AGENDA TITLE:
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Receive the Library Assessment Report and Provide Guidance on Future Library Resources for Operations (CM)
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MEETING DATE:
January 28, 2025
PREPARED BY:
Laurie Montes, Assistant City Manager - Part-Time
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RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive the Library Assessment Report and provide guidance on future Library resources for operations.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Lodi Public Library plays a vital role in serving the community by providing educational resources, programming, and cultural enrichment. Over recent years, the City faced financial challenges and limited resources. These challenges prompted assessments of the City budget, operations, and internal controls across all departments, including the Library.
The City commissioned an assessment of Library operations to evaluate its performance and explore potential efficiencies to ensure its sustainability. The consultants interviewed several stakeholders and provided an assessment of current operations, as well as many recommendations.
During the last several fiscally constrained years, Library operations changed significantly. There has been a reduction in the number of professional library staff required to have a master's degree in library science that resulted in an inability to properly manage the Library's collections, challenges delivering appropriate programming and the lack of a career ladder, leading to increased turnover. There was heavy reliance on part-time staff resulting in service delivery and retention challenges. Despite competitive compensation, the Library faced challenges in keeping the role of director filled resulting in lower productivity, morale and quality of work and increased hiring and training costs.
The assessment identifies several operating and fiscal issues such as lack of programming, governance challenges, outdated technology and many others. The assessment provides three alternatives for consideration, each with...
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