This is a special meeting of the Beverly Hills Library Board of Trustees. Today is Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, a little after 4th, 30th in the afternoon, and we will start with public comment. If anyone has any public comment, either in chambers or electronically, we will do that now, not seeing anyone in chambers. We'll go to either video or voice or email. We do not have any public comments for non-agenda items. Okay, so we will proceed with. Did we indeed- We will need. Roll call. This is for the Library Board. Board Member Wells here. Board Member Cormin. Here. Board Member Mirish. Here. Vice President Nazarian, here. And President Friedman. Here. So if anyone does want to call in the phone number is 310-288-2288. And now I will once again ask if there's any public comment, not seeing any. We do not have any public comments at this time. Okay. annual report time. And this is the annual report of the Beverly Hills Library Board of Trustees for 2023 through 24, and we will start with our report. And Alice, can you please introduce yourself? Sure. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, President Friedman and Honorable Board members. My name is Alice Quo. I'm one of the library services managers here at the Beverly Hills Public Library. And I'm pleased to present the annual report for Beverly Hills Public Library fiscal year July 2023 to June 2024. And with that, I'm going to get started. So one of the first things I want to say is I'm very excited that the people have returned back to the library. So last year when we presented a report, our usage was still down by a little bit by people entering the library. As you can see with this year's report that people entering the library was at by almost 100,000 people. So before the pandemic, our daily people entering the library was about 1,200 to 1,500 people daily. And last year we saw about 1100, but based on this, I'm sorry, the previous year is by 1,100. This year we did increase of almost 100,000 people in this last year. We are seeing about 1,300 people daily. So with that, we're back to pre-pandemic levels. So the library continues to connect the community and provide services to support their needs and interest. We also saw an increase in borrowing habits. With that, it's because it's fueled by the return of our story times to the little theater. During the pandemic, we had story times outside in the library book courtyard. By returning all of our story times into the little theater, we also brought people back into the library. So after story time, they're using our library resources, they're checking out books, they're rediscovering the library. So our bread and butter really is the children and the family using our library and all of our resources. But in addition to that, we also saw an increase not only in physical items, physical items check out, increased by 31%, but also digital items. Digital items went up by 22%. Not only that, starting from when we introduced that digital format in 2014, this is the highest we've had increasing the digital format, whether it be E audio or E books. So we're very excited about that. Programs and events, the library offers year round free programs and events to everybody for a variety of ages, adults, teens and childrens.'s, of course, we have weekly story times. We have seven weekly story times, and we also have our biggest annual event, which is our annual summer reading club. And with that, we saw participation increased by 7% in this last year. Also passport passport services. As you know, not only people are returning back to the library, they're also traveling. So we are a passport acceptance agency. We have two offices that pass, we accept passports. It is by reservation only. And we are, we have passport agents that accept passports. We do review of the application except applications and we also do take photographs of your passport. But again, it's by reservation only. Shared opportunities. Along with the California State Library and Southern California Library Cooperative, we offer online databases to our patrons. So that means with your library card, our patrons can have access to a New York Times. This is the digital New York Times, so digital edition. So with your library card, you can have access to read in any article in the New York Times, as well as botanical school editions. So students can do their research instead of those huge tomes that we're used to using, you know, books that you can't check out. They can do their research for elementary, middle school, and high school students. And we also have press reader. Press reader is a great resource we have. You download the app, then people have access to 7,000 of the world's top newspapers and magazines. Newspaper includes a lot of foreign language newspapers. You can sort them out on the side once you have the app, different languages, and also magazines as soon as they're available on the shelves. We have the most popular ones, such as New Yorker and Economist. And it's as if you're reading the magazine in your hand once you have the app and you can download it. With along with the State Library and First Partners, we also offer California State Library. I'm sorry, California State Park Passes. So with your library card, you can come to the library and check out a park pass. What that enables you to is it enables a car, your vehicle pass up to nine people. You can go to over 200 participating state parks and use that for a day pass to park your car. So that's really nice and encourages people to go out in nature and enjoy the parks. Next we go into programs and collaborations. So I want to talk a little bit about that. In May, Jewish American Heritage Month, we had two programs. One Shalom stories with Jessica Anna Carlton. She did children's