The residents at the meeting had signed up to participate in the assessment process after a library community meeting on Aug.18.

The 30 individuals represented a cross-section of residents, said Lynn Rogers, senior community development officer for San Jose public art.

San Jose public art project manager Jennifer Easton presented the committee with 10 artists from city's pool. A peer group, which the city invited to review the candidates, selected these artists.

The library art committee narrowed the choice of artists to five in the first round of votes, and then to three in the second round: David Ruth and John Rubin, from Oakland, and Anne Storrs from Portland, Ore.

Ruth works with sculptures and wall panels cast in glass; Rubin works with a variety of media that integrates art into the community's existing buildings and roads; and Storrs works with sculptures cast in stone.

"There were clear favorites from the beginning," Easton said. "Some people said they wanted the traditional, such as bronze sculptures, while others wanted to embrace those things that came out of the traditional but would also speak to the future."

She said residents had a definite focus.

"There is a sense of neighborhood pride, of history, a sense of home styles and visual landscapes, and the community wants to find an artist that could communicate this," she said.

The community looked at public art in other libraries as well as other public art projects around the city to get ideas, Easton said.

The three artists will meet with the committee again in early January to present their conceptual designs, Rogers said.

Once the review process is completed, the art committee will select an artist, and put together a proposal that it will present to the rest of the community.

The next library architectural meeting will take place on Oct. 11 at the Willow Glen United Methodist Church, 1420 Newport Ave., from 7 to 9 p.m. The next public art meeting for the committee is tentatively scheduled for November.

For more information on the public art meetings and how to be involved in the process, contact Lynn Rogers at lynn. rogers@sanjoseca.gov or visit www.san joseculture.org/pub_art/index.html.

For more information on the new Willow Glen Branch library, call 408.535.8450 or visit www.newsanjoselibraries.com