Library Report 2020/10/12ITEM # 07
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
Page 2
Since the inception of this unique service, we have made 12,081 curbside
deliveries with 46,577 items checked out by 3,089 patrons. Residents of the
Anaheim community have expressed their sincere appreciation for this service
that has been active since March 23, 2020.
In addition to curbside, our staff effectively identified the community's needs
during these uncertain times and found solutions to serve our residents the
Anaheim Way:
Public service questions
Information Desks were implemented at each of the branches that have
remained open during normal business hours to answer questions and provide
reference assistance to patrons. In addition, Heritage Services is using Zoom
to conduct meetings with residents in regards to their historic surveys for the
Mills Act Program.
Anaheim Youth
Meeting the basic needs of Anaheim's youth is always at the forefront of our
organization's efforts. To continue these efforts, APL has collaborated with all
Anaheim school districts, such as Anaheim Elementary School District,
Anaheim Union High School District, Magnolia School District, Savanna
School District, Central School District, Orange Unified School District as
well as the YMCA, Grandma's House of Hope, and other partners in
distributing over 48,347 books, bags of school supplies, and free meals. APL
helped feed the minds of our youth, while our partners helped to feed their
bodies.
In addition, we have provided opportunities for the public to engage in learning
and literacy activities through our weekly Instagram and Facebook live events.
As a result, each of our Storytimes and STEAM Adventures have reached
several thousand viewers (totaling more than 136,000 views!) and are still
growing in popularity. Our aggressive social media presence has acquired new
viewers and engaged our community. Now, more than ever, children are
watching our Storytimes — and, it's helping to provide a sense of normalcy
and comfort to our Anaheim families, demonstrating that the Library is an
important influence in their children's lives. Other services have adopted
Zoom as its digital platform, which is used for various library sponsored adult
and teen book clubs, Teen Advisory Board meetings, and interactive events.
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
Page 3
Online Self -Directed Learning
APL was awarded the "Golden Hub of Innovation Award," in the category of
Community Investment by the Association of California Cities - Orange
County for granting students in Anaheim school districts access to our digital
resources. There's no doubt that APL's annual $200,000 expenditure in online
resources has greatly benefited our Anaheim families. The Community
Investment category is awarded to "Innovators for community investment that
add value to Cities through increasing quality of life, community aesthetics,
providing services that resident's request."
Since partnering with Anaheim school districts, APL has had a significant
increase in the use of online resources. A portion of the increase (monthly
average of 33%) can be attributed to `ACES' (A Card for Every Student),
which is a partnership between the Anaheim Public Library, Anaheim
Elementary School District and Anaheim Union High School District. The
following online resources remain available to the public:
• Pronunciator, which is a foreign language learning service, had a 738%
increase since closure. Given the percentage, one might predict that the
public is taking this time to learn a new language!
• Gale Courses offers hundreds of instructor -led online classes, including
many business -related topics; for example, Employment Law
Fundamentals, Creating a Successful Business Plan, Fundamentals of
Supervision and Management, Managing Customer Service, Business
Finance for Non -Finance Personnel.
• cloudLibrary allows patrons to download eBooks and audiobooks on
their computers, tablets or phones.
• Online access to the digital edition of the Orange County Register helps
patrons to keep up with local news.
• Brainfuse, which provides live homework help for students, has had a
72% increase in average monthly usage since the closures in March
2020.
Engaging with the Arts
The Library has have provided opportunities for Anaheim to participate in
meaningful artistic activities, including Virtual Open Mic, Ukulele instruction,
and art kits.
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
Page 4
The Virtual Open Mic (hosted through Instagram stories) provides an avenue
for self-expression in music, poetry and storytelling. In the 24 hours the first
Virtual Open Mic was available for public viewing, the videos received a
combined total of 403 views, 51 likes, 3 comments and 11 shares.
Teens have participated in Ukulele instruction by checking out and picking up
ukuleles from Curbside Service, then joining live Zoom events to learn and
practice the ukulele.
Sunkist Branch Library has been providing art kits, which are available for
curbside pick-up to adults over 50. Each kit contains all the materials needed to
complete an art project. The first project is a mandala painting that encourages
meditation and tranquility. Senior Art Kits are provided by the Muckenthaler
Cultural Center through funding from the Samueli Foundation's Community
Impact Grant.
Public Service Improvements
All materials in collections have been inventoried, organized, cleaned, and
repaired as needed.
Award Winning Library
The Anaheim Public Library continues to hold on to its award winning Library
title, adding three more awards to its collection.
• John Cotton Dana Award
We are proud to say that Anaheim Public Library is the recipient of the
2020 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award. The John
Cotton Dana award is the American Library Association's most
prestigious honor, is highly competitive, and is sought after nationwide.
It is the first time in the Library's history that APL has won.
The award is presented by the Library Leadership and Management
Association for excellence in library public relations, and has been
given annually since 1946. The Anaheim Public Library will receive
$10,000 in funds and a plaque in recognition of this achievement.
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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• OC Zinc Fest Award
Anaheim Public Library received an award for the OC Zinc Fest
marketing campaign, which showed the growth and impact of both
hosting a Zinc Fest and adding zines to the Central Library's collection.
If you have not attended OC Zine Fest at Central Library in the past,
watch the recap video from last year's event to see the amount of joy
that zines bring to the Anaheim community
httns://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG4 bQBvFbo.
ALA PR Xchange Award
Anaheim Public Library received two American Library Association
(ALA) PR Xchange Awards. The PR XChange Award recognizes the
very best public relation materials produced by libraries. Entries are
evaluated on content, originality, and design by a team of experts in the
areas of public relations, graphic design, communications and
marketing.
The first award is in the "Reading Programs" category in the budget
category of $5 -$10 million for the Anaheim Ducks partnership. The
marketing team submitted the Winter is Wild promotional video. In
addition, they created a special edition Anaheim Ducks Library Card to
raise funds for the Friends of the Anaheim Public Library and the
Friends of the Canyon Hills Library.
The second award is in the "Material promoting collections, services,
resources" category of $5 -$10 million for the promotion of
cloudLibrary. The marketing team submitted the "Always on the go?"
video, which promoted the use of eBooks and audiobooks during
Library Card Sign-up Month in September.
For both awards, there were over 270 entries nationwide, so the
competition was fierce, and APL won two of the awards!
Recognitions
• ACES
In January 2020, the Library was recognized at City Council. Orange
County Business Council representative Connor Medina, Government
Affairs Specialist, acknowledged the Anaheim Public Library
nomination for their `ACES' A Library Card for Every Student
initiative. Mr. Medina addressed City Council acknowledging APL's
outstanding efforts in the following statement:
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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"My name is Connor Medina with the Orange County Business
Council. Each year OCBC hosts the Turning Red Tape into Red Carpet
Awards. I'd like to highlight APL in the nomination in the public
partnership category for a card for every student the ACES program.
ACES provides over 50,000 students with a digital library card that
offers access to eBooks, tutoring, test prep and more — saving school
districts and tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year; and
with that, it is Orange County Business Council's pleasure to recognize
the City of Anaheim visionary leaders and dedicated staff for these
accomplishments. Thank you."
Grants
Awarded over $253,500 in grant funds and over $45,000 in materials. The
Library was awarded a variety of grants from various organizations dedicated
to enhancing literacy. Grant funding was awarded for an Anaheim Public
Mobile STEAM "Punk" Van in the Shared Vision Out of School and a grant
for Cultivating Racial Equity and Inclusion. Additional grants were received
for STARS (Students, Tools and Resources for Success), Ukulele University,
the NEA Big Read, bilingual books, and various other programs and materials.
The Anaheim Public Library Foundation, Friends of the Anaheim Public
Library, and Friends of the Canyon Hills Library have all pledged support for
the various projects associated with these grants.
PLANNED PROJECTS
Friends Central Library Green Space
The Central Library has completed construction on Phase Iin constructing an
ADA-compliant outdoor green space that will serve as an outdoor
programming location for children, teens and adults. Phase 2 of construction is
anticipated to begin in fall 2020. The result will be a beautiful garden space
with a trike path and sandbox, a covered `stage' area and a science island for
STEAM programming. A Community Development Block Grant has funded
this project as well as funding from the Friends of the Anaheim Public Library.
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APL identified a community need for free and accessible STEAM educational
resources. A LSTA grant funded the creation of a service destination desk at
the Central Library: "STEAM Hub", where STEAM kits will be provided for
in-house use by children, teens, and adults to increase their knowledge and
skills in science, engineering, technology and math. The benefits of the project
will be that students, K-12, and adults will be able to apply what they learned
in their formal education environment, will support a pathway to a variety of
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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STEAM -related careers, and/or will be an opportunity for lifelong learning.
The STEAM kits will be available for use soon after re -opening the libraries.
Racial Equity Team:
Anaheim Public Library (APL) is committed to promoting racial equity and
working towards that goal. They understand that more than ever, it is
crucially important to engage in critical conversations around what it means to
create a more equitable workforce and community. At Anaheim Public
Library, there has always been an attempt to build a workplace that supports
employees and empowers them to do their best work that result in building
strong communities. On behalf of APL, Monica Sanchez wrote and received
the California Libraries Cultivating Racial Equity and Inclusion Initiative
(CREI). As a participating library jurisdiction, the library received $5,000 in
reimbursements to support staff development, planning and implementation of
racial equity and inclusion policies, practices and programs.
Since January 2020, the Racial Equity team has accomplished the
following:
1. General Equity Statement published on library's website
2. Developed a Racial Equity Strategic Plan with 4 main goals:
a. Staff training on equity topics
b. Update Collections
• Increase Access to Foreign Language Collections
• Change Outdated Subject Headings/Records
• Collection Audit for Diversity on English Collections
c. Recommend Services for Underserved Anaheim Cultural
Communities
d. Recommendations for hiring practices.
3. Developed staff presentation of Local History of Equity & Inequities
in Anaheim
4. Recommended & helped to develop upcoming Racial Equity Staff
Training during the summer of 2020. This included self -evaluative
exercises (privilege and implicit bias), reading How to Be an Antiracist
by Ibram X. Kendi, staff meetings and a presentation by a D.E.I. expert
- Dr. Adrienne Coleman.