storytelling. You know I remember you're part of that? That was really nicely and well attended. We also had Jewish tales with Karen Golding. That was a family story time. Also in collaboration with Arts and Cultural Commission, we did our installation in our library, Jenny Jorsanski with Unfolded Narrative, which was a beautiful art installation. If you came to our library, you will see stretched right across our library. It was a very old, very, as you walk in, you can miss it. It was a beautiful installation. We also started a series of adulting classes with Care LA, which is Credit Abuse Resistance Education. This is to teach young adults and team financial literacy. So that is a very important subject for teams, learning about financial literacy as they're going, growing to young adults. We're finding out teams, high school young adults, when they're going to college, they don't know how to manage their finances. So we want to start a series of adulting classes for them. The first one being Critics Smart, we did that in April. And that's financial literacy month. We also participated in the one county one book program that was with LA County Public Library as well as LAPL, which is LA and other surrounding LA city libraries who wanted to participate. The idea was that everybody would read in LA County would read one book and the book selected was LA Weather by Maria Aparo Escondone and people, the libraries who wanted to participate, they would build a program. Each library would have a program around the depth, around, with that book. We did ours, with our moderator, our Judith Polars, our friends at the library moderator, and the culminating event was at LA Grand Park. We did that, and we also collaborated with BHUSD, the Elementary Art Show. And that was, it was really cute to see all the kids bring their parents. We had an opening reception, doses in May. And for two weeks, we had viewing hours after school, as well as on the weekends. And kids were bringing their parents and to show them their art after school and it was really nice. We plan to do that again this year. So I want to talk a little bit about our annual summer reading program. That's our biggest program we have for a year and that's something that's from babies to adults. So we have four that's done, we did this last year, made 2023 to August 2023. We had four terrific Tuesdays, and each of the program, we had in attendance 150 to 250 children's and caregivers. We had two music programs and two magician programs that was done done in the Book Course Civic Center Plaza, and we also had two programs just for teams and twins. That's for grades four to 12. That was curated by our team specialist. Because we know it's important for teams and twins to have their own programs separate from their other siblings. I wanted to give you an update on our goals for 2023 to 2024. Return story time to a little theater. All story time have been returned to a little theater. Implement and promote the discovery layer for the online library catalog, including training classes for staff and the public. Implement a more robust app app for library users, implement video training on how to use various online resources which are available on the library website. The above three implementions were delayed due to the city establishing a new website. Establish a local author fair and special shell for the book from the fair. Further discussion and the feasibility of the ideas are needed. Often adulting series for teens and young adults ages 18 and 25, including programs on financial literacy and managing stress. So the first of the program was provided on financial literacy. Apply for a grant to provide high-carred backpacks to be used in conjunction with the park passes that are available for checkout. So the grant and the backpacks were received and currently being processed for circulation. Join and participate in Wembuch-Wen County, read for summer 2024, so we did participate in that. If the Friends of the Library receive a grant for Rotary, plan to implement and expand our delivery service for 85 and plus, we de-friends the Received that grant and we are currently doing that right now. So I wanna talk about goals for this coming year, 2024 to 2025. Implement and promote the new online library catalog, including training classes for staff and the public. This project will provide users with a more modern functionality. It will be easier to place holds, find information about what is checked out when items are due and renew materials for longer check out time when allowed and much more. Implement and robust app for library users. Implement video training on how to use various online resources which are available on the library website. Plan a program to meet the requirements of State Assembly Bill 321, Ashby, known as the Student Success Card for all initiative. The requirements are to establish a partnership between local school districts and local libraries by January 1, 2026. Libraries are to provide a library card, which is called a Student Success Card, by third grade to all students as approved by parents, beginning January 1, 2029. Implement story times with NAMI, the PhD support K9, and explore other ideas for unique programming for children and adults. Explore providing more programming for school age children. Expand library of things by offering park passes to include hiking backpacks. Working with IT to move the library's integrated library system into the cloud and move maintenance responsibilities to innovative interfaces incorporated, complete a repaint and recarbiting of the second floor, and the library looks forward to welcoming the opening of the Paley Center into the library space. I also wanted to give you some first quarter updates. So I was talking about the goal of having a more