Santa Rosa Library Advisory Board Meeting

MINUTES

Santa Rosa Library Advisory Board Meeting

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022 @ 7PM

Protocol: Held Via Teleconference (Computer or Telephone)

Meeting Held Via Zoom

In attendance: LAB Members: Cynthia Denenholz, Noah Harris, and Pamela Van Halsema,

Ex-Officio members:  Interim Northwest Library Branch Manager John Koetzner, Roseland Library Branch Manager Rosalie Abbott, Friends of the Santa Rosa Libraries President Sarah Swearingen, Public Services Division Manager Sarah Vantrease, and Library Commissioners David Cahill and Sarah Laggos.

Community Members & Future LAB Members: Serge Zimberoff, and Lisa Pollack

1. CALL TO ORDER by Pamela Van Halsema Time 7:02

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF September 28^th - Approved

3. PUBLIC APPEARANCES

An opportunity for members of the public to address the Library Advisory and Friends’ Boards; times are limited to 3 minutes and may be changed at the Library Advisory Board’s discretion.
None.

4. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS & INTRODUCTIONS

Serge Zimberoff and Lisa Pollack have both applied to serve as Santa Rosa Library Advisory Board members and are expecting that the Sonoma County Library Commission will approve their applications at the next Commission meeting. Serge and Lisa both introduced themselves, and the other LAB members and Ex-Officio members shared introductions as well.

5. ACTION ITEMS

5.1. None

6. DISCUSSION ITEMS

6.1. Roseland Library Community Needs Assessment Interviews

The Roseland Library Community Needs Assessment Interviews were discussed. Topics covered were the history of how the interview questions were developed, how the interviewees were selected, and a review of the general process. Some feedback from the community included: gratitude for being included in the process and that they found it interesting. A few noteworthy examples of responses from interviewees: interest in spaces for gathering and creating community, vibrant kids area, space to reflect and to highlight the community, meeting and study rooms, community spaces to conduct outreach for nonprofits, bilingual & multilingual signs/books/staff, staff reflecting people who live in Roseland, local authors, local artists, future library hours scheduled around public transportation, flexible scheduling of hours and programs for working families, heavily investing in programs & support for ages 0-5, vibrant/colorful space, indoor and outdoor space with flexible use. The interview responses and feedback have been shared with the Consultants.

7. REPORTS

Reports and updates on library governance, management, programs, services and support group activities as well as City Council matters. All items are for discussion only.

7.1 Youth Members’ Report: None

7.2 Friends of the Santa Rosa Library Report

The Friends recently held the first Book Sale since the pandemic began--it had been 3 years since the last large-scale sale. The event was very well received, volunteers were amazed at numbers, there was a good volunteer turnout, and they sold $38,000 dollars’ worth of books.

The next event coming up is the Holiday Book Fair the weekend of December 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th

At the Sonoma County Library Foundation fundraising launch event in December, the SR Friends brought a huge check of $25,000 (the first, with more to come).

This Fall the Friends approved $34,000 to be spent on library materials and $18,000 to be used for programming at the four Santa Rosa Libraries.

7.3 Library Commissioners’ Report

Commissioner Cahill shared a review of the November 10th Foundation fundraising launch brunch. Extremely generous donations were made at the event. The funds being raised now will go to support the FFE: paint, carpet, shelves, books, furniture, technology, etc. The City of Santa Rosa will be hiring architects and constructing the building.

7.4 Library Director’s Report

Sarah shared that the Rincon Valley library will offer a presentation at the upcoming Commission meeting. All Sonoma County Library Branches are now open on Sundays. Communities are navigating a wave of a variety of illnesses which of course affect staff as well.

7.5 Feedback to Branch Managers’ Reports

Noteworthy feedback regarding the Branch Managers Reports: LAB members were pleased to see the Roseland Library report included Spanish Translation. They were impressed by the volunteers mentioned, the ‘yarn experience’, and use of the Coddington Mall space to host Northwest programs.

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Central Santa Rosa Library Branch Report, November 2022

By Jessica Romero, Branch Manager

Recently, the Central Santa Rosa Library hosted a lovely library breakfast that was the kick-off to the important Roseland Library Fundraising Campaign. We are so thankful that we were able to be a part of this momentous event. The campaign received many pledges, and we hope to receive more in the future.

