Appreciating Community Connections

Last weekend I attended two community events that reminded me of how important the library is to our neighborhoods and how fortunate we are to have such deep roots throughout the San Diego community.


Saturday, December 8 was the 70th Anniversary of the Linda Vista Branch Library and the 25th anniversary of the current building. What a celebration it was with two such important milestones at the same time! Our newly elected Mayor, Bob Filner was there as was Scott Sherman, Council District 7’s newly elected Councilmember. County Supervisor Ron Roberts attended and so did members of our ever faithful Friends of the Linda Vista Library. Also there were members of the Vietnamese Federation, past branch managers, and library patrons, some of whom grew up in the neighborhood and now take their children or grandchildren there.



Mayor Bob Filner presents a proclamation to Branch Manager
Jeff Davis declaring December 8 as
"Linda Vista Branch Library Day" in the City of San Diego


On Sunday, December 9 I attended the Grand Opening celebration of EcoVerse, Jing Si Bookstore and Café in downtown’s East Village across from the new San Diego Central Library. EcoVerse Jing Si is an environmentally conscious community center affiliated with the Tzu Chi Foundation. The Library is already collaborating with EcoVerse on community events, including upcoming Chinese classes. Even though the grand opening of the new Central Library won’t be until next July, we are already developing a great bond between our two organizations as community partners.

As I listened to people at both events express their heart-felt connection to one another and to the library, it made me proud to be part of the San Diego Public Library and the wonderful staff who help build the community connections. Our mission of “inspiring lifelong learning through connections to knowledge and each other” really hit home. It is not just a noble goal. It is integrated into who we are and what we do in our effort to positively touch the lives of those we serve in our diverse community.

With these thoughts of our close connections and the many good things I hope to come in our future together, I would like to wish our community members, City and Library staff very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

The New Central Library Brick Campaign Begins

We are so fortunate! Our branch libraries are humming with activity and excitement as we continue to restore hours. Downtown library users express their thanks for the return of Saturday hours, and on December 3, branch libraries will be open starting from 9:30 a.m. The Library system will have more open hours than we have had in a number of years, an upward trend that we hope to see continue.


The new Central Library continues its progress toward completion. We are fortunate to have the Library Foundation, a strong group of people who have helped the construction of the new Central Library come to reality, and who continue their fundraising efforts on behalf of the Library system. The Library Foundation has begun the “Buy-a-Brick” campaign. This community campaign will allow participation at all levels for anyone to help our library system by purchasing a brick that will be engraved and placed in the new Central Library.

Please join me and “Buy-a-Brick” to publically demonstrate your support of our library system. When you “Buy-a-Brick,” your family or organization will own a lasting piece of a community treasure and improve a citywide system providing important reading and literacy programs, arts and cultural offerings and technology access for everyone.

A limited number of commemorative bricks are now available. Purchasing a brick by January 31, 2013 ensures its installation by the July grand opening. You can also “Gift a Brick” in honor or tribute to a loved one or associate. Please visit SupportMyLibrary.org for more information or to make your online contribution.

We thank you, and wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Good News and More Good News

It’s been a very exciting time around the Library. Of course, one of the biggest pieces of good news is concerning the progress on the new Central Library. It is now 72% complete and is scheduled to open next summer in July. Last Friday, October 5, there was a “Topping Off” ceremony for the amazing iconic dome that has forever changed San Diego’s skyline. You can watch the video of the ceremony and see the webcam to view the construction in real time.

The New Central Library’s iconic
dome with the trolley in the foreground

At 143 ft high the new Central Library’s dome is larger than the dome on the U.S. Capitol. This 80,000 pound structure with 8 separate sails and sunshades is a one-of-a-kind engineering marvel. I am so impressed with the engineers, Turner Construction crew, and the architects, Rob Quigley and Tucker Sadler, for the creativity and professional expertise it took to envision and build this dome.

Steel workers tightening a sail

At the ceremony architect Rob Quigley described the symbolism behind the dome and its significance to our community, “This dome stands as an icon, a symbol of the City’s commitment to literacy and learning. And like the human spirits nurtured within, the dome is designed to be in the perpetual act of becoming. It doesn’t look finished and it never will. It will always be becoming. It is intended to stand as a paradox – grand yet accessible, familiar yet unique, comforting yet provocative. It is permanent yet kinetic and ever changing to the sun and the sky and the clouds.” I couldn’t have said it better!

Another piece of good news that we will be adding more hours at our libraries beginning the weekend of November 3-4! Starting on November 3, 2012 the Central Library will resume Saturday hours (9:30 to 2:30). Starting November 4, 2012 we will have Sunday hours at 4 additional branch libraries from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. including Logan Heights, Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo and Valencia Park/Malcolm X branch libraries. This is in addition to the branches that are currently open on Sunday including City Heights/Weingart, La Jolla/Riford, Point Loma/Hervey and Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa. (See the new schedule.) Additional hours at branch libraries on Monday are planned before the end of the year and we will make the announcement about those hours as soon as we can.
It is a crazy busy time as we continue to hire new people to staff the additional hours and prepare to move to the new Central Library. But, it is also very gratifying to know that very soon the community will experience the results of all the hard work and dedication of Mayor Jerry Sanders, the City Council, our donors, and Library staff to help us better meet the needs of our community.

Exciting Website Changes Are Here!

I am so pleased that the Library’s website improvements, which make our site more user-friendly, are now live. Our staff has been working for some time with the City’s Web Team to reduce the clutter and place items you look for the most in easy to find locations. Searching the catalog is our # 1 hit, so we put the search box right at the top along with your account login. We added quick links to our most popular hits. Graphical news features highlight programs and services of special interest.

Check out San Diego Public Library’s
new user-friendly website.

We are receiving positive feedback from users like Lisa Schattman who wrote, “"Great job! So much better than the old site!!! Not only more attractive, but much easier to find what I'm looking for. Thanks, SDPL!" This is such a testament to what a fabulous job our eBranch Team and the City’s Web Team did in upgrading our site to make it more responsive to our user needs! 

Recently we updated our event calendar, which makes it easier to find events at a glance. Other online improvements are coming soon. Within the next month or so there will be an upgrade to our catalog, which will give it a more contemporary look, make searching more like Google, and highlight New York Times Best Sellers. The library is on the technologic move. Stay tuned for more exciting details.

A Great New Alliance for New Central

I was so excited last week to meet Dr. Helen V. Griffith. She is the newly appointed executive director of the Downtown Charter High School (DCH), which will be on the new Central Library’s sixth and seventh floors and will eventually serve 500 high school students. After talking to her for just a brief time I knew she was the right person for the position. What a dynamo! She is so enthusiastic about wrapping together both formal and self-directed education for the DCH students. She has already hit the ground running and has started to put into place all the elements for getting the doors to the new school to open in the fall of 2013.

Dr. Helen Griffith
Executive Director
Downtown Charter High School

Dr. Griffith grew up in San Diego, and like me, she has a passionate commitment to this community and helping students make the most of the fact that their school is in the new Central Library. With a fabulous new Teen Space, a homework center, a computer lab, and ready access to library materials and librarians to help them, these students will have all the resources they need to help them succeed.


The excitement for new Central Library is building. Having Dr. Griffith onboard at DCH is one more step in realizing the vision of the new Central Library as a state-of-the-art centerpiece of learning and civic engagement in San Diego.

Fun Days of Summer are Hopping at the Library

Summer is traditionally a time to kick back, enjoy the great weather, and take time away from our day-to-day routine. For staff at the Library, summer is a time to kick into high gear with all the great programs we offer. We just wrapped up our Summer Reading Program and it was a fantastic year with more than 26,000 participants and 54% of those participating completing the program. This year’s theme was, “Dream Big, Read!” I was so pleased that the Library staff took this theme to heart in their program planning. At one of our smallest branches, Mountain View/Beckwourth, there were 1,000 kids at the Wild Wonders animal program. Now that is dreaming big!

An eager crowd of approximately 1,000 participants
anticipate the 2012 Summer Reading Wild Wonders Animal
Program at the Mountainview/Beckwourth Branch Library.

 We also had a busy summer with our One Book, One San Diego Program. Luis Alberto Urrea, author of "Into the Beautiful North," one of this year’s One Book selections, was in San Diego in June for two programs including one at the World Beat Center at Balboa Park. It was a lively program, complete with a flash mob!

From left to right are Julie Karlo, KPBS General Manager
Tom Karlo, Judith Josephson, me, and Edith Fine.
Judith Josephson and Edith Fine are authors of the
Children’s One Book, One San Diego selection,
“Armando and the Blue Tarp School,”
which I am holding.

The U.S. Constitution Program, Searching for Democracy is in full swing this summer, too. This program was made possible by a grant to the San Diego Public Library by the California Council for the Humanities (CCH). It includes an exhibit at the Central Library, "Wherever There's A Fight: A History of Civil Liberties" and a series of discussions lead by scholars on topics ranging from race and gender to faith and religion, dissent, and education and the arts.

So, this summer has been anything but slow around the San Diego Public Library. We may be tempted to stop for a few moments to catch our breath. But, then again we’ve got lots of planning to do for our back to school and fall programs, not to mention the opening of our new Central Library next summer! Stay tuned for more about that in the coming months.

Students' Writing Provides Inspiration

Each year the Friends of the Library sponsors an essay contest. Each year, I come away from the annual celebration inspired by the award-winning essays written and read by our local students. The essay contest is an example of all that is fundamental to the Library and its services – good reading, writing and sharing with community! The students’ essays were phenomenal. Each was well-written, expertly delivered and often entertaining. We offer our many thanks to Friends of the Library and our other co-sponsors of the contest - San Diego Unified School District Library Media Teachers and KPBS One Book, One San Diego. And a special thanks to the essay contest’s new co-sponsor, Computers2SDKids. Would you believe that they gave each grand prize winner a laptop!?! If you want to be inspired, join us next year to hear the Friends of the Library contest winners' essays. You will be richly rewarded. I was!

Things are Looking Up

What a difference a year can make! Branch libraries’ hours are being restored, the Library is filling its vacancies and the new Central Library’s construction continues to be on time and on budget! And, the iconic dome topping off the new library building is being constructed!

Mayor Sanders recently announced the end of the City’s fiscal crisis. With that announcement he also revealed that his Mid-Year Budget proposal included restoration of hours for branch libraries. Council approved the budget proposal. Library staff and community members are thankful and anxious for the branch libraries to be open more hours ASAP.

This increase in hours applies to the base schedule for all branch libraries, increasing from 36 hours per week to 41 hours per week. Branch libraries currently open on Sundays – City Heights/Weingart, La Jolla/Riford, Point Loma/Hervey and Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa, thanks to available private funding, all will retain their Sunday hours for a total of 45 hours open per week.

The Library started slowly filling vacancies earlier this fiscal year. We are pleased to accelerate hiring efforts in order to expand hours. The hiring process has procedures that must be followed so it may take a little time. We expect to complete the process of restoring hours by the end of May.

Have you been watching the webcam on our website? If so, you’ve seen the amazing “Beacon of Knowledge.” That’s what some of us are calling the dome, the iconic structure being constructed atop the library building. Traveling along I-5 recently, I spotted the dome in its beginning formation. It was a sight to behold – beautiful! I was surprised by the emotions it invoked in me. I can only imagine how it will look when completed.


Dome being erected on New Central Library

Having visited the top of the 9th floor with City and Turner engineers, I had an opportunity to see the range of views that will be seen from the building. I am so excited about the experience that will be shared with San Diegans and visitors who will come to our spectacular new library.

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Doug Wenck, Turner’s “Dome Engineer”

View from the 9th Floor of the New Central Library

The new Central Library will be a symbol and a tangible example of our city’s commitment to knowledge, literacy, learning and community engagement. The dome will call us to it.

Nitty-Gritty Details

I was so excited yesterday to find frontline library staff members working directly with the new Central Library consultant and library managers on some of the details for the new Central Library. This is how we will find good answers to design and its relationship to services – through the nitty-gritty details for this project which, for some, has been conceptual until very recently.

And, there’s a wealth of details to review – from the height, size and capacity of shelving to design of furniture, end panels and carpeting. All of these considerations require a balance of form, function and budget - not necessarily in that order.

Ultimately, the budget has the potential to drive many of our decisions, and we had some great news recently regarding the budget. Funding has been guaranteed to ensure that the new Central Library project continues into the 2nd phase and to completion. We are very thankful to the very generous folks who have provided the guarantee! The project is moving along very well and we still anticipate opening in Summer 2013.

Another item of good news relates to the City’s budget, as announced by Mayor Sanders at the State of the City Address. The deficit that will need to be addressed in the FY 2013 budget of just over $31 million is likely to be much less, possibly in the range of $12 million. As a General Fund department, this is great news! While the deficit clearly needs to be addressed, I am hopeful that the lower amount will result in lower impact to the Library system.

This is starting out to be a great year already!