Public Comment by an Anonymous Citizen - August 20, 2026

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Thank you very much, Commissioners. 

Speaking as an anonymous citizen: Stop the hate. Stop the ignorance. Don't give money to the Friends of the Library. Don't accept money from the Friends of the Library. 

I hope to make two points today and I will present them in reverse from the  natural order simply because the second part provides some context. It is a justly famous poem, a sonnet from Peter Bysshe Shelley from 1818. It is considered one of Shelley's masterworks because it is so successful on so many different levels. It progresses from the quotidian to the most profound perspective on the human condition. And it does this with a quotation inside a quotation. 

When you recite it for children, you change your voice because it dramatizes the progression and the change in perspective that is crucial to the appreciation of the poem. Beginning: 

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The other point, the preliminary point really is a couple of principles that we used to call kindergarten wisdom. We are fortunate if we learned them from our mother as I did, but we certainly learned them in kindergarten because that is what kindergarten is for. It is sometimes possible to forget them. But in fact, they are the enduring wisdom that we associate from kindergarten and continue to conserve within us. 

The first is if you are nice to others, they will be nice to you. The second is you only win when everyone wins. Now, aren't those nice basic principles that we all learned in kindergarten? Thank you very much. 

PUBLIC COMMENT ON APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Yes. Good afternoon, Commissioners. 

Stop the hate. Stop the ignorance. Don't give money to the Friends of the Library. Don't accept money from the Friends of the Library. 

Completely omitted from these minutes is an introduction where your affairs analyst told you it is illegal for you to respond to public comment. History should preserve that you allowed yourself to be told that. 

Under general public comment, Mr. Warfield spoke for three minutes and these minutes represent a distorted view of his first minute 10 seconds and stops. Dr. Gibbs also spoke for three minutes and these minutes present a distorted view of his first 1 minute and 10 seconds and stops. Particularly significant in his case because he had some important things to say about those who maintain the standard of service. 

Artificial Intelligence has scrambled the Commissioners' comments for several meetings and it is appropriate that we have a characteristic example here. I direct your attention to page four where the Commissioners themselves discuss the social services presentation. What Mr. Bolander was said is completely omitted. What is ascribed to Commissioner Bolander was from Commissioner Menon. What was ascribed to Commissioner Menon was from Kenniston. And what was ascribed to Kennistn was actually from Lopez. 

This means that no human being even looked at these minutes. Even more significantly, after the end of these minutes, there is a separate document entitled addendum with these speaker summaries that I submitted. 

When did you decide this? After having no such document for three months, did you decide addendum means include? Did you decide this is illegal? Should we assume that you have illegal secret meetings where you decide all these things? Or should we assume that you are mute automatons, zombies who passively accept anything put in front of you? You receive no public input on your decisions because you have no opinions and you exercise no judgment.

We know why. It is because you feel the need to do blatantly illegal things and you don't want to admit you're aware of them. Do you think the city fathers told themselves that they needed seven citizens to form a Library Commission that will receive no information, have no diverse opinions because they exercised no judgment? And no, they thought there would be democratically informed opinions, public decisions, and public access. The question is answered. Not only do you have no opinions and no public access, you have no competence or professionalism because you pay no attention to anything you're doing. None at all.

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.

Jason Gibbs public comment - Library Commission meeting September 18, 2025

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. One of the symptoms of retirement is losing track of days. And I'm really sorry I missed the previous library commission because it slipped my mind. I really would have been excited to hear about what was going on with collections, especially looking at the material and seeing that new non-fiction books are doing very well. And that's after the circulation of all of our physical books really being decimated by COVID and people being limited exclusively to use electronic resources. 

I co-chaired the New Non-Fiction Committee for many years. And for those who don't know what non-fiction is, it's everything except fiction. So it could be religion, philosophy, sociology, language learning, starting a business, recovery, learning an instrument, learning how to paint. 

It's a wonderful committee that people in the system just want to be on because it's just so great to be discussing books for a couple hours. But I want to relate a story. I have to give the city librarian credit that he frequently uses the staircase in the library. So he really sees what's going on. Many previous city librarians never did that. 

But one day I was walking up the stairs with him and I was telling him we're going to have a new Non-Fiction Committee. And I thought, well, he should be as excited as we are. But his remark was, "Well, we've got too much non-fiction space in the branch. We're gonna have to do something about that." And it just seemed like a downer to bring to bring this attitude to a meeting that we librarians view in a very positive. I would have liked to have reported to all reported that the City Librarian remarked how great your work is or something, But I could not do that. It really is a wonderful service and its a committee that people like to be on, and I'm glad to see the people of San Francisco using the collection in that way. 

AGENDA ITEM NO. 4 HUMAN RESOURCES UPDATE – TALENT ACQUISITION

Jason Gibbs, a former talent once acquired but no longer possessed. 

Talent Acquisition: Average Vacancy Rate

I wanted to note that your base number for fiscal year 22 on that chart was really abnormally high because we had just come through COVID. That was a time when over 500 employees were sent out as Disaster Service Workers and I don't know how many employees declined to be Disaster Service Workers. 

My first assignment was to be a site monitor in a shelter-in-place hotel for the vulnerable homeless. Many people did not want to do that and so they had to use up all their vacation, all their sick pay and then were separated from the library. So it was it was a very traumatic time for the workforce and so that high number is reflected by that.

But I would also say as a disaster service worker, I was put also put into the Department of Public Health and I can't say that I've ever been more appreciated for my work when I was working for the Department of Public Health. The library never showed that level of appreciation for the work that I did. I was even involved in interviewing people for the Department of Public Health, helping them with their talent acquisition. They recognized my abilities. 

But talking about talent acquisition, I think you have to also realize that you already have talent and that that talent needs to be built and appreciated. And I one of my regrets is that 35 years of experience I reached really the pinnacle of my abilities at the end of my career and I felt like there was no opportunity to spread that knowledge to to other people because there there is so much that I know about this institution not just about collections or reference but like who to go to if you need this problem solved, issues like space management and budget management. So I I would look really be interested more in talent appreciation and you using the talent you have. Thank you.

Collections Presentation - August 21, 2025 Library Commission meeting

City Librarian Michael Lambert

Thank you, President Wolf, and good evening, Library Commissioners, Library staff. 

Appreciate the opportunity to bring you an update on the latest collection utilization trends for our robust collections in both digital and physical formats. I'm pleased to report the fiscal year ending June 30th represents another banner year with a third consecutive year of setting an all-time new record for overall circulation. 

Shelley Cocking, our Chief of Collections and Technical Services [CTS], is joined by Alice Chan, our Collections and Technical Services Manager, Cataloging Manager. They are going to be presenting this presentation tonight. And I do want to emphasize that Shelley Cocking as the division chief, she really is the main architect in organizing our efforts to deliver customer focused collections that meet our residents needs for books and the content that they're seeking. Shelley, Alice, take it away...

Shellie Cocking

Thank you, Michael. Yes, I'm Shelley Cocking and this is Alice Chan, our collections and cataloging manager. We're going to talk about collection utilization trends and the library's role as a resource provider. 

This first slide shows you our seven-year circulation trend. And in CTS, we really want to take a look at how things have been changing since we closed for COVID. And you can see the orange part of the bar is for e-collections and the dark blue is for physical collections. During the closure, our e-collection circulation went up a lot. Our physical collection has continued to recover. But if you do look, even though we did have almost half a million increase in circulation, you will see that the increase has slowed a little bit this last year compared to the previous. So what that says to me is that we're now kind of in a new normal rather than in recovery. 

So, my staff has been taking a deep look at the statistics to see what that new normal is and where we should be applying our budget compared to where we did in the past, especially now that it's a slightly smaller budget. We taking a deeper dive. You can see here demand by format. 

