The Friends of the Santa Ana Library are actively opposing the possible outsourcing of the City of Santa Ana’s public library system – which would entail joining the Orange County Public Library system, according to the O.C. Register. Their President, Sue Stewart, told the Register, ““Any time you become larger, you lose flexibility and services in order to serve a larger population and culture.”
Stewart also said, “This library says we are open to help you serve your needs. It is a place to get assistance without being judged.” Really? Well, the fact is, Lupe Moreno, the notorious Minuteman (hater of Mexican immigrants) is the manager of the Santa Ana Friends of the Library bookstore, according to their website. How are you supposed to take these people seriously when their board includes Moreno, who advocated deporting many of our residents? Talk about being judged! Here is a video of Moreno calling the children of many our residents “anchor babies:”
How the Friends of the Santa Ana Library continue to affiliate with Moreno is simply beyond comprehension.
I served on the Santa Ana Public Library Commission for two terms. I know our system inside and out and I know for a fact that moving to the County system would NOT be a negative at all – it would lead to much better service for our residents. I cannot imagine what Stewart is thinking.
For starters, let’s look at the hours that the local O.C. branch, in Tustin, is open:
Service Hours:
- Monday – 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
- Tuesday – 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
- Wednesday – 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
- Thursday – 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
- Friday – 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Saturday – 10:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
- Sunday – Noon to 5:00
Now let’s look at the hours that the Santa Ana Main Library is open:
- Monday – Thursday 10:00am – 9:00pm
- Friday & Saturday 10:00am – 6:00pm
- Sunday Closed
You see the difference? The Tustin library is open on Sunday. The Santa Ana library is NOT. I came up with a way to open up on Sundays in Santa Ana years ago, but the City of Santa Ana never put my plan in play. What it entailed was opening the library at 1 pm daily and using the money saved on those needless morning hours to justify opening on Sunday. But if we move to the County system, they will open the library on Sunday as a matter of rote. Nice!
Now let’s have a look at the Santa Ana Library’s digital offerings. They make available a number of reference collections, online. You can click here to review them. But the County of Orange offers a collection of ebooks that you can download directly to your computer, pad or Kindle. You can click here to check that out. And click here to see their Kindle offerings. There is no comparison – the County, again, is offering far more than our Santa Ana library.
And did you know that businessmen who operate businesses in the City of Santa Ana cannot use our public library system for free? That’s right. Their taxes pay to run the City, and the Library, but they cannot use the library’s services. Under the County of Orange system, they could use ANY County library for free, if they are residents of any address within the County of Orange.
Finally, have you visited the Tustin branch of the Orange County public library system? You can get a membership for free! Their library is located just a few miles east of the City of Santa Ana. And it is an amazing, beautiful brand new branch.
If we go to the County system, our residents on the west side will be able to easily access three libraries in Garden Grove. That’s right. Garden Grove, which is a much smaller city than Santa Ana, has three libraries, while Santa Ana has only two – the main location and a tiny branch on Newhope.
The bottom line? Not switching to the County system would be crazy! As for the Friends of the Santa Ana Library, until they get rid of the Mexican-bashing Moreno, I don’t know how any of us can take these people seriously.
Libraries are dinosaur houses. Or places to babysit latchkey children. Anybody think it’s all not on the Internet?
If the city want to invest in something useful (fat chance given there’s no money), how about free city-wide wifi?
lot of people meet at the library in Santa Ana, they use computors to internet, kids use them to do school work. There is a large assortment of magizes and newspapers, music, videos, council meeting videos, and a lot of books.
Out soursing needs to be looked at for REAL savings and not the fake crap.
All of the expeses expected to be saved in most outsoursing is transfered to other parts of the city budget, so there is not any savings, just a shell game being used to kick the can down the road.
One thing the city and other governments should recognize is with pension funding at only 70 percent means they should only be paying 70 percent. The other 30 percent wasn’t funded, wasn;t vested, was never there.
Sure Public Libraries are good for poor, that is why we are building them in downtown where the parking fee is $5.00+ per hour.
The library does offer free parking to members. But libraries are good for all of us, not just the poor.
Where is Council Member Bustamonte on this issue?
Not only does he live in the affected area, he has a fudicuary responsibility to the ward.
Does he still live there?
The trail would bring a “host” of problems to the neighborhood. Many of the problems already exist.
In the end, all the trail would do is invite a bunch of traffic on the trail, with little or no benefit to the area, any destruction of JFP would be a shame.
But that’s progress. Soon, North Santa Ana will be like the Irvine neighborhoods it contrasted.
Bustamante is MIA, as he always is. He is the most useless councilman. I hope Alderete takes him out next year.
Interesting take. I just don’t see it. I took a walk today over at the Santiago Park Nature Reserve. The trails on both the north and south end are used quite a bit – by law-abiding folks. Yes, you can see where the city has covered up occasional graffiti, but it is covered up quickly, unlike in Fisher Park. The trails are barred to the public at dusk. Police and park rangers do patrol at dusk and at night – sometimes on horseback.
Why should the Fisher Park residents be able to shut off this trail, unlike those in Santiago Park – and in Orange? And why do that when the current status has been a complete disaster? If these folks want to avert crime they ought to finish the path. Leaving the area as it is is no solution. And even if you fence off the trail, the bad guys will just go up the creek.
Libraries aren’t just for the poor, they’re also for the cheap (like me).
The quality of Orange County Public Library system is only surpassed by Cal State Fullerton and UCI libraries (which you must be a student/staff or pay money to get a library card).
Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Orange all think having city libraries is the best way to serve citizens and I don’t think so. If they were to join the OCPL, the overall system would be even stronger.
Don’t close the branches, don’t fire anybody, just switch to county.
For me the deciding factor is access the most books possible in the system, not necessarily amenities at any particular branch. I just want to read books and the OCPL has way more stuff than any of the other city libraries from my experience.
I find the book online, I put a hold on it (pay 25cents), it’s sent to my library of choice, I pick it up at the library, read it and return it. That’s it. And given what I do the OCPL is the way to go.
If joining and combining is the way to go for better service and cost effectiveness, Then combining the cities back into the county and closing down the massively costly and over managed cities would seen to be the order of the day.
The question is one of local control at a cost compared to rolling it all up and getting all you need from China.