October 19, 2004

SUBJECT:  Authorization to Accept $1,000 California Stories Uncovered Grant from the California Council for the Humanities (CCH) and Budget Modification No. 9

REPORT IN BRIEF

The Sunnyvale Public Library is requesting authorization to accept and expend $1,000 awarded under the California Stories Uncovered Library Reading and Discussion Grant Program and funded by the California Council for the Humanities.

BACKGROUND

The California Stories Uncovered Grant Program is part of a statewide campaign of the California Council for the Humanities, conducted in partnership with Califa, an organization that provides services and sponsors statewide programs for California libraries.  The California Stories Uncovered Grant Program is supported in part by the California Council for the Humanities through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The goal of the campaign is to strengthen California’s communities through stories.  The project aims to accomplish this goal by engaging thousands of people throughout the State in sharing their own stories, reading and discussing contemporary and classic works by California writers, and examining what these stories tell us about who we are as individuals and as a state.

EXISTING POLICY

Programs and Publications

Goal 6.2C.1	Provide library programs and publications to educate, enrich, and enlighten library users.
Policy 6.2C.2	Provide programs for teens and adults to reflect and expand the broad range of interests of community residents.
Action Statement 6.2C.2a.	Provide programs which emphasize the enjoyment of reading and enhancement of knowledge.
Action Statement 6.2C.2c.	Deepen customer awareness of library resources through programs.
Action Statement 6.2C.2d.	Provide programs for teens and adults that reflect the cultural diversity of the community.

 

Collaboration and Customer Focus

DISCUSSION

There is no question that Sunnyvale is an ethnically diverse community.  The 2000 Census data shows there is no one ethnic population in Sunnyvale which constitutes a majority.  Approximately 40% of Sunnyvale residents are foreign born and close to 50% speak a language other than English at home.  The diversity of our community greatly enriches us but also presents challenges.  How do people from diverse backgrounds connect to each other and to the communities where they live?  How do we develop trust in one another?  How do we solve the problems we face if we do not talk to each other?

The California Stories Uncovered Grant Program aims to answer these questions through storytelling.  It is the second phase in a multi-year initiative from the California Council for the Humanities.  Using an earlier California Council for the Humanities grant, attendees at the Sunnyvale Public Library discussed John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and their own stories of immigration and migration. Organizers found that when people told their stories and other people listened, a trust was created that could change community dynamics and lay the groundwork for solving pressing community concerns. Through the California Stories Uncovered Grant Program, the Sunnyvale Public Library would receive 20 copies of an anthology, assembled particularly for this project.  The anthology will include writings by Khaled Hosseini, Maxine Hong Kingston, Dao Strom, Chitra Divakaruni and other California writers plus a grant award in the amount of $1,000, to be used for public programming, program development resources, and materials to help publicize the programs. 

Three public programs will be held at the Sunnyvale Public Library to discuss the stories and writers in the California Stories Uncovered anthology.  The first two programs will feature two authors from the anthology, where they will be invited to speak at the Library about their writing, homes of origin, transition to the United States, and their lives in California.  The third program, an intergenerational panel of Sunnyvale residents from different cultural backgrounds will talk about their lives in Sunnyvale and stories of immigration, if they came from another country.  The Sunnyvale Historical Society will also be invited to present a display of historical photographs.

FISCAL IMPACT

The California Council for the Humanities awarded a California Stories Uncovered Library Reading and Discussion Grant in the amount of $1,000 to the City of Sunnyvale in August 2004.  A budget modification in the amount of $1,000 is requested to fulfill the obligation under this grant award.  If accepted, the grant award will be added to the operating budget for FY 2004/2005.

Budget Modification No. 9

Fiscal Year 2004/2005

PUBLIC CONTACT

Public contact was made through posting of the Council agenda on the City’s official notice bulletin board, posting of the agenda and report on the City’s Web page, and the availability of the report in the Library and City Clerk’s office.  At the October 4, 2004 Board of Library Trustees meeting, the Board voted unanimously to recommend to City Council Alternative #1 which grants permission to accept the $1,000 grant from the California Stories Uncovered Grant Program and approve Budget Modification No. 9.

ALTERNATIVES

1.   Accept the $1,000 grant from the California Stories Uncovered Grant Program and approve Budget Modification No. 9 to appropriate these funds into the City’s Library Programs and Services Program.

2.   Do not accept the grant and appropriate funding.

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends Alternative # 1.

Reviewed by:

Victoria L. Johnson, Director, Libraries

Prepared by: Steve Sloan, Supervising Librarian

Reviewed by:

Mary Bradley

Director of Finance

Approved by:

Amy Chan

City Manager

Attachments

A. Draft Board of Library Trustees Meeting Minutes of 10/4/04