Not surprisingly, the physical AV materials is down since 2019. That dark blue bar shows pre-COVID days and the dark orange bar is this last fiscal year. That's not a surprise to us because physical AV has really been going down even before COVID and in nowadays it's even hard sometimes to purchase it. We did see a little bit of a bump up in audio which I'll get to in a little bit. Digital resources are of course being used much heavier compared to fiscal year 2019 across the board. And I'm happy to let you know that books are still in a lot of demand and the usage has actually increased. 

Public Comment Ruben Juarez - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

Public Comment:

My name is Ruben and I'm a Union officer and frontline worker. And there are a few items I wanted to bring up. I noticed a change in the order of the agenda topics last meeting with draft minutes being put at the end at of the meeting. Why the change? Maybe you can discuss at when we discuss this part and find out why it was moved to the end. 

Regarding the capital project presentation in May and the discussion of Ocean View branch, I believe it was important to list the Orizaba Way location prior to the meeting under evaluating opportunities. I believe it deserved a mentioned on the list for no other reason than getting clarification on a project that has been discussed broadly with the public. 

Don't our patrons deserve to be told where things are in the process? But more pointedly, I think it's important going forward where are we with the current location so we get more feedback on that piece. 

Where are we with the use of a slur in this forum? We had a variety of us come up and speak to it. Will some clarification be given on such language on how such language will be addressed in future meetings?

Public Comment on the City Librarian's report

There's so much there. There's so much wonderful things our workers do, all our staffs do. Because we learned about the summer dip that when the school year gets out, the propensity to dip. And there we jump in happily, readily to serve our patrons, to provide the presentation that Iliana so skillfully shared with us all. 

I think one of the commensurate challenges is the staffing levels to meet the demand.  I've come and spoken before but at this point I just wanted to dig in a little that to meet all the needs for our patrons requires you know happily like I said providing the service but one of the challenges is enough staffing being provided the extra hours to staff the programming and all the other pieces that go into it. 

It's just something for you all to consider when you're looking at uh what a wonderful service we provide and happily do so.

Public Comment Jason Gibbs - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

 Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. 

My return to participating at library commission meetings has lasted a little over a year now. My former colleagues have been encouraging me to continue doing this so I can speak for them.

Today's commission is different from that of 30 years ago. That commission conducted business, held committee meetings, passed numbered resolutions. It was a substantive body. The current purpose of commission meetings is to polish an apple. The frankly delicious and beautiful apple that is the library. 

The city librarian has restructured library priorities to assemble a cadre of apple shiners to dazzle you. Public comment is your opportunity to ignore what's not going right beneath that shine. 

Your May 2026 meeting included an impressive presentation on staff appreciation and recognition. I was stupified to learn how much library administration values the library's employees and how appreciated library employees feel. Nothing like the library I worked for last year. 

I later spoke with staff at the main and branches and asked them about this sudden turnaround of staff morale. You may be shocked to learn that they fullthroatedly contradicted what we heard at last month's meeting. 

Do all of you know the Peanuts comic strip? One of the constant tropes is Lucy offering to place the football so that Charlie Brown can kick a field goal. He has grown wise to the fact that she's going to take the football away at the last minute. He's knows he's going to end up flat on his back. 

Welcome to the experience of the ambassadors for the San Francisco Public Library strategic plan. Several ambassadors told me about their first meeting with the Gensler crew. It was quite contentious. They knew about Lucy and Charlie Brown and expected that they would be asked to devote a good deal of time and thought into this exercise and find their contributions ignored in the final product. They were told that wouldn't be so, but they were right. It's a very old management trick. invite staff participation to present a notion of consensus and then take the project in the direction that they had intended to from the start. 

Throughout ambassadors were concerned mostly about safety and professional growth for staff. One ambassador tried to put it generously: The final plan translated the work of the library into balderdash. Circulating books is resource providing. Answering questions is thoughtful navigation. The resulting plan had nothing to do with anything they suggested. It became apparent that their role was to rubber stamp the City Librarian's pre-established goals. Lucy snatched away the football again. 

The leadership of the library can set any strategic priorities they like. They have done so. They don't even need your vote. It's going to take a lot of training to convince staff to believe in those priorities, but the library disbanded the training committee and the reference committee and the collections committee. Thoughtful navigation anyone? 

I've observed that the the current Library Commission is a powerless entity. The commissions of old actually managed the City Librarian, went into close session to conduct an annual appraisal. But you are here to shine the apple and you do it well. 

But you love data and surveys. I challenge the library to survey the staff on their morale, their safety, opportunities for growth, and on their opinion of the strategic plan and the city librarian. The results may not shine. 

Public Comment - City Librarian's Report

I really like the tote bag because the message is clear -  Read. But I'm a little puzzled that the learning goal or actually, is it a learning goal as opposed to a reading goal. It's it's just all the combin combined ways that it's possible to get this instead of just reading - the learning, listening, library time. I just think it should really be about the reading. 

Public Comment Anonymous Citizen - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

Anonymous citizen

Good afternoon, commissioners. Speaking as an anonymous citizen, of course, and stop the hate, stop the ignorance, don't give money to the Friends of the Library, don't accept money from the Friends of the Library.

There is a very common literary conceit to take a real circumstance and put an fictional character into it in order to fully explore the implications. The tessential example is a Scottish sailor set ashore on a deserted coast and somebody says, "Aha, Robinson Crusoe."

So, let's do that. Let's take a fictional character, appoint him to the Library Commission, and make his very first commission meeting March 2026. Rich with possibilities, right? We need a fictional name since he's a fictional character. So, let's call him Josiah Bartlett.

Mr. Bartlett has never been to a library commission meeting, never even sat in the audience, which is typical. Before he sits down at his first meeting, he is told that the library commission that he is joining has been breaking the law for more than a year by illegally limiting public comment in an evident attempt to deter public participation.

The first thing that Josiah Bartlett says is, "Wow, San Francisco has a commission system to assure public participation." That's what they teach you in a high school. The second thing he says is, "Who do we fire?" I have a reputation for honesty and integrity. Integrity implies accountability. Nothing says accountability like firing someone. Besides, if someone let us into this, they really deserve to be fired. 

Next, we have to honor the person who blew the whistle and got this fixed. Most importantly, we have to apologize to the citizens whose rights were affected, assure them they have our deepest regrets and that it won't happen again. 

The City Librarian comes to him and says, "We're not going to do that. We undercut those laws completely because they promote democracy and reason. The city's librarian says, "Well, we undercut reason because we're the elite. And if they acknowledge reason at all, we won't be elite. Intelligent will be the elite." 

The Josiah Bartlett says, "Wait a minute. If we are against democracy and we're against reason aren't the advocates of reason and democracy our enemies? And the City Librarian says, "Aha, welcome to the library commission." Well, Josiah Bartley says, "I'm profoundly against this big, but it's going to take me a few minutes to organize my thoughts. Perhaps we'll hear what he thinks in July. 

Second Commentary - November 20, 2025 Library Commission Meeting

Jason Gibbs Public Comment

I too would like to highlight page 19, staff assistance. And when you're speaking of staff's assistance, you're talking about frontline staff, librarians, technicians, assistants, pages, custodians, security, people who are serving the public every day. And that's where the greatest satisfaction comes from. and and I feel like it would be worth your time to make a commendation to frontline staff of the San Francisco Public Library. The library has something called staff appreciation, but this past year it was relegated to people who were meeting with the city librarian strategic priorities as opposed to providing the everyday fine service that the public sees and appreciates. Um, I thought it was an apt metaphor to call the staff a symphony, but uh the problem is that I it feels like the library administration doesn't really know the musicians and the parts they play. Um, so that that's I so I again I want to be very happy about that. And when we look at circulation statistics and traffic, we also have to keep in mind that the population of the city of San Francisco has actually shrunk some. So the fact that we're holding our own is showing in a way that we're act growing and doing very well. Thank you.

