LIBRARY DEPARTMENT
Stacey Costello, Department Head
Organizational Chart
About the Library Department
The primary purpose of the library is to provide equal access to resources and services in a variety of media to meet the needs of individuals and groups for education, information and personal development including recreation and leisure. The library uses partnerships with other institutions to connect patrons with services and help; engages and supports community development; and works to alleviate illiteracy in Colusa County. These services are intended to improve the quality of life for current and future generations.
The Library preserves and shares local history; provides a plethora of educational, cultural and recreational programs for all ages that support literacy, family and community strengthening, and a general enjoyment of reading. As a safe “third space” the library is a dynamic, socially responsive community hub that serves as a nexus of diversity and a lifeline for the most vulnerable among us. The Library’s literacy program services to assist adult learners to improve their reading levels, school readiness, employment opportunities and reading enjoyment.
Significant Accomplishments for Fiscal Year 2021-22:
FY2021/2022 has been a very successful year as we have continued to live and grow with Covid-19, and started to reopen services that had previously been limited. We have welcomed more than 14,500 patrons through our doors, and provided 72 virtual programs, almost 600 grab-and-go programs serving close to 2,000 patrons (not including the Summer Reading Program), and hosted more than 130 in-person programs. Nineteen non-library programs and meetings have been hosted in the Morse Conference Room, since reopening it to the public in August 2021. In the month of July, the Summer Reading Program alone provided access to more than 776 grab-and-go activity kits, which gave a weeks’ worth of fun and educational activities for the kids enrolled. Over 500 free books have been distributed throughout the county at Family Literacy Program book giveaways, helping to build home libraries for local children. The Family Literacy Program initiated a partnership with CPS to provide free books to local foster youth, and worked with the seasonal Migrant Camp to distribute free books to the kids there.
In the fall, we began to reintroduce in-person services, reopening our branches and moving back to some in-person programming. Starting with Paws 2 Read and Raising a Reader, we then expanded our in-person programing to include Nursery Rhyme Time, Crafternoons, Author Evenings, an adult book club, family story times and several special one-time programs such as the Quilt Around the Block challenge, and a Great Gatsby themed piggy bank painting program for the Virginia Read. The transition back to in-person from virtual/grab-and-go was very smooth and well received.
Collections development has continued to heavily benefit from the three-year CCOE grant, which concluded in May 2022, as well as the ongoing support of the Friends of the Colusa County Free Library and the State Library-funded book purchasing program, Zip Books. We have been awarded just under $50,000 in collections development grants from CCOE and the California State Library, on top of $7,500 in gifts from the Friends. Between July 1 and April 30, more than 4,500 new records were created and almost 32,000 materials were circulated. Our digital lending and collections also continued to grow with the addition of the Friends of the Library sponsored subscription to Ancestry.com. The Friends of the Library also funded the microfilming for the Colusa Sun Herald and Williams Pioneer Review newspapers from 2019-2020, and sponsored a scholarship for the Career Online High School full diploma program.
With six new staff members starting this fiscal year, we have undergone a lot of in-depth library training such as learning our database and other processes and procedures required to work here, but also Multilingual Parent Facilitation, Teaching ESL, and Virtual Learning During a Pandemic and After, amongst others. Two staff members are currently enrolled in the San Jose State University Masters of Library and Information Sciences program, and regularly bring in interesting ideas and concepts to help keep our staff up to date on the current professional standards for libraries. The Literacy Coordinator, Pamela DaGrossa attended the three-day Association of Small and Rural Libraries Conference in November in place of the Library Director (due to a death in the family).
Overall, the library staff cannot be commended enough for their efforts. Each member of our staff worked diligently, often times going above and beyond to ensure safe services were available at all seven branch libraries with minimal interruption. Not only did staff rise to the occasion, continuing to offer curbside and, in some cases, doorstep services to those who did not feel comfortable coming into our libraries as we began to reopen physically, they also took public health guidance seriously to protect our patrons so that we could simply stay open. When we were short-staffed, they worked together to maintain continuity of services county-wide and innovated new program safety measures to help get patrons back in the library and excited to participate once again. It is this collective effort of which I am most proud and for which I am most thankful
Goals & Objectives for Fiscal Year 2022-23:
- Continue to develop and expand collections
- Continue to develop and expand programming at ALL branches
- Support the growth of the library system to reinvigorate its standing and use by the community in-person; including attending community events for outreach; attend community meetings to better understand what each community wants; and work with key community figures and organizations.
- Strengthen staff’s ability to support core Library services and functions; Library Director and Literacy Coordinator to attend the California Library Association annual conference in Sacramento, and apply for a scholarship to have the Youth Services Coordinator attend the Young Adult Library Services Symposium in Baltimore, MD in November, 2022.
Summary of Major Budget Changes:
- With the major budget changes to the General Fund overall, the Library has teamed up with both Behavioral Health and Health and Human Services to look at overlap in services. This in-depth look enabled both Behavioral Health and Health and Human Services to identify ways in which the library was already actively or could easily transition into a support/outlet for their services. With seven branches across the county, the library is well positioned geographically to conduct outreach, provide programs and direct constituents to County resources for both departments. Beyond the geography, the mission of the library and the ongoing evolution of its services easily aligns with many of the services and missions of both departments as well. As such, both Behavioral Health and Health and Human Services will be contracting with the library on a variety of outreach and community service projects, thus supplementing the General Fund budget by $780,559.
- As part of the ongoing system-wide effort to upgrade and make the library more welcoming and usable, the library is looking at several upgrades to the library physical assets, including some work stations, end caps and other furniture that would allow the branches to run more efficiently and comfortably for patrons.
- Additionally, we have requested an increase in the fuel budget to accommodate the gross rise in fuel costs, which would enable us to maintain a continuity of services county-wide, including weekly inter-library deliveries and programs.
- IT has notified the library of the need for several upgrades that will impact the budget greatly, including security software and the Windows and Microsoft Office upgrades that are needed to be fully supported.