Felton Library Friends FAQs
What is Felton Library Friends?
Felton Library Friends (FLF) formed after the threatened closure of the Felton branch in May, 2005, and has since become a chapter of Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Inc., a 501 (c)3 nonprofit that supports the 10 branch Santa Cruz City/County Library system. The FLF chapter promotes excellent library service for the San Lorenzo Valley, including advocating for a new library in Felton. A steering committee of about 15
people meets monthly, and over 300 people subscribe to the FLF email list.
What is FLF doing during the library system’s financial crisis?
Community libraries matter! During this time of severe cuts to the library budget, FLF is focusing on retaining community branches in the Santa Cruz Public Library system. We are advocating for at least one day of evening hours in Felton, and encouraging people to continue to use the branch. Once the budget improves, FLF will advocate for restoring hours to the Felton branch, which had a greater percentage of its open hours cut than any other branch. Most importantly, FLF continues to promote a new Felton branch building.
What is happening with plans for a new library in Felton?
Architectural plans have already been completed, and the project is nearly”shovel ready”. FLF continues to advocate and seek funding opportunities for a new branch building in Felton on the property next to the Post Office.
What can I do now to support the Felton Library and FLF?
∗ Stay informed. Sign up for the FLF email list at feltonlibraryfriends@gmail.com to get alerts and updates. Visit www.feltonlibraryfriends.org
∗ Keep using the Felton Library. Order books at www.santacruzpl.org and pick them up Tuesday or Thursday, 1-5 p.m.
∗ Take action. Let the library director and board members know how you feel. See the back of this FAQ sheet for contact information.
∗ Volunteer for the Felton Library Festival September 10 (email FLF or call 335-
1135). Come to an FLF meeting the last Tuesday of the month, 4-5:30 pm at the
Felton Firehouse. All library lovers are welcome!
∗ Donate to the Felton Library Festival drawing or at www.feltonlibraryfriends.org
Why is FLF raising money?
FLF is raising money to support its advocacy efforts and a future capital campaign for furnishings and equipment for our new library, which will begin once building funds have been identified by the Library Joint Powers Board.
Felton Library Friends Statement on Community Libraries
from www.feltonlibraryfriends.org
In light of the dire budgetary issues facing all levels of government, FLF is focusing on retaining community branches in the Santa Cruz Public Library system. Members of Felton Library
Friends attended recent meetings of the Library Joint Powers Board, and spoke forcefully against
the closing of community branches. Once the library system budget improves, we will advocate for restoring some hours to the Felton branch, which had a greater percentage of its open hours cut than any other branch. When the economy turns around, FLF will continue its mission of supporting a new branch building in Felton, plans for which have already been completed.
Although the Library Joint Powers Board voted to retain minimal service at all neighborhood branches, there have been proposals that library service be centralized in four large regional branch libraries, with Scotts Valley being the closest to the San Lorenzo Valley. FLF supports retaining service at community branch libraries, close to children, schools, families, and residential neighborhoods. Community branches best support literacy, equal access for all County residents, and the cultivation of lifelong learning in our communities.
FLF maintains that any proposal to move to a regional library system would be counter to Measures B and R, in which voters authorized a 1⁄4 cent sales tax that is a core part of Library funding. These measures promised to preserve existing libraries and extend branch library services to the unserved and underserved areas of the County. They included the goal of "augmenting branch library services in the underserved areas of...Felton [and] Boulder Creek...through expansion and renovation of facilities, increased hours of operation, and increasing available library materials."
Contact Information for Library Director & Joint Powers Board
Teresa Landers, Library Director: landerst@santacruzpl.org
Library Joint Powers Board Chair: Citizen Barbara Gorson, gorson@pacbell.net.
Library Joint Powers Board members Citizen Leigh Poitinger, Citizen Nancy Gerdt, Councilmember Katherine Beiers, Councilmember Mike Rotkin, Councilmember Sam Storey, Supervisor John Leopold, and Supervisor Mark Stone.
Contact information for all the above board members can be found at:
www.santacruzpl.org/aboutscpl/govern/ljpb/members
"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better." -- Barack Obama