Commissioner Shawn Calhoun

Thank you. I really just want to echo what Pete said. This is very difficult work. The statistical work in particular is impressive. To have the level of confidence that we need to be able to sit here and and truly trust these data is no small feat. So to all the folks who made this happen, uh one small just fact, the city population actually has been increasing the last 3 years. And so to actually um continue to do this when we are serving net new people is pretty remarkable as well. I just wanted to make sure that that was out there as well. But thank you to everyone who uh created this report. 

Email from Jason Gibbs to the Library Commission on December 7, 2025

During public comment at the November 20, 2025, I made a statement regarding to numbers of library visits remaining strong and steady. I remarked that this is outstanding because the population of San Francisco is actually decreasing. 

Later in the meeting Commissioner Calhoun contracted my statement asserting that San Francisco population is on the rise. The format of Library Commission meetings does not allow members of the public to comment on statements made by the commissioners, so I am I’ trying to contact the commission by correspondence. 

I am writing to provide evidence showing that my remarks were factual and accurate. Unlike the rest of California, San Francisco continues to lose population. This information comes from the state’s Department of Finance. 

https://www.kqed.org/news/12038968/californias-population-rebounding-san-francisco-different-story 

San Francisco's population has dropped 3,300 since last year and over 30,000 since 2000. 

I might also add that the Main Library used to get a great deal more foot traffic before the year 2000 before government workers in the Civic Center were permitted to work all or or parts of the schedule from home. 

In light of this the library’s public service numbers are quite robust and worthy of celebration.

Public Comment - July 17, 2025; skeptical comment Commissioner Connie Wolf

General Public Comment 

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian

I wanted to circle back to the previous meeting.

There was an agenda item about programming performance metrics. And um, in that the city librarian expressed a vision that was a prioritization of the experiential over the transactional. I wanted to speak on behalf of the transactional for a moment, which I which we call a public service.

I wanted to tell you about a service called Libhat where people can through the computer chat with librarians anytime that the Main Library is open. I was a very active participant of of that as a librarian and my observation of it was that about 80 to 90% were people asking to renew their library cards, which if you think about it makes sense because the people doing that are people using our eResources who are not coming to the library.

And they are so grateful for those resources and exceptionally grateful for this service of being able to renew their library card without coming into the library.

One thing I noticed about many of these patrons when we open up a patron's record, we can see how many physical books they have checked out and in the vast majority of cases it was zero. They just love the electronic resources which we are glad to provide.

But what I also wanted to get across like you were very proud of the ratings that you were getting for the programming -- this program you can get up to four stars rating of the transaction. It's it's totally voluntary if you do it. And my tendency is to only rate when I'm pissed off and give a bad rating. But we have 93% four stars of people with that service. So, I just wanted to let you know how important public service is and how great San Francisco Public Library staff is at providing it and that it is more than just a transactional institution. Thank you.

AGENDA ITEM NO.3 STRATEGIC PLAN INITIATVE IMPLEMENTATION

Public Comment - Ruben Juarez, Circulation manager Oceanview Branch, SEIU representative

One of the things that I was -- I heard was going to be looking at workforce culture. Commissioners, can you, um, speak to this at some point or ask about this? Looking at the staff handbook, what exactly does that mean? And just playing that out, teasing that out so we understand what that entails.

Additionally, whenever I hear about data-driven decision-making, get a little anxious because I'm not sure what that exactly means as well. I know Randall has done a lot of good work, but I think drilling down to that as well is to see what that means for our members.

I know we just had a wonderful celebration. I know some of the commissioners went to it where we celebrated our workforce. So I think out of respect for our workforce just getting more feedback I think what would go a long way as well is a survey of the workers who do the work. I don't ever really see that part of it so what do we think about these things a survey that addresses to us -- about what are your thoughts. Anonymous is also helpful so that we don't feel anything but clarity and share our viewpoints Thank you. 

 

Peter Warfield, Library Users Association -

The old slogan of the library or mission statement was uh to provide free and equal access to and a list of things including the joys of reading, independent learning, and a number of other things. 

You've completely gotten rid of the old slogan for this project's mission, for the library's mission statement. And it says basically connecting communities with other communities and learning not independent learning and not individuals and nothing about reading or about books or other materials that the library has in many cases in very good abundance and variety and depth. 

I'm concerned that there is very little here specific about what you're doing with respect to what I use the library for. What about the collections? What about the tremendous value of periodicals and newspapers? What about guides for people to understand how to access those and what they are and what the value of those is? What about when there's a long waiting list? Providing access as in some colleges having reference copies so speople will always at least be able to have a good chance of seeing a recent book or a popular book or a newly popular book and at least have a look at it because the current system with long waits for the limited uh number of materials. You might not see a brand new book that you might be very interested in for a long time. 

And collections management, collection optimization, what does that mean? To me, that's hiding getting rid of books and printed materials. What does it mean? Specifics needed. [Applause] 

Jason Gibbs -

I'd like to applaud the projects as they were presented. I think they're all good. Um, but I wanted to focus on employee engagement. And when that was spoken of, it was talking about acknowledging accomplishments, it's actually an accomplishment to open and close a library every day. 

And I feel like the day-to-day work is not acknowledged. It it doesn't it's not flashy. It's not it doesn't seem you know that doesn't attract a lot of attention but being there to serve the public to provide a safe space a welcoming space a space where people have put thought into the organization of the collection.

That is not acknowledged and I have to say that um most of the staff feel like their work is not known. I think it would go a long way if that were to change. The morale, in fact, I mean you go in and everybody seems very happy because they're happy to serve the public but the morale is very low and I feel like that's maybe the most important thing to address is staff morale. and you the workplace culture. 

I agree with Ruben that yeah need to really focus on what does the change to the staff handbook mean? And I also agree with him that a staff survey would be very important. Because I feel like it's not that we've put the cart before the horse, it's that the cart and the horse are not connected and and a lot more work needs to be done along those lines. Thank you.

Commissioner Connie Wolf:

When I hear that we have projects you want to do and you're going to do -- twentys seven new ones this year -- and we're not adding an enormous number of staff. We we're almost setting ourselves up for failure. Because what is the baseline of what we do? I'm kind of touching on what everybody said here so I just I'm looking at you at different points but you know how do we identify what is core to who we are and you know there are going to be staff who are just so like this is my project and I'm going to keep doing it but there has to be a a shared sense of how we can do things better and that certain things may need to sunset or completely be completely rethought and those criteria have to be in place because as new projects come online, they need to be subjected to criteria for analysis. And also so many of us have started programs and you have a vision of what you think it's going to be and it never is that and you have to be nimble to move and adjust. So I just want to really emphasize the need to learn from mistakes but also the sunsetting focus. 

A couple other sort of um summary comments. I did get a sense from the different comments and questions today. I think there's a little concern about the number of programs we're trying to accomplish and I think sometimes less is more and even twenty seven feels just huge in one fiscal year. So um and especially if you're not sunsetting, you don't have plans to sunset. You're just going to create the criteria to sunset. So I think we need to be incredibly cautious and realistic and honest. I think you use the word honest. I mean having that sense of intellectual honesty about what we're really doing and not trying to just shove it in and saying we'veaccomplished this because we can move it from a yellow to a green to a red or whatever to beige. Beige. Who wants beige? Um, so I really encourage that. I do want to then just say that I I think we're just really really excited about the partnership with what you're doing, 

Jason Gibbs - illegal public comment time limits

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. 

Coming to these meetings again, I sometimes feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle. I last participated in commission meetings in the early 1990s. It may seem quaint now, but back then when we opened the meetings by standing up, placing our hands over our hearts, and pledged allegiance to the flag in the Lurie Room - yes, that Lurie family. This gesture of solidarity of commissioners and the public took 15 seconds.

