Thursday, June 05, 2008

Change is Supposed to Be Good


Word from Miss Lois over at the Pomona Library is that as of June 30, 2008, the library hours will be changing. And by change, I mean hours of operation will be cut. The library will no longer be open in the morning. Just in time for Summer when children in Pomona are most in need of good places to hang out, here's the new reduced hours:

Monday - Thursday: 12:00pm-8:30pm
Friday - Saturday: 12:00pm - 5:30pm
Sunday: Closed

This also throws into confusion the children's storytime, which has traditionally been at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesdays, with added storytimes on Monday and Wednesday mornings at the same time. These storytimes will continue for the rest of June, but after that they will be moved back to less-kid-friendly hours. I'll publicize on here when they pick the new times.

I sure hope the powers that be would reconsider. In past Summers, I've seen that the library is very well-used in the Summer. Lots of libraries increase their hours during the Summer. With all the talk about the Youth and Family Master Plan, I would think that closing the library to Pomona kids in the mornings would have been the last cut to be made.

Today's photo is of local celebrity David Allen (the Daily Bulletin Columnist) doing his part to promote the library. Our other celebrity here in town is Miss Lois, the beloved children's librarian at the Pomona Public Library.

As I have written on here before, Miss Lois is the bomb: she sings in Spanish and English, she dances, she plays guitar, she reads, she does puppets, she does felt boards and get this.....she raps. A self-admitted owner of 8 cats (at last count), Miss Lois' one flaw may be that she is partial to cat books over dinosaur tales. She does a killer rendition of the Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and she can pick up paw paws and put 'em in the basket like nobody's business. My picky-eater son started demanding peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after hearing her song/dance of the same name. You see, Miss Lois loves her job and puts her heart into her work with the kids. The children sense this and can't get enough of her. And, in case you couldn't tell, parents dig her too. Your kid is not a true Pomonan until they've experienced all that is Miss Lois. So, if you do nothing else with your child this Summer, take them to the library.

THE END

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This isn't shocking, sad, but not shocking. When you have a mayor (Torres) who has only taken a "few classes at Mount SAC" it's no wonder why she chose to close the library to help the city budget. She does not understand the importance of education, yet she claims to fully fund education when she gets to the Assembly. Maybe she should start with her own city.

Bloghog

calwatch said...

But, the library is open a half hour later, which might be good sometimes but is useless much of the time, especially winter. You might have to go to Montclair for your story time, as there are no libraries in the LA County part of the region (Claremont, La Verne, San Dimas) which are open mornings. http://www.sbcounty.gov/library/home/default.aspx?page=librarybranches/librarybranches.ascx&branchid=MTC

With the 45 hours of library time alloted, I would have done the following:

Monday-Tuesday 10-7
Wednesday-Thursday 12-8:30
Friday-Saturday 12-5

By 7 o'clock, most of the kids are already home and the library is fairly empty. Before they posted the staff reports online, I used to check out the council reports there and read them until the library closed. Now that they are online, I don't have to hang out in the library to do that. Keep the place open until 8:30 a couple days for the commuters. Pomona is unique in that its library opens at 9 am. Most cities open at 10, and that is still early enough to do a good storytime.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for decorating your blog with my poster today, Goddess. Just to clarify, that was a poster for the Rancho Cucamonga Library's Big Read.

Still, I love all libraries equally, except Pomona's, which I love more equally.

Speaking of which, on Saturday I'll be at the Pomona Library table (or wandering around) from 1 to 5 p.m. during the Information Fair. Will I finally meet Mr. Big?

Ms. Lois said...

Goddess: thanks for the kind words. It's soooo good to have friends.

David: Since you're sitting at the Library's table, how about handing out fliers for the Summer Reading Program?? ;)

I hope you do meet Mr. Big. He's one cute kid.

me said...

There may indeed be a Mr. Big sighting (or citing if we pass a check point on the way) on Saturday at the Pomona Information Fair. People are usually more excited to meet Mr. Big in person than to meet me. When I recently introduced myself to a local politician who reads the blog, the politician seemed mildly interested to meet me, but got all excited when he looked down and saw Mr. Big, exclaiming, "Is that Mr. Big??"

G of P

me said...

Well we saw Miss Lois, but David Allen was long gone by the time we arrived. Well, not long gone, but the little old lady from the library said he left 15 minutes earlier. She commended him for staying so long. WAs it that bad?

I thought it was a big turnout for the event. Mr. Big loved the tug of war being held on the side grass. BEst giveaway item was the gold goddess lapel pin, which Miss Lois was nice enough to save for me.

G of P