The New Downtown Walnut Creek Library Plan of Service is the result of a community needs assessment undertaken over a decade, from 1991 to 2003. The Plan is compatible with and supports the Contra Costa County Library’s mission of “Bringing People and Ideas Together.” The Library’s Plan, in turn, supports the strategic commitments of Walnut Creek, with its focus on working in partnership with the community to enhance the quality of life; to promote a positive environment where people can live, work, and play; and to promote a vibrant local economy to sustain long-term fiscal stability. Based in the community’s thoroughly articulated vision for a New Downtown Walnut Creek Library, the following service responses were identified:

Lifelong Learning: In order to address the informational, educational and recreational needs of students and families, business people, seniors, people with disabilities and adults pursuing lifelong learning, the Plan of Service identifies specific goals for enhancing programs, collections and services. The Plan of Service includes a strong schedule of programs for young children, their parents, and caregivers, in response to the expressed need for more story time programs for children; more services for preschools and day care centers; and a concern regarding the increasing numbers of preschool and school-age children with reading skill deficits. Activities to encourage and support informational and recreational reading for all ages are also identified in the Plan of Service, and include book discussion groups, community-wide reading events, and author visits. Presentations to school classes and reading incentive programs will encourage children and teens to develop a love of books and reading for pleasure, and to become lifelong library users.

Walnut Creek is home to a number of senior citizens and the Plan of Service acknowledges the importance of the Library in the lives of seniors. Special services, such as book delivery for the homebound, and van delivery of books to senior residential communities, address access issues described in the Needs Assessment. The new Library will also offer instruction and assistance for seniors in making effective use of electronic resources, working with volunteers from the Rossmoor Computer Club. The Plan of Service addresses the business research and career exploration needs of small business owners, investors, job seekers, career changers and high school students by identifying services that include programs on business and career topics, training on the effective use of online business resources, and workshops on career exploration. The Plan of Service provides weekly technology-based English as a Second Language classes and Conversational English practice groups as services to meet the needs of Walnut Creek’s 4,034 residents that speak English less than “very well.”

Formal Learning Support: The City of Walnut Creek and its residents place a high priority on providing school-age children with a quality education and a rich learning environment. In order to maintain the continued academic excellence of the schools in the downtown area, and to ensure equitable access for all students, the New Downtown Walnut Creek Library will serve as a hub for homework assistance and tutoring, training on the use of computers and electronic resources, emergent language and family literacy programs, workshops on exploring colleges and careers, and after school science learning activities.

Commons: The inclusion of several meeting rooms, including a Multi-Purpose Room with state-of-the-art conferencing and presentation equipment, will allow for the variety of programming requested by patrons of all ages, provide space for the meetings and events of more that 80 community organizations, and establish the New Downtown Walnut Creek Library as the community gathering place for Walnut Creek. In addition to space for meetings and programs, the community needs sufficient space and equipment to allow training on the use of computers, electronic resources and software applications for students and their parents, job seekers and career changers, seniors, small business owners, and other interested adults. This need is best met with a fully equipped technology lab. When not in use for this purpose, the workstations in the lab will supplement other public computers to ensure an adequate number of available workstations for children, teens and adults, a frequently stated need.

The Plan recognizes the important role the City plays as a regional center for the arts and entertainment. It reflects a high level of cooperation between the City’s Civic Arts Education Department, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, the City’s arts organizations, local galleries, school districts, and the Library to provide programs, services and resources that enhance the enjoyment of local art exhibits, theatrical productions and musical performances for residents as well as visitors to the City. Arts programs and educational activities developed with the City’s Civic Arts Education Program, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, the Historical Society and the Lindsay Wildlife Museum will enhance the City’s role as a regional center for arts and cultural activities. Larger and more in-depth collections on art, drama, and music to support the many art exhibits, theatrical productions, and musical performances offered in the City will enhance the communities’ appreciation of the arts, and benefit the community at large.

The New Downtown Walnut Creek Library Plan of Service will integrate appropriate electronic technologies in response to a variety of identified service needs. The Plan will rely on technology to support lifelong learning and computer literacy for children, teens, and adults, especially the downtown area’s many seniors. The Plan will incorporate technology and a variety of electronic databases to vastly increase access to resources for commuters, business people, students, the disabled and the homebound.

The implementation of this Plan is totally dependent upon the construction of a new facility. With expanded and improved space, flexible building design, enhanced collections and up-to-date technology, Contra Costa County Library and its partners stand ready to address current and anticipated library service needs in the New Downtown Walnut Creek Library.

“The Contra Costa County Library Brings People and Ideas Together” When the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors adopted its recent resolution, proclaiming October 2003 as “Contra Costa County Library 90th Birthday Month,” the 893,500 people served by the Contra Costa County Library’s collection of 1.3 million books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, and videos joined in this celebration. Since 1913, the Contra Costa County Library has brought people and ideas together. This Library Plan of Service builds on the County Library’s long tradition of providing excellent service to the residents of Contra Costa County.