integrated, more catalog. As you can see, the new catalog and old catalog, the difference, what we're hoping to unveil in the next few months. The new catalog is much more user friendly, much cleaner look, instead of having a bunch of records, the four David Baldacci, like four book titles, you have one cleaner book cover. And you can see right away at a glance, attached to David Baldacci, double cheese simple genius you can look okay there's a headphone for an audiobook a book for a book an ebook and a downloadable ebook and you can see while you wait there are suggestions for other similar read-a-likes so that's going to be a much more user-friendly much more, easier use for our patrons or users. Also, the second floor refresh. That's actually almost all done. There's only a little bit minor things they have to go back to, for example, baseboards, little minor touch-ups. The second floor reopened up last week on the 24th. The minor retouches will not affect any kind of opening hours. So please come and check it out. It's fresh, go to paint, fresh carpet. It's a lot more bright in space. We also have started Storytimes with Nami, the VH PD Support K9. I'm sure you've all met her. She's just adorable. You know, story times with her, one in July, one winter tails during our regular story times, 1030. And the feedback was so overwhelming that we heard, because we thought, oh, we'll do story time, 1030 during our regular story time, then we heard overwhelming feedback from parents. It's like, no, our school age children want to attend to. You have to have something with her, you know, because our kids are saying, we don't want to go to school, we want to come to NAMI's three time. So we're having one later on this month at four o'clock. So then the siblings who have to go to school to a normal time, they can attend after school too. So we heard them loud and clear. So questions, this concludes my presentation. Excellent, excellent report. It's really heartening to know that the library has come back to even preprand and highs from that. So we'll go to Councillor Member Commiss Starting with with Councillor Weber-Wills. Well, thank you for your presentation. I just find that our library is such a treasured resource in our city and for people outside of the city. And I'm happy to hear the numbers that are increasing that we're back to pre-pandemic levels. I know that I did my passport there, so which is such an incredible resource. There's so many great programs you're doing and so many great resources that you have. I know that even when I was on the school board, someone would come and talk about all the different programs to the PTA so that they could learn about it. And I remember that there was also at one point, there was tutoring that was available that they could do online. Is that still available? Yes, we do still have tutor.com that is online, that is live tutoring 101 during specific hours that's listed on the website. And even when it's not live one to one tutoring with a live tutor there's resources that students can access. So and then it goes all the way up to college age two and even for adults there's a resume review and whatnot. It's such a valuable resource that as much as we can let the community know I was thinking about One thing that perhaps could get incorporated either this year or next year is that Where it's appropriate adding in like testimonials so I always think when someone's actually used the resource Themself and tell somebody about it. That's when people Realize that it's there and that it's actually easy to use or was accessible. So someone used the tutoring or any of these other items that are, there's just so many resources at the library, it's unbelievable. So it could be a variety of categories, be it just a little, if it's on our social media or what have you or people just getting little messages out there about what's available because there's so many great things and it's quite a treasure. So thank you. Councillor McCormick, questions and comments. Thank you. Thanks for the conference report and appreciate all the information. We've got a lot of great programs going on at the library. I have a couple of questions. We talked about the goals for 2024, 2025. And you specifically referenced data assembly bill 321. And the requirement for what they call a student success card. What's the difference between that and a library card? So the idea of the student success card is that, so that's pretty much the same as the idea is they want everybody by a third grade to have a library card. So some libraries would, some library calls it a student success card because maybe they put a restriction on it, some libraries are just, it's a library card. So we would just have to figure out what parameters we have, but if we find out our patrons or the child already has a card, then they already have a card. The idea is they just want every child by the third grade to have a library card. The idea is they want children to have a library card. They want them to have access to a library to be able to check out books to remove barriers. You know, that's a great idea. I think when I was third grade, I think I had a library card here at the Beverly Hills Library anyway. So I was just curious about what the state law was requiring. You mentioned as approved by parents, does that mean the parents can can in in their kids library card restrict access to certain materials is that what that means? It means that the parents will want their child to have a card period because some parents don't want their child to have a card because they don't want they want to be able, they don't want to be financially responsible for a child to child, even though we don't have fines, but if a child loses a book or never returns a book, we do ask the parents