Meeting Interesting People at the Library

You can meet interesting people at the library. I am not only talking about the type of “meeting” that teens are said to do here, although what better place to meet another smart, forward-thinking teen than at the library?

These past few weeks I have had the pleasure and honor of meeting some amazing writers, volunteers and community members. Over 300 local writers and guests were at the Central Library for the 45th Annual Local Authors Exhibit and reception to celebrate their collective accomplishments in writing and presenting over 320 books published in 2010. The writers ranged from age 7 to 90 and included a former Prisoner of War, a local rock star, a 16 year-old writing prodigy, and representatives from local institutions such as UCSD, a comic book publishing company, Balboa Park museums and historical societies. Hal and Althea Altenbern are partners in writing, in love and life. They joined us at the reception to celebrate their latest book and their 61st wedding anniversary! Another highlight of the evening was the ceremony honoring UCSD Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout, who was bestowed with the San Diego Public Library’s Local Author Literary Achievement Award. We were in stellar company indeed! The Local Authors Exhibit at Central Library, the Online Author Exhibit and Photo Gallery will be on display through February.

The library family had another big event, hosted in partnership with KPBS at the La Jolla Country Day School to a crowd of over 400 celebrating the 2011 One Book, One San Diego season. The book we are reading as a community this year is the Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy. Thúy is a young Vietnamese-American woman who grew up in the Linda Vista area. She is an eloquent, lyrical writer and speaker. It was interesting listening to her talk about the book, her life and her inspiration. The following evening thúy did an author talk at the Central Library, held us spellbound as she read from the book and intrigued us with the list of people she would love to have at the dinner table for conversation, among whom was the prize-winning horse, Secretariat! Thúy theorized that she could learn something from Secretariat and I believe we could likewise learn from thúy! (You also might be interested to see a video of thúy that describes why the Linda Vista Branch Library is her “favorite library in the whole wide world.”)

Rounding out the beginning of the year celebrations was the 23rd annual Evening with the Stars; the Stars being the wonderful tutors and learners of the READ/San Diego literacy program. The dinner was lovely with over 300 participants who were witness to the recounting of just a few of the accomplishments achieved by tutors and learners in the program. These are people who so recognize the value of education and life-long learning, that they commit to a partnership to learn/tutor to read despite the various other challenges in day to day life. In my book, these are all heroic people and I was so pleased to meet them, thanks to the library.

The Rain, Our Future and Our Past

The rain has stopped for now, and not a moment too soon for the sake of our library buildings! Yes, I realize that we need the rain but maybe not so much at one time? Our branch libraries have certainly felt the brunt of the on-coming winter this year. Some of the older facilities have had roof leaks and water intrusion from various sources. Work at the new Central Library has to be on hold for awhile, too.

The San Diego 21st Century Library Plan to renovate or rebuild our libraries is a visionary plan that seeks to address aging facilities and carry on the work of library services in the future. We are so fortunate to have built/rebuilt 7 of our community libraries and to have the new Central Library construction under way. There are still several more projects waiting for funding.

I believe better times are ahead. Instead of patching here and there, we hope to have other new and renovated facilities constructed to support our community needs. In the meantime, please bear with us if you frequent any of our libraries affected by the recent rains. We will do all that we can to address the damaged areas.

Happy Holidays, and here's wishing for a Prosperous New Year for all!

By the way, if you are interested in the accomplishments and challenges of our recent past. The annual report covering FY 2009 and FY 2010 is online at: https://www.supportmylibrary.org/annualreport/

A Lot to Celebrate

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

My day started out great today. I called my son and told him that pancakes were “biting” me, which was my way of jokingly saying that I would love to take a bite out of a pancake. After a lovely breakfast at a local San Diego favorite with Fiel and his girlfriend, “T,” I attended the first anniversary event for our Logan Heights Branch Library.

Our library system has had many such events in the past. Along with our Friends’ groups, we do a fabulous party. There were great speeches today - Friends’ President Pedro was as eloquent as ever; and membership chair, Dr. Baza, made an impassioned plea for help to keep up the great work started by the Logan Heights Friends in partnership with the Point Loma Friends.

Here’s a picture. I was really impressed by the dancing while the band played some of my old time favorites.

Now, that’s a fun, new twist on our library anniversary events!

The People Behind the New Central Construction Project

On day 101 of the construction project for the new Central Library, I had the pleasure of being among the very first to tour the construction site. The people behind the project at Turner Construction Company, along with city engineering and project management staff, led the tour and told us all about the processes that were occurring. In the photo below are team members shaping the new Central Library construction project, although conspicuously missing from the photo is Tony Perez, the City’s Resident Engineer for this project. He decided to be our photographer and he did a great job!

From left to right, are: Cynthia Meinhardt, City of San Diego Project Officer II
with the Engineering and Capital Projects Dept. (E&CP); Afshin Oskoui, City Engineer
and Assistant Director of E&CP; Dave Jarrell, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for
Public Works; and Kristine Wunder-Myers, Safety Manager for Turner Construction Co.
Continuing along the back, left to right, are: Tony Heinrichs, Acting Director of E&CP;
John Scheuer, General Superintendent, Turner Construction Co.; Ron Rudolph,
Vice President, Turner Construction Co.; Darren Greenhalgh, Deputy Director of E&CP;
and Nikki Lewis, Associate Engineer with E&CP. In front, left to right,
standing next to me is Carmen Vann, Senior Project Manager, Turner Construction Co.;
and to the far right is Amy Benjamin, Policy Advisor in the Office of Mayor Jerry Sanders.

We were on site with hard hats, safety vests and sturdy shoes. It was fascinating to hear about the process of constructing such a building and seeing firsthand the workflow among the various trades on site. It was impressive how well they worked together. We saw carpenters, steelworkers, and concrete workers, just to name a few, actively working step by step to complete their part and pass the work on to the next stage to keep the job going. The safety record on the job site is impressive, too. As of day 101 there were no safety incidents resulting in lost time.

From left to right, next to me are: Turner Construction Safety Manager
Kristine Wunder-Myers, City of San Diego Project Officer with the
Engineering and Capital Projects Cynthia Meinhardt, and
Senior Project Manager with Turner Construction Carmen Vann.

And, speaking of working well together, take a look at the photo above. Shown with me are the women leaders of this amazing construction project. I think that Kristine, Cynthia and Carmen are exceptional women who chose to take what has been considered (perhaps in the past) as an unconventional path to their careers. These are people with major skills and smarts who have reached high levels. I believe that these three women will serve as role models for many of us for years to come. I am so thankful to them and the many expert, dedicated, people involved in this project. I am thankful as well for the many people who support our library system in various ways.

Teen Music Group Serves the Community and Their Future!

Over the last two weeks, along with the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Parks and Recreation Director, Public Works, and other City of San Diego departments, I have participated in the Mayor’s Town Hall Meetings held throughout the city. It is obvious from the attendance that people care deeply about the services the City provides and they are concerned about what the future holds. While none of us know for certain about the financial outcome and the potential cuts we may experience, the Library will do everything we can to offer quality services to the best of our ability given the level of financial resources available.

It is at times like these that I especially take heart in remembering all of the creative and positive things that are taking place in our libraries and the communities we serve. One of the best examples is happening in our newest branch library, Logan Heights, which opened just under a year ago.

Under the skillful guidance of the Youth Services Librarian, Adriana (Ady) Huertas, the Logan Heights Teen Council, composed of several youth who volunteer at the library, voted to start a music program to teach teens how to sing and play a variety of musical instruments. Friends of the Logan Heights Library member Judy Eby, who had already donated a grand piano to the new library, was so inspired by the teen’s enthusiasm that she donated musical instruments and obtained approval from the Friends Group to pay for a music instructor for three months.

The logo design that the Teen Music Group created.

A group of 22 dedicated teens met weekly beginning in June to practice. They named their group, “Project Unknown” and designed their own logo and T-shirts. Their first goal was to perform at the Summer Reading Program Grand Finale event on August 14. Their second performance was the next day at an annual community event, Fiesta Del Sol, and they also performed this week at the library’s Halloween Celebration. All events were a big hit!

" Project Unknown" performing at the Summer Reading Program
Grand Finale event on August 14.

With the success of “Project Unknown,” The Logan Heights Friends Group has agreed to pay for an additional singing instructor this Fall. A partnership has been formed with a non-profit organization in Point Loma called A.R.T.S (aka A Reason To Survive – web site: http://www.artsurvive.org/) to provide the Teen Music Program with transportation and access to other musicians, artists, and singing instructors to help improve their performance skills. This partnership also offers art lessons for the group and other teens of the Logan Heights community at the library every Saturday.

