Despite the recent turmoil in the U.S. economy, most libraries that were tracked by "Library Journal" won their referenda at a rate just slightly lower than 2007. Nearly three-quarters of operating referenda passed. Building referenda under $10 million passed at a whopping 85%, with those over $10 million batting slightly better than…

On June 15-16, 2010, California State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich, initiated a strategic planning summit in Sacramento, California. The purpose of the summit was to build the future pathways for the California State Library (CSL)--one of California's oldest cultural institutions. This was accomplished by developing a CSL strategic plan (values,…

Recovery of significant achievements by exemplary individuals and institutions in public education and librarianship informs our present understanding and motivates future efforts. This narrative history recounts some of the struggles and successes of a great city library when the very conception of a free, public library was still being defined.…

In an age of experimentation, library users from Cerritos, California, to Salt Lake City to Seattle are experiencing public libraries the likes of which they have never before seen. While the 1990s may be remembered as the era of the anchor facility, when libraries were called upon to define and support a community's renaissance, this decade's…

The previous head of the Central Library of Riverside City and County Public Library (RCCPL) (California) examines the economic failure of the system and the effects of the move to total outsourcing to a private commercial firm, Library Systems & Services (LSSI). Concludes that RCCPL had problems long before it was outsourced to LSSI. (AEF)

From 1988 to 1995, Partnerships for Change (PFC) led the way in developing innovative library service programs and forging new community partnerships. Today, many PFC principles--planning, needs assessment, valuing diversity, community linkages, public relations and evaluation--have been incorporated into how California public libraries plan for…

Under the Library Services and Construction Act, the InfoPeople project was created allowing 182 California public libraries to receive Internet workstations. This article discusses guidelines for grant application for this project, the relationship between participating libraries and their communities, workstation equipment, access to the…

Building joint-use libraries to foster new types of learning and collaboration is a growing phenomenon that is of great interest to academic library planners around the world. Noteworthy among these efforts, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, California, is a collaboration of a metropolitan university library and a major public…

California's public libraries face a decade of challenges, a decade in which the majority of Californians will become regular and adept users of electronic information resources, the majority of Californians will have many and varied ethnic backgrounds, a growing proportion of young people will live in homes where English is not the primary…

Describes a two-year project sponsored by the California State Library that assisted local public libraries in improving their reference services. Project activities included the provision of basic reference materials to all libraries, training workshops in reference techniques for paraprofessional staff, and specialized workshops and reference…

Presents a 1992 study which discovered and investigated collection development bias in academic and public libraries in California. The investigation was carried out in five stages: (1) selected a controversial topic; (2) identified representative works; (3) ranked works by qualified judges; (4) measured holdings via library online computer…

This final performance report for the Alameda County (California) ESOL (English as a Second Language) project begins with a section that provides quantitative data. The next section compares actual accomplishments to the following project goals: (1) survey programs, including library collections, adult schools, and community colleges, to gain…

The Orange Public Library (California) conducted a project that involved recruitment, retention, coalition building, public awareness, training, basic literacy, collection development, tutoring, intergenerational/family, and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. The project served a community of 100,000-200,000 and targeted…

The West Marin Literacy Project, a project of the Marin County Free Library (San Rafael, California), involved recruitment, retention, coalition building, public awareness, training, rural oriented, tutoring, computer- assisted, intergenerational/family, and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. The project served a community of under…