REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 10/04/2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Community Services Department
SUBJECT:
Title
ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $22,991 IN GRANT FUNDING FROM THE CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY FOR THE ZIP BOOK PROJECT
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to accept and appropriate the California State Library Zip Book grant to purchase books and an Amazon Prime membership. The total award for the Fiscal Year 2024 beginning July 1, 2023, is $22,991.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council:
a. Accept grant funding from the California State Library for the Corona Public Library’s Zip Book Grant project through the California Library Services Act (LSTA) funds.
b. Authorize an appropriation and estimated revenue increase in the amount of $22,991 to the Community Services Department’s operating budget in the Library - Other Grants Fund 415.
c. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to adjust the budget accordingly if Grantor distributes additional funds to grant participants.
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BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The Zip Books project began as a pilot project in 2011, funded by the LSTA grant from the California State Library. Zip Books is an additional purchasing option that is meant to provide patrons with access to materials not owned by the library. A patron simply requests an item that is not currently in the collection, the library purchases it from Amazon, and the book is shipped directly to the patron’s home. When finished, the patron returns the book to the library, and the library adds it to the collection. The program gives patrons the ability to participate in the development of our collection and has proven to be extremely popular with libraries and library users throughout the state over the past decade. In early 2022, the number of participating libraries expanded further to include 96 jurisdictions. In a recent two-year survey, over 95 percent of respondents gave the Zip Book project an overall “excellent” rating.
ANALYSIS:
The Zip Book grant project provides library users with speedy access to books that are not available at their local libraries. Because Zip Book is a user-driven program, the library collection becomes more closely matched to the needs of the local community.
The Zip Book project is very popular with patrons. Given the dispersed media landscape, and the nature of our community, it is difficult for the library to purchase all of the materials to meet the diverse needs of our community. The Zip Book project allows the library to create a patron-curated collection to quickly meet those changing needs. For example, in 2021 the library experienced strong demand from the Arabic speaking community to have book titles available in Arabic. Zip Books allowed patrons access to books in Arabic and garner support for donations so the library could start an Arabic foreign language collection. Zip Books helped highlight an unknown need among the community and direct the development of a better curated non-English language material collection.
The project funding is provided by the State of California and administered by the California State Library. The grant period is July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Approval of the recommended actions will result in an appropriation and estimated revenue increase in the amount of $22,991 to the Library Services operating budget in the Library - Other Grants Fund 415 for the Library Services and Technology Grant. These grant funds do not have a matching requirement. Grant funds must be fully expended in accordance with the City’s approved budget by June 30, 2024.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is a financial transaction between the California State Library and the City of Corona, and there is no possibility that adopting this resolution will have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required.
PREPARED BY: KATHERINE BACKUS, MANAGEMENT ANALYST I
REVIEWED BY: DONNA FINCH, INTERIM COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Grant Approval Letter