Through the expert mentoring of Ady Huertas, Judy Eby, and the Friends of the Logan Heights Library, the teens have been encouraged to take ownership and responsibility by raising funds through book sales, bake sales, and rummage sales to help pay for their group’s T-Shirts and other important materials. They also participated in a letter writing campaign to the Friends of the Library and raised $3,000 so that the music program can continue.

From left to right Daniel Gomez, Juanita Arratia, Yadira Arratia,
Jeanette Arratia, Jeovanna, Eunice Rabadan, David Gomez (can't see his face),
Ruben Ochoa, Armando Herrera, Standing in back:
Adriana (Ady) Huertas (Librarian), Jocelyn Torres and Ashley Ayala.

This has been such a successful program for our teens that I asked them to speak about their music program at last month’s Library Commission meeting and the Branch Managers meeting. It is a great model for other libraries. We’ve already had a call from a librarian on the east coast who said she had never heard of this type of library program anywhere else in the U.S.

I’m so proud of our Logan Heights Librarian Ady Huertas for spearheading this group and thankful to our volunteer and donor extraordinaire, Judy Eby, and to our Friends of the Library Group for supporting it. Clearly, this is an extraordinary effort in every way. I am so impressed with the teens for their commitment to serving the community and their futures. It is so gratifying to know that the library continues to play such an important role in changing people’s lives!

Work Is Fun, Too

Working with a world class team is awesome! I am so grateful to be a part of the new Central Library's world class team - engineering and capital projects staff, the architects, construction professionals, library design professionals, contracts staff, Library Foundation and Library Commission representatives, library staff, and many others. These are the people that keep the project moving; and they keep the feeling of excitement about our work foremost despite the challenges. When one of us gets tired or discouraged, the others turn on the turbo boosters!

It's Saturday morning and my homework this weekend is to review the library building program for discussion with staff next week. We will review the interior features of the building and discuss how library use and the work of staff will flow. I would like to play tennis today (I'm a total novice at it and I love it) but the building program and floor plans are calling me!

I just talked with one of my project colleagues about the problem that has been plaguing us all week - no harsh words for calling on a Saturday morning :-) Talking with other colleagues this week, as we worked on the problem together, has also been uplifting and encouraging. These folks have helped keep me moving forward in my tasks. THANKS, everybody!

I have to get this work done and I am excited to do this work! Maybe I'll play tennis tomorrow...

Steel is in the Ground!

Just days after the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Central Library, Turner Construction started the project. We are talking tractors and other earthmoving equipment everywhere, a new trailer on site, and now there’s steel in the ground! Way to go, Turner Construction!

Excuse my enthusiasm but I can’t imagine a faster response to getting a project moving forward. For library users, staff and Turner Construction, the architects and engineers, opening day in August 2013 cannot arrive fast enough. So, when people ask, ”When will the construction project begin?” We just smile and say, “Please, go look at the site. You will be amazed, the project has begun!”

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 28, 2010, and it was fabulous. The Mayor’s Office, the Library Foundation and library staff pulled together an awesome ceremony, which was enjoyed by donors, library supporters and community members. There were approximately 800 in attendance, standing room only.

Mayor Sanders opened the ceremony with eloquent and heartfelt congratulations and offered thanks to the many people who worked tirelessly to see that this major asset for the City of San Diego would move forward. Among those mentioned were major donors, Joan and Dr. Irwin Jacobs; Judith C. Harris and Mel Katz, immediate past Chair and current Chair, respectively, of the San Diego Public Library Foundation; Jim Dawe, Founding Chair; San Diego Unified School District; the Friends of the San Diego Public Library; and Chair of the Library Commission, Katie Sullivan, along with her husband Dan Sullivan of Qualcomm. To see a list of donors and donation opportunities, as well as to see other information about the project please go to the San Diego Public Library Foundation’s website at: http://www.supportmylibrary.org/.

There were so many poignant moments at the ceremony, too numerous for me to describe here. I was especially moved by the participation of our future leaders. Girl Scout Troop # 5912, which was responsible for the presentation of the Colors, and the San Diego Children’s Choir sang. No doubt these young people will always remember their role in the beginnings of the new Central Library.

Another personal favorite for me was a celebratory moment at the groundbreaking with two people whom I admire and respect and who were very important to successfully moving the new Central Library project forward: former library director Anna Tatár, and California State Librarian Stacey Aldrich. I was planning to title our photo, the “Vamping Librarians” because of our poses, but thought better of it. :) It was a special time for us. We felt wonderful and had a lot of fun that day.