Common knowledge may make you think that with eBooks and online readers and free wi-fi that libraries are not as important as they used to be. However, the research shows that libraries still play a major role in community development and quality of life.

 

The Chamber gathered representatives from business and government in April to discuss the current state of the Goleta Valley Branch Public Library and the City's efforts to take over the Goleta Library from the larger Santa Barbara library system.

 

Goleta City Councilmember, Michael T. Bennett, and President of Friends of the Goleta Valley Public Library, Corinne Horowitz spoke about the opportunities and challenges the library is facing.

 

Horowitz spoke to the Goleta Library's significant role for children, the Goleta Union School District and for adults who check out books and use the library as a gathering place and a way to access to knowledge.

 

This is important to the business community because without a vibrant public library we lose a key access point to information that is free for all citizens of all ages.

 

To preserve our library, the City of Goleta, only 15 years old, is discovering this is yet another example of us needing to control our own fate. City Hall has been eager to refashion the Goleta Valley Branch Public Library into a municipal library. The City Council approved an ordinance establishing a municipal library and creating a library board of trustees in February 2017.

 

The move doesn't commit the city to moving forward with the transfer process, but it is a step forward in an effort to take over our own library for local contract and decision making.