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Revelers ready to jump, jive and raise library awareness
By Steve Enders
The Saratoga Community Library is turning 21 years old next week, but it's an old 21.
Anyone turning 21 deserves a good birthday party, and the library is planning one as well--one that's sure to be a rocking celebration of both its past and its future.
Called "Twenty-one: Jump, Jive and Raise the Roof," the party will be swinging as a live, 18-piece big band orchestra plays jazz that's sure to get people on their feet.
Don't know how to swing? No problem, because professional dancers will be on hand to help people shake a leg.
More importantly, however, organizers say they are just hoping to raise awareness that the library is in need of a big renovation.
Presented by the Friends of the Saratoga Libraries, the city Library Commission and the Saratoga Community Library Foundation, the parking lot event is also serving as a fundraiser for much needed renovations those groups hope will take place sooner rather than later.
Earlier this year, library representatives announced they will seek a bond measure for the coming November election. They'll be looking for up to $15 million from voters to fix the aging library, which is bursting at its seams.
According to Library Commission chairwoman Marcia Manzo, everything's sailing along with the efforts to get the public informed on the needs of the library. She said the Friends are completing a brochure to be distributed soon, and that this weekend's event will be a big boost for awareness.
"The event is shaping up very nicely," Manzo said, adding that she's planning on wearing painter's pants in celebration of the "construction" theme.
"The purpose of the event is to raise awareness, not to raise money," she said, even though the Friends will probably have some money left over to put into the construction fund.
Manzo said organizers are expecting about 250 people at the event who've donated $50 a ticket. The reservation deadline was June 10. Most of the event will take place in the library's parking lot, but some of the event will spill around and inside it as well.
Instead of raising the roof with the needed renovations, if the bond is approved the library will most likely expand outward a bit.
At a recent City Council meeting, Commissioner Sally Towse told councilmembers that some options include expanding a glass-encased quiet room outward and into a portion of the Heritage Orchard. She said that other local cities have similar structures on their libraries, creating a pleasant feel of actually sitting outside in the orchard and reading.
She said that they'd also like to create another room that would be cut off from the rest of the library so students can study or work in groups, without being subject to the will of the library's noise police.
After hearing the Library Commission's report on the building's plans and needs, councilmembers said they supported the efforts of the library, and will endorse the bond measure when asked to do so.
The needs of the library were spelled out in 1991, when an assessment report was completed, and then again last year when a consultant outlined a reconfiguration of existing space to maximize its potential.
Now that potential has been almost completely reached, with the reorganization of large-type books to the front of the library. They've traded places with periodicals, which are now in the back. Also, the library's large collection of CDs were also moved into sliding, pull-out cases instead of the tall, turning racks they used to sit in.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
