SBPL 2023 Year in Review
We hope you had a fantastic 2023! It's been a big year for SBPL and we want to share some highlights as well as a sneak peek of some exciting plans for 2024!
SBPL is Now Open 7 Days a Week and 55 Hours a Week
The biggest news of the year is that we were able to increase open hours! In October, SBPL’s Central Library restored pre-pandemic open hours and is now open 7 days a week and until 7PM on Monday through Thursday evenings. The City Council supported this initiative with additional funding for staff positions to enable increased library access for families, working professionals, and others. Due to the extended hours, visits to Central Library increased by about 10%, even though the number of hours open per week only increased by 6.5%. We only expect visits to the Library to continue to grow in 2024!
Books are the Heart of What We Do
SBPL patrons borrowed almost a quarter of a million items this year, from books to hotspots to guitars to accessing information via digital platforms like Consumer Reports. SBPL provides not only robust collections of physical books, but 9 locally-funded online resources and has even collaborated with the University of California, Riverside to digitize historical newspapers.
Thanks to America Rescue Plan Act funding for post-pandemic recovery, we’ve been able to maintain our budget for digital audiobooks and ebooks. While hoopla and Overdrive/Libby were popular prior to the pandemic, usage soared in recent years. Learn more about how the Library builds the digital collection (spoiler alert: it’s complicated!).
SBPL’s collections grew by 17,746 print books in the last year! This includes titles for youth, teens, and adults and features many titles suggested by patrons. Librarians are able to buy the vast majority of titles that are requested by cardholders (and if not, we have Zip Books!). SBPL builds a community of readers not only through access to our collections but also through events that allow readers to connect with authors.
This year we hosted Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid, as part of our Book to Action series, hosted a talk with Elaine Castillo, author of How to Read Now, and a multimedia presentation with Will Sofrin, the author of All Hands on Deck.
We hosted storytimes featuring picture book authors for Summer Reading events at Lunch at the Library, including Molly Arbuthnott’s Oscar the Ferry Cat and Patricia Tanumihardja’s Ramen for Everyone.
And just this December, we featured over 60 authors in our Local Author Book Fair.
SBPL Supports Kids, Teens, and Families
Every day, you'll find the Library full of kids, teens, and families enjoying one another's company and learning and growing together. But you'll also find SBPL staff throughout the community — at schools with the Library on the Go van every week, offering enriching programs at after-school programs, or giving presentations at Family Literacy Nights. You'll find programs in parks for all ages, and pop-up events on State Street, or see the Library on the Go van at the Farmer's Market. We partner with organizations like the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, MOXI, and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to make their exhibits accessible, and to enhance their programming.
423 Early Literacy Classes Supported SBPL’s Youngest Learners
SBPL offers many formats of early literacy classes to meet the needs of children and families, from Wiggly Storytime for toddlers, Baby & Me for our youngest patrons, Bilingual Stories and Songs for those learning in English and Spanish, and Stay and Play, an innovative class with storytime, facilitated play, and caregiver support — a total of 423 classes per year.
Each offers opportunities for kids to learn and grow into curious readers, but we want to especially highlight the magic of Music and Movement, which combines singing, dancing, and learning. This class is offered weekly at Central Library and Shoreline Park with the Library on the Go van, and a session sees as many as 75 participants weekly.
1500 readers participated in the 2023 Summer Reading Challenge, setting their own reading goal and joining in challenges. Many kids returned multiple times to collect beads and discuss the books they were reading with Library staff.
Between 200 and 500 kids participated in SBPL’s maker challenge each month. These activities can be done anytime the Library is open and introduce science, math, engineering, and arts concepts while inspiring creativity and learning in school-age children.
SBPL’s grant-funded teen intern program provides a first-paid job for many young adults, which includes on-the-job training, and a strengths-based curriculum to help them prepare for future career opportunities and explore different aspects of public service. They support youth programming and so much more!
SBPL Hosted 461 Enriching and Educational Programs and Events for Adults
Libraries are about learning, and one of the ways we support lifelong learning and community connection is by offering programs and classes to members of the community — which are always free, either through public, private, or grant-funding. Programs explore nature and the outdoors, feature poetry readings, hands-on workshops, documentary film screenings, lectures, performances, and so much more!
Santa Barbara Reads 2023 featured Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea, and received rave reviews from the community for the 34 programs offered, which 460 people attended.
One patron shared: “As always the library and staff provide interesting and inspiring content! Thank you!”
Do you have an idea for a future fiction title to be featured in our SB Reads programming? Reply to this email to share your suggestion with SBPL’s team of librarians!
In addition to Adult Programming, our Adult Education team offers practical one-to-one assistance and small group classes on technology, job skills, and more. This team also partners with community organizations and agencies to make services more accessible to community members, such as the upcoming VITA Tax Assistance program with United Way.
Not only does SBPL Works! staff help about 60 people each month search and apply for jobs, craft resumes and cover letters, and practice interview skills, they take these sessions out to the Neighborhood Navigation Centers regularly and offer assistance to individuals experiencing homelessness.
Staff support those who need to obtain vital documents, apply for benefits, acquire computer and internet access, enroll in Career Online High School, or get a ServSafe food handlers license. In just one year, SBPL assisted 441 people at the Neighborhood Navigation Centers.
219 Tutors Trained This Year!
SBPL trained 219 volunteer tutors to work in our Adult Literacy program. These tutors support adult learners who are studying for a GED or citizenship exam, are working to improve their ability to read, write, and speak English, and support educational goals to improve their job prospects or better support their children in school.
The OG Readers program works with struggling readers in 1st - 4th grades to improve their reading skills using the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. In addition to training volunteers for our own programs, many OG Readers tutor training participants go on to work with children in their own lives, in after-school programs, and in volunteer capacities in classrooms. There's still time to sign up for the January training if you want to be one of our new tutors!
$491,926 in Grant Funding
In just one year, the Library received almost half a million dollars in grant funding from federal, state, local, and private organizations. These funds help supplement the Library’s offerings and enhance services. They support collections – such as a grant from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to diversify our collections and add genre fiction to our Book Club in a Bag collection and programming.
They also include funding for staff salaries and supplies for our adult literacy and ESL classes, SBPL Works! our job readiness program, and Community Connections initiative, and pay for the snacks and sets of toys for our popular Stay and Play program.
Looking forward to 2024
Construction on the Michael Towbes Library Plaza, the new ADA elevator, and the lower level staff area continued this year and made significant progress. We look forward to the reopening of the Plaza for expanded library programming and community use in 2024!
Coming in 2024 is a new programming series funded by an LSTA grant from the California State Library! Libraries are rooted in sustainable practices — leveraging collective resources and sharing have always been sustainable! We're expanding programming around building sustainable practices into your everyday life through gardening, mending and repair workshops, food preservation, and expanding our Library of Things! Look for more details soon.