Saratoga News Photograph by Sarah Lombardo Four-year-old Meli Kromer can't reach the picture books on the top shelf in the children's section of the library. Over the years, staff has had to stack books higher and higher throughout the library to accommodate an increasing collection in the same square footage. Space consultant to speak on library issues Librarian says book collection must be weeded By Sarah Lombardo Curious George may have to go. Or maybe Goodnight Moon. Or perhaps that well-worn Golden Book edition of Bambi. Either way, staffers at the Saratoga Community Library are in the process of weeding out a significant number of the library's picture-book collection. The move is in response to a recommendation by space consultant Robert Rohlf, hired by the Santa Clara County library this past spring to help the library staff make the best use of space in the crowded building. "We're making plans to get rid of about 20 percent of the picture books," community librarian Dolly Barnes said. "It's very painful." According to Rohlf's draft report--which will be presented to the public at 7:30 p.m., on Oct. 20, in the Saratoga Adult Care Center--every section of the library's collection will have to be seriously sorted through. "With no increase in building size foreseen, the collection should be vigorously weeded to allow more visual access to the shelved materials," the report states. "The children's collection is particularly in need of weeding in the picture book area with lower shelving and even picture book bins used in the housing of books." Rohlf states that about 40 percent of the picture books in the children's section cannot be reached by children, and the height of the shelves do not meet current Americans with Disabilities standards. But the children's section isn't the only area in which Rohlf finds problems. According to his report: * "The lighting in the building varies from barely adequate to almost obscure." * "The increasing level of activity over the years has intensified the originally poor acoustics to the point where major noise levels and reverberations have resulted in a constant stream of public complaints to the staff." * "There is a significant shortage of adequate seating throughout the building. While there are some very pleasant areas, there are too few seats. There is no group study nor enclosed tutorial study space, and this lack of facility has caused a great deal of the noise problem in the library." * "Staff work space is extraordinarily crowded, congested, inefficient and as bad, if not the most crowded the consultant has seen in 30 years of library building planning." Despite the concerns Rohlf lists, he states that staff "provide an immensely high level of library service from an extremely crowded facility." The report and presentation is the latest step in the Saratoga Library Commission's campaign to educate residents about problems facing the library. Commissioners had been on track last year to present Saratoga voters with a bond measure to fund a renovation and expansion of the 20-year-old facility. The bond would have allowed the county to almost double the size of the building and add study areas and quiet areas. But a survey late last year showed most voters would not support such a bond. Why? They just didn't think there was a problem. So commissioners tabled the bond plan. Commissioner Sally Towse said the survey may have killed the bond, but it also confirmed that staffers were handling the space crunch well--too well. She said she hopes residents will learn from Rohlf's report just how desperate the library's lack-of-space problem is. According to Rohlf, the Saratoga Community Library, located at the corner of Allendale and Fruitvale avenues, circulates 19.2 items per capita for its service population, compared with the national average of 8.4 items. And staffers answer on average 1.44 questions per person annually, compared with 0.9 questions per person for the average in a library of the same size. Among Rohlf's recommendations for improving conditions at the library without increasing the building's size are making changes to the interior to improve lighting and acoustics, weeding the collection and changing the use of the community room or eliminating the room altogether in favor of storage or office space. But that's an option the commission has chosen not to follow. "We advised to keep the community room as is because the cost for the structural changes needed to utilize the space, the community outcry if the room were eliminated and the relatively small amount of square footage added when compared to our grave space needs offset whatever small improvement might result," Towse said. "We need a solution, not a Band-Aid." [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 14, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.