SANTA ANA – The city’s public library, with a main branch that has seen only one renovation in its 125-year history, on Tuesday was awarded the nation’s highest honor bestowed on libraries and museums for serving their communities.
It’s a pleasant surprise for librarians considering Santa Ana Public Library was named a finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service a few years ago, missed the application deadline in 2014, and didn’t bother to apply in 2015.
This year was going to be the same as the last.
“We just thought, ‘Oh, we’re too busy, there’s no point, blah blah blah,’” Santa Ana Library Operations Manager Heather Folmar said. “You get used to thinking of yourself as small and unimportant and you look around at other libraries and you think, ‘I don’t know …’”
But Santa Ana native David Lopez, who grew up going to the library and has worked there for more than a decade, reminded his colleagues they should apply.
On Tuesday, the city learned Santa Ana Public Library was one of 10 libraries and museums to earn the distinction from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that supports the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums.
Santa Ana Public Library – with a main branch, a learning center and two community centers – won the prestigious 22-year-old award alongside Brooklyn Public Library, Madison (Wis.) Public Library, North Carolina State University Libraries, Otis Library (Norwich, Conn.) and five museums.
“It’s definitely a surprise and an honor to be in the company of all of these other institutions because we are so small,” said Lopez, 30, a technology librarian. “Even though we do serve a large percentage of residents, we do have limited resources.”
The Santa Ana library has served patrons for 125 years, primarily from its main branch at Civic Center Drive and Ross Street, which has only undergone one interior renovation, in 1991. The population has grown to 335,264 residents, of whom 79 percent are Latino; and 50 percent of children at local schools are first-generation English learners, according to city statistics.
The medal and $5,000 prize was awarded to the Santa Ana library because it “really transformed the traditional library services to meet the needs of Santa Ana’s large immigrant population,” institute spokeswoman Giuliana Bullard said.
The Santa Ana library also seemed to be working to narrow the “digital divide,” Bullard added, recognizing that a lot of its patrons were not using widely available online services and offering technology training programs to close the gap.
“It was exceptional for the Santa Ana Public Library to be included among the 2016 finalists,” institute director Kathryn K. Matthew, who selected the winners, said in a statement. “Now, as one of the 10 2016 national medal winners, this small library is among the best of the best.”
Most of the library’s services have come from staff members making contact in the community and addressing needs, Folmar, 72, said. Resulting programs include two series of beginning computer classes in Spanish and English, and bilingual story time five days a week.
Ramped-up services have come to fruition thanks to a growing investment from the city.
In fiscal year 2014-15, the city’s five-year strategic plan added $250,000 for e-books and video streaming and $160,000 for civic engagement. Last fiscal year, the city invested $83,000 to reopen the main library on Sundays for the first time in more than 20 years, as well as $200,000 for additional books and materials and $22,000 for more e-books.
Those were annual additions to the budget, City Manager David Cavazos said.
“That was a shot in the arm for the library, and with those resources, they really went to work,” Cavazos said. “Our libraries don’t have as many branches as other people but regardless of all of that, with those resources, we have competed nationally.”
The Santa Ana library, which has a $3.8 million budget allocation this fiscal year, will receive the award in Washington, D.C., June 1. Shortly after, the national story telling nonprofit StoryCorps will visit to record voices of the community.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7762, jkwong@ocregister.com or Twitter: @JessicaGKwong