Programming updates

Staff at the Central Library have been hard at work creating programming for our community. We currently have three weekly story times that cater to babies and toddlers in the community. Spanish Music and Movement is held once a month, Read to a Dog twice a month, Teen Anime Club once a month, and our adult book clubs twice a month -- with a third session coming soon. We also host a number of one-time programs every month.

At the beginning of November, staff put together a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar to celebrate all the lost loved ones of the Central Santa Rosa Library community. We had a number of community members participate, which is always lovely. 

                                                                                                           Dia de los Muertos altar at Central

We are also practicing being thankful with our Gratitude Tree in the Central Children’s section. Children are sharing what they are thankful for, and we love the responses! Kids are thankful for their family, their friends, their pets, and most of all, their library.

Staffing updates

We had four new circulation team members join our team in the last few weeks, and I am happy to report that they are settling in nicely. We are now nearly fully staffed, with only one pending recruitment left.

  Children’s thanks hanging on the Gratitude Tree

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Rincon Valley Regional Library Branch Report, November 2022

By Jennifer Duran, Branch Manager

It has been busy and eventful fall season at the Rincon Valley branch. Included below are some of the highlights over the past several months. 

Adult Programs

We welcomed back the UC Master Gardeners for two programs, enjoyed hands-on art workshops on making paper picado, a traditional Mexican decorative craft involving cutting elaborate designs into tissue paper. We also made succulent terrariums and had fun with an all-ages paint party.  In anticipation of all the food we will be eating this holiday season, we got pro-active by getting our exercise groove-on with a bilingual zumba class. Our branch book club continued to grow each month. In October we discussed There There, and in November Cool Gray City of Love. Looking ahead to December 14, we look forward to discussing Transcendent Kingdom.

Book club selections for October, November and December

Patrons have enjoyed selecting their next read from our many themed-book displays these past months, including the following themes: 

August -- Hooray for Hollywood, In the News: David McCullough & Salmon Rushdie, Local History, Summer Foods/Treats

September -- NFL New Season, September 11 Anniversary, Banned Books Week, Hispanic Heritage Month, Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family

October -- Spooky, Scary Stories, Cool Cats, Delightful Dogs, NBA new season

November -- Native American Heritage Month, Honor our Veterans

Teen Programs

Teenage patrons at the Rincon Valley branch have been tasting a variety of snacks from all over the globe at our “Universal Yums” subscription box program. They also are learning how to code video games using a free coding language called Scratch, and are getting acquainted with the branch’s NAO Robot in our weekly CoderDojo workshops. Additionally, they are playing chess after class to relax, and decorating their communal tables with hand-drawn table coverings. Our teens have recently attended meetups organized with local community activists, and those age 16 and 17 pre-registered to vote with the League of Women Voters.

They have also painted Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls with food coloring, and hand-bound books with watercolor paints. 

Children’s Programs

Our new Children’s Librarian, Amanda, joined the Rincon Valley branch team earlier this month, moving here from Syracuse, New York. One of the programs Amanda and the staff are looking ahead to is the return of making gingerbread houses inside the library.

We are hosting a gingerbread house making program on Wednesday, Dec. 21, from 2 to 4 p.m., and it will require advance registration. We will also be creating gingerbread house “take and make” kits to pass out to families. 

Teen getting acquainted with NAO Robot    

Other Branch News

Our branch was a four-day Vote Center for the November statewide general election. It was exciting to see democracy in action on our doorstep. All the branches in Santa Rosa have ballot boxes outside their locations. Along with long lines out the door to vote or drop off ballots in-person on election day, we experienced lines of drivers dropping ballots off in the boxes in the  last several days of voting. 

Another highlight is the number of visitors who are stopping in to see the Pointless Sisters Art Quilt Group exhibit at our branch.  There is still time to visit us and see the beautiful quilts through the winter holidays and into January. 

Some of the quilts on display in the Rincon Valley branch

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Northwest Regional Library Branch Report, November 2022

By John Koetzner, Interim Branch Manager

Adult Services 

In a collaboration with Coddingtown Mall, we offered a well-received Halloween Crafts program on Oct. 22 at the mall. Ana and Phillip did the program that had participants create tea light luminaries for the occasion.

