Jason Gibbs public comment - Library Commission meeting January 15, 2026

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

I'm Jason Gibbs, retired librarian.

During 2020 and 2021, I was assigned as a Disaster Service Worker, but towards the end I was allowed to come in one day a week to work with my staff. We had new staff that needed training. During that time there was an all-staff training where somebody from outside of the system who instructed us that libraries are at heart a racist institution. And I couldn't could not accept that because the the culture of sour system is not like that. It's contrary to our values of free and equal access and it's been a long time a part sof the culture.

Um there's a wonderful publication that you can view online called Pseudepigrapha which was the newsletter of staff from the 1970s and 1980s were you can see all the innovative things that library staff were doing to serve the community -- setting up foreign language collections for new immigrants trying to bring service to underserved neighborhoods. A lot of it comes from within the system.

So you place DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion as an important priority, but that made me wonder why when you appointed staff ambassadors for the Strategic Plan, there was nobody from our custodial department, which is probably the most my minority centered part of the library. These are people who are often English-language learners, immigrants. They see the library from a place very different from us. They're the ones who go from anywhere from cleaning up when a kid spills some juice to like cleaning up the the bathroom. People camp outside of branches and they leave a terrible mess. And we had suicides here. If somebody had to clean that up, the recent murder, the same thing. And it feels like if you're going to really understand the library, the custodial point of view is an important one to include. Thank you.

COMMENT ABOUT THE MINUTES

I'd like to continue with something that I mentioned at the previous meeting. In the past the minutes included the handout material that came with the meetings. I think of this previous meeting when Michelle Jeffers and Michael Lambert spoke about things that you guys are really enthusiastic about. 

The minutes are really your permanent record as commissioners of what happens. If you include the supplemental material in the minutes, then anybody in the future who wants to know the historical record and what the library is accomplishing and how the commission approaches it; you really should include that information. It it's part of the meeting and it should be connected with the me the minutes themselves. I'm thinking for your own historical legacy and for the convenience of future users. Thank you.

FACILITIES UPDATE

John Cunha, head of facilities

I wanted to say thank you to your comment earlier, sir. 

So our custodial unit here um I've always had a sentimental connection to uh custodians, both here at this department and my previous department. I've always really appreciated the, you know, I don't want to say the underdog but the unsung hero, right? Those people that show up to work every day and and get the job done. And that's to me embodied by our custodians um, more so than anyone. 

So, the custodial unit provides a clean, safe, and healthy environment that fosters productivity and well-being for all occupants through dedicated service and rigorous sanitization standards. 

FACILITIES UPDATE PUBLIC COMMENT 

I really enjoyed that presentation and that that staff was highlighted because they are often invisible to people. 

Going back to custodial, they are actually a forward-facing part of the library, too. They provide customer service. Often times they serve as Cantonese translators because they somebody recognizes of a face. But what I really appreciate is that they provide a public service to staff. They have at when I was working they were so reliable and often you ask them to do the most miserable things and not a complaint ever. So again, kudos to the custodial staff. 

I also want to applaud the security staff, but also wanted to note that their  numbers have grown incredibly large compared to what they used to be, having to do with conditions in the city. It was unheard of in the past when I started here that that you would find an officer, a building and grounds officer stationed at a branch. Now most branches have one. Unfortunately that's necessary and they're doing good work.

I've noticed that some of the calmer branches have I'm an active patron now have officers when branches that I know are sort of busier and more problematic haven't had one and when I've asked about it is because of vacations or something. So I think has to be they have to look at their incident tracker and see how they can be best deploying the staff that's going to the branches which I think everybody wants but is more needed at some locations than others. Thank you.