Out of curiosity, I recently had the notion to research the evolution of the bylaws of the Commission. One statement has remained in the bylaws. "The commission shall hold meetings open to the public and encourage the participation of interested persons." Attending these few meetings, I have seen that each of you is accomplished, intelligent, dedicated, attentive, and wants to support the library and its users. I hope you would assume that the interested persons who attend these meetings share your outlook. There was always a barrier of sorts between the public and the government and the exhortation to encourage participation is the way to lower that barrier.

In the searly 1990s, when I began attending meetings, the bylaws stated no time limit for public comment. By the mid-90s, the commission adopted a 4-minute time limit, which by the end of the decade dropped to three minutes. In March 2024, the commission acted to amend the bylaws. Four present members of the Commission cast votes to do so. The current amended bylaws continue to state that each member of the public can address the commission for up to three minutes. 

 
The bylaws are a legal document vetted by the city attorney's office. Every meeting I've attended, the commission has violated its own bylaws. Bylaws that current commissioners approved. If you cut me off before three minutes have transpired, you are violating your own rules. You must either follow your bylaws or amend them. The public should learn the rationale for limiting public participation. If you amend the bylaws to shorten the time limit, you could also amend the statement about encouraging participation. But I cannot believe that you really want to discourage participation.

The people who stand on this side of the microphone are not the enemies of the library or of the Commission.

Commission President Wolf illegally interrupting [2 minutes have transpired]: 

Thank you for your comments.

Jason Gibbs

 
Everyone here supports the San Francisco Public Library. Thank you. 

Commissioner Wolf:  

Any further public comment? Seeing there's no further public comment, public comments closed. I just want to thank everyone for participating so actively today and passionately.

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION

Minutes of theRegular Meeting of DECEMBER 18, 2025

The San Francisco Public Library Commission held a regular meeting DECEMBER 18, 2025, atthe Koret Auditorium, Main Library and virtually on Zoom.

The SFPLCommissionmeeting was called to order at 4:30 PM.

Commissioners Present: Wolf, Huang, Lomax Ghirarduzzi, Lopez, Bolander, Jones and Calhoun. President Wolf presented the ancestral homeland acknowledgement ofthe Ramaytush Ohlone.
AGENDA ITEM NO. 1 GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Public Comment

Peter Warfield, Executive Director of Library Users Association: Libraryusers2004@protonmail.com, PO Box 170544, San Francisco California 94117-0544, said the author talk was the fullest he has ever seen it, there was a lot of interest and he got a clear impression from the author of the book; she was not neutral about AI.

Emily Garvie, Executive Director, Friends of the Library: congratulated the Library for the One City One Book program and said the Friends is wrapping up its Annual Fund appeal and Mission Branch renovation campaign is in the home stretch.

Nicky: said Public Comment is perfunctory and he is not supportive of AI or the Library promoting it.

Jason Gibbs, former SFPL Librarian: Coming to these meetings again, I sometimes feel a little bit like a Rip Van Winkle. I actively participated in Commission meetings in the early 1990s. It may seem quaint now, but back then we opened the meetings by standing up, placing our hands over our hearts, facing the flag in the Lurie Room in the old building (yes, that Lurie family), and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This gesture of solidarity between commissioners and the public took 15 seconds. 

Out of curiosity, I recently had the notion to research the evolution of the Bylaws of the Library Commission—particularly concerning public comment. One statement has remained constant in the bylaws: “The Commission shall hold meetings open to the public and encourage the participation of interested persons.” Attending these past few meetings, I have seen that each of you is accomplished, intelligent, dedicated, and attentive, and truly wants to support the library and its users. I hope you would assume that the “interested persons” who attend these meetings share your outlook. There is always a barrier of sorts between the public and government, and the exhortation to “encourage participation” is the way to lower that barrier. In the early 1990s, when I began attending meetings, the bylaws stated no time limit for public comment. By the mid-1990s, the Commission adopted a 4-minute time limit, which by the end of the decade dropped to 3 minutes. In March 2024, the Commission acted to amend the Bylaws. Four present members cast votes to do so. The current amended Bylaws continue to state that each member of the public can address the Commission “for up to three minutes.” 

The Bylaws are a legal document vetted by the City Attorney’s office. Every meeting I have attended, the Commission has violated its own bylaws— bylaws that current commissioners approved. If you cut me off before 3 minutes have transpired, you are violating your own rules. You must either follow your bylaws or amend them. The public should learn your rationale for limiting public participation. If you amend the bylaws to shorten the time limit, you could also amend the statement about encouraging participation. But I cannot believe that you really want to discourage participation. The people who stand on this side of the microphone are not enemies of the library or of the Commission. Everyone here supports the San Francisco Public Library.

AGENDA ITEMNO. 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES – NOVEMBER 20, 2025

Peter Warfield said he is concerned about the Library’s continual shrinking of privacy of the patrons, and he commented on a variety of other issues.

Jason Gibbs said there have been complaints of the minutes of the meetings have been brief and he looked up in the city charter what are required of minutes. Public comment 67.16 says that a summary of each statement should be included, that varies from one line to 5 lines. I don't know that is being violated here.

Commission Discussion

Motion: Motion by Commissioner LOMAX GHIRARDUZZI to approve the minutes with three changes seconded by Commissioner LOPEZ to approve the NOVEMBER 20, 2025, Commission Minutes.

Action: AYES 7-0 (Wolf, Huang, Lomax Ghirarduzzi, Lopez, Bolander, Jones and Calhoun)

AGENDA ITEM NO.3 FYS 2027 & 2028 ANNUAL BUDGET

Mike Fernandez, CFO, presented an overview of FYs 2027 & 2028 Budget Priorities including the three phases of the Budget process, the Budget calendar, how the priorities align with Vision 2030, the Budget environment and revenue outlook.

Public Comment

Jason Gibbs said the presentation was great, page 14 is interesting, and is curious about services of other departments, how that works and asked for cost savings breakdown and where the zero number for equipment came from.

Peter Warfield said he was stunned by $8 million in the category of community programs and partnerships and remember when they broke 1 million and they were amazed by that and asked about improving access to print of all kinds including improvements in the catalog and the speed with which print arrives.
Commission Discussion

Commissioner Bolander said there is a2.5 million delta between the approved budget and the estimate, the funding seems worse than last year.

Fernandez said they are seeing at the end of the last year there was a lot of momentum over there and all indications that it will continue. A lot of larger events are happening in the city and the surrounding areas that are onetime events that would indicate a good reason for positive outlook.

Vice President Huang asked what numbers on slide 15 could potentially change next time.

Fernandez said 27 through 29 will get revised as they get new information.

Commissioner Calhoun asked about the delta between full employment and actual employment. Where would they see that in the presentation.

AGENDA ITEM NO. 4 CITY LIBRARIAN’S REPORT

Michelle Jeffers, Chief of Community Programs and Partnerships, presented on the SF Drag Laureate and the Drag Story's 10th Anniversary. The 2025 Drag Laureate, Per Sia, was the first reader to perform a Drag Queen Story Hour a decade ago. They hosted the 10th Anniversary celebration at the Main Library, which included multiple story hours happening throughout the day, a parade through the building, crafts, play, food, and fun. Ten years ago, the City Librarian and Deputy recognized the importance of delivering and celebrating this community with an innovative and inclusive idea that was brought to the Library by Radar Productions. The Library does this because Drag Queen Story Hour sparks imagination and serves audiences with joyful, glamorous, and proudly queer role models. Kids are particularly able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions, and they can be their authentic selves. City Librarian Michael Lambert reported on his trip to Taiwan at the invitation of the National Taiwan University Dean of the School of Learning and the Graduate Institute of Library and Information Studies. He served as the keynote speaker for the Library Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan) conference and visited many of the newly constructed and most innovative libraries in Taiwan, which are far ahead of SFPL. The reason they invited SFPL is because of how our libraries operate as social infrastructure—anchoring our communities, fostering shared experiences to bring our community together, encouraging civic engagement, amplifying culture, and celebrating diversity.

