Friends of El Cerrito Library, the El Cerrito Library, the El Cerrito New Library Committee, the City of El Cerrito, and the El Cerrito Historical Society all are hosting a birthday party to celebrate the Library’s 100th anniversary.

It will be held at the Library on Stockton Ave. on Friday, June 14, 2013, 7 to 9pm.

There will be a fun program by Tom Panas about the Library’s history and plenty of refreshments. The library, city and council officials will make their comments.

Come one, come all!

The library, designed by architects Field Paoli at a cost of $6.5 million, includes the city’s Tool Lending Library. It is significantly larger than the old library building and energy efficient. Supporters, library-goers and Berkeley government officials turned out in force to mark the occasion.

Continue reading “Berkeley Public Library South Branch: The opening,” by Tracey Taylor, Berkeleyside, May 13, 2013.

More photos by Richard Friedman in his gallery: South Branch Berkeley Public Library Re-Opening

Talk about imposing: the ceremonial stone stair leading to bronze gates and carved doors; the frieze of inspiring names and the vaulted hall that seems the very definition of hallowed. And the books, bound portals opening to anywhere imaginable, available to all comers.

In cities across the nation, the central public library came into being when the country was young and striving to impress. Charles F. McKim’s Italianate palazzo-style library opened on Boston’s Copley Plaza in 1895; in 1921, Renaissance austerity suited Detroit’s Main Library designed by Cass Gilbert, while architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue chose Egyptian Deco for Los Angeles’s downtown Central Library of 1926. Architecturally grand, the central library was both beacon and monumental tribute to learning and civic pride; a people’s palace with knowledge freely available to all. But, really, when was the last time you spent any time there?

For the first time since Henri Labrouste (1801-1875), currently the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, formulated the conception of the new, democratic library, the central library is fighting for survival. The relevance of these gloriously inflated book boxes is being questioned in an age that looks to the Internet for its intellectual resources.

Branch libraries have long served as community hubs offering book clubs and after-school story times. But central libraries, dedicated to the care and maintenance of weighty collections within ornately crafted and lofty spaces, are having to recast themselves. Thanks to the shift of emphasis to online resources over hard copies, the prevalence of mobile technologies and changing approaches to studying and learning, libraries have a different social purpose. “I used to be greeted by a sea of faces with questions like how to spell ‘Albuquerque,’” said Amy E. Ryan, a career librarian since the 1970s and now president of the Boston Public Library. “That’s all over. It’s now about providing an experience.”

Continue reading “The Library’s Future is Not an Open Book,” by Julie V. Iovine, Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2013

On March 16, 2013 the El Sobrante Library hosted a regional celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Contra Costa County Library, with a focus on the history of West County Libraries.

The program began with comments from County Supervisor John Gioia, who posited that while hard-bound books are still important, in the 21st century libraries are changing and offering new tools for learning, such as wireless access and public computers. Libraries also function as the gateway to community and a place to improve ourselves. His closing comments included a statement that it is “…great to see efforts at a new library in El Cerrito.”

County Librarian Barbara Flynn described how at the Contra Costa County Library, a recent recipient of an Institute of Museum and Library Services award, staff work to meet people where they are 24/7 through the innovative provision of mobile services.

Representatives from four local historical societies spoke on their libraries’ histories. El Cerrito’s own Tom Panas gave an engaging talk accompanied by a slideshow of many historical photos. He described how the El Cerrito Library was established in the town post office in 1913, when El Cerrito was still called Rust. El Cerrito has the distinction of having built the first new library in the Bay Area after World War II, in 1949. An addition was added in 1960 to create the current building. Mr. Panas will be giving his presentation again at the birthday party in honor of the 100th anniversary of the El Cerrito Library, on Friday, June 14, at 7 p.m.

Tom Panas talked how the El Cerrito Library was established in 1913.

The celebration ended on a high note, with a presentation by John Mills, the Historian for the Friends of the Hercules Library, who showed time-lapse images of the Hercules Library being built from the ground up. This award-winning building is testament to the power of community involvement in creating and maintaining libraries.

