Mountain View library unveils Vega Discover catalog; staff outline services, digital subscriptions and equipment plans

At a June 16 special meeting of the Board of Library Trustees, Charles Mosner, adult services librarian in the library’s Customer Experience and Technology (CXT) division, presented a year-end update that highlighted a new public catalog, expanded digital subscriptions and plans for equipment and facility upgrades.

Mosner said the library this year launched Vega Discover, a new public catalog that “is mobile responsive, meaning, the experience using VEGA on a mobile device, phone or tablet is gonna be just as good as on a computer.” He described features intended to improve discovery for users, including format roll-ups (grouping all formats of a title on one line), saved searches and the ability to translate the interface into Spanish and Chinese.

The catalog launch is one of several service changes Mosner outlined. The library added a PressReader subscription in February that provides access to more than 7,000 newspapers and magazines in many languages, a change Mosner said supports Mountain View’s multilingual community. The library also purchased 60 Coursera licenses after state funding ended; Mosner reported roughly 52 active Coursera learners per month and about 150 monthly enrollments.

Mosner reviewed physical-collection and public-space changes: the library operates nine adult displays (six on the second floor and three on the first floor) that are rotated monthly; the “lucky day” popular-title display is funded by the Friends of the Mountain View Library; study rooms and the second-floor program room were repainted; and wireless chargers and portable chargers were added to study areas using a Pacific Library Partnership technology reimbursement grant.

On community programming, Mosner said the weekly ESL conversation club drew 1,186 attendees this fiscal year and an online author series produced 616 live attendees across 35 events. The library also participated in regional Silicon Valley Reads programming focused this year on technology and AI, bringing in a generative-AI demonstrator from San Jose State University.

The presentation included operational updates. The history center completed a disaster-preparedness assessment with the Northeast Document Conservation Center and has begun inventorying previously uncatalogued boxed collections with an intern. The California Revealed digitization project returned proofs but faces funding uncertainty after the loss of a federal grant. The seed library was closed from after Thanksgiving through January to allow staff to prepare spring packets; the weekly seed packet limit was reduced from five to three and the bookmobile now carries a small selection.

Mosner also described growth in the Library of Things, citing four pedometers, three stargazing kits (more than 150 holds across three kits) and two webcams for in-house use. He said the materials-handling system that processes returned items, in place since 2008, is nearing end-of-life; staff plan to begin a procurement process next fiscal year with public works for a modular, smaller-footprint machine compatible with the Sierra back-end catalog.

During the demonstration, trustees asked about additional interface languages and font/visual prominence for the catalog banner; Mosner said Vega’s developers are actively taking feedback and that staff will raise presentation and accessibility requests. He also said staff and City IT plan to pursue wireless printing deployment in the coming year.

The briefing closed with Mosner noting several ongoing initiatives — expanded history center hours, a pop-up makerspace developed by an intern, continued summer reading activities and continued outreach to grow seed donations — and with board members thanking staff for the updates.

Mosner opened his remarks by introducing himself as “an adult services librarian here in the customer experience and technology division” and closed by saying, “that’s what I had for you today.”