District 1 library outreach recommendations

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard. Speakers are not labeled in the captions, so remarks are not attributed to individuals unless the chair named them.

What: an ad hoc subcommittee's recommendations to increase library awareness and use in the Belle Haven (District 1) neighborhood, with owners and dates assigned.
Where it stands: report-out only; no motion. Items were folded into the commission work plan and given target dates.

Recommendations and next steps

Signage (external and internal): try low-cost banners, a city sign board and handmade signs, for example a sign saying the all-ages library is upstairs; target date discussed as March. Staff said they control the interior space.
Library website accessibility: make the library newsletter findable on the website as the smallest first step; the city website's AI assistant could not find it either.
Outreach coordinator: the city has discussed a community-connection position for Belle Haven; a year-long timeline was set to see whether it is created.
Commissioners as outreach to community groups: build a shared list of groups (neighborhood associations, schools, religious organizations); the group agreed to discuss the list at the November meeting instead of January.
Study of non-users in Belle Haven: wait for a coordinator to be hired; one commissioner will research an economic justification by March 2027.
Volunteers: work with the new coordinator on parameters; staff to consider volunteers distributing programs materials, for example to Little Free Libraries.
Also discussed: a way for residents to suggest programs, possibly linked from the programs and events page to the existing suggestion box.

Sources

Discussion time

About 20 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-19 - Library Commission	20

Log

2026-10-19 - Library Commission — Subcommittee report-out with concrete steps and target dates; no motion required.