Please save the time and date for our next opportunity to volunteer to help improve the El Cerrito Library.

We enjoyed so much success and good fellowship in January, that we are planning to do it again.

In partnership with the El Cerrito Rotary Club, the City of El Cerrito, and the Friends of the El Cerrito Library, we are planning a volunteer work party on Sunday, April 28, 2013 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. We have chosen a Sunday for this event because our work will not disrupt library operations on a Sunday when the Library is closed.

At this event there will be opportunities for projects both within and outside the Library. The inside work will include projects such as those we accomplished at our January volunteer event as well as meeting some new needs.

The outside work will involve improving the landscaping around the Library and other “sprucing-up” of the exterior appearance in cooperation with City maintenance staff.

More details will be forthcoming, but we will need a lot of helping hands to “make light the work.”

Thank you for considering joining us on Sunday, April 28.

If you have friends or family members who would enjoy helping, please invite them to join us as well.

El Cerrito New Library Campaign Committee

Volunteers Give Recommendation for Updated Needs Assessment

A volunteer subcommittee comprised of Damian Hayden, MLIS, Dorothy Coakley, MLIS, Amy Rogers, MLIS, and Amalia Cunningham reviewed the existing 2006 Needs Assessment (NA) for a new library facility. Given that seven years have elapsed since it was completed, our volunteers found that an updated NA should, among other items:

• Analyze economic development benefits from newer libraries built in other communities;
• Reconsider linear shelf space recommendations to reflect industry trends toward e-readers, e-books, and BYOD (bring your own device);
• Give greater attention to how a children’s area fits into the facility, given children’s unique needs and their impact on the other users;
• Provide an increased assessment of the unmet need for “third places” – café, study areas, lobbies, meeting rooms – including their availability after-hours.
• Update industry trends for technology in libraries, both use by patrons and staff (higher bandwidth, etc.).

We will be presenting the full set of recommendations to the City to encourage that a updated NA be commissioned this year. Our volunteers for this assignment did an amazing job! If you are interested in being added to our volunteer roster, please sign up today!

-Amalia Cunningham, Vice-Chair

Photo: Kaia Diringer

“As Donna Corbeil, the library’s director, put it in the library’s annual report, ‘library spaces have moved far beyond the traditional hushed reading room.’ Instead of just offering books at brick and mortar locations, the library is providing services to ‘Berkeley’s continuum of learning and inspiration,’ according to Corbeil.

“This means lending books, magazines, music, and films the way people want them, whether from traditional paper book format to downloadable eBooks and music, to online digital formats.”

Read more: “Berkeley library stays relevant with shift to digital,” at Berkeleyside, February 25, 2013.

The interior of the new Bayview Branch. Photo: Jessica Olthof, The Chronicle

The new 9,000-square-foot space has windows that go from the floor to the 15-foot-high ceiling and is one of only two branches to have a living roof, which can be partially seen from inside. It will have twice as many books as the old branch, a space for teenagers already stocked with manga and 25 computers for public use, up from only six before. The history of the Bayview is also a focus, with Afrocentric tiles on the walls and panels outside that show landmarks like Sam Jordan’s bar and the shipyards.

Read more at “Grand opening of Bayview branch library,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 20,, 2013.

National Day of Service volunteers boxing adult fiction books at the El Cerrito Library.

The National Day of Service volunteer event sponsored by the New El Cerrito Library Committee was successful beyond all expectations. Over 60 people who came to the library, most at 10 am or even a little before. Most stayed until noon or 1 pm, and worked very hard.

All in good spirits and glad to be helping. Ages ranged from retirees to four year olds. Some came via BART and bus from San Francisco, some from Mill Valley and San Rafael, most from El Cerrito, Kensington and Richmond.

Community Library Manager, Liz Ruhland, was kept busy all day to stay ahead of the pack of volunteers and the library staff showed great patience in the midst of all of the chaos. The library was open for normal business amid the volunteers.

The library received lots of needed work which is sure to be noticed by its patrons.

A full report will appear in an upcoming newsletter.