to pay for the book, you know. Not going after the kids, huh? No. Not right now. Okay. Is it possible for parents to maybe restrict their kids' access to certain types of materials through the library card or the student success card, I guess, is the law is called or is that not really part of the program? That's not part of the program. They're just asking us to provide a library card to a child. All right, thanks. And then the last question ahead is you mentioned hiking backpacks. And then how are those given out? Are they lent out? So the idea is there are backpacks that actually comes, they were by a grant, a state library grant. So they're pretty unique. So we're processing them right now. We're trying to decide how to process them because they're backpacks. They would come with a compass, with a hiking pole pool with like a ring poncho with a mosquito net with a field guy which sounds great for the first person that checks it out but then you wonder what a little like a first aid kit. So which is great but as it gets used or thinking how we're going to replenish them how we're going to keep track of them but yeah the idea is you would check it out use it in conjunction with the the parks pass, as you're going out to your parks, and using it, identification field guy going in nature, and use it in return it. It's for people who maybe don't have access to nature or who maybe don't want to commit to buying a hiking pole or a compass or whatnot. How many backpacks are going to be in the program? We have 10 so far. That was the grant. That was given to us. All right, thanks. Those are my questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councillor Bermirish, questions and comments. Thank you so much for the presentation. Do we have any idea of what percentage of users are residents versus non-residents? You know, that's something we can get back to you on that. We can look it up. How would we figure that out? We would have to run reports on that. In other words, you mean that's just the people who have a library card, correct? Correct. We couldn't tell people who just come in and you're using the resources. Be able to tell. So I know that not only us us but other libraries also sometimes have issues with people who are homeless and who are there because there's no place to go. Do we have our social services department aware so that we can offer people help that they might need services, wraparound services, in some cases perhaps we partner up and we have beds a place to sleep, connecting them with some of our meal providers. Do we have the social workers at the library to be able to help potential clients? Sure, we do. So we always have a ranger at our library during our open hours. You know, our ranger is actually, our ranger office is actually in our library. So our ranger, they're trained to know our clientele, our users, you know, and we're always very welcoming. When we open, our managers are there during opening, greeting patrons as they come in, along with the rangers as we open. When we close, where there are the managers and there are the rangers, are there saying goodbye to our patrons. There's always a manager during opening, during closing, and the rangers always go around the library making rounds throughout the day and checking in. So if somebody wants services, we'll refer. Well, not what if we see someone's fallen asleep or someone you can tell is maybe not showered for a week or that sort of thing, which I guess could also be off-putting to other clients. What do we do to try and help to give them help that they might need? Absolutely, if I may assist with Alice's response. So not only do we have the Rangers there that work closely with our B-Hot team and our Human Services Division under the Fire Department. So individuals are issued standards of behavior at the library so we do have a set of rules so that individuals are sleep for more than 30 minutes. You can't be asleep at our computer stations. If you are not bathed or have off-putting odors we also have a luggage cart at the entrance of the library so we have a standard that you're not allowed to bring in multiple bags, everything needs to fit in there. So, Rangers are our first form, along with the library staff that will engage. What do you do if someone, for example, does have a smell that penetrates and that might disturb other people? So, we interact with them and engage with them and ask if they are interested in services, and we share share with them how they could reach our B hot team Bring them over and have them engage and let them know that if they'd like to maintain in the library and stay and utilize our resources that they are They're going to need to stay within the standards and so if it is off-putting and it is something that has become an issue We will ask that they you they leave for the day until they come back and have been showered. We give them the resources where they can go to Saban and take a shower using utilizing our beehaw team. What about, you say that someone can't sleep for, I mean, obviously not at the desk, but what if they're just in a chair and they fall asleep to someone wake them up after a half hour? We actually do. We walk in and remind them, please be reminded that you can't sleep here. We understand kids that are studying and so. make them up after a half hour? Yeah, actually do. We walk in and remind them, you know, please be reminded that you can't sleep here. You know, we understand kids that are studying and some people put their head down. And, you know, it's a long day of studying. We have people that are in the library from the time we open to the time we close, but we will walk around and continue to engage with them and let them know. I mean that's for anybody in the library's children and adults alike. We let them know 