City to Hire Consultant for Library Study

Citing a need to know what the community wants in the way of library services, City Council members unanimously agreed Monday to hire a consultant to tell them.

The city will now pursue the hiring of an expert to conduct a detailed study of Ventura’s library services and the community’s goals.

Requests for proposals will be sent to prospective consultants in coming weeks, officials said.

City leaders say an outside expert is needed to thoroughly examine Ventura’s library situation and determine what the city’s residents want from their local branches.

The council recently agreed to spend $270,000 to maintain services at the city’s three county-operated branches. Also, two months ago city leaders set aside $50,000 to develop a library planning process.

The consultant’s study is a significant part of that process, officials said, because it will provide community leaders with information that has not been pulled together before.

“Nobody here in our city has the expertise to do this,” Councilman Jim Friedman said before the meeting. “By turning it over to an expert in the field, the process will go smoother and hopefully be a lot more thorough.”

The expert analysis is expected to include a breakdown of demographic trends, a survey of library services in comparably sized cities around the state and information on financial resources needed to support both current and desired levels of library service.

To gather the information, the consultant is expected to conduct interviews with library supporters, educators, business owners and people who use--and do not use--libraries.

The consultant will be paid out of the $50,000 set aside in May for the community library plan, as recommended by the city’s Library Task Force.

The task force is composed of library supporters from across the city who have fought for increased funding for local branches. Their goal is to develop long-term solutions to the funding shortage.