users. Following the Library's August, 1994, workforce reduction, there was an immense increase in activity on the days open with shortened hours. Staff did an excellent job in handling the frenetic workload and service activity which happened during 14 hours of weekly service access. While more items were The County Library benefits local business. In 1992-93 the Library recorded 1,804 contracts which had a total value ef $2, J 00, 957. This total was cumulated as part ef a study ef our Minon"ty and Women-owned Businesses circulated per hour open than in times of full hours, overall circulation did not match the overall business levels we experienced when our hours and days of service were longer (and thus more customerconvenient) each week and when we were purchasing new books. Though our hours were cut by 51 % and the Library budget had not one penny to purchase materials, reference service remained at 73% (1992/93 level) and circulation remained at 73% (1992/93 level). We did register nearly 12,000 new cardholders, boosting our total number of registered borrowers to 1,459,726. In perspective, this number reflects the fact that we registered 43% fewer cardholders than we had the prior year. THE COUN1Y OF LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY IS A NETWORK OF COMMUN11Y-FOCUSED LIBRARIES THAT MEET THE INFORMATIONAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND RECREATIONAL NEEDS OF A HIGHLY DIVERSE PUBLIC. WE ARE COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING LIFELONG LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE THROUGH SELF-EDUCATION. OUR HELPFUL AND EXPERT STAFF PROVIDES INFORMATION AND OUALl1Y SERVICE AND PROGRAMS IN A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT WE OFFER A BROAD AND RELEVANT COLLECTION, AND OUR EXPANDING INFORMATION NETWORKS USE CURRENT TECHNOLOGY THE LIBRARY IS IN THE BUSINESS OF SATISFYING THE CUSTOMER'S NEED TO KNOW .- -- ~,.___,- - --= es !!!l!I' r ==- ~!!!!! ~ ~ - B' F |
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