Public Comment

Peter Warfield said he wondered how books are pushed out from a vending machine device and asked where people browse the books, noting that's one of the ways people find materials of interest.

Jason Gibbs said he had the opportunity to go to National Taiwan University to present a paper, though he never made it into the library. He noted that Taiwan is a very impressive society and that they do not have some of the societal problems that we experience here in terms of its public. It is a very different society.

Commission Discussion

Commissioner Lopez congratulated Jeffers, noting that this work is challenging. She stated that Jeffers does a great job, does not give up, and keeps pushing; her initiative in dealing with everything the process entails is not easy, as there are people in this world who do not have an open mind. She also thanked the City Librarian for representing the San Francisco Public Library across continents, noting it is inspiring to learn what other libraries are doing. Commissioner Calhoun said the ten years of history is remarkable and asked where that history lives. Jeffers stated that the Hormel Center is the keeper of that history.

Commissioner Lomax Ghirarduzzi said Jeffers was the best in the nation, noting that no one does community work like her.

Commissioner Jones said it was incredible what Jeffers does during these moments where the Library is making history. As the budget gets leaner, he asked how one doubles down and leans into history-making moments—focusing on being the best at a few things versus doing many things. He also wondered about the role of merchandise when celebrating these milestones. Commissioner Jones thanked Lambert for showing them incredible libraries across the world, noting it pushes the Commission forward.

AGENDAITEM NO. 5 2026 COMMISSION MEETING CALENDAR Public Comment

Peter Warfield stated that cutting the second meeting in February is a pity and noted that there is no break in the summertime.

Commission Discussion

Motion: Motion by Vice President HUANG to approve the 2026 Commission Meeting Calendar seconded by Commissioner CALHOUN.

Action: AYES 7-0 (Wolf, Huang, Lomax Ghirarduzzi, Lopez, Bolander, Jones and Calhoun) 

AGENDAITEM NO. 6 ELECTION OF 2026 OFFICERS

Public Comment

Peter Warfield stated that it is a pity the Commission does not have nominations prior to public comment, as this requires members of the public to address everyone generally rather than speaking to specific nominees. Commission Discussion

Commissioner Lopez nominated President Wolf to be the 2026 Commission President, which Wolf accepted. Action: AYES 7-0 (Wolf, Huang, Lomax Ghirarduzzi, Lopez, Bolander, Jones and Calhoun)

Vice President Huang thanked the Commission for the opportunity to serve and nominated Commissioner Calhoun as the 2026 Vice President; the nomination was accepted by Calhoun.

Action: AYES 7-0 (Wolf, Huang, Lomax Ghirarduzzi, Lopez, Bolander, Jones and Calhoun)

THE MEETING ADJOURNED at 6:23 PM

Margot Shaub, Commission Affairs Analyst

Commission Affairs Analyst, Main Library, San Francisco, CA 94102-4733

Latin X Affinity Center - Sunshined documents

NEW - Latinx Affinity Center Programming 25-26.pdf

NEW - LatinxAffinityShelving.pdf

Project Charter Latinx Affinity Center

Katrin Reimuller to Dolly Goyal 092724 Latinx Affinity Center draft Project Charter.pdf-redacted.pdf

Katrin Reimuller to Dolly Goyal 091724 Follow up from Latinx Center meeting.pdf

Katrin Reimuller to Dolly Goyal 091724 FW_ Follow up from Latinx Center meeting.pdf-redacted.pdf

Francisco Cardona to Lisa Valerio 100424 Re_ Latinx Affinity Shelving possibilities.pdf-redacted.pdf

Lisa Valerio to Irene Aquino 111424 Re_ LatinX & Deaf Services Scoping Meeting.pdf-redacted.pdf

Latinx Center update.docx-redacted 0326

Brian Weaver to Naomi Jelks 032126 FW_ Latinx Center SPI update and weeding directive.pdf-redacted.pdf

Michael Lambert to Dolly Goyal 032426 FW Latinx Center SPI update and weeding directive.pdf-redacted.pdf

Brian Weaver to Michael Weaver 033026 RE_ Latinx Affinity Center project meeting33036.pdf-redacted.pdf

Brian Weaver to Michael Lambert 033026 RE Latinx Affinity Center project meeting.msg-redacted.pdf

Brian Weaver to Michael Lambert 033026 RE_ Latinx Affinity Center project meeting.pdf-redacted.pdf

Lisa Valerio to Naomi Jelks 043026 Re_ LatinX Center - Linear Feet shelving.pdf-redacted.pdf

Lisa Valerio to Naomi Jelks 043026 LatinX Center - Linear Feet shelving.msg-redacted.pdfFrancisco Cardona to Naomi Jelks 050126 Latinx center info.msg-redacted.pdf

Graham Galloway to Naomi Jelks 051026 Executive Sponsors SPI Update Form Submitted.msg-redacted.pdf

HC Weed and Shift Progress Report.docx-redacted.pdf 110425

Library Projects - Main and Branches Attachment (LIB - DWP projects- .xlsx)

San Francisco Public Library - Main Library - 3rd floor, General Collections and Humanities

Right sizing underway

Commentary from the November 20, 2025 Library Commission meeting

Peter Warfield public comment:

I tried to be a little bit discreet about why I was speaking about contingency planning, including the fact that I'd never been to a fire. I've never had a fire drill going on while I was at the library. So, let me tell you, there was a shooting outside that killed one of the people that involved the library's security folks and the library simply announced at about 5:00 on a Friday afternoon that they were closing. And I was sitting at a computer and I asked my neighbor, I said, "Did I understand correctly there?" There was no explanation given. It was completely in a sense chaotic. There was no staff or anybody else telling where to go. There was nobody saying where we should leave in which direction. Nothing. That's why.

Jason Gibbs public comment:

Good afternoon. Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. Sorry to be a bummer, but as Mr. Warfield noted, there was a murder at the public library, at this library. I did some investigation and the events had nothing to do with the library or its service. There were two people having their own beef outside, but that was never communicated to staff. Staff were rightly concerned that we could have had an armed murder inside of the building without any information about it. 

One thing you should know is that our security staff was excellent. One of them tried to stop the bleeding, which was profuse. This was ultimately unsuccessful because the man died even though the City Librarian never sent out notice of this happening. The murdered person was from Urban Alchemy with whom the library has worked with very closely and many staff members feel a close relationship to. They've  actually been a real asset to the library. People who are really serious about turning their lives around. 

That's what makes this event so unfortunate. So when I read about it happening, I thought, is it that guy at the Bridge? I sort of imagined that it was somebody intimately involved the library. Fortunately, it wasn't. 

But it also brings up the fact that library staff are routinely threatened by members of the public. We joke that at least once a week somebody will say to you, after you've told to adjust their behavior,  "I'm going to see you outside." And of course 99.9% of the time that doesn't happen, but it can happen and people are are truly worried and this whole event had a profound effect on staff morale at the Main Library and people feel like there was no leadership. And that the leadership did not really address the concerns of the library staff after this event. Thank you.

"Urban Alchemy worker killed after asking man to stop using drugs outside library" - KTVU.

"Colleagues mourn Urban Alchemy worker killed in front of San Francisco library" - KNTV.

"Urban Alchemy worker asked a man to stop using drugs outside S.F. Main Library. Now he’s dead" - Reddit.

"San Francisco Urban Alchemy ambassador dies days after being shot outside public library" - KGO

"San Francisco street ambassador slain while confronting drug user by library" - KRON

"San Francisco street ambassador fatally shot while trying to deter drug user" - Los Angeles Times

"San Francisco street ambassador shot dead while confronting drug user outside library" - New York Post

"Shooting in front of City Hall took place about 30 minutes ago," Tenderloin Activities [Twitter]

Library Commission April 16, 2026 meeting

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of April 16, 2026
Location: Main Library, Koret Auditorium; public access via Zoom webinar.
Call to Order: Approximately 4:30PM.

CALL TO ORDER AND LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Commission Affairs Analyst Margot Shaub opened the meeting, explained Zoom and public comment procedures, and the Commission delivered the Ramaytush Ohlone Land Acknowledgement.

ROLL CALL
Present: President Calhoun; Vice President Jones; Commissioners Lopez, Bolander, Kenaston, and Menon (quorum established).

1. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Anonymous Citizen — Criticized perceived Commission elitism and disengagement, referencing a prior meeting joke about adjournment; argued Commissioners should welcome engagement; used a racial epithet, and the chair halted the comment.

Anonymous Citizen public comment
Thank you very much, commissioners. Speaking as an anonymous citizen, of course, and stop the hate, stop the ignorance, don't give money to Friends of the Library, don't accept money from the Friends of the Library. And there are no agendas in the back of the room.

Conceive of this as a two-part presentation. The first part today and the second part in May. So to the extent that you're following at all, the conclusion will be in May. At the last meeting, the president of this commission made a joke. He was not trying to be profound or insightful. He thought it was a little witicism with just enough of a hint of the truth to make it funny. Do you remember he said,

"Now we come to the favorite part of my of the agenda adjournment."

He's glad when he thinks it's over. Don't you know in your heart of hearts that if this were a just society, library commissioners would be looking forward to the agenda, would be looking forward to engaging with the public and engaging with people who cared about the library. Of course they would. What does it mean when the library commissioners are the ones who dread the meetings? 

I mentioned before that you attempt to establish your elitism by disain displaying your disdain for power of language because a it it there's an aphorism which demonstrates that the idea that you demonstrate your elitism by your disdain for the public. That aphorism operates on many levels cannot be paraphrased and the phrase is no one hates a field [ __ ] like a house [ __ ] The thing t's it's an aphorism that's existed for a long time. icrophone cut]

[a link to Malcolm X's explanation of this aphorism]

Commission Analyst Margot Schaub:

So the legally safest course is to your comment is off topic and I'm stopping your time. So yes. 

Anonymous citizen

No abs...

Commission Analyst Margot Schaub:

Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Can you turn the mic off, please?

Allison Fong, Friends of the Library Board, — Praised Night of Ideas as dynamic and joyful; announced June 6 Block Party Book Sale; promoted the Friends’ new Hammer Guides collaboration hoodie via the SFPL store.

Jason Gibbs, Retired Librarian — Commended Mission Branch renovation and restoration of Leo Lentelli’s sculpture; described historic significance of Lentelli’s works removed from the old Main; urged retention of valuable collections (e.g., LPs) that might otherwise be lost. 

Jason Gibbs' Public Comment
About three meetings back, we had a nice presentation from the facilities director that went into
Mission Branch in its renovation. And I was very pleased recently to to walk past there and see that the the sculpture there by Leo Lintelli -- two children reading a book -- is looking better than ever. 

Leo Lentelli was a fairly significant part of of San Francisco life for a time. He was part of the City Beautiful Movement that that helped create the San Francisco Civic Center. When you go to Market Street, it's called the path of gold - he designed the light standards that are in the on that path of gold. He had five sculptures at the front of the old Main Library representing art, literature, philosophy, science, and law. When it became an Asian art museum, the iconoclasts of the Asian Art Museum and the Art Commission had them removed and I think they're in some collector's backyard in Contra Costa County,  these fine sculptures.

But that brings me to l the celebration of 30 years of the main library. I was here on the day that we moved in. I was part of the moving process and one thing I remember distinctly from that time is we had a collection of LP records at the old Main Library and we were given instructions by the chief of the new main library to get rid of that collection. At that time I was supervised by a woman who was about as mild-mannered and cooperative a person that you could imagine but she was not going to have that. And so when we moved over, we brought over the LP collection. 

Basically they wanted a new library and a new collection and new technology. But who would suspect now that LPS surpass CDs in sales today? If we had followed her idea for right sizing all of those long playing records would would have been would be in a landfill right now. Nowadays there are genres of music that we can offer like opera, folk music, certain kinds of jazz -- recordings that were created before the vinyl revival that are available to the public that would have been otherwise lost. So when you think about removing collections or moving fast and doing things, you have to consider that the world changes and the values of things change where maybe right now ebooks look like they're doing better than regular books, but you get a lot of reports of how people are returning to print and finding that they want to be disconnected. So I I just to plant the seed of the idea that um that things are sometimes worth holding on to even when they don't seem like like their time has passed.

Peter Warfield, Executive Director Library Users Association, Libraryusers2004@protonmail.com, PO Box 170544 SF, CA 94117-0544 — Requested fairer handling of relevancy during public comment (allowing clarification if time is stopped); criticized SFPL’s promotion of social media citing court rulings and youth harm; urged reconsideration of publicity practices, especially for minors.

Ruben Jaurez, Circulation Supervisor; Union Officer— Thanked speakers for supporting consistent three-minute comment time; recounted essential service roles Library staff took during COVID-19 (food banks, testing sites, hotels, contact tracing); urged alternatives to layoffs for public sector workers. 

Ruben Juarez public comment
Hello, commissioners, management team members, and assembled attendees. My name is Ruben, and I'm the circulation supervisor. I'm the circulation supervisor, union officer, and the union representative on the libraries health and safety committee. First off, I would like to thank Jason for his research, diligence, and ultimately his advocacy, ensuring all future participants have three minutes to speak in this forum. Thank you, Jason, for your resolve. 

Now, I missed the March Commission meeting. That said, I thought I would share what I intended to speak to last month. I thought we'd be remiss if we didn't mark a date that was significant in March. On Friday, March 13, 2020, Mayor Breed began the process of shutting down the city due to a health emergency, the Corona virus. And last month, I wanted to reflect on that day, Friday the 13th. It was a week after the commission meeting, six years later, and how our public sector workers, including a large amount of library staff, responded to the onset of the pandemic. At a time when there was so very little information about the virus, workers stood up when our city was at its neediest. Workers staffed the food bank, food bank popups which were throughout the city, distributed flyers, t staffed testing sites, hotels, the Covid command center, offered translation services, contract contact tracing among other things. 

City workers stood up to provide vital essential services when everything else was shut down. I worked principally at the food bank pop-ups where we worked where we workers bag groceries, distributed food, and managed lines. I chocked the lines measuring the distance between where clients would stand to ensure the six feet distance was maintained. Food insecurity was very real. The desire for food to provide for one's family was an urgent need. 

The image that sits in my head was the day at the Cow Palace where hundreds of people came to get food. Our public service workers showed up and showed out providing essential services showing the right stuff. 

As we are in the midst of layoffs to city workers and other departments, I think it's important to underline what workers did, what public sector workers do when the chips are down. And we ask that our workforce, our public service workers be afforded the same level of 6reciprocity when it comes to finding alternatives to layoffs. Thank you.

ITEM 2 — Approval of February 12, 2026 Minutes

Public Comment

• Anonymous Citizen — Said the February minutes were redrafted but failed to incorporate corrections raised in March; cited omissions (commissioner qualifications, labor emphasis, privacy concerns, staff reporting context); urged inclusion of full public testimony consistent with a data-driven organization.

• Peter Warfield — Asserted misrepresentation or reversal of his comments’ intent; emphasized respect for Commissioners but reiterated concerns about harmful technologies and patron privacy; asked for corrections to prevent mischaracterization.

Commission Discussion/Action : Motion from Commissioner Lopez second from Commissioner Bolander to approve the February 12, 2026 Minutes. Action: Approved unanimously. Roll-call ayes: Calhoun, Jones, Lopez, Bolander, Menon, Kenaston

ITEM 3 — Approval of March 19, 2026 Minutes

Public Comment

• Anonymous Citizen — Argued the ordinance allowing a 150-word speaker summary was misinterpreted; described difficulties submitting the summary (documentation and “include vs. attach” dispute); alleged evasive handling of public submittals. 

• Jason Gibbs — Requested replacing “another speaker” with his name; cited Sunshine Ordinance placement (summary belongs within public comment section, not addendum); asked to avoid further Task Force appeals by correctly acknowledging testimony.

• Peter Warfield — Said addenda disconnect public remarks from agenda items; argued minutes lack item linkage for commenters; reiterated concerns aboutsocial media promotion and prior inaccuracies/omissions.

Commission Discussion: Commissioners confirmed the requested correction (naming Jason Gibbs) and proceeded to vote.

Commission Discussion/Action: Motion from Commissioner Kenaston and second from Commission Jones to approve the March 19, 2026 Minutes with one edit to include Jason Gibbs name.

Action: Approved unanimously with correction

ITEM 4— 2025 Media Analysis Report

Staff Presentation — Public Information Officer Pocheolo Carsi-Cruz analyzed 2025 media coverage (paid/owned/earned); highlighted three themes (library love spectrum, diversity champion, city pride) with examples and early 2026 uptick.

Public Comment

• Anonymous Citizen — Praised the presentation but urged a national shift back to literacy-focused missions; criticized visible disengagement by some Commissioners; requested a stronger emphasis on books, history, and core literacy.

• Jason Gibbs — Commended analysis yet cautioned about PR growth versus frontline service; emphasized libraries as refuge for patrons needing quiet and help; urged balancing “bright, shiny” programming with core service. 

Jason Gibbs' public comment
A very nice presentation. I do have to say that one thing that I've noticed over my career towards the end is just how much energy and staffing has gone into public relations at the library. It really was not a big
thing in the past. And I think the combination of the set aside and the reallocation of public service jobs
towards the sixth floor to work on public relations has created a, I mean I I see it on the news all the time. 

There's a lot to be proud about at the library and I'm sure that you're proud too and that's why you enjoy doing this because there's so much to be grateful that the library does. But, you know they emphasize the loud and lively part because that seems so unlike a library. But that's where this quote from Emily Hovind comes in so well because my experience at the library is feeling the gratitude that we could provide a peaceful safe place for the people of Tenderloin people living in SRO's where they can come in and basically just be left alone and be on their own because they don't really have spaces.

And and I always worry that this overemphasis on the bright shiny stuff detracts from really recognizing and rewarding the everyday stuff. And so like I objectives and key results is one of those things that's spoken about. And again it's a matter have you devoted your institutional energy towards public relations or have you devoted them to actually being there to serve people when they need it. The one day that you need to come in and print out your resume. You don't know how to do it. Well, the the librarian is busy giving a program. You know, it's like you missed out on that person and and so my hope when I worked there was to never miss out on that person wherever they're at to provide them with service and I see the public service positions changed to be more sort of administrative or public relations jobs and I feel like it is going to have an outcome on the objectives and key results.

• Peter Warfield — Reported packet collation issues (upside-down pages, no page numbers); argued SFPL’s media narrative under-represents books/newspapers/periodicals; urged stronger reporting on collections amid declining traditional media.

Commission Discussion

• Lopez — Expressed pride in media attention, commended diverse programming and outreach success.

• Menon — Asked whether coverage correlates with program attendance or materials use; supported next-phase tracking of user pathways.

• Jones — Praised balancing positive/challenging coverage; recommended adding impression metrics and using owned/paid channels to support literacy priority.

• Bolander — Suggested earned-media dollar valuation and sentiment analysis; recommended tracking pitch success.

• Kenaston — Encouraged benchmarking SFPL against major systems(e.g., DC Public Library).

ITEM 5 — Branch Division Report

Staff Presentation — Chief of Branches Rebecca Alcala Veraflor reviewed branch history/renovations (BLIP, LIFT), district organization, multilingual services, and community partnerships; systemwide visits recovered to ~87% of pre-COVID levels with local variation (construction, demographics, staffing).

Public Comment

• Ruben — Spoke to the rewarding nature of branch work and patron relationships; noted safety importance and lack of on-site security at some branches; highlighted staffing challenges for seven-day service.

• Peter Warfield — Warned against “de-bookification”; urged capacity and visibility for book collections; criticized temporary renovation sites for limited use Commission Discussion

• Kenaston — Praised service excellence based on multiple branch visits, clean facilities, organized stacks, positive interactions.

• Menon — Highlighted libraries as teen third spaces amid rising loneliness; asked about low-hanging-fruit improvements, site-specific solutions described.

• Lopez — Commended Council of Neighborhood Libraries and language support; affirmed value of community-led input.

• Jones — Requested future district-level trend reporting and insights to address “stagnant 80” recovery cluster.

ITEM 6 — City Librarian’s Report

Night of Ideas, Michelle Jeffers, Chief Programs and Partnerships — Largest in the U.S.; 7,100 attendees at Main and ~2,500 at Asian Art Museum; 300+ presenters/performers/vendors; extensive staff support.

Main Library 30th Anniversary, Naomi Jelks, Chief of Main — Reviewed 1996 opening and affinitycenter history; programming included “Librarians on Film,” Hormel Center celebration, Civic Center cemetery-history talk, and in-library wedding ceremonies.

Public Comment

• Peter Warfield — Noted discrepancies between versions of
anniversary materials; recounted controversy about book reductions and space reallocation; criticized Night of Ideas for limited discussion of AI downsides.

Commission Discussion: Commissioners praised creativity, scale, and resilience of programming (e.g., astronomy session pivot due to rain); commended leadership and public service.

Meeting adjourned by President Calhoun. At 6:41 PM

Library Commission May 15, 2025 meeting

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION

Minutes of theRegular Meeting of MAY 15, 2025

The San Francisco Public Library Commission held a regular meeting May 15, 2025, atthe Koret Auditorium, Main Library and virtually on Zoom.

The SFPLCommissionmeeting was called to order at 4:30 PM.

Commissioners Present: Wolf, Huang, Jones, and Calhoun.

President Wolf presented the ancestral homeland acknowledgement ofthe Ramaytush Ohlone.

AGENDA ITEM NO. 1 GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Public Comment

Stacy Smith said he had an administrative hearing, and the hearing officer did not have access to the appeal and video footage, which countered the incident report.

Peter Warfield, Executive Director of Library Users Association Libraryusers2004@yahoo.com, PO Box 170544, San Francisco California 94117-0544, said there are threats against anyone with the top political person in the country including libraries, which the Commission should consider.

Emily Garvie, Executive Director, Friends of the Library, gave updates of Friends work for the Library including raising $560,000 through the 2025 Laureates event.

Walt Bilofsky, SF Bay Chapter Freedom From Religion said The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were going to make public comment about SFPL joining Books Unbanned.

Jason Gibbs, who retired from the Library, learned about the strategic plan, which one discussion was of joy and wonder at the Library, which happens when the trained professionals help patrons find the book or item they are looking for, they are astounded by the system.

Comment
My name is Jason Gibbs. I've recently retired from the library, but about a year ago while I was still employed learned a lot about the strategic plan which I was not involved with. one of the things that was very heartening in the discussion was sthe discussion of joy and wonder at the library and I thought I'd tell you a little bit about joy and wonder. 

It's not uncommon that someone will come into the library who doesn't use the library. Somebody will give them a piece of paper with a number for a book on it. They don't know what to do. There are so many books. But then you lead them to the shelf, there it is. And they are just astounded that we have the system where you can find that one book. 

But it's not really magic that does it. It has to do with trained professionals. Somebody had to select the book. Somebody had to negotiate the contract so we could buy the book. The book arrives. We have to do physical processing, cataloging. It has to get transported to the library. Then it gets shelved. then it has a life on the shelf. Somebody has to decide do we keep it, do we withdraw it and um all these things are done by dedicated professionals. 

So it really isn't magic. It's involvement of systems of people who are overlooked and and not really mentioned in all the sort of wonderful things you like to talk about. I feel like you should know that wonderful things are happening among the staff that we have systems in place. we have dedicated people and that the maintenance every day of a collection that serves the public is what we are all dedicated to and um I hope you will be dedicated to.

Ruben Juarez said he was a representative of SEIU, which welcomes the new and returning Commissioners back.

AGENDA ITEM NO. 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES – APRIL 17, 2025

Ruben Juarez asked for a correction in the minutes.

Peter Warfield said the minutes do not include every time he mentions his contact information and are brief.

Commission Discussion

Motion: Motion by Vice President HUANG to approve the minutes with one edit seconded by Commissioner CALHOUN to approve the APRIL 17, 2025, Commission Minutes.

Action: AYES 4-0 (Wolf, Huang, Jones and Calhoun)

AGENDA ITEM NO.3 PROGRAMMING PERFORMANCE METRICS

Dolly Goyal, Chief of Public Services and Angel Castro, Administrative Analyst presented Library programming and performance metrics, which are aligned with fulfilling vision 2030 Strategic Priorities of Literary Champion, Cultural Amplifier, Community Catalyzer, Thoughtful Navigator and Resource Provider. They highlighted that although programing has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels they are on track to deliver more than 14,700 programs for all ages, a 63% increase for all programs compared to fiscal year 23 which is when they begin to ramp up programming numbers following the pandemic.

[Michael Lambert: I just want to highlight that over for over a decade now, the San Francisco Public Library has been intentional about delivering a more experiential service model, hosting thousands of events, performances, classes, workshops, story times every year, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors. So this has been a growth area for us as we continue to make the transition from a more traditional service model which has centered around more transactional touch points for our residents.]

Public Comment

Peter Warfield said he generally does not have a problem with what is being presented, but he did not hear about books or anything at all about how to access the tremendously rich collection at the library.

Ruben Juarez said for every program there is preparation for physical preparation that goes into getting the space ready. There is a prep whether it's an in-house program or someone from the outside.

Comment:
Wonderful presentation. I um just wanted to speak to what programs involve. So just to flesh it out and this will be a little granular. 

So for every program there's preparation for it. The physical preparation that goes into getting a space ready. There's a prep for whether in-house prep or somebody coming from the outside.There's a preparation there on the para-professional side which is where I'm at. Working with the talent to make sure they feel comfortable with the physical landscape when they come in. Is there anything we can do to help with the setup? Do we need to put a screen up? So there's a lot involved on that end. 

And obviously there's the the program itself which is always such a such a delightful thing because on our end to see an audience that's happy. Because one of the other pieces we have to do is get the count for how many people are attending the program and then afterwards after the program's over and, you know, thank you for coming, please come back and see us again see you soon, you know, that piece of it. 

There is the breakdown where we had to put everything away. And then the next level which is looking at the program. What could we have done better? What can how can we improve upon it? Are there things that we might have missed? So there's a lot of different elements that go into a program. I'm sharing all this just to I know I'm getting granular. Sharing all this to give you all a sense of what a program entails and the work that's involved in it. And I think when we're being intentional in looking at resources to involve staff in terms of this process would be important given all that happens. Thank you so much.

Jason Gibbs, retired Librarian, said he noticed over the past few years there is an inflation in the demand to give programming to the point where there is conflicting programming that divides up the audience. He said it used to be typical for a program to have 100 people attend.

The one thing I noticed over the past few years is a great inflation in the demand to give programming to the where there's conflicting programming that where you basically divide up your audience and you don't really get the attendance you want. Early in my career, it was pretty typical to have a program in here where 100 people was normal, often more. Nowadays, you know, it's it's hard to bring in that many people. I think because of just the inflation of activity going on. 

The other thing I'm sort of concerned about is this preference of the experiential versus service. I mean I'm old-fashioned, but to me the job is all about service, about being there to serve the public day in and day out to provide them access to the resources of the library. And it it is a telling thing about the strategic plan and and the discussion of all this like Mr. Warfield said that that the book is left out and I guess it is a four-letter word. 

Because there are still people dedicated to the book and I know the staff is too and there's a way I think to follow up. We used to do programming where we would uintroduce databases, how to search the collection but that has all been deemphasized. So I think that that is a worthy goal. Thank you.

Commission Discussion

Commissioner Calhoun thanked staff for the presentation and asked if on the slide with the patron satisfaction where pretty much everything was green, were there things below the fold there may be rated differently. Randy McClure, Chief Analytics, responded that on the topic of programming this is the complete set of questions. Commissioner Jones said the work was incredible and this is the power of the systems working together to make all the programming come to life. She asked that for the data to separate out adult versus youth in the diagnostics, it would help the team understand where some of the pain points are and feel focused about supporting patrons effectively.

Vice President Huang said he is proud of SFPL programming and congratulated to everyone who has done anything r for a single program and would like to understand the framework by which you consider what better means. President Wolf said it is fascinating to notice that youth programs have been cut in half since, and adult programming has doubled, this is a great shift and asked if it was this intentional and how does staff set goals each year for the kind of balance and the kind of participation they want.

City Librarian said coming out of COVID, they were focused on recovery and the restoration of what they had prepandemic. Michelle Jeffers, Chief of Community Programs and Partnerships (CPP) said hiring after the pandemic, as we were down some children's librarians, took some tome to get fully staffed up and adult attendance does reflect online programs, which we don't see kids coming to online programs.

AGENDA ITEM NO. 4 CITY LIBRIARIAN’S REPORT

Jess Ouyang and Sachiko Iwabuchi, CPP presented highlights of Weaving Stories: Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage month including curated book lists that connect patrons to library materials, the Asian Pacific Islander American a (APIA) biography project, which includes educating the public about APIA Americans and a website created for K- 12 students and a Sake and Shochu event in partnership with the Consulate- General of Japan. Ruben Balderas, CPP, presented Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros 2025, a celebration of children and books. The first Dia event was held in 1999 and each year since then organizers continue to volunteer time and resources to champion and promote literacy and unite families of all cultures through a community-based child center event. They gave away a thousand children's books in English and Spanish, the annual celebration has distributed over 25,000 multilingual books in the community.

Michelle Jeffers gave highlights from the Jewish American Heritage Month, a new program started this month. Jeffers said this heritage needs to be celebrated in San Francisco and that the Jewish community has been instrumental in this city since gold rush days. The celebrations included a series of family programs, author talks, concerts and workshops.

Public Comment

Peter Warfield said he was glad to hear about programming that included books.

Commission Discussion

Commissioner Calhoun said he agrees that there is a lack of programming around Jewish heritage and asked what kinds of questions they asked about impact as they were putting that programming. Jeffers said they talked to partners before planning any programs to identify what was missing and they are working with a pro bono consultant to bring in more questioning and more evaluation of the programs. City Librarian Lambert said through Vision 2030 and implementing our new strategic plan, part of that process for the upcoming fiscal year is to develop criteria to assess programs success and what to sunset. President Connie Wolf said the public programs are at the core of who the library is in reaching community partnerships and every program is free and accessible.

PRESIDENT WOLF ADJOURNED THE MEETING at 6:01 PM

Margot Shaub, Commission Affairs Analyst