It’s been fifteen months since Santa Monica’s five library branches were open, but thanks to the rallying of community members, funding is on its way to support more reopening.
During the 2020 budget restructuring the Santa Monica Public Library’s budget was slashed and the team went from 112 full-time equivalent staff members to 47. So even while Covid conditions allow for the full resumption of services, there is currently only enough staff to open the 1st floor of the Main Branch Library.
Fortunately, the library’s funding received a boost in City Council’s recently approved budget, allowing for the addition of a Youth Services Specialist, two Librarian 1 positions, and several as-needed positions.
The Ocean Park branch is slated to reopen under a self-service model in July and plans are underway to open the Pico and Montana branches in the fall.
“We’re delighted that the council approved the budget as it will enable us to provide much more service,” said Director of Library Services Patty Wong. “We believe the libraries are a public good and a key pivotal resource for the education of our entire community.”
A coalition of community members played an important role in boosting the amount of money the libraries received. After realizing that the two-year budget plan did not allocate enough funding to bring back all five branches, they sounded the alarm.
“This was a biennial budget, so it wasn’t even just reduced services for next fall. We said ‘what about still having libraries closed two falls from now when kids are vaccinated?’ and parents had a very strong reaction to that,” said Kabir Chopra, an organizer of the “Save Santa Monica Public Libraries” campaign.
Through editorials, letter writing, and public comment, the campaign helped convince Council to add two Librarian 1 positions beyond what they had initially budgeted for.
“The community really came together and mounted a campaign to bring attention to the importance of our libraries,” said Wong. “It was a really strong groundswell throughout all corners of the city.”
Wong is especially excited about the addition of a Youth and Family Services Specialist that will work on engaging young readers and provide programming for students of all ages.
The library will run a hybrid of in-person and online programming in the fall and will re-establish its reading mentors program. After school homework assistance will return to an in-person model and the library will be increasing its collection and buying many more books for young readers.
There is currently no timeline or funding available for reopening the Fairview Branch and the other branches will be running reduced hours compared to their pre-pandemic operations.
The Save the Santa Monica Public Library advocates say they plan on continuing to advocate for increased funding to libraries to enable a full return of services. They see an opportunity to do so at possible future budget revisions in October, January, and June.
“Anything above zero was a victory for us and we are grateful for that, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop,” said Chopra. “We want to keep going until our library services are back to normal and that might take time, but we’re here for the long game. We think that the benefits of having robust community libraries are still the same as they were before COVID.”
Clara@smdp.com
