City librarian outlines branch renovation schedule and security steps; public raises concerns about measurement and privatization

Luis Herrera, San Francisco City Librarian, presented the library's performance measures and branch renovation program to the Budget & Finance Committee, reporting that Mission Bay opened earlier and that Sunset and West Portal branches are scheduled to open in February 2007; several other branch renovations are underway or in construction.

Herrera said the library measures fall into four categories: customer service, access to collections and electronic resources, hours of service (set in part by Prop E hearings), and programming for children and youth. He noted the library will expand early-literacy work and electronic access measurement and is rolling out in-house customer-satisfaction surveys to supplement the citywide citizen survey.

On security and outreach, Herrera said the library engaged a police sergeant to assess security operations, is sending security personnel to training at the San Francisco Police Academy, and has hired two part-time homeless outreach workers who started in October to help connect patrons with mental-health and housing services rather than targeting individuals.

A public commenter sharply criticized the library's use of private "friends and foundation" support and said the library had abandoned certain standard performance metrics; the committee asked the Controller's Office to work with the library to identify additional outcome-focused measures and to consider survey instruments and operational metrics the commenter suggested.

Next steps: The library agreed to work with the Controller's Office on refining measures, and the committee asked staff to flag results when the citizen survey and internal customer surveys are available.