Ventura County Library Wins Multiple Awards

The implementation of open+ helped Ventura create morning “Express Hours” to complement their budgeted staffed hours, increasing the Hill Road Library’s hours of operation by 30%. As a result, the California County Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA) awarded Ventura County Library the 2018 Innovation Award for large counties in the Business Process Re-Engineering Automation Category.

CCISDA is the official organization of the county IT directors and CIO’s throughout the state of California. CCISDA represents all 58 California counties in the area of information technology and county government.

The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) also presented Ventura County Library with a Merit Award in their 2018 Challenge Awards, again for the “Library Express Hours” project at the Hill Road Library. CSAC’s annual statewide program honors innovation and best practices in county government. Ventura County Library’s project was selected as one of 36 Merit awards out of 267 entries. An independent panel of judges with expertise in county programs selected the award recipients.

“We are extremely honored to partner with the Ventura County Library. Not only are we thrilled to be able to extend open library hours to their community, but we are grateful for the valuable feedback received from the library during the installation that will help us continue to evolve the solution for North American libraries,” says Matthew Bellamy, bibliotheca President Americas.

To celebrate the success of Ventura County Library’s open+ initiative, bibliotheca hosted an open house at the Hill Road branch in the late summer. Twenty-five librarians representing over twenty separate systems from across California and beyond gathered to see open+ in action, learn about Ventura’s experience with the solution, and brainstorm how open+ may be able to help other libraries increase their impact and meet their goals.

“We are extremely happy to have been able to not only open a new library branch on the east side of Ventura, but to extend the hours of access to the community who values it so highly! We have examples of parents with young children who weren’t able to use the library before we had open+, examples of people dropping by before their work hours to pick up their holds. Sharing true stories lets everyone see that open+ is making a real difference in the community and the level of access we can provide to library services – which is really what we all want at the end of the day,” says Nancy Schram, Ventura County Library Director.

About Ventura County Library

Ventura County Library is a public library system of 12 community libraries in Ventura County, California, organized in 1916. At the time of its centennial in 2016, the system provided access to 412,715 physical volumes and more than 500,000 virtual items to its nearly 300,000 card holders.

Ventura County Library is committed to strengthening communities by helping community members be successful in their educational and work goals and improving their overall quality of life. We are committed to providing the communities we serve with the very best of what libraries can provide in as many ways and as conveniently as possible.

Our communities are a vital part of deciding how to create and improve our libraries. We listen for their voices and respond to their ideas. We invite and welcome everyone to engage in lifelong learning with us at Ventura County Library. At the Ventura County Library, we inspire our community to explore, discover, and connect.