MISSION

The Library System's Mission is to provide materials and services that help community residents meet their personal, educational, cultural, and professional information needs.

SERVICE AREA

The City-County Library System is organized to serve all the people of Santa Cruz County except residents of the City of Watsonville, which maintains an independent library. However, residents of the two jurisdictions can and do use either library system. About 206,000 people live in the Santa Cruz Library System's service area.

GOVERNANCE

The Library System operates under a Joint Powers Agreement between the County of Santa Cruz, and the Cities of Capitola, Santa Cruz, and Scotts Valley. A Library Joint Powers Authority Board, comprised of elected officials from each jurisdiction, plus three citizens, administers the System. The City of Santa Cruz provides administrative, financial, and personnel services to the System. Thus the Director of Libraries is responsible to the Santa Cruz City Manager, and all staff, no matter where in the County they work, are employees of the City.

FUNDING

The Library System's funds come from five sources: "maintenance of effort" funds from the County (property tax) and the Cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville, a quarter cent sales tax approved by the voters in 1996, library fee and fine revenue, a State of California Public Library Fund grant, and income from Library bequests and trusts.

The "maintenance of effort" and sales tax revenues are allocated to the Library System and the Watsonville Public Library each year by a Library Financing Authority. The funds are divided using a population-based formula. The Library Joint Powers Authority Board adopts the annual operating budget of the Library System in late June each year.

BRANCHES

The System has ten Branches: Aptos, Boulder Creek, Branciforte (east Santa Cruz), Capitola, Central (Downtown Santa Cruz), Felton, Garfield Park (west Santa Cruz), La Selva Beach, Live Oak, and Scotts Valley. System Services (administration, cataloging, etc.) are located in Headquarters offices in Downtown Santa Cruz. The Library also operates an Outreach Program that includes bookmobile and other services for both children and seniors.

COLLECTIONS

The Library System owns 568,688 items, of which 252,725 are unique titles. These are located at all Branches - how many depends upon the size of the facility. The Library's automation system and daily Branch deliveries make all circulating materials accessible to all borrowers, no matter which Branch the borrower uses or where s/he lives.

The collections include books, government documents, videos, DVD's, audio books, large print materials, compact discs, reference materials, musical scores, sheet music, and more. Special collections of Local History and Californiana are located at the Central Branch, as well as the collection of the Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County. The Library offers public access to the Internet and web-based access to its computer databases. The Library's Internet web site, www.santacruzpl.org, is an excellent resource for access to various electronic information resources, as well as for information about the Library and a local history photograph file.

REFERENCE & CHECKOUTS

During the 2006-07 fiscal year the Library staff handled more than 323,000 reference and information queries from the public, at the rate of over 6,200 queries per week. Roughly 2.05 million items were checked out by Library users last year.

OPEN HOURS

Most Library Branches are open at least five days and several evenings each week. Some are open six days, and the Central Branch is open on Sunday afternoon as well.

STAFFING

The Library System has the equivalent of 119.63 full time regular employees, plus on-call substitutes and student pages. 31.75 of the full time equivalent employees are professional librarians with Master of Science degrees.

VOLUNTEERS & FRIENDS

Each year volunteers donate more than 15,000 hours of service System-wide. This is the equivalent of more than six full time employees. Volunteers do everything from leading story time to visiting homebound patrons. Volunteers are recruited and coordinated by the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Inc. The Friends is a membership organization that supports public library service by advocacy and by raising funds for library programs.

FUTURE PLANS

Capital projects that the Board hopes to complete in the next five years include expanding the Aptos Branch Parking Lot, building a replacement branch in Felton, and assisting the Cities of Capitola and Scotts Valley in the construction of new facilities in those communities. Other plans include finding a solution to the problem of where to locate Library System services.

rev. 9/18/07

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