Saratoga News

Lack of support for library bond forces staff to rethink space use

New list of priorities could eliminate community room

JPA works with commission

By Sarah Lombardo

The Library Commission says the Saratoga Community Library's community room may have to go. The commission, with the help of the Santa Clara County Library Joint Powers Agency, is bringing in a consultant to help library employees make better use of the space after a failed attempt at a bond issue that would have funded expansion of the building. Using a list of space needs prioritized by the commission over the past few months, the consultant is expected to help the library staff find ways to solve the space crunch at the nearly 20-year-old library.

"That could involve the loss of the community room," commission chairwoman Marcia Kaplan said.

A proposed bond measure the commission was hoping to put on this June's ballot would have provided funding for an expansion of the library, which has seen ever-increasing circulation over the years. Circulation numbers more than a year ago reached 71,000 items. With numbers like that, staffers said, the library space is inadequate. Seating at the library is often limited, and bookshelves have had to be made taller and taller to accommodate more books, and employee space behind the scenes is bulging at the seams.

The expansion plan called for more than doubling the library's size from 18,000 to 44,000 square feet. Over the past few years, the commission has toured other Bay Arealibraries to get ideas for the expansion. The City Council issued its support of the bond idea, and the JPA even approved funding for initial architectural drawings.

But the bond idea was tabled last November when a survey sponsored by the Friends of the Saratoga Library and conducted by an independent research firm showed that Saratoga residents would most likely not support a library bond.

The problem, Commissioner David McLaughlin said, is that library staffers may have done too good a job in dealing with the space crunch. "In other words, the problems of the library are not screaming out at visitors," he said.

Commissioner Marcia Manzo said the commission, although still stinging somewhat from the survey, is determined to better educate residents about the increasing lack of space at the library.

"I think we need to make some changes to the library, and that will make it clear to the public that there is a problem," she said.

Manzo said the commission has thought about simply adding an extra community room with a study hall to the existing library, but to do so would be costly. According to Manzo, Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines would require the entire library to be brought into compliance.

"Any time you knock out a wall, you have to bring the entire building into compliance," she said.

Manzo stressed that although the commissioners are disappointed that a bond issue didn't appear popular with the voters now, they are determined to press on with it in the future.

"This is not a dead issue," she said.

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