Menlo Park’s library commissioners say the Belle Haven Library isn’t meeting the needs of the community, but the library’s manager says with limited resources, the library has to focus on what it does best — serve the community’s children.
“For all intents and purposes, Belle Haven Library has become a school library,” said Commissioner Anna Zara.
Ms. Zara was part of a three-commissioner subcommittee that wrote a March 25 memo to the City Council, urging the council to look at the state of the city’s libraries.
The memo labels the Belle Haven Library “an experiment that has failed,” and says the city should re-examine the library’s role.
The 3,000-square-foot library opened off Ivy Drive in 1999 as a joint facility, funded by the city of Menlo Park and the Ravenswood School District. It was built to give the Belle Haven community — a predominantly low-income neighborhood in the eastern portion of Menlo Park — its own library.
The library has suffered cutbacks in resources and staff as the city has cut its funding, and state funding through the school district has plummeted from about $19 a year per student in 1998, to $0.71 in 2006.
The library is on the Belle Haven elementary school campus, making children the primary patrons during and after school hours. According to branch Manager Judy Fagerholm, children should continue to be the focus of the library’s efforts.
“The library needs to keep doing it’s main job, which is making these kids literate,” she said.
She added that the library was never intended to be an experiment; it was “built to serve the community, and that’s what it does.”
Ms. Fagerholm said despite efforts to draw adults to the library, they have never been common visitors, even when it was open evenings and Saturday.
“The big factor that gets adults to the library is their kids,” Ms. Fagerholm said. She noted that adults either visit with their children, or attend adult literacy classes held at the library so they can communicate with their children’s teachers.
Councilman Andy Cohen, who often mentions improving Belle Haven services during council meetings, has a clear-cut plan to improve the library.
“The commission should be asking [Ms. Fagerholm] what can be done to help, not telling her how to do things right,” he said.
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