Further, this Library Plan of Service foreshadows changes in countywide library service delivery patterns. In response to the excellent feedback received from County residents during the preparation of this Library Bond Act application and other assessment activities, the Library initiated a two-year strategic planning process in 2003 with consultant Joan Frye Williams. Imperatives guiding this strategic planning process include: the desire to acknowledge and respond to expressed community needs; a respect for the unique character of each community; an interest in leveraging existing assets and resources; a need to build capacity to handle growth; and the opportunity to engage the library staff in further planning.

In all communities, the residents have expressed the strong wish - a mandate actually - that more library transactions be completed at the first point of contact. Service adjustments must be made countywide to assure that each community library can perform this essential role as the primary point of contact for all library services. Within the new model presently being developed, each community library will respond to the needs of its community, and will collaborate with its 22-peer libraries to support services to the county population as a whole. Value will be added to countywide planning efforts as each community library also collaborates with local organizations to avoid duplication of services, builds on local successes and best practices, and promotes the broader awareness of all library services by establishing a library brand.

Walnut Creek’s citizens have put a great deal of energy and thought into planning their library. These highly educated residents, 94.9% of who have graduated from high school or attained a higher level of education, demand a new library that can meet their educational and informational needs. As civic-minded adults, 75% of whom serve as active volunteers for service, cultural, arts and educational organizations, they also want the new library to provide a place for community groups to meet, collect information and materials that support their activities, and serve as a neutral forum for the exchange of ideas with others in the community.

Without a new library, the Contra Costa County Library is unable to offer the scope and depth of library resources, programs and services essential to residents of such a vibrant, thriving metropolitan community. Without a new library, the City of Walnut Creek, which prides itself on providing a variety of essential services and cultural amenities to its residents and to visitors from well beyond the city limits, will be unable to provide space for adequate public library services. Most of the needed programs and services are heavily dependent upon the use of technology, yet the existing building cannot meet its present demand for electrical outlets, much less the space requirements or infrastructure needed for new technologies.

Walnut Creek is a technologically sophisticated community. Eighty-five percent of Walnut Creek residents have computers at home. Community input has confirmed a high expectation that the Library must be a leader in introducing new technologies and electronic resources, and will instruct the public in its use.

The community of Walnut Creek needs a new, fully accessible, state-of-the-art library in Civic Park, the physical heart of the City. A New Downtown Walnut Creek Library will be a symbol of community pride – a community destination that serves as a center for knowledge and learning for residents of all ages. Contra Costa County Library is ready and willing to bring a program of expanded and improved needs-based library resources and services, outlined in this Plan of Service, to this new, larger and more accessible downtown Walnut Creek Library.

• Insufficient materials and technology in school libraries for research, and a lack of evening and weekend hours for access to school library resource
• Insufficient access during after school hours to textbooks, curricula materials, and computer workstations with word processing for homework assignments
• The lack of tutoring assistance and homework help for K-12 students
• Limited instruction for students on how to locate, evaluate and use the vast variety of print and online resources in today’s information age
• Limited services for an increasing number of English Language Learners
• Increasing numbers of preschool and young school-age children with reading skill deficits
• Limited resources and programs to prepare students for college or vocational school
• An increasing demand for quality educational, cultural and recreational after school opportunities for K-12 students

Within two Joint Use Cooperative Agreements, the City, County Library, Acalanes Union High School District, and Walnut Creek School District have described joint activities that will be undertaken by public librarians, the high school librarian, school library clerks, school media specialists, students, parents, teachers, and community members. These Joint Use Cooperative Agreements establish four joint venture programs that extend each partner’s individual resources to the broader community:

• “Homework Help @ your library®,” will offer specialized resource collections, technology and multimedia tools, computer literacy and research skill-building classes, general and subject-specific tutoring, and other support services to address and supplement the curriculum and homework help needs of K-12 students.
• “Walnut Creek Reads,”will offer collections and activities designed to address the emergent language and literacy needs of preschool and young school age children, provide specialized training to public library staff, educate the parents and caregivers of young children about the importance of reading through a series of early-literacy programs and events; help new immigrant high school students who speak languages other than English; and support the parents of these students and the community by offering English literacy skill-building classes and a series of family literacy programs.
• “College/Career Center Program,” will offer specialized resource collections, technology and multimedia tools, a speakers’ series, a job fair, mentoring, career guidance, and other vocational support services to high school students.
• “Civic Park Learning Laboratory,” will offer opportunities for high school students to extend science learning beyond the classroom, by taking advantage of a long-term partnership with the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, and by allowing students to benefit from the park setting of the new library’s site.