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mhm mhm. On a gloomy November 7, 1960, Santa Rosa closed its library doors permanently. The old Carnegie building shrunk to toy size by the overwhelming growth of the city. The aged structure condemned by the state fire marshal as a dangerous hazard to the public safety. The

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old unreinforced Stonewall, severely damaged during the 1906 earthquake had settled and tilted. The tired old walls could no longer keep out the weather. There was extensive and continuing damage to ceilings, floors, fixtures and books, wiring and heating was inadequate. Plumbing was almost non existent space for

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expansion, none so down fourth street around Courthouse Square to Exchange Avenue and arduous expensive move upstairs into temporary quarters to wait out the time when santa Rosen's could take some necessary and appropriate steps for a city designed for a living. There were a lot of steps

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to be taken today nearly four years later, after paying out more than $10,000 in rent. After adopting every stopgap makeshift device known to man in an increasingly desperate effort to meet the rising needs of the community, the Santa Rosa Public Library remains upstairs. A long, steep

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flight of stairs forced to curtail the very services that must be expanded if santa rosa is ever to approach the multiple demands of its people. Ironically enough, in the same month of 1960, when Santa Rosen's took the several steps backward the move into emergency quarters, a

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neighboring community of about the same size San Leandro completed its biggest strides, forward, a new structure that made available to that city for the first time and up to date, truly modern library of such completeness and convenience that nearby communities blinked with wonder at their own

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backward state, offering over 44,000 square feet and a book capacity of 100,000 volumes. At a cost of a little over one and three quarter million dollars. The SAn Leandro Community library center provides efficient, convenient and pleasant facilities that literally invite the user of all ages. The

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latest technological advances, not only in building construction and finishing, but in library service itself are embodied here in a spacious permanent structure whose designed profited from 50 years of 20th century experimentation in new library construction designed to meet the needs of a specific community. The SAN

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Leandro library, public rooms, fixtures, workspaces, equipment, the very traffic patterns and operational procedures themselves were drawn from the rich fund of experience of library workers, planners and users. The wide Landover Gone is the 19th century notion that a public library is a static treasure house of

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use only to the occasional scholar or connoisseur in its place is the reality of a bustling, busy, energetic center. A place of much useful traffic coming and going a down to earth department store, living vital forward looking, a place of the present tackling the enormous job

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of serving an increasingly insatiable public appetite for information that is vital to their jobs, their education, their careers, their health and their homes. Mhm. A Children's section, specifically designed for Children. Perhaps the most important customers such a cultural department store conserve. Makes attractive

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and ready at hand to these youngsters knowledge, inspiration and constructive entertainment. This is truly a building designed for living, a place that is a pleasure to be in a meeting place, a workplace for busy human beings with vital questions and important projects for library staff workers

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anxious to make their time and abilities cover as much of the demand as possible. Meanwhile, in santa rosa, there is still a great deal of important work to be done If santa Rosen's are to offer themselves and their Children anything more than this. Make do second

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floor arrangement. All of the various activities of the library are carried out on this one upstairs floor, Less than half the total Santa Rosa book collection, perhaps 20,000 volumes, as opposed to the recommended 90,000 for a community of this size is jammed into these antique bookshelves,

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salvaged from the old Carnegie building. This awkward arrangement of shelves imposed by the limitations of the building, increases the cost of library staff operations. It reduces to almost zero the visible control the librarian might have of the large room, and it cuts to a fraction of

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the total available floor space. All these facts santa Rosen's must simply accept with whatever smile they can muster until some sizable steps are taken across this desk every year, move about a quarter of a million individual books and periodicals into the hands of the young, the

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old the businessman, the student, the housewife, To this tiny reference department, Santa Rosen's bring about 27,000 individual questions requiring the assistance of this research facility. Every year. Questions literally ranging from A to Z, from baby showers to hydrogen bombs. Perhaps the most alive portion and the

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most rapidly changing of the library's holdings is its periodicals only as good as they are available. Obviously, this makeshift setup in santa rosa Can display only a portion of the 250 periodic als regularly received by the library. And what is worse, none of the bound volumes

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of back issues are immediately available. They are stored in additional rented space, have trouble finding a seat in the santa rosa library. Not surprising when one realizes that there are just 50 seating places for a city of 35,000 and this is just the beginning. Almost overnight

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has sprung up a new complication Unknown to librarians 10 years ago, a tremendous rise in the number of students using the public library, students of all ages from the primary grades through college because of a revolution in teaching methods across the country. Instead of the traditional

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concentration of the youngsters study within one or two textbooks, there is now a general attempt to teach him to discover information for himself by searching many books, periodicals and documents. If you realize how self sufficient library staffs are, have to be. All of the service jobs,

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many of them highly technical and requiring the services of university trained professionals are handled by the staff in these impossible quarters. But of course the santa Rosen can always look out on a city design for living. The view from the Board of trustees, meeting room, a

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room. Incidentally, that is also the headquarters for the libraries ever increasing collection of state and federal documents. But just as there is an end to every flight of stairs, no matter how long or how steep there are hopeful signs that santa Rosen's are ready to take

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that big step themselves and build an adequate modern central library building, One that would provide not only large, very comfortable reading rooms, but properly designed facilities for the efficient operation of all sorts of special services impossible to offer now in the primitive conditions of upstairs emergency

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quarters. Thus, to take an optimistic view, these steps need no longer be the symbol of a backward community. There is after all, one virtue in a steep set of stairs, they force one to look up and that is exactly what santa Rosen's are doing. Now looking

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up, they are ready to take the big step out of the past, out of the totally inadequate clutter that has for so long blocked their way to a new era of public service convenience, pleasure and satisfaction. Library Service in Santa Rosa dates back to 1869. Santa

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Rosen's are determined to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their library service in a new Community Library Center in a city designed for living. Yeah, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah.