This year, we’re celebrating 35 years of library service in SaddleBrooke!
Your SaddleBrooke Community Libraries are one system with three libraries, located in the HOA-1 Clubhouse, the DesertView building and the MountainView Clubhouse. Last year, the libraries loaned out over 47,000 items to SaddleBrooke residents. The libraries offer more than 13,000 books and AV materials, including about 10,000 items listed in the online catalog for the SaddleBrooke One and DesertView Libraries. You can find Fiction and nonfiction books, large print books, paperbacks, audiobooks and CD players; movies and TV series on DVD; and a number of special collections. We have 76 volunteers who staff and manage the libraries, and select, order and catalog new materials. And with funding from the Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries, we add over 1,300 new items every year to the library collections.
How did we achieve this? It all started shortly after the SaddleBrooke One Clubhouse opened. In 1990, a few residents brought books to the cozy fireplace room in the clubhouse. These pioneering volunteers managed the early library operations, collecting donated books and selling some to raise funds to buy a few new books a month. The library expanded to a nearby room for paperbacks, movies on VHS tape and a small card catalog. Residents checked out books using a notebook.
By 1999, the MountainView Clubhouse had opened, with a room that had a fireplace, and many bookshelves partly filled with decorative books used for staging model homes. The shelves that were easily accessible became a library for resident use, stocked with donated books and a notebook to record checked out books. Paperbacks were offered on three small bookcases that were frequently moved to different areas in the clubhouse.
Around 2001 to 2002 change was in the wind. The Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries was formed primarily to raise funds to buy new books and other resources for the libraries. HOA-1 had plans to remodel the clubhouse and expand the library space. HOA-2 was planning a new building to house a theater and fitness center. Forward thinking residents advocated to include space for a larger library.
In 2003, I accepted the new volunteer role as Library Coordinator, to oversee the libraries as one system, and help plan the remodeling of the HOA-1 Library and a new library in what was to become the DesertView building. Happily, Robson was receptive to information we provided about library shelving and other requirements for the new library.
The new DesertView Library opened in 2005 with suitable library shelving but short book stacks and very few books. The Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries (FSL) campaigned to Fill the Shelves and residents responded. The shelves quickly filled up as FSL membership and funding both increased.
In the spring of 2006, the SaddleBrooke One Library reopened. The Fiction room was added along with a work room that had a window. Now we had three functional libraries.
In 2013, plans were underway to remodel the MountainView clubhouse. The oddly shaped Cholla room was transformed into a Library. Its small size was conducive to an honor system library stocked mostly with donated books. It continues to be very popular as there are no due dates!
The library collections kept growing as did the number of materials loaned out each year. With support from HOA-2, shelving space at the DesertView Library was extended higher. Additional shelving