Mobile Van
The Mobile Library received a grant in the amount of $183,000 for the creation
of a new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) Mobile
Van and associated part-time staffing costs. This new van will go into high
density and low-income areas throughout the City and target at -risk youth and
empower them to explore STEAM concepts and careers developing 21 S[
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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Century Skills. In addition to serving high density and low-income areas
throughout Anaheim, it will be available for programs at other Anaheim
Library locations and community and school district events.
Euclid Library Outdoor Space Enhancements
The Euclid Branch of the Anaheim Public Library was built in 1976 and the
original building remains the same size 42 years later. With population growth
and community demands for expanded public space and performance areas,
Community Development Block Grant funds were granted to landscape the
3,095 square foot outdoor space on the south side of Euclid Library. Work to
be done includes a new ADA accessible door to access the area, leveling and
landscaping of the ground, with new irrigation, lighting and security cameras.
This will allow the Library to do more outdoor programs for all ages and all
abilities.
Founders Park
The installation of a video surveillance system, designed to monitor this high
priority area — featuring the historic Mother Colony and Woelke-Stoffel
Houses — and counteract the rising crime rate and acts of vandalism at
Founders' Park, was completed between mid -March 2019 and mid -April
2020. Planning for the Dumouchel Memorial Garden, to be constructed with
donated funds in front of the Mother Colony House, is currently underway.
The area has been cleared for the planting of native and/or drought resistant
plants and the memorial plaque wording reviewed by the Dumouchel family.
Completion of the garden is anticipated in spring/summer 2021.
"NEA Big Read: "Our Town" and "In the Time of Butterflies"
For the fifth year in a row, APL has been awarded an NEA Big Read grant in
the amount of $15,000. The NEA Big Read grant funds a month of
programming based around the books "Our Town" and "In the Time of
Butterflies" by Julie Alvarez Wilder. We are partnering with Altrusa, the City
of Anaheim's Neighborhood and other local nonprofit groups to provide
programming that will represent the heritage of Anaheim's multi -cultural
population with a focus on Hispanic Heritage.
AREAS OF CONCERN
Support for Library materials
In the past five years, donations from support groups have been used to start
and develop new collections, such as a -Books and downloadable audiobooks,
as well as supplement the book budget.
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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The Library Board is grateful to the City Council for previous allotments of
one-time funds and suggests that this is added as a continual support for these
integral services.
In previous years, Anaheim community support groups have funded eBook and
e-audio books. The Kiwanis of Greater Anaheim, Anaheim Public Library
Foundation, Friends of the Anaheim Public Library, and Friends of the Canyon
Hills Library expect that the City should provide continuing support for these
integral services for Anaheim residents, allowing the support groups to focus
on funding programming.
In the past ten years, collection size has decreased by 16% and patron count
had been decreasing steadily. This decrease in patron count can be attributed
to a variety of factors including an overall decrease in public library usage
nation-wide, declining school enrollment in Anaheim, a stable economy,
political environment, more patrons visiting virtually rather than physically,
availability of electronic resources from a variety of sources, and a lack of
adequate library materials available to our residents.
Stable Library Workforce
Anaheim Public Library is a large urban library currently staffed with 149
employees. Of these, 78% have part-time status (117), most of them working
less than 20 hours a week. Unfortunately, over a third of part-time employees
hired do not stay beyond 18 months as many of these new hires seek full-time
employment. The Library incurs significant costs through testing,
interviewing, qualifying, hiring, training, and mentoring new staff. We need to
ensure a stable, well trained, and experienced Library staff. Part-time staff do
not gain the experience for dealing with complex patron situations, and have to
rely on full-time staff to intervene in these situations.
As a large urban library system, it is important to maintain a safe and
welcoming atmosphere for the 1 million people who come through our doors
annually. The Library needs a core group of trained and experienced people
that can manage accidents, behavioral interventions with disruptive patrons,
building evacuations, communication with Anaheim Police and Fire
Departments, Facility Maintenance, Risk Management, and document and
input work orders, accident reports, and incident reports. Part-time staff
cannot be relied upon to build the experience and competencies necessary to
accomplish this, especially with the high turnover rate we see with part-time
staff. All of these concerns are amplified by the fact that there is no full-time
staff at Ponderosa Joint -Use Library and split full-time Librarian staff between
Euclid and Central Libraries.
Report to the City Council on the Condition of the Libraries
October 12, 2020
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The American Library Association's Library Value Calculator estimates that
Anaheim Public Library users save approximately $20 everytime they check out a
book vs. buying one from Amazon. In addition, using the Anaheim Public
Library's database saves an average of $16.00 per use and attending a free
Anaheim Public Library program can save the average Anaheim resident $15.00
in entertainment expenses each time.
The Library Board is very proud of the many accomplishments of the Anaheim
Public Library for Fiscal Year 2019/20, particularly the way they have
transformed and evolved to meet the needs of the Anaheim community during
these unprecedented times. We look forward to the exciting programs and
services that are planned in Fiscal Year 2020/21.
Respectfully submitted:
David Laviguer, Chair