The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Super-busy library looks at more options for building new facility
By Stephen Baxter
To residents waiting in line to check out books at the Sunnyvale Public Library, it can seem like the busiest library in California.
With 534 checkouts per hour on average in 2004 and 2005, it actually was the busiest library in the state, according to a state study.
To cope with crowds and choked circulation at the 47-year-old library, Sunnyvale leaders agreed last week to fund a study on possible new main and branch libraries.
Anderson Brulé Architects, the firm that designed San Jose's $177 million Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, will look at building options on city land and consider a new branch, possibly partnering with the Sunnyvale School District.
"We're really excited about this project and we're at the point where the council is saying, 'Yes, study these possibilities,' " said library director Deborah Barrow.
Before coming to Sunnyvale in 2005, Barrow helped lead a library project with a new civic center and courthouse in Watsonville, which is expected to open this summer.
Sunnyvale's "library of the future" aims to meet projected needs for 2030 with more books, staff and space.
Many residents have been passing on Sunnyvale to check out the sleek new Cupertino library and other newer libraries, library research suggests. Sunnyvale patrons say they want more group workspace for teens, a larger children's area and lounge space with coffee, among other things.
The Sunnyvale library also lacks wireless Internet service, partly because of its brick construction. Surrounding buildings and most of the city receivess free wireless from MetroFi Inc., which also flummoxes patrons.
Like the King library that aligned the city of San Jose and San José State University in 2003, Sunnyvale leaders are also considering a dual-use branch library in the Sunnyvale School District, possibly at Columbia Middle School.
The school district approached the library a few months ago with loose plans, but Superintendent Joe Rudnicki told the city council last week it was an "absolute ideal situation."
Rudnicki said, "the city of Sunnyvale could be a national exemplar with a joint-use library."
Issues such as public access, appropriate materials, hours and the branch's location at a school would have to be ironed out, but library officials say they are open to options.
Jim Griffith, chairman of the library board, says he worries a joint library budget might be tied to the school district money, which is often at the state's mercy.
For Barrow, building more community and teen space will be keys to success.
She pointed to the Cupertino library's outdoor water fountain and aquarium as features that make it a place to linger, and said she would like to see something similar in Sunnyvale.
"It turns it in to an outing that's educational, and it's exciting for the children," she said.
A possible new library is years away, but some teens at Homestead High School are already raising money.
The Future Business Leaders of America group held a teachers-only benefit dodgeball tournament for a possible new library, which it plans to repeat annually.
The event netted about $4,000, Barrow said.
