All right, good morning, everyone.
The December 12th, 2024 meeting of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order.
It's 9.31 a.m.
I'm Maritza Rivera, chair of the committee.
I'll note that Councilmember Morales is excused from today's meeting.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Councilmember Moore.
Councilmember Hollingsworth.
Present.
Can you go back to Council Member Moore?
Council Member Moore?
Sorry, present.
Vice Chair Rink?
Here.
Chair Rivera?
Present.
Four council members are present.
Great.
If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
There's one item of business on today's agenda.
We have a presentation from the Seattle Public Library on their 10-year strategic plan.
I'd like to thank Chief Fay and Rick Sheridan for coming to the council chambers today to present.
We will now open the hybrid public comment period.
Public comments should relate to items on the agenda or within the purview of this committee.
Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?
Currently, we have zero in-person speakers and one remote speaker.
Signed out.
Thank you.
May you please read the public comment instructions, clerk?
The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner, the public comment period is up to 20 minutes each speaker will have two minutes speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.
We will start with in person speakers first and then remote speakers until the public comment period is ended speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time, the public comment period is now open, we will begin with the first speaker on the list.
The first remote speaker is David Haynes.
Speaker, please press star six when you hear the prompt, you have been unmuted.
Hi, David Haynes, thank you.
We need new computers and better seating to provide personal quiet space without strangers bothering you at the library.
But the library really needs improvement for the daily experience.
And we need 21st century times where you can get in there early and stay later.
And we need a more effective effort from the librarians and security when it comes to people who need a shower or need shelter or need some sort of mental outreach.
It's like urban rest stops should be pulling up in a vehicle at Central Library to drive people to take a shower and do laundry.
and shelter providers should be showing up to take people to a better path.
Instead, most of the times, you cannot go read the newspaper or use the computer without being bothered by other people walking past or sitting too close due to the seating arrangement, forcing you to sit too close next to stinky people who've got real behavioral crisis mental problems and drug problems and are incredibly disrespectful.
And some of the tourists are really rude and treading on your, like, reading space the whole time due to the design of the library seating.
Yet nothing is done about it.
While certain managers focus on decorating loud metal shelf space trying to win an award, while disgruntled book stalkers who reshelved the books slam those books on those metal shelves too loud, bothering the patrons.
It has to stop.
And maybe I don't have enough time to point this out, but there's too much porno being looked at on those computers.
And I complained about this guy who froze up the computer in Ballard a while back, and he froze at the computer looking at child porn.
A kid saw it.
The librarian unfroze it.
I asked the librarian why he didn't kick him out.
He says, they can look at whatever.
The manager who came in like a rolling manager, David Valencio, he gave me a warning.
And then like a couple of weeks later, this other guy is looking at child porno with this little girl and this old guy.
And I asked the librarian to address it and they kicked me out.
And then three months later, I got kicked out again because I was on library property talking to somebody.
And we need to address the lack of effort to solve the problems within our society that keeps exempting drug pushers and apply that throughout our community.
Thank you.
Thank you, Speaker.
Your time is up, but you can please do submit your comments, the remainder of your comments, to council at seattle.gov.
Thank you.
Colleagues, there are no additional speakers, so the public comment period is now closed.
We'll now proceed to our items of business.
And before we get to agenda item one, I do want to say today is the last meeting of the year for the library's education and neighborhood committee.
I want to acknowledge the work of my committee members, council members Joy Hollingsworth, Kathy Moore, Tammy Morales, and former council member Tanya Wu.
And I want to welcome our newest committee member, Alexis Excuse me, Alexis Mercedes Rink.
I would also like to express my gratitude for the work and collaboration of our central staff who support this committee, Asha, Jasmine, and Eric, who work on education and libraries respectively.
These meetings are an important way that we, including the departments, can show our work to the public.
This year we had overviews of department work and programs for the departments within the purview of the committee.
The Department of Education and Early Learning presented on the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy and talked about their child care preschool and promise programs as well as public health K-12 investments.
We heard from the Department of Neighborhoods about their programs, including the very popular P-Patch and neighborhood matching fund investments, which help residents in growing food in their neighborhoods and fund neighborhood-based projects ranging from traffic circles to street fairs to block parties.
The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs shared their tireless efforts in support of Seattle's immigrant and refugee populations, from assisting and applying for citizenship to free immigration legal services and translation services to partnering with the region and the state to help the more recent migrants to the city.
The Seattle Public Library, as you know, was victim to a serious cyber attack.
and they appeared here to update us on all the work they did to get our beloved library branches back on track.
We also heard about their programming, including the city-wide book club, Seattle Reads, and other programming and libraries throughout Seattle branches.
As I said earlier, you'll hear from them today about their 10-year strategic plan.
I look forward to continuing to work with you, my fellow council members, and all the departments on this important work.
In 2025, we will continue our regular committee meetings as well as focus on the renewal of the family education preschool and promise levy.
I also look forward to hearing about the ongoing work of the neighborhood matching fund.
I was pleased to be able to add the restoration of that well-beloved program back into the budget for 25 and 26. In the coming year, I also look forward to hearing more from OIRA about their plans to support our immigrant and refugee communities within the changing environment at the national level.
I know Director Hamdi Mohamed will be paying close attention to, but make no mistake, we will continue to support our residents who come here in search of a better life.
SPL has also their own levy work to look.
that they will be working on.
That will be coming up in 2026. Again, thank you for your time and focus on behalf of this committee colleagues.
And let's get to today's agenda.
Will the clerk please call today's first agenda item into the record.
Agenda item one, the Seattle Public Library's 2024 through 2033 strategic plan.
Thank you.
This item has been read into the record.
Today we're joined by Tom Fay, Chief Librarian, and Rick Sheridan, Director of Institutional and Strategic Advancement at the Seattle Public Library, who will share information about their 10-year strategic plan.
Thank you both for being here.
Please introduce yourselves for the record, and then we can learn more.
thank you chair rivera my name is tom faye i am the chief librarian for the seattle public library and my colleague madam chair rick sheridan director of institutional and strategic advancement for the seattle public library all right good morning and thank you for hosting us today i'll be sharing information about the library's new 10-year plan i have about 30 minutes of presentation time i believe it might go a little quicker And first, at a very high level, the library's new strategic plan is a roadmap for us, as well as a look ahead for the community as to what we seek to accomplish in the next 10 years.
It was recently adopted by our library board of trustees in November.
The plan recognizes that the library is uniquely situated within our community to bring people and organizations together to affect positive change.
The future we envision builds on our existing strengths, including our world-class staff, buildings, collections, programs, and services.
It reinforces and expands the importance of relationships and connections within our city.
It also requires us to change and and to grow, and we need to build new skill sets around emerging technologies like AI.
As we look forward to our future, we believe the library must continue and expand free access to books and information, increase access, including for those with limited English proficiency, prioritize equity in our actions, services, and outcomes, develop more community programming that improves people's lives and provides opportunities, serve as a community hub and connector, listen to and reflect diverse voices and viewpoints.
In developing the plan, we used a theory of change planning model, which starts by identifying the outcomes and impacts we want to see as a result of our work.
This plan has been deeply influenced by our community as well as informed by research analysis.
We have engaged dozens of community partners through focus groups and interviews, surveyed thousands of patrons, conducted community conversations with patrons at some of our branches, and engaged library staff along the way.
We also conducted a future of the library study with futurist researchers from the University of Houston.
All of this work has been funded by the 2019 library levy, and it's helped us think through many challenges and opportunities we are likely to be presented during this next 10-year period.
Some of the first work we did on the plan was to establish statements around our mission, vision, values, and guiding principles.
This provided us great grounding in our planning.
We also wanted to ensure these were resonating with the folks we were engaging with.
In our conversations with stakeholders, we heard resoundingly that these statements felt true to staff, patrons, and community partners alike.
As we move through the next 10 years, pardon me, these will act as a consistent reference in times of change or challenge.
The Seattle Public Library's mission is to bring people information and ideas together to enrich lives and empower community.
This is largely the same mission we have been using for many years, with one notable exception.
We changed the words build community to empower community.
We do not see our primary role as building community, but instead as empowering our community members to build the future they want for themselves.
We envision the Seattle Public Library as the central hub of an equitable and connected city where knowledge flourishes and people find inspiration and a sense of belonging.
This vision highlights our emphasis on equity, connection, learning, and belonging.
These are key themes that you'll see throughout the plan.
The library's values serve as a guide for how we interact with our community and each other.
These values include care, connection, and learning.
When we talk about care, what we mean is the library cares about the well-being of our community.
We are committed to patron safety and confidentiality.
We are committed to supporting intellectual freedom and a healthy democracy.
We are committed to transparency, accountability, and good stewardship.
When we talk about connection, the library values people by listening and responding to their needs.
We are committed to seeking equitable outcomes for historically excluded people.
We are committed to teamwork and collaboration.
We build positive connections, emphasizing respect and dignity for all people.
And by learning, we mean the library is an all-ages destination for learning and discovery.
We offer a large and diverse collection of books and other materials for free.
We host engaging programs tailored to community needs and interests.
We promote and support early learning and lifelong learning and literacy.
Lastly, two important guiding principles we think of as fundamental standards that we embed in all of our work.
Equity, in alignment with the City of Seattle's Race and Social Justice Ordinance, we work to uncover and dismantle institutionalized racism in our organization.
and to advance racial, social, and economic justice in the Seattle community.
Intellectual freedom, we believe intellectual freedom is essential for a healthy democracy and fundamental to our mission.
Our books, programs, and services are free and available to all people.
We promote and protect freedom of thought and expression.
As I previously mentioned, the library used a theory of change planning model at the outset.
This model helped us identify identify and work towards specific goals and impacts we hope to see in our community and within our organization.
With guidance from community members, library patrons, staff, community partners, and others, we identified the following three community impact areas as essential focus areas for us in the next 10 years.
With this plan as our guide, we will work to help individuals and families in our community make measurable progress in the areas of literacy, empowerment, and enrichment.
Through our work in literacy, we seek to help people access the skills, resources, and opportunities They need to read, learn, and navigate their lives.
We also hope to empower people by helping them build the confidence and skills they need to pursue and achieve their life goals.
And we want to enrich lives by providing collections, programs, services, and spaces that foster joy and connection.
Through progress in these impact areas, we intend to cultivate a stronger sense of community belonging.
I'll spend a few minutes diving deeper into each of these so you can see how we intend to make progress on these goals.
Our first community impact area is literacy.
Literacy and learning were severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Children and teens experienced significant losses in reading and math.
Adults fell behind in vocational training and higher education.
Now more than ever, it's imperative that the library expands its literacy and learning offerings.
For each impact area we have identified, we have identified specific outcomes we hope to achieve toward these goals.
With the literacy impact area, the library seeks to provide programs, collections, services, and resources to help children, teens, and young adults build a love for reading and learning, help students read at or above grade level, help people of all ages navigate social systems in their daily lives.
When we talk about literacy, we aren't just talking about the skill of knowing how to read.
We're also talking about other kinds of literacy, such as digital literacy, financial literacy, and health literacy.
Please note that these are just some examples of the outcomes we'll be looking, we will be working towards over the next 10 years.
For those who are interested in looking at the entire plan, you can do so at www.spl.org forward slash future.
As we delve deeper into the literacy impact area, we also outline some of the priority actions we intend to take in the next 10 years to achieve our outcomes and goals.
For example, to help young people build a love for reading and learning, we intend to increase and expand programs and services for children and youth.
To help students read at or above grade level, we intend to strengthen our partnership with Seattle Public Schools, especially Title I schools.
And to help people navigate social systems in their lives, first we must evaluate the effectiveness of our current programs.
One area we know we need to focus resources on is providing training around emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
We want to ensure that the digital divide does not increase as these new technologies come into fruition.
Our second community impact area is empowerment.
The library supports people in pursuit of their goals, interests, and socioeconomic well-being.
This includes supporting skill development, entrepreneurial support, the freedom to read, self-expression, and more.
There's a significant community value to these efforts.
For example, in 2022, we used the Urban Libraries Council's business value calculator to estimate The Seattle Public Library provides a market value of nearly $5 million each year in business services to local entrepreneurs and business professionals.
In the impact area of empowerment, the library will provide the community accessible and inclusive collections, programs, services, and spaces, as well as cutting edge technologies that support job and life skills.
To reach these outcomes, we intend to provide more skill building workshops, vocational training, and career development programs.
And we plan to develop and incorporate accessibility policies and procedures as a standard practice for all our public spaces, collections, programs, and services.
Again, these are just a few of the examples of several outcomes in this area.
Our last community impact area is enrichment.
Enriching activities help people explore and discover a greater sense of themselves and the world around them.
People can enrich their lives through books, music, films, TV performances, cultural celebrations, community discussions, and many more opportunities.
Since 2020 and the pandemic, depression rates have reached all-time highs in the U.S.
Our community and the broader world has been navigating an epidemic of loneliness and isolation.
Connecting with each other is an important way to enrich life.
The library can offer many avenues towards full and enriched lives.
In the impact area of enrichment, the library seeks to champion and celebrate the preservation of local history, including the contributions of historically excluded people and cultures who helped create Seattle.
experiences and opportunities that build community and cultivate a sense of belonging.
To achieve these outcomes, we intend to increase the Seattle Rooms collection.
We intend to acquire and provide more materials from the many diverse communities that have called Seattle home and promote and highlight local experts of our city and region.
This includes authors, musicians, artists, and others.
Providing community access to local history experts and talent we can help strengthen our community's knowledge and civic pride.
While three of our identified impact areas seek to increase community belonging, we have three other impact areas that seek to improve our organizational resiliency.
These areas include funding, capacity and buildings, technology and sustainability.
As we look at our funding, we want to ensure our financial resources support what we are trying to do.
To that end, we will begin developing a new 2026 levy proposal to support the community's library needs from 2027 through 2033. We will also be exploring funding opportunities that can increase our financial capacity beyond general fund and our levy.
We'll explore everything from bond measures to increase private giving to grant opportunities to, pardon me, to increase private giving as well as grant opportunities to increase our capacity.
One priority activity in this area will be hiring a grant writer and grants administrator to support this effort.
We also will be looking to improve our staffing capacity and explore new recruitment training and retention strategies.
It's also essential that we improve our systems and processes to improve the work experience for our staff.
We aren't just seeking to increase our staff capacity, we're also seeking to improve our staff's experience as library employees.
To ensure we are working in culturally competent ways, we'll be establishing a new office of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility at the library that will report to the chief librarian.
To ensure our frontline staff have the support they need when navigating increasingly challenging situations in their daily work, we will be developing a holistic wellness program to support them throughout their time at SPL.
We seek to be both a great destination and resource for our community, our patrons, and to become an employer of choice in our community.
In the category of buildings, technology, and sustainability, we will implement a more sustainable approach to maintenance and upgrades.
In keeping with the city's efforts to move away from fossil fuel-powered systems, we will work to decrease our carbon footprint, As you know, we recently completed the seismic retrofits and remodeled the Green Lake Branch, which reduced our carbon output and brought air conditioning to the building for the first time, allowing it to serve as a community cooling center during hot weather.
We will be closing the University Branch in early 2025 to conduct this same work, and then soon after, the Columbia Branch will follow.
In addition, a recently awarded FEMA grant will allow us to complete the conversion to all electric HVAC systems in all Seattle libraries.
In coming years, we will also install electric car charging stations at several locations, as well as begin the conversion of the library's vehicle fleet.
We will develop technology initiatives that will lead to an improved technology environment for our patrons in person and online.
And in the wake of the cybersecurity attack that impacted us earlier this year, we will be hiring a cybersecurity specialist to bring focused attention in the area of digital security.
In 2025, we will also launch a new library app that will provide more convenient access to library materials and services.
We'll also be looking at opportunities to pilot library kiosks at three non-library locations to provide more community access to physical materials, Wi-Fi, eBooks, and eAudiobooks.
Once again, these are just examples of several of the outcomes and activities we have planned in each of these impact areas.
There's a lot of work ahead of us, but it's work we're excited to do and already getting started on.
This work will be divided over the next 10 years and we have developed a phase timeline for implementation.
Implementation of the 10-year plan, which carries us through 2033, is sequenced by three distinct funding cycles we can anticipate at this time.
Full adoption of this plan will require it be sequenced and have an iterative approach to implementation that aligns with our financial resources at that time.
EACH PHASE WILL BEGIN BY EVALUATING LIBRARY RESOURCES TO DETERMINE OUR ABILITY TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS.
PHASE ONE IS 2024-26.
IN PHASE ONE, THE LIBRARY WILL IMPLEMENT SELECT PRIORITY ACTIONS.
THIS PHASE WILL FOCUS ON CONDUCTING ASSESSMENTS OF FINANCES, BUILDINGS AND OPERATIONS TO INFORM PLANNING FOR FUTURE PHASES.
We will also plan for the renewal of the library levy in 2026. Phase two is 2026 through 28. In phase two, the library will focus on new and expanded activities outlined in this plan that will be made possible by a proposed library levy renewal in 2026. We'll work with the city in development of the 2027-2028 biennial budget.
We will also conduct architectural and design work to inform a reimagining of our spaces.
This will help determine budget needs, proper funding mechanisms, and priorities for each future capital project.
The library will also assess the potential for capital bond measures and a private comprehensive fundraising campaign.
Phase three, 2028 through 2033, in this final phase that takes us Through the end of this next levy, the library will pursue a capital bond measure to support maintenance and capital improvements for all of our Seattle Public Libraries.
We'll also work with our partner, the Seattle Public Library Foundation, to begin a comprehensive fundraising campaign.
And the end of this phase will see us begin a new planning stage for the 2034 levy.
And with that, I am happy to entertain any questions you might have.
There's a lot here, and there's a lot more in the plan, obviously.
Couldn't get it all in a short presentation, but I do hope you have a chance to read it.
Thank you, Chief Fay.
Thank you for taking us through that overview.
And I do encourage my colleagues to read the plan in its entirety so that you can get more information about the overview that Chief Fay just presented.
I just really want to thank you, Chief Fay, for your leadership and to your staff.
I know it was a hard year for Seattle Public Libraries with that cyber attack and really appreciated the communication that went back and forth so that we knew you were doing all you could to get branches back on track.
And I really commend you and your team's efforts for all that you did to make sure that there was as little disruption as possible from anywhere, from checking out materials and all the way to continuing programming.
to make sure there was as little disruption as possible.
So thank you for all of that.
You all did an amazing job.
And really appreciate all the communication.
Communication is important.
It's the only way that we know what is going on and how to communicate to our constituents.
So really appreciate that.
And I also want to say, colleagues, That like I did this year with DEAL, with the Department of Education and Early Learning and Prep for the levy next year, I'm working with Chief A and his team to make sure that this coming year in 2025, we have similar overviews of programming that is funded by the levy.
So we know where those levy funds are going and also the results and outcomes of that levy funding.
In addition to overview on on what the future levy might fund in continuing investment.
So that is all to come in 2025. And please know that we've already started that conversation together.
So that said, colleagues, does anyone have any questions or comments?
Council Member Hollingsworth.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Chief Fay, for the presentation.
Really appreciate all the work that the Seattle Library does.
And quick question, and you might have answered this, and I'm glad Council Member Rivera reminded me about this.
Is there any crossover between the family education levy and the library levy in terms of Right now, I know we have four in my district, my favorite library in the whole city.
I could argue that the Douglas Truth is the best library in the city, but that's just me.
However, but when you look at the libraries, either Douglas Truth, Montlake, and we have Madrona, there's Capitol Hill, but there's...
there's three of them that are in close proximity to schools.
Douglas Truth is between Washington, you have Leschi School, Garfield, Nova, like just public, Seattle Public Schools.
Is there, and I love when I see kids go to the library right after school to go hang out, or they go to different community centers.
Us leveraging some of our public properties, libraries, community centers, schools, these public spaces, is there any crossover from the library levy to the family education levy, and we can talk offline, but.
Yeah, there isn't any direct crossover.
However, as DEAL has been looking at some of its programs in this next levy, we've talked about things like homework help.
We provide homework help, and we provide homework help that's also online.
and available to everyone.
Our homework help is in about nine locations right now, focused in some key areas where we know that students struggle, so we make sure we have that.
But as the director of DEAL and I have discussed, as he's looking at expanding and or maybe looking at other locations, We have many locations that we'd be happy to offer up for homework help if they have that service.
So I do see us working probably closer together in that particular effort moving forward.
Thank you, Chief Fay.
And Council Member Hollingsworth, I will say, Chief Fay and I just had this very conversation yesterday.
It was a little, well, what I would add to this that we also discussed is just the fact that we have these types of investments in various departments across the city.
And it is really important to know, particularly when we're looking at renewal of both levies, actually, we need to know what other departments have investments.
So we're taking a holistic approach.
And we know what that investment really is.
And I'll give you an example on the tutoring end.
SPL has tutoring.
The FEP provides investments for tutoring.
And we don't know, we don't have the clear picture.
Then our tutoring investment is bigger than it is just looking at individual departments.
So one thing that I am working on is making sure that as we're going to be looking at the FEPP levy, making sure that we're clear, not just the investments at the levies funding, but other investments, general fund and otherwise across the city that are the same, so that we see what the actual financial number is for that investment.
Because we have tutoring and deal, but if we talk about deal and we look at that number, it's not reflective of the entire investment because then we have another number at libraries.
Parks does a number of youth programming, and so we're going to be looking at all of that.
So thank you for raising that because it is an important piece of this.
making sure that we're taking this holistic approach.
Our investments are a lot bigger sometimes than the public knows that it is because we tend to talk about departments separately, and it's really important to make sure that we're looking at the city holistically in this one Seattle approach so that we know what the level of investment truly is.
Thank you, Council.
And just one quick, last quick comment.
I appreciate that, because I think this levy for our kids is gonna be the most important levy most important levy for our city.
And I know that we have a library levy as well.
And I just, I would love us to utilize and maximize a lot of more of our public spaces more.
I know there's a lot of groups out there is like, oh, we need space and space.
I'm like, oh, we have community centers.
We have great libraries.
We have all these great spaces and just really appreciate how you all maximize the accessibility in your spaces and looking forward to working on with Council Member Rivera and the rest of the committee a lot of those important values that I've heard from people about the levy and the impact that they want.
So thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.
Council Member Ring.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
And hi, thank you so much for being here, Chief Librarian Fay.
As was mentioned, this is my first meeting, and I couldn't be more excited.
My bubi was actually a librarian, and I did my homework most days in the library.
So I'm particularly excited that you all are here.
And I wanted to touch on one piece, you know, it was reported on earlier this year about dialing back our library service hours.
And so I was wondering if we could just get a status report on how, if we've restored those hours, and also, if not, what would it take to return back those hours of service?
Thank you for the question.
Yes, we have restored some of those hours.
We did that in our SIP In September, what we labeled our fall hours, just to kind of keep people moving along with us.
And then as we move into towards the end of January, we will be bringing on more hours again.
We will then at that point stabilize at those hours to make sure that we can consistently maintain those hours for the year and because of our other contractual obligations with our union partner it makes it a lot easier to keep the schedules sound for a year.
As we look at and as I mentioned here in the presentation One of the issues we're looking at is how do we create that stability around the hours if we want to expand beyond that?
So in the levy we are currently operating, the funding we received was really only for a, quote, kind of keep the doors open approach, meaning not a whole lot for programmatic efforts.
And it shows.
And then throw in the pandemic, throw in some of the other societal challenges we have that really are affecting every city in the country.
It required us to really change our staffing models, which meant we needed to have more staff on each shift to make sure that we were operating a safe and welcoming and secure environment for all.
And with that, it means that we've had to not hit the hours that we might have liked to hit.
But it also recognizes that when we put that levy together in 2019, we needed to really be looking at, and we will be looking at, what is that total cost of an operating hour?
So I can't run a building without people cleaning it.
I can't run a building without people fixing it.
And I can't run it without having sometimes having security.
So it's great.
I can get librarians or library staff to, you know, to fill those hours of service, but all those other positions are critical.
So as we look at this next levy, you will see that when we talk about capacity, it's not just that service level that you think of when you walk into the library.
It's everything behind the scenes that makes sure that it operates the way it should.
So, yes, it is a complex issue and one, as Rick well knows, we were working on yesterday to make sure that we're prepared for this next levy and that when we say we're going to operate these hours, we are staffed appropriately to operate those hours.
Thank you.
We'd love to find ways to make sure we're keeping our doors open.
And just thanks for laying out that it's a bit more of a complex picture.
My next question is related to e-books and some of the, I should say, perhaps specific issues that come with growing our e-book collection.
I understand that licensing issues, it it's not necessarily a fixed cost, but a recurring cost.
And so many of the strategies within the plan, which are great, involve, of course, growing our collection.
Do you have an estimate on the demand for e-books or some specific goals on how you'd like to grow the e-book collection?
And how does that demand fare to, of course, the ongoing costs associated with growing that collection?
I appreciate the question, and it's a little complex, so if you'll bear with me.
So, yes, the e-book challenge is most certainly one that we face every day.
And as you can imagine, from the pandemic on, everybody who would never touch an e-book or an e-audiobook uses them frequently now.
So the increase is about somewhere in the neighborhood now of about 60% of our circulation is e-materials.
And the adoption of patrons is very high.
Before the pandemic, it was about 25%.
I would say now, looking at it, probably closer to 75% will move back and forth between E and physical as needed.
So as that demand has increased, it has put more challenges on our budget.
Effectively, other than through the levy or through our foundation, THERE HAS BEEN NO INCREASE TO GENERAL FUND DOLLARS TO MITIGATE ANY OF THESE COSTS OR ESCALATIONS.
SO WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT THROUGH LEVERAGING EITHER LEVY DOLLARS OR FOUNDATION DOLLARS TO KEEP US MOVING ALONG.
BUT AS WE LOOK AT THIS, E-BOOKS AND THE AUDIO BOOKS ARE BASICALLY RIGHT NOW SUBSCRIPTION MODELS.
AND WITH THAT, YOU DO GET ONLY SO MANY CHECKOUTS OR YOU GET THE MATERIAL FOR two years or whatever the license term is.
So it makes it very challenging when you want to try to build a digital collection.
So one of the areas that we have been working on, I'm working on it at national level with colleagues and here in the state, the public library directors group has been proposing to the legislation, excuse me, state legislature this coming year that we actually do a study on e-materials and basically how publishers are pricing, not so much that we think that there's going to be something we can change the price of, but can there be other models?
And can there be a model that we actually have at some point the ability to buy a title in perpetuity?
So right now, I can't unless I subscribe to it forever, which is a crazy way to do it.
If we want to have, and my concern is looking at the next 25 years, if we want to have a library collection, we have no way to do it in the digital realm.
And we need to make sure that we are still, as libraries, collecting all the intellectual thought as we've done for hundreds of years, right, or thousands of years if we go all the way back in time.
And we can't do that today.
And there is no incentive for a publisher to publish anything when they decide they can make no money on it.
And so libraries obviously hold a key role in making sure that all that intellectual property and thought is still available to everyone many years after publishers lose interest in publishing that title.
So those are some efforts that we're working on now.
We do know that the state's having its own budget issues this particular cycle, so we don't know if it will get funded as far as a study.
But in that same study request, it does talk about this perpetuity model, which is important to start creating the awareness of.
Also, creating the awareness that the state doesn't give state aid to libraries.
Many states do provide state aid.
This would be a critical area to be able to do so in providing money for collections.
Our colleagues in rural parts of the state, if you think it's hard for a Seattle Public Library to be in this game, it's nearly impossible or it is impossible for them to be in the e-material game.
So it is something that we look at in this study for state aid through a perpetuity model, through different pricing models.
We hope to actually help all libraries in the state actually weather this particular crisis.
It's becoming a crisis.
Even for those that are as big as the Seattle Public Library, it becomes harder and harder to maintain our level of purchasing and making sure that we're getting all the titles that people have an interest in.
If I could just add one point, the average e-book is three to five times more than a paper copy.
And so in addition to increased demand and a relatively flat budget when it comes to collections, all of a sudden the pricing is far more expensive.
And so to meet patrons' interest for e-materials, we are really struggling budgetarily to meet those prices.
gosh as a as a follow-up just to clarify sue you all will be engaging in some form whether you all or the the foundation in legislative advocacy this year um at the state level okay thank you and madam chair if i could ask one more question thank you um kind of pivoting for a second and this is a question and a And a bit of a comment, I should say, about the ever-growing role that our libraries are facing in addressing and working with people experiencing homelessness.
And I just want to acknowledge and commend SBL.
I understand that is not the charge of the library per se, but what exists is the fact that our libraries in many ways are some of the only daytime spaces where people can just be.
and many of our neighbors experiencing homelessness are in our libraries.
And so I wanted to give you an opportunity to at least speak on how that has shaped up and changed things for libraries and staff.
And also, I understand you've brought on some staff within the Central Library location to serve as a community connector to get folks experiencing homelessness connected to services.
Sure, thank you.
Yes, it comes up around homelessness quite a bit, but I've been in this profession 42 years and homelessness in this country has never been solved.
I have a lot of doubt if it ever will be.
We do a lot of great work here in Seattle, I believe, trying to find homes for people, either temporary or permanent.
And the library really plays a role in that.
And the reason we play a role is that we are the city's largest referral department.
We can provide references and referrals.
even through just a librarian or library staff, right?
Not our social workers.
Our social workers actually do a great job in creating all these reference tools and these resources for our librarians then to make sure people know how to get the services they need or the help they need.
And that's everything around mental health, drug addiction, homelessness, and a variety of other issues that folks are confronted with.
Even immigrants who...
find themselves without a home and they are sent to the library.
Sometimes on a weekend with nothing but the clothes on their back, but we're able to usually to get them in the right direction.
And I think that's something that libraries will always do.
We are there for all people without that judgment.
And I think it's hard for people who come in and expect the library to be something that they may have thought of in their own lifetime, a very quiet little nook of a library.
We don't have that in urban libraries, and we don't always, we try to create spaces where people can have that, but you're also going to have some times when it's not quiet.
We want to activate the spaces.
We want to create enthusiasm.
We want to share music.
We want to share art whatever the case may be so I think as we look at the social issues it is those those elements obviously have have increased but we're not alone every single director in every single city that I talked to faces the same issues it is where we're at in society and we we do have some as a society have some challenges to hopefully improve upon over the next We believe the library, as we presented today, can do that and still provide enrichment.
When we talk about some of our homeless neighbors that come in and use libraries, they want the same thing as everyone else.
I want to be able to watch a movie.
I want to be able to catch up on something.
I want to have the news.
We have phones at the central library so people can actually make a phone call.
All of these things are very important.
And if we, as I always say, the hardest thing for anyone working in a library is every day you have to bring your humanity forward.
Every day.
Because you're going to be confronted with folks who need that.
They need that humane response because they're not getting it anywhere else.
So I'm proud of the team and the work they do.
Thank you.
Thank you both again for being here.
And Madam Chair, that concludes my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Rink.
And I will say that, you know, we've been talking about this throughout the year with the libraries and the SPL staff does a great job being that referral and doing referrals.
And also we need to make sure that, you know, the library is a safe place for the staff that work there.
They are not social workers and we shouldn't expect them to be, but they do do a great job referring people to places.
And that is important and they are, the humanity is there and we very much appreciate that.
And then the other thing I was gonna say is that Chief Hay and I also talked about in the context of this 10 year strategic plan is the fact that we wanna make sure that we are prioritizing our basic services at the library.
So that includes materials and eBooks and all of those things that people generally think of when they think of libraries and that is, back to basics almost level of service for our constituents and that is a priority.
Chief Fay has assured me within the context of this plan and making sure that as the libraries are looking at programming that what I call back to basics on the main function of the library is robust.
That things aren't being sacrificed in order to add additional and different things.
because folks are relying on the library to be that place where they get that information via books and e-materials and other resources and reference materials.
So we wanna make sure that's robustly there as well.
So all those conversations are happening.
Thank you for bringing that up.
Council Member Moore, I see your hand up.
Thank you.
And thank you, Director Fay, for your presentation today and for all the incredible work that you and the SPL do.
I had a couple of questions.
One was you mentioned one of the goals is literacy efforts, and I'm wondering if you could just elaborate on that.
I know here in District 5 we have literary source and they are always over enrolled and oversubscribed and I'm just kind of interested in are there partnerships with some of the nonprofits that are doing this work and and how What's the vision for that?
Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you for the question.
Absolutely we actually work with a variety of community partners in that space and we are always looking for more who are doing that work and In many cases, it might be us doing the work with our librarians or other staff that we hire.
As we look at this next levy, and as we mentioned, increasing and expanding some of those programmatic opportunities, it's really going to be looking at folks who can provide these programs, these services, these opportunities, and people from communities.
So there are so many people out there already doing this work, and being able to hire them in and have them focus on, let's say, early literacy, or we might be saying adult literacy, whatever the case may be, really having folks from community be the ones providing that service.
That doesn't mean we won't be partnering still with community partners throughout the city, but we know that if we want to really expand this and also make sure that we're meeting the outcomes and moving towards the impacts we want to see, In some cases, we're going to also have to expand our staffing to actually deliver that particular type of programming.
Thank you.
And that leads me to my next question about staffing.
And I know that that's always a perennial challenge.
And I'm wondering if you could just elaborate on what your efforts are to expand staffing.
And I have heard from some people who have attempted to apply for work that it's sort of like things go into a black hole.
And there do seem to be challenges in filling staffing that um seems somewhat related to kind of the hr process and i'm wondering if there are ways to improve that um and just looking at yes again a lot of people would like to work for the library and making that connection happen and then also how are you going to increase staff thank you thank you for the question yes i think from a from an hr perspective i can i can happily say we have a new hr director that
has been on board for about a year, and we've made great strides in how quickly we actually can fill positions.
So that actually has been a plus.
There's an entire schedule, everything's laid out clearly, everyone knows their roles, the interviews are prepared, and things are moving faster.
So from that perspective, yes, very happy with the results I'm seeing.
When we talk about how we're going to expand, we've used a couple of methods, and this is one that is actually one that cannot continue.
In some ways, over the years, we've relied on our foundation to provide staffing.
They are actually funding about six or seven positions.
That has been helpful, but it's also not the best way to take donor dollars that really should drive towards innovation and then lock it up into staffing.
So as we contemplate the next levy, it's really going to be around looking at what is that to...
Chair Rivera's comments, what is that fundamental level of staffing capacity we need to do what we normally do on a daily basis, run these libraries, But then the next piece is what are we missing programmatically?
What type of staffing do we need that deliver on that?
So that it's not tied to the operations of the library, the doors being open, but these folks could be out in community, they might offer programming in the library, somewhere else in the community like we do even to this day, but having enough people to do that work.
So we're actually working on identifying that now to make sure that as we put this proposal together, we are looking at not only just the operation piece of the equation, the keeping the doors open, but we're also looking at the programmatic piece that we want to expand upon as we work with the communities.
Thank you very much.
And again, thank you for all the work and efforts that you've done over the whole course of the library's history.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Council Member Moore.
Council Member Rink, is that a new hand or was that your old hand?
Okay.
You good?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Colleagues, if there are no further questions, this concludes our meeting.
Chair Fay and Rick, thank you so much for being here.
And again, thank you for all you do every day and your team does.
You have an amazing team at the libraries.
And we just value so much your work and your team's work.
So thank you.
Thank you all.
All right.
Colleagues this concludes the December 12th 2024 meeting of the library's education and neighborhoods committee our next committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday January 9th 2025 at 930 a.m.
If there's no further business this meeting will adjourn Seeing no further business.
It's 1028 a.m.
And this meeting is adjourned Colleagues happy have a happy holiday season