Riverside County Library System | |
---|---|
Established | 1911 |
Location | Library Management Offices 5840 Mission Blvd. Riverside, California 92509, USA 951-369-3003 Fax 951-369-6801 Hours: M-F 8-5 |
Branches | 35, 2 museums and 2 resource vans |
Collection | |
Size | 1,550,173 books and periodicals 52,742 audio materials (CDs, audiobooks) 23,731 video items (DVDs and VHS tapes) |
Access and use | |
Circulation | 3,464,547 items 42% are children's materials 3,170,424 visits/year 127,717 program attendance/year |
Population served | 1,094,681 |
Other information | |
Director | Barbara Howison (Director and County Librarian) |
Staff | 214 (FTEs) 31 ALA-accredited librarians |
Website | www |
Map | |
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The Riverside County Library System (RCLS), located in Riverside County, California, United States, is a public library system composed of 35 libraries, two museums and two mobile resource vans. The RCLS is a member of the Inland Library Network. [1] It is the first library system in the nation that turned over its entire operation to a private company. [2]
Prior to July 1997, the Riverside County public libraries were managed by the city of Riverside, California. When property tax money was diverted from libraries to schools in the early 1990s, the library system began to experience cut in hours, dwindling collections, and staff lay-offs. In July 1997, the County hired Library Systems and Services, Inc., located in Germantown, Maryland to operate its sprawling public library system. All library employees, except for the county librarian, janitorial service, and landscape maintenance, work for the private company. [3] LS&S divided the library system into three districts, increased hours within each district and added staff. [2] For its success, the RCLS Management Outsourcing Program became the 1998 National Council for Public-Private Partnerships Project Award Winner. [4]
In November 2007, RCLS sponsored a retrospective exhibit of photographs portraying 125 years of Riverside County library history, "The Libraries of Riverside County: A Millennium of Service" in the lobby of the UC Riverside Science Library as well as traveling over 250 miles throughout the county. The exhibit was viewed by over 275,000 people during its year long exhibition. It commemorated public, private, academic, medical and tribal libraries in Riverside County. [6] In 2022, the System celebrates 25 years since the merger with LS&S.
Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies 23 miles (37 km) east of Palm Springs, 75 miles (121 km) east of Riverside, 127 miles (204 km) east of Los Angeles, 148 miles (238 km) northeast of San Diego, and 250 miles (402 km) west of Phoenix.
La Quinta is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. Located between Indian Wells and Indio, it is one of the nine cities of the Coachella Valley. The population was 37,467 at the 2010 census, up from 23,694 at the 2000 census. The Robb Report credits La Quinta as the leading golf destination in the US. Among those destinations is the La Quinta Resort and Club, a resort dating to 1926, where director Frank Capra wrote the screenplay for Lost Horizon. The Tom Fazio-designed golf course at The Quarry at La Quinta is ranked among the top 100 golf courses in the United States. In January 2008, the Arnold Palmer Classic Course at the city's SilverRock Golf Resort became one of the four host golf courses for the annual Bob Hope Chrysler Classic PGA golf tournament.
A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants.
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The University of California, Riverside is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres (769 ha) in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres (8 ha) in Palm Desert. In 1907, the predecessor to UCR was founded as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside which pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world's most important research collections on citrus diversity and entomology, as well as science fiction and photography, are located at Riverside.
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central reference and research library for state government and the Legislature. The California State Library advises, consults with and provides technical assistance to California's public libraries. It directs state and federal funds to support local public libraries and statewide library programs, including Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grants. The California State Library's mission is to serve as "...the state’s information hub, preserving California’s cultural heritage and connecting people, libraries and government to the resources and tools they need to succeed and to build a strong California." With the exception of the Sutro Library in the J. Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University, the other three branches are located in Sacramento, California, at 914 Capitol Mall, 900 N Street and at the State Capitol.
Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport in Riverside County, California, United States. It is located in the southeastern Coachella Valley, 20 nautical miles southeast of the central business district of Palm Springs, in Thermal, California. This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.
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The Escondido Public Library is a public library system serving the city of Escondido, which is situated in San Diego County, California. The collection of the library contains 166,629 volumes, circulates 514,792 items per year and serves a population of 151,613 residents.
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The Riverside County Sheriff's Department, also known as the Riverside Sheriff's Office (RSO), is a law enforcement agency in Riverside County, in the U.S. state of California. Overseen by an elected sheriff-coroner, the department serves unincorporated areas of Riverside County as well as some of the incorporated cities in the county by contract. 17 of the county's 26 cities, with populations ranging from 4,958 to 193,365, contract with the department for police services. The county hospital and one tribal community also contract with the department for proactive policing. Riverside County is home to 12 federally recognized Indian reservations. Absent proactive policing and traffic enforcement, the department is responsible for enforcing criminal law on all Native American tribal land within the county. This function is mandated by Public Law 280, enacted in 1953, which transferred the responsibility of criminal law enforcement on tribal land from the federal government to specified state governments including California. The department also operates the county's jail system.
The Alameda County Library, in Alameda County, California, is a public library system that provides services from ten branch libraries in the cities of Albany, Dublin, Fremont, Newark and Union City and the unincorporated communities of Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. According to 2005/2006 statistics, the total service area represents a population of about 522,000, and annual circulation is reported to be around 5.5 million. Its headquarters are located in Fremont.
The Grace Mellman Community Library, located in Temecula, California, is a member of the Riverside County Library System. As a full-service library, it has over 80,000 items, and offers materials, programs, and services for all ages which include guest speakers, free movie nights and a monthly book club.
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