Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Library Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mariposa Library highlights outreach, ZipBooks and staffing needs in budget presentation
Summary
Librarian Matt Johnson told the Board about pop‑up branch trials in Kathy's Valley, steady grant awards (including ZipBooks), tax‑prep VITA service and programs such as ASL classes and Tech Tuesday; he asked for modest extra‑help staffing to keep remote branches staffed.
Matt Johnson, the county librarian, described a year of outreach and new services to the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors on April 22, and identified two modest staffing requests to sustain service at remote branches.
Johnson reviewed pilot efforts including a Kathy's Valley pop‑up branch using McKay Hall, partnerships with Yosemite National Park for ranger programming, the library’s first Comic Con, and multiple small grants that supported collections and programming (John Henry Eldred Jr. Grant for graphic novels, Pilcrow Foundation funding for easy readers, the Flight Path Bird Grant and a community VITA tax‑prep partnership with United Way that helped more than 50 filers). He said the ZipBooks program — a state grant that orders requested titles to be mailed to patrons for a normal checkout — remains a popular service and that the library has received consecutive years of ZipBooks funding.
On operations, Johnson said the library upgraded patron and staff computers to Windows 11 and is planning an ILS (integrated library system) migration to replace the vendor CirceDynix when support ends; he asked the board to consider expanding extra‑help hours and creating a part‑time (about 20 hours) position to improve coverage at Wawona and Yosemite Valley branches, which are hard to staff with part‑time employees. Board members praised programming and encouraged outreach partnerships to engage remote communities.
Johnson closed by reiterating that most services are funded by a combination of general fund, private donation funds and state grants, and that some private‑donation funds (a library donation fund established from the Tilly Stroming trust) have helped sustain special projects.