In November, Phillip welcomed patrons and ran the Creativebug Botanical Watercolor Illustrations program. Program participants followed along with a Creativebug video and learned about illustrating with pens, calligraphy and watercolors. It was a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy the program. We are having another Creativebug event on Feb. 28 in 2023.  In addition, Phillip also did a presentation called “Sonoma County Library:  Your Partner Serving the Community” this month for the Center for Well-Being’s community health worker network meeting. 

Teen Services

In September, Melissa Carroll, our Teen Services Librarian, had her first in-person class visit since 2020. She met with four seventh grade English classes at Piner Olivet Charter School. Melissa and Kim Popenuck fostered a partnership with the combined sixth, seventh and eighth grade class at Village Charter School. The students come to the Northwest Branch every three weeks to check out books and use the library, since they don't have a school library. 

We keep increasing our branch “army” of teen volunteers. In August we had eight teens volunteer for a total of 24.5 hours. In September eight teens volunteered a total of 23 hours, and in October 12 teens volunteered a total of 36 hours. We had several new teens start volunteering in November, and all the teens from August, September and October continue to volunteer with us.

Sugar Skulls for kids and teens -- in which children and teens did decorative painting of the sugar skulls with frosting -- was well attended at the branch on Nov. 1 and enjoyed by those who participated.

The Yarn Experience, in which participants knit a different monthly project, was launched in  October as well and has been very successful. The diverse, inter-generational and all-ages program is offered twice a month.

Participants in the Yarn Experience enjoy the program at the branch

Children’s Services

Our Halloween Storytime program at Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa on Oct. 29 was very successful. Children’s Librarian Kim Popenuck dressed up as Snow White and read The Monsterator to a group of interested children and adults. Ana Dawe coordinated and set up the event as well, and read The Spooky Box to those in attendance. Melissa Carrol also attended and did a flannel board story with Kim called the The Big Pumpkin.

Children’s Librarian Kim Popenuck reads at Halloween Storytime 

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Roseland Regional Library Branch Report, November 2022

By Rosalie Abbott, Branch Manager

Fall Programming & Community Engagement

One extremely well-kept secret is the amount of rockstar level work that all our Roseland Regional Library staff accomplish. Between July 1st and the end of October, our staff have successfully hosted 188 library programs and/or community engagement events (such as school visits or other activities off site), serving a total of 5,872 babies, children, teens, and adults. Considering the tiny size of the Roseland Staff–this is nothing short of incredible. Additionally, when you look even deeper, beyond the impressive statistics, you will see that the majority of our staff are bilingual and serve our monolingual Spanish speaking clientele both inside of the library and out.

Our staff are also working hard to create something incredibly unique for our patrons. The Roseland Reference Staff are designing and implementing original Spanish Language Programming with English to support. Below are two examples of these wonderfully successful new program offerings.

Jueves de Juegos: The Roseland Library has been hosting an inclusive program that highlights science, technology, education, art, and mathematics through a discovery model of open play with tools and materials. All programming, promotion, and delivery is in Spanish, with English to support if/when necessary. Roseland’s meeting room features build projects, crafts, challenges, and games attending to diverse needs and interests within STEAM. This is an inclusive, multimodal gathering for all levels and abilities.

El Buzón de la Calaca: The Roseland Library has been offering a month-long, inclusive program and culminating celebration for Day of the Dead mail art. This event is modeled after the incredible Muertos Mail Art tradition in Oaxaca. All programming, promotion, and delivery has been in Spanish, with English to support if/when necessary. Throughout October, Roseland’s youth area has featured displays, book lists, art materials, and inspiration for visitors to create Muertos-theme art postcards. There is a tiny art gallery on site and an exhibit of completed works. The closing art event included an all-inclusive, family friendly game of Loteria complete with traditional Mexican sweets.

Some additional programs that we have offered for children & all ages: Stay and Play/ Quédate y juega (weekly), Sugar Skulls, Loteria!, Mr. Music, Read to a Dog (weekly). We have also enjoyed collaborating and sharing with CBI & Equidad as well as the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild with their Day of the Dead theme Quilts!

Some examples of the wildly popular teen programs that our Young Adult Services Librarian has designed and implemented are: CreateTeen! Friendship Bracelets, Painting Terracotta Pots, Scrapbook Pages, Wire Wrapped Jewelry, Button Making, Make Your Own Worry Pet, Set Up a Reading Journal, Rock Painting, Design a Coaster, Spooky Mason Jar Terrarium.

And, of course our programming for adults has included: Citizenship Class offered in Spanish by Catholic Charities and Tortilla Literaria (Spanish Book Club generously presented by Fredy Gonzalez, librarian from Central Library).

Collection Development

We often host class visits before the library opens and/or during open hours. Whenever we have teachers bring classes of students (sometimes more than 100 at a time!), it is not uncommon for them all to check out several books each! Needless to say, in our little library, it doesn’t take long for the shelves to look rather empty. We are incredibly grateful to the Santa Rosa Friends for allocating money for the Roseland Reference Staff to select and purchase additional books to add to our collection so that we may have some books available to offer to our local youth! Our staff are also constantly analyzing the collection, weeding when necessary, and requesting replacements if/when a book is lost or damaged.

Staff

We are thrilled that one of our staff members, Ale, who was formerly a Shelver, has now been promoted and has joined our Circulation Team as a Library Specialist. We are thrilled to announce that our vacant Shelver position has now been filled by a local high school student who begins training on 11/22/22. Additionally, the position of full time Bilingual Adult Services Librarian has also been filled and we are deeply excited to welcome Roxanna Garcia to join the Roseland Team!

Social Media

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bibliotecaderoseland

Biblioteca Regional de Roseland – Novedades de noviembre del 2022 

Programación de otoño y participación comunitaria 

Un secreto extremadamente bien guardado es la cantidad de trabajo de nivel de estrellas famosas de rock que realiza todo el personal de la Biblioteca Regional de Roseland. Entre el 1 de julio y finales de octubre, nuestro personal ha organizado con éxito 188 programas y/o eventos de participación comunitaria (como visitas escolares u otras actividades fuera de la biblioteca), atendiendo a un total de 5872 bebés, niños, adolescentes y adultos. Teniendo en cuenta el tamaño limitado del personal en la biblioteca de Roseland, esto es poco menos que increíble. Además, cuando mira aún más profundamente, más allá de las impresionantes estadísticas, verá que la mayoría de nuestro personal es bilingüe y atiende a nuestra comunidad monolingüe de habla hispana tanto dentro como fuera de la biblioteca. 

Nuestro personal también está trabajando arduamente para crear algo increíblemente único para nuestros usuarios. El personal de referencia de Roseland está diseñando e implementando programación original en español con apoyo en inglés.  A continuación, dos ejemplos de estos nuevos programas maravillosamente exitosos.  

Jueves de Juegos: La Biblioteca de Roseland ha estado organizando un programa inclusivo que destaca la ciencia, la tecnología, la educación, el arte y las matemáticas a través de un modelo de descubrimiento de juego abierto con herramientas y materiales. Toda la programación, promoción y presentación es en español, con apoyo en inglés si/cuando sea necesario. La sala de reuniones de Roseland presenta proyectos de construcción, manualidades, desafíos y juegos que atienden a diversas necesidades e intereses dentro de STEAM. Se trata de un encuentro inclusivo y multimodal para todos los niveles y capacidades.  

El Buzón de la Calaca: La Biblioteca de Roseland ha estado ofreciendo un programa inclusivo de un mes de duración y una celebración culminante para el arte postal del Día de Muertos. Este evento sigue el modelo de la increíble tradición del Arte Postal de los Muertos en Oaxaca. Toda la programación, promoción y presentación ha sido en español, con apoyo en inglés si/cuando sea necesario. A lo largo del mes de octubre, el área juvenil de Roseland ha presentado exhibiciones, listas de libros, materiales de arte e inspiración para que los usuarios crean postales artísticas con el tema de los Muertos. En la biblioteca de Roseland hay una pequeña galería de arte y una exhibición de obras completas. El evento de arte de clausura incluyó un juego familiar de lotería todo incluido con dulces tradicionales mexicanos. 

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7.6 City Council Liaison Report

None

8. ADVISORY BOARD INFORMATION ITEMS

An opportunity for Members to present brief, factual information about their library, respond to public comments, place items on the next agenda, or request information from the Library Commissioners, Director or Branch Managers.

None

9. FOLLOW-UP & NEXT STEPS

A review of follow-up responsibilities for members and staff.

None

10. ADJOURNMENT—Next meeting: Wednesday, January 25th at 7:00 pm