The Willow Glen Resident Future Investment As a San Jose Public Library Commissioner for the past six and a half years, I have had the opportunity to be involved in the review process for the proposed joint city-university library for the past 18 months. During that times, I have attended scores of meetings on the joint library concept, including forums with the general public, and I have heard and read a variety of concerns and doubts expressed about the concept. I have also heard supportive comments on the concept. The natural reaction to something as new and innovative as a joint library is healthy skepticism. But in all the comments I have heard and read, no one has identified any issues that demonstrate the concept is absolutely infeasible. Nor has anyone proposed an alternative that would more effectively address the pressing building space needs of either the city or the university library. However, beyond the many legitimate concerns, which can be addressed, there has also been a lot of cynicism and purposeful misinformation about the joint library concept promoted by opponents with very narrow views of what libraries are, how they should operate and whom they should serve. We need to get past reactive responses based on a short-term view and take a long-term, more proactive view of this opportunity. There are now very limited resources available to construct new public-use facilities like libraries. In the meantime, the library service needs of San Jose residents (which includes those who attend or work at San Jose State) are growing and becoming increasingly sophisticated. The current city and university library buildings are woefully inadequate to meet the current needs of their users. A joint city-university library facility will be able to offer greater resources, more service and more convenience to its customers than ever before. A joint library building will also address the growth needs of the city and the university library operations for 25 years. The biggest obstacle to the success of the joint library is not its cost or how it would operate. The largest obstacle is learning to look towards the future and thinking "outside the box" about how the city and university can better serve the needs of their library customers. Despite the obstacles, over the long term, as the legitimate concerns are successfully addressed, I believe a strong majority of the new community of library customers that will be served by the joint library will come to wonder why it wasn't done sooner. James Webb Jr. San Jose Public Library Commissioner [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, December 16, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.