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, 

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