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to front pageSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 -- San Franciscans may be in for a pleasant surprise next year when they look for an open library on Sundays and actually will be able to find one. And not only that, they may be able to check out a best seller.
"We're definitely going to see changes," said Library Commission President James Herlihy. "There's going to be more accessibility, more books.''
San Francisco's library system, forced to cut hours and reduce its book budget to the bare minimum over the past several years because of budget constraints, was handed a financial boon in June. Voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that increased library funding and locked the mandate into the City Charter so bureaucrats and politicians couldn't mess with the new windfall.
The annual budget jumped from $20 million to some $31 million. This week, the Library Commission, after months of public hearings and several reports from the library staff, approved a plan for spending the money. The priorities: increasing hours of operation and boosting the book budget.
Under the plan, the libraries will be open 1,150 hours a week systemwide, up from the current level of 801 hours. Where now none of the branches, including the Main library at Civic Center, are closed Sundays, seven will hold Sunday hours.
The larger libraries will be open at least one night a week and the small "reading centers,'' which are not much more than storefront operations tended by technicians, will be upgraded by bringing librarians on staff and expanding hours. More hours are expected for all 27 branches. The commission, which meets again next week, will determine specifics for each site.
The skeletal acquisition budget in recent years has meant that popular best sellers are hard to come by and the reference collection, on the whole, is outdated.
Other plans call for hiring a librarian to concentrate on programs that target teen-agers and starting a 24-hour on-line computer access service linking patrons to the library's card catalogue.
The changes are expected in January. Mayor Jordan and the Board of Supervisors must still approve the spending plan.
The most controversial element of the new budget would set aside $2 million a year in a reserve fund to help pay for operating San Francisco's new Main library, now under construction. Some of the most active backers of the ballot measure had argued that most, if not all, of the money should be spent on the neighborhood branches and on books.
Jean Amos, a neighborhood activist from Noe Valley, said she isn't too keen on the set aside for the new Main, but said she thinks the neighborhoods fared OK.
"I'm hopeful about the hours and the new book budget,'' she said. "Now we'll have to wait and see.''
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