30 minutes. We've caught you a couple times sleeping today. Maybe it's time you leave for the day so that people can utilize our resources. in the library's children and adults alike. We let them know 30 minutes. We've caught you a couple of times sleeping today. Maybe it's time you leave for the day so that people can utilize our resources. So we actually time them? I mean, we walk around the Rangers. The Rangers do their best. And so does the library staff. And so you can kind of gauge, we have clocks in the library. They take a look. I don't think that we're actually timing individuals, but if we have to do our rounds and notice that somebody's been asleep a few times, we engage with them. Do we have cameras inside the library? Yes, we do. What now, we've talked a lot about the library hours. Do you feel that the library hours are, we should be open longer, shorter, or is it just right about where we are now? That is a very interesting question, and I thank you. We, you will hear. are we should be open longer, shorter, or is it just right about where we are now? That is a very interesting question, and I thank you. You will hear from patrons all the time that we're not open enough. However, Alice can detail a little bit more about our peak hours. I think we do have some peak hours, and then we have, you know, stragglers that come in in the morning and the very end. But I do think we have adequate hours. I'd love to hear from Alice. What are what's the most you hear about? I wish you were open. What in the morning or in the late or on a Sunday or morning? What what what's the feedback that you're getting? So Sundays definitely are busy as day. You know we have most of our big families come in on Sundays. We don't open till noon on Sunday, do we? We do not open till noon. But does get used, I think after people go to farmers market, they come in, after they do their shopping, they come in. It gets peaked nearly around 1.32 o'clock, 2.4 on Sundays for sure. We have family programs on Sundays knowing that that's a family. When we do programs, we do do it on Sunday. If we do weekend programs, it's always on Sundays. And then we do programs. We have story times Monday through Thursdays. Baby story times is really popular. And then we don't do programming on Fridays or Saturdays. Fridays and Saturdays are our lightest days. And I would say things start slowing down around 730 to 930. There's always people that say that wish you're open longer, but then they always say you open longer than our college libraries. Also, libraries around here, they've never LAPL, LAP County. They're not open past 8 o'clock. So we're open till 9.30. We're open till 9.30, yeah. So. Well, thank you so much and thank you for the presentation. And if there's anything else going forward, other programs that you think we should be adding, please let us know. We don't need to just wait for a report once a year. We like the library is a treasure and it's important for us to make sure that we get the most and best usage for our residents and also for visitors. Thank you. Thank you. Vice-Marian Nazarian, questions and comments. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for the report. It was very thorough and I think it's exciting to see that we are moving forward with having more people coming to the library. It's very important. I am a big fan of the library. My three children grew up in the library and it instills a love of books for them. I think it's important. I noticed that your digital checkout has gone up significantly. the wave the future, and many prefer to have books on the digital platform arena. Is it easy for people to, people are able to get the books while they're at home, right? Through the comfort of their own home. Yes, correct. And it's, you know, it's very easy to put yourself on a wait list too, so that's helpful. You don't have to worry about coming into the library or you forgot to pick it up. It's in June email or reminds you, or even if sometimes you have too many books, it puts you read back on the queue. So yes, it's very, very easily and accessible. Great, so I have an overall question about how you share all this great information with the community. There are a lot of people who may not be on our email list. What steps are being taken to disseminate this to the community and to various residents to know all about all the great programs that you have going on? Sure, so resources, actually. Right, so I know it's always hard because not everybody has, is on your. That's right. So how do you contact the users who are not currently using? So we try various, you know, we try, we have social media. We have an Instagram. We have Facebook. We tried the old fashioned way of having flyers when there's community events. We put out flyers at Farmer's Market when there's community showcase that's coming up this weekend. We're going to have flyers there. We go out to Doggy Days. We are out at community events, which are outreach. So we'll try a variety of events to reach out, try to get on other newsletters, you know, the CS events newsletters. So just a variety of ways. Fantastic. I think that's really important because we really do have a lot of opportunities available for the community. Now I too have renewed my passport at the library. I think that's another resource that people don't know about and it's super convenient. I mean, it was really fantastic. We just walked right in and they were ready for us with our appointment. So maybe that's something that you can also let people know more about, especially because it is generating income. And that's a win-win for both the library and for the community members who can participate with that. There's a program you mentioned about rotary with the library home delivery service to all seniors or residents 85 and up. 85 and we want to contact adults. I've been told. Often times not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. order books or what have you. Okay, so we've gone to a sunrise community center. So we've done outreach there before, and we try to use word of mouth. But you are correct, because we've tried. It is a hard group to reach because there are 85 year olds we've seen them at the library. And a lot of times you try to tell them in the program the active ones, they're actually a little bit offended. They're like, hey, this is, I'm out and about, you know, I'm active. I, this is how I remain active by coming out. This is my, you know, I don't want delivery, you know, so it's kind of a balance, right? So, going to Sunrise was great. We had a library and go there. they have a monthly outreach event. So we were out there, They had like almost kind of like not an open house, but an event of local resources. So we were able to go there and he was able to meet with the residents there and offer our resources and talk about how we have. Because one of our programs, the Jim J program, he used to be only live in person, but since the 10th pandemic, he does Zoom once too. So we talked about how we can Zoom our programs for their residents. That's amazing. Thank you. And I think the grants are a great way to increase funds to support these wonderful initiatives that you have. So I'm happy to see that you are applying for that. And I think that the video training is really the wave of the future. It makes the process easier. A lot of people now are used to quick tick talks and Instagram and what have you. So I think that's a great idea. And I'm really happy to hear that the library is moving forward with the times and addressing that. I think it's important to partner with the schools and in still reading not only to our school-age kids, but even prior to that. I, like I said, my children went there and now I was just there recently with my little baby two and a half-year-old nephew and he just going there. And he just thinks it's so fabulous. So thank you for keeping that magical feel for all of the kids. And I think that there's so many great resources. The new catalog looks fantastic online. You could see the books and it looks clear. It looks beautiful. It's more visually appealing, which will probably drive people more to the site and just being able to have the use of technology to increase partnership with our community, I really appreciate that. So thank you for the report and keep up the great job. Yes, thank you very much for the report. Interesting things that you said that really caught my attention was the bread and butter of the library's children with their parents. And I think that's so important and I think we do a really, really good job encouraging that. And then when I see the borrowing habits, 62% of the materials that are in fact children's materials that that's really heartwarming. I understand there's a library annex somewhere else in the city of Bearview Hills. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I'm sorry, library, what? Annex. Annex. Oh yes, the Roxbury. I rock story in the community center. It's a little annex that we have. That's the idea is those are the popular items. So the idea is that people are going to the rocksery community center. We have the most popular books and popular DVDs. So if they're quick, you know, people are there whether they're taking community class or maybe taking their children children there, and then they want to pop in and get the most popular items, they're there to just a popular drop-in, to get books, children's books, popular items. Yeah, so. Yeah, very nice, it's something that, that sometimes I think we as a community forget about, And it's so easy for parents to go there, parents, with their children. very nice is something that sometimes I think we as a community forget about and it's so easy for Parents to go their parents with their children or without so really good Passport services I hear that it's revenue positive But is it is revenue over expand and maybe is a question for for our city manager who by the way grew up in the library? Is it revenue over expense positive? Yes, it is. It is. Well, let me put it this way. Generally, and I think this is still true. So correct me if it's's not. Generally we're able to process more than one passport in an hour I think up to three maybe in an hour and the revenue that we receive from that activity more than pays for the staff time and the materials that are required to provide that service. So it generates revenue above the cost to the city. And my only comment with that in that would be that there is generally a very long wait online to be able to get a passport and if it is something that we can expand and it is a revenue positive, that's something I think we should consider. And then the other thing is very excited about the Paley coming to our library at the end of the month. So something to look forward to and I think it'll be a reinvigoration of activity over there. So looking forward to that. But again, thank you very much for the very thorough report and with that I think that we will adjourn to those issues on our close session. We will start with the roll for the close session. There are two roll calls. First one is for regular roll call. Council Member Wells here. Council Member Corman. Here. Council Member Mirish. Vice Mayor Nazarian. Mayor Friedman. And the next is for the parking authority closed session. Director Wells. Director Corman. Director Mirish. Vice Chair Nazarian. And Chair Friedman. And there are no public comments for closed session. Okay. and I see no one in chambers so that we will now actually do the adjournment to those matters on the closed session agenda. Thank you. I think you have.