Committee hears concern about San Jose King Library history room cuts and considers volunteer/digitization responses

Committee members raised an alarm about possible staffing cuts at the San Jose King Library that could reduce public access to the California Room, a non-circulating local-history collection. One member said staffing for the room is estimated at roughly $300,000 to $340,000 and warned that moving the materials into locked archives would prevent browsing and on-site research.

Members discussed two models observed elsewhere: Santa Clara City uses volunteers and the Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society to provide staffed hours; Palo Alto operates off-site archives with a part-time paid manager and volunteer support. The committee considered coordinating a community letter to the San Jose mayor, city librarian and city manager urging maintained access and exploring volunteer staffing options.

Digitization was proposed as a mitigation strategy, but members cautioned that OCR and indexing do not always capture brittle clippings, tape-damaged scrapbooks, or materials that require original-document inspection. Committee members recommended a combination of volunteer-led digitization for accessible items and advocacy for at least limited, volunteer-supported in-person staffing so researchers can consult originals.

Next steps: Committee members will prepare a draft letter and examples of alternative staffing models and circulate them to members for individual submissions to the mayor and library officials. The committee also agreed to share local examples of volunteer-run history-room models.