I attended Tuesdays (August 8th) meeting of the Finance Audit Committee which met to discuss financing options for $20 million to rebuild the Menlo Park Library. The expected cost is $45 million, and John Arrillaga has generously offered to fund the balance after the City contributes $20 million.

When I first heard of this potential project to rebuild the library several alarms went off.

The Space Needs Study says, Because of time constraints, staff recommends that public input on the siting options be gathered through a design charrette process facilitated by staff and qualified consultants. However the report doesnt enumerate any time constraints, so whats the rush?

Duringthe initial public comments I addressed the panel on these topics:

A)There should be an accounting of projects that were accomplished through Measure T parcel tax. That there may be funds available in the third tranche of that parcel tax.

B)Menlo Park residents may have more pressing issues, like pension deficits, housing and traffic, and loads of construction already. I suggested that they punt this back to council to get a reality check.

C)I know a lot about libraries, and am a expert in library automation and cataloging; have designed, developed and marketed three library circulation, cataloging systems and full text indexing for NOAA, Tacoma Public Library, a third for a company for whom I was VP, and developed and licensed network software for library automation vendors. Two years ago I testified in a patent case on the nuances of Library of Congress cataloging details (i.e., the date when was a book publicly available).

D)From my experience in Internet trends, materials and queries, and public libraries that I visit, libraries are shrinking a victim of o- line technology cutting out the middle man. I cited recent visits to main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, which was bore little resemblance to its prior bustling stacks, but now had immigration services offices.

E)I failed to see any statistical data that the common metrics of a library operation and trends: circulation (borrowing) counts, turnstile counts, size of the collections, number of active patrons. No data was provided to show that growth on any of these trend indicators has grown to where a remodel is compelling.

Our library manager attended the meeting, and as the primary stakeholder, I expected a statement to the committee and public as an advocate the project. There was none. This is driven by other forces.

$45 million for a net 11,000 square feet is $4000 sq/ft?) Thats more than the cost of Athertons new civic campus. I read the use study of the Menlo Project, which suggests that this is more about public meeting spaces than libraries.

Excerpt from:
Why a library scrap and rebuild? - The Almanac Online (blog)