SANTA ANA PUBLIC LIBRARY (2) - 2012

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II. About Our Organization: Qualifications and Experience: Santa Ana Public Library: The Santa Ana Public library (SAPL) is a division of the City of Santa Ana's Parks and Recreation Department. The administration and management personnel of the department, including the Director's office, accounting, and payroll functions, are housed in the Main Library building and available for participation in the project. PRCSA's staff is experienced in the management of grants and has learned to incorporate the payment of grant -funded interns through participation in the library's federal IMLS grant. The library itself employs 13 full-time librarians, 10 full-time paraprofessionals and 10 full-time clerical personnel. We currently employ 70 part time clerks and tutors in children's, teen and adult programs. Some of our part-timers are paid through the General Fund and others through various grants. The Library's allocation of City General Fund monies for 2011-12 was $2,985,490. Other sources of revenue include a CDBG block grant of $237,000, which supports the Homework Help Centers. We anticipate an equivalent CDBG grant for 2012-13 for this purpose. In 2010, we were the recipient of a three-year Laura Bush 21" Century Librarian grant of $636,000, and were recently awarded a $49,000 LSTA grant from the State Library's LSTA program, as well as $19,000 in smaller grants from various State Library sources. These monies will supplement the $598,000 added to the 12-13 budget by past grants. Santa Ana was the only public library in the United States to receive a Laura Bush grant in this grant cycle. The grant is to enable SAPL to prepare bilingual youth for careers in librarianship and to help other libraries to learn to do the same. At present over twenty teens and young adults are employed by the library through the Laura Bush grant, and many other young library employees are involved in its skills enhancing activities. The program combines the veteran apprenticeship concept with cutting -edge technology. Laura Bush employees are required to attend a Graphics Design course created and staffed by library staff, and to blog weekly in the project's website about their experiences and what they have learned (www.seed stotreesacademy. com). As part of their job experience, they rotate through all of the divisions of the library, assisting librarians with graphic and web design projects, teaching computer skills, and creating and filming content for the City's CTV-3 channel. This focus on technology is responsive to the IMLS mandate amongst agencies serving teens to emphasize the development of STEM (Science, Technology, English and Math) skills. Our experience with Laura Bush and other grants providing mentorship and technology training have enabled the library to smoothly transition into the WIA grant functions provided in 2011-2012 Seeds to Trees Project. Moreover, the Laura Bush grant provides funding to employ youth in the library while they learn and practice skills needed by 21s' Century libraries. Among these are all of the skills taught youth through the WIA Digital Media Technology Academy, so that the library has been able to leverage Laura Bush funds to employ WIA youth. In recent years, the library has a record of unusual success in attracting teens to its TeenSpace and supporting them through its many programs. The TeenSpace is advised by the Teen library Club. As a group, they have contributed many thousands of hours of community service to the library, 98 per cent have graduated from high school and 90 per cent have gone on to higher education. These are teens that do not represent the top 10-20 percent of their high school class. They are not involved in student government or school activities. They are the quiet at -risk youth whom no one notices. But at our TeenSpace, they are noticed, nurtured and appreciated. The library has maintained a high number of ongoing programs for teens, including a very intensive Summer Volunteer Institute (SVI) that encourages teens to find self worth and civic engagement though giving back to their community. Last summer nearly 200 teens donated some 6,000 hours of their time to supporting programs for library patrons of all ages, mentoring over 200 children in our "Buddy" programs, helping limited English speaking adults to master computer technology and improve job skills, volunteering at community events, and becoming involved in the social and educational life of their community. All together, the library conducted nearly 90 programs for teens during the summer at three sites (refer to attachment #24 for SVI info). At present, teens continue to volunteer through the school year in math, reading, fitness and art "Buddy" programs aimed at young children. There are daily activities for teens at both library branches and the Jerome Exhibit A