Laying out future of Costa Mesa libraries

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- As part of the city’s planning for the future, community

leaders Tuesday met to lay out what they like and dislike about the

city’s two library branches, which are run by the county.

The meeting was the second in a series set up to recommend guidelines

for future library services.

“I’m really excited about this group,” said Mayor Libby Cowan, who is

heading the group but plans to phase out her leadership. “They’re really

beginning to come together. This is part of a larger visioning process

for the city, and I hope it can be a model for what can happen if we do

the larger vision.”

The group members plan to present their recommendations to the City

Council at a May or June study session -- before budget decisions are

made for the next fiscal year.

They are working to define their personal library dreams and plan to

consolidate those dreams later.

At Tuesday’s meeting, group members talked about what they liked and

didn’t like about the library.

The library staff -- who the group described as “very friendly, open

and knowledgeable about the community” -- and the children’s programs and

services were among the group’s favorite library characteristics.

“Some of negatives were that the libraries are not set up to be

research-based for adults and that there are some accessibility issues in

terms of the actual physical building,” Cowan said.

Cowan said she hopes more people will come to future meetings. About

10 people came to the last meeting. Seven people came to the first

meeting in November.

“I think there is an element in the community that is dissatisfied

with our current library setup, including the physical buildings, the

collections, the programs and the services,” she said. “In order to know

what we, as a council, need to move toward, we need to have a sense of

where the community wants us to go. It is one thing to be dissatisfied

and to complain and another thing entirely to have a vision of where we

want to go and how to get there.”

Tom Egan, a member of the Costa Mesa Library Foundation, said the

“visioning” process is the only way to make real improvements to the

libraries.

“I want our library services to be greatly improved,” he said. “To me,

it’s pretty clear that whatever way we go depends on what the community

wants to get behind. And it’s going to take meetings like this, where

everybody gets involved or at least there’s a broad representation, to

get some kind of consensus. Even in this Internet age, libraries are

important.”

The next meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 27 at the

Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave., Costa Mesa.

For more information, call (714) 754-5028.