Home Oakley Library Town Hall Attendees Pronounce “Oakley Needs a Larger Library”

Library Town Hall Attendees Pronounce “Oakley Needs a Larger Library”

by ECT

Contra Costa County Library

The Friends of the Oakley Library published a document recently highlighting the Town Hall Meeting from August 22 where they claim the “main” take away was that Oakley needs a larger library. The Town Hall was part of a series of Town Hall Meetings from the County.

Judging by their “notes”, it appears the meeting focused on thee questions.

  1. What community priority should the library play a more active role in
  2. What one thing could the library do better?
  3. What is the single most important contribution the library makes to our community today?

In bullet point format, here is a look at their answers which were pulled from their document posted on the website. Omitted from the notes were how they plan to pay for a larger library, expanded hours, or proposed locations.

What community priority should the library play a more active role in

Top Responses:

  • Stand alone library with better location/building
  • Bringing a stronger sense of inclusion as a community – who lives here, what are their desires

All Responses:

  • Networking with local groups to encourage community involvement and donations toward library programs, books
  • Sharing community information
  • Bigger library!!!
  • Better location
  • Have more events to involve people of various activities to participate
  • Larger facility with smaller separate room for study/reading
  • Placement of library – accessible to both students and visitors, especially for seniors who have no place to go for books. Current library is either too far or no transportation.
  • Literacy for second language learners. Many of our children only hear English at school so they have limited words at their disposal.
  • Oakley should have more space so that there will be more space for the library
  • Getting our own library for Oakley
  • Welcoming new residents into the library
  • More youth programs for ages 1-20
  • Bookmobile
  • Help distribute information community-wide, working with various organizations
  • Building stronger sense of inclusion as a community
  • Help inform residents who live here – find out what their circumstances are, what their desires are for the city they live in
  • Connect with schools – classroom visits, programming for children, PTSA presentations

What one thing could a library do better?

Top Responses:

  •  Better location
  • Library location in the heart of the community with better daytime hours

All Responses:

  • Grow and expand
  • When you consider the limitations of the Oakley Library they do a remarkable job. I can only imagine what they could do in a decent facility.
  • Expand facility
  • More hours during the day
  • Find a new library location in the heart of the community
  • Encourage letters to the editor stating that our library is here to serve you
  • Open more hours during the daytime – that is, daily
  • Grow!
  • Harder and harder to meet the needs of the community in such a tight, multifunctional area. Library staff work hard and deserve elbow room.
  • Lack of parking due to designated library parking being used by high school students
  • Access: be available more days and hours
  • Publish Freedom High School’s schedule to help patrons avoid gridlock in parking lot that blocks entrance
  • Location, location, location  More shelf space
  • Better, separate location
  • Attract more funding for expanding the collection, hours, staff

 What is the single most important contribution the library makes to our community today?

Top Responses:

  • Better location
  • Library location in the heart of the community with better daytime hours

All Responses:

  • Grow and expand
  • When you consider the limitations of the Oakley Library they do a remarkable job. I can only imagine what they could do in a decent facility.
  • Expand facility
  • More hours during the day
  • Find a new library location in the heart of the community
  • Encourage letters to the editor stating that our library is here to serve you
  • Open more hours during the daytime – that is, daily
  • Grow!
  • Harder and harder to meet the needs of the community in such a tight, multifunctional area. Library staff work hard and deserve elbow room.
  • Lack of parking due to designated library parking being used by high school students
  • Access: be available more days and hours
  • Publish Freedom High School’s schedule to help patrons avoid gridlock in parking lot that blocks entrance
  • Location, location, location
  • More shelf space
  • Better, separate location
  • Attract more funding for expanding the collection, hours, staff

For more information on the Friends of the Oakley Library, visit their website.  The next Friends Meeting is on Tuesday, September 3rd at 6:30pm at the Oakley Library.  We will continue to work on our plans to relocate the Oakley Community Library to a downtown location.

For other upcoming Contra Costa Library Town Hall Meetings, visit the Contra Costa County Library Website.

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1 comment

Julio-Antioch Sep 2, 2013 - 1:18 pm

Is there any way to know how many people attended this meeting? This would be a very interesting figure. Most of these meeting have 10 people there.

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