The East Ventura Community Council represents areas of Ventura east of Victoria Avenue. At their meeting this Thursday, the issue of library services for the east side of the city will be discussed. Other topics to be considered at this meeting are new developments and emergency preparedness training.
The meeting will be held on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at First Assembly of God Church, 346 N. Kimball Road at 7 p.m.
For more information, call 647-5422.
For two years the Library Advisory Commission has been studying the issue of a new paint job for the E.P. Foster Library. Paint samples were applied to the front of the building so that patrons could express their opinion concerning the color. The Design Review Committee, county staff and historic preservation groups were also consulted. The Historic Preservation Committee had a scraping taken to determine the color the building was originally painted. The Library Advisory Commission recommended a parchment with green trim color scheme similar to that of an architectural drawing made before the construction of the building. The Historic Preservation Committee rejected this recommendation and approved the green color scheme discovered through the scraping and seen in this photograph from the 1950′s.
The green option was particularly unpopular with passers-by who expressed an opinion of the paint samples.
The report of the Ventura County Star on the historical color debate can be found here.
The City Council will take up the matter of the paint color at their meeting this Monday, May 7.
At the May 7 City Council meeting, the Library Advisory Commission will also present the Vision for the Future: 2012-2017 Library Strategic Plan. The plan was developed
around specific goals and priorities as identified through numerous community conversations and synthesized into a cohesive plan by the Library Strategic Plan Steering
Committee and the Library Working Group as stewarded by the Library Advisory Commission. The plan will be presented to the City Council with a recommendation to approve and allocate staff and resources to begin implementation. The Vision for the Future can be found as Attachment A to agenda item 2 here.
Book Clubs
To share your love of reading, you may be interested in joining one of these book clubs:
Ventura Readers Book Group, The Fun Book Group, For Serious Readers Book Group or the Green Conversations Book and Discussions Group
May Storytimes at E.P. Foster
Special Program: The Ventura Breeze presents:
THE WORLD WITHIN OUR CITY: Mexico
Tuesday, May 8 at 10:30 and Wednesday, April 11 at 3:30:
Happy Mother’s Day!
Tuesday, May 15 at 10:30 and Wednesday, May 16 at 3:30:
Eric Carle Stories
Tuesday, May 22 at 10:30 and Wednesday, May 23 at 3:30: Fun at the Beach
Tuesday, May 29 at 10:30 and Wednesday, May 30 at 3:30:
Dr. Seuss
Library Advisory Commission presents...
On Monday, November 14, after three hours of deliberation, Ventura City Council voted 5-2 to adopt the recommendations made by the city’s Library Advisory Commission and Library Strategic Planning Committee.
The recommendations were jointly developed by the Library Strategic Plan Steering Committee and the Library Advisory Commission in a joint session on October 12. Both bodies worked to modify the language of the recommendations made by Santiago Library Consulting to reflect their preferred language and direction. Specifically, the group determined they did not support the consultant’s proposal to downsize E.P. Foster to operations to one floor.
The recommendations as approved unanimously by the Committee and Commissioners
include the following 9 points and are not listed in a priority ranking:
- Refresh the entire collection in both locations in consultation with City representatives and County staff. Exception: local history, rare materials, reference
collection. - Refocus to adopt a more patron-centric work focus. Staff will be working to develop programs and to increase one-on-one interaction with the public to raise the level of engagement with patrons. There is a need for increased bilingual staff to serve an increasingly diverse community.
- Refurbish the library furnishings to accommodate all ages with low shelving,comfortable seating and flexible technology. Signage, book displays, tables,conversation areas, magazine and newspaper areas all need attention.
- Merchandizing ideas should be incorporated into the design of the library. The displays will encourage higher circulation and collection use.
- Reallocate existing funds to acquire “fresh” materials for the collection with special attention to DVD’s, current titles, paperbacks for teens, adults and children.
- Reconfigure the technology area to make the space more inviting. Provide new technologies like e-book readers, laptops, tablets and educational computer games. Provide strong Wi-Fi throughout the facilities and meeting rooms.
- Rethink how programming can be provided to the community. Increase PR and marketing efforts and internet presence to provide greater awareness of the current services offered.
- Reach out to the Latino population in our community. Current service does not provide a focus to this growing community demographic. Programming and material enhancement is needed at all locations.
- Prioritize the creation of a plan to establish a library presence on the east side of town, and determine the resources necessary to implement the plan. The Committee recognizes that the east side of Ventura is underserved, and that a stable source of revenue, including potential use of private funds, will need to be raised and set aside to correct this deficiency.
The Library Advisory Commission formulated two additional recommendations to present to the City Council.
- LAC recommends that Council accept as endorsed the nine points forwarded to the Council in the Staff Report and to work towards implementation immediately upon Council’s approval.
- LAC recommends that Council direct staff to work with the Commission and Ventura County Library Services to seek any and all funding sources and community partnerships to support the achievement of the long-term goals of this process.
City Council also adopted a proposal to form a committee consisting of representatives from City Council, city staff, Strategic Plan Steering Committee and Library Advisory Commission to work with the County Library System to implement the adopted recommendations. This committee will report to the City Council in April 2012.
To read the documents that have been developed through this process, go to the city’s website. To read the account of the meeting published in the Ventura County Star, go to their website.
San Buenaventura Friends of the Library president Kathy Thomson comments appeared in the Star: Bring ‘great equalizer’ into tech age.
Berta Defren Steele, Chair of the Ventura City Library Advisory Commission and vice-president of SBFOL commented: Proposals can be achieved within Ventura’s budget.
Michael Tapia, member of the Library Strategic Plan Steering Committee and principal at Montalvo Elementary School, commented: Public library a treasure for kids and community.
National Library Week
Celebrate National Library Week — April 8 – 14.
Listen to Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Coraline, Stardust, The Graveyard Book) on the importance of libraries.
Spring Book Sale at the Mall
Saturday’s book sale at the Mall produced $1,677 in revenue, certainly a satisfactory showing for a five-hour event at a limited-space indoor venue. The staff at Pacific View Mall was again very helpful. Our wonderful volunteers—both adults and students—got the job done in the most commendable way.
Big thanks to all—donors, warehouse volunteers, truckers, sale volunteers, and patrons.
As the sale date closed in, I wasn’t able to keep up with the calls and messages from volunteers, and I apologize for that.
Suggestions and questions are always welcome!
Just reply by E-mail: chucknsherrie@att.net or call me at 642-6084.
Chuck Carlson, Periodic Sales Manager
Teens Teach Tech
Need help with your electronic gizmos & gadgets?
Teens will help teach you to use & understand today’s technology!
Every third Saturday of the month 10 am to noon
E.P. Foster Library, 651 E. Main Street
Teens Teach Tech is a project of the Youth Advisory Council of E.P. Foster Library. For more information about Teens Teach Tech or the Youth Advisory Council,call: (805) 648-2716 and ask for Star Soto or Jane Middleton
Read the article from the Ventura County Star about this program.
Holiday Book Sale Saturday November ...
San Buenaventura Friends of the Library
Holiday BOOK SALE at the Mall!
Saturday, November 12
The Friends of the Library invited you to begin your holiday shopping with us in the Center Court of the Pacific View Mall. We offered quality, used books, featuring holiday themed selections. We squeezed into a very small space, but the sale yielded $1529–an astonishing $80 per table. For each sale–after a brief set-up period–we depend on the capable and enthusiastic students to run things. Perhaps the best asset for dealing with sale patrons is an engaging smile!
Mural Dedication
Celebration Time!
The art work is done! The paint is dried! The quote has been chosen!
A celebration on October 28 marked the completion of E.P. Foster Library’s beautiful mural. The mural is a colorful exploration of literature and fantasy designed to encourage young people to come to the library. The selection of a literary or library quote through a contest completed the mural.
The winning quote was contributed by ZR, age 11:
“From here, go anywhere!”
Read the Ventura County Star’s report of the event.
Joint Meeting of the Strategic Plan ...
A joint meeting of the Library Strategic Planning Committee and the Library Advisory Commission was held on October 12, 2011.
Recommendations from the library consultant, MaryEllin Santiago, were received at this meeting and can be found here.
Minutes from the joint meeting of October 12 can be found here.
SBFOL Supports the public libraries of the City of Ventura in their delivery of library services, including:
1. Purchase of library materials and equipment, e.g. books, CDs, DVDs, books on tape, display and bookcases
2. Year around reading programs for children and youth
3. Summer programs for children and youth
4. Special programs, e.g. receptions, anniversaries, speakers
5. Increase of public awareness of legislation and other activities that may affect the delivery of library services
