The library visited for this project was the Los
Altos branch of the Long Beach Public Library, which serves the eastern section
of the city of Long Beach. This branch’s collection consists of approximately
51,000 volumes, according the Long Beach Public Library’s website (http://www.lbpl.org/location/los_altos/default.asp).
The Los Altos library serves the general public.
The patrons who were at the library during my visit included several grade
school children, probably between the ages of eight to twelve, several senior
citizens, and two or three middle-aged men.
The needs of these patrons were different. For
example, the senior citizens were browsing through the periodicals, and one was
reading the newspaper. One of the school children was looking through a classic
literature bookstand, probably for something related to a school assignment.
The middle-aged men were using the public access computers.
The reference desk area was a very large,
half-circular desktop, roughly between six and eight feet in length, with two
or three computer screens atop the desk, facing towards the reference librarian
behind the desk. There were no seats across from the desktop for users to sit
in, so I actually kneeled to be approximately at eye-level with the reference
librarian, who turned the computer screen towards me to show me what she was
doing as she answered my questions, which was helpful. The reference desk was
somewhat cluttered with a variety of materials and objects, including stacks of
books, slips of scratch paper for taking notes, along with pencils, and small
stacks of flyers and announcements for library-related events and services, as
well as non-library-related services.
The library offers several workshops or
instructional programs. One of the programs is the Family Learning Center
(FLC), which offers K through 12th grade math, science, and English
instruction, basic computer classes for adults on Saturdays, “One hour,
one-on-one computer classes...on beginning Internet, e-mail,
basic spreadsheet, word processing, and basic catalog instruction,” which
requires signing up in advance, a once a week book group meeting for patrons to
discuss and suggest fiction and nonfiction books, and movie screenings on
Fridays. The library also has a pre-school story time for younger children.
The library’s reference collection is fairly
small but includes a wide range of resources covering many subjects. Some of
the titles I noticed were: Black’s Law
Dictionary, Historical Statistics of
the U.S., World Almanac, California Cities, Towns, and Counties,
a multi-volume Gale Encyclopedia of
Science, Gray’s Anatomy, as well
as a fiction encyclopedia, Spanish and German language dictionaries, an
astronomy encyclopedia, several atlases, and a volume of civic codes. These
sources will be useful to many general readers and are well suited for a public
library.
The library’s online catalog system is powered
by Encore, which is a common platform for online library catalogs, and is
relatively easy to search. In the Los Altos library, there are two computer
terminals that are set up for searching the catalog. They are located directly
across from each other, next to the public access computers and near the adult
nonfiction section and reference desk. The reference desk is located in the
very center of the library. On the other side of the library are the
juvenile/children sections, and in between adult nonfiction section and the
juvenile/children sections is a large seating or study area with tables,
chairs, as well as a sofa.
Some of the reference handouts I noticed
included a flyer promoting the library’s online databases, which are free and
accessible at all times to library members, a calendar of events for the
current month, a flyer showing a list of the movies that will be shown for the
Friday Films series, and a flyer explaining the services offered through the
Family Learning Center (FLC), and the hours it is open.
The Internet access policy does not have any
limitations, stating that the library “does not monitor user information
accessed through the Internet” and that “parents or guardians, not the Library
or its staff, are responsible for the information selected and/or accessed by
their children.” The policy also says that users must use the Internet in a
“responsible matter” and “cannot be used for fraudulent or unlawful” purposes,
and cannot display materials considered sexual harassment.
There is a 60-minute time limit for computer use,
but the librarians can extend the time limit if no one is waiting to use the
computer(s). If anyone violates any of the rules mentioned above, they will be
denied access to use the computers/Internet.
When asking the reference librarian about
popular electronic/online resources, she mentioned the access to databases
through the library, specifying two databases in particular as being useful and
popular, Academic OneFile, and ProQuest Newspapers.
In my own interaction, as well as in observing
other patrons’ interactions with the reference librarian, the librarian seemed
somewhat approachable and helpful. The reference librarian did not acknowledge
patrons that walked by or near the desk, but when the patron would initiate
interaction with the librarian, she would look the patrons in the eye and ask
open ended questions rather that responding with one word or yes or no answers,
and also left the reference desk on two different occasions to lead the patrons
to the section or item they were looking for. In the middle of my interaction
with the reference librarian, she noticed that another patron was standing
nearby waiting to ask a question, so the librarian asked me if she could help
the other patron and then she would continue to help me, since I was asking
multiple questions regarding the library’s online resources.
Overall, the Los Altos
library’s strengths include providing a wide range of general reader options, a
large section on children’s books, and many online databases that are accessible
to library members from home or at the library. The library has a good mix of
community services for adults and children, especially in regards to basic computer
instruction and literacy.
In terms of library/web
2.0 utilities, the library does feature a “Text a librarian” service where
users can ask questions through their cell phone, and a service that allows
users to browse, search, and checkout eBooks on their Amazon Kindle. There is
also a free smart phone app called LBPL Mobile that can be downloaded onto users’
phones. Through the app, users can get information on all of the library’s
locations and can search for items. The app gets pretty good reviews on iTunes.
In
terms of utilizing social media platforms, the Long Beach Public Library does
have a Facebook and Twitter account, both of which seem to be updated almost
every day, sometimes several times a day. Updates include information about
upcoming library-related events, and their Facebook page has some very cool historical
photos of Long Beach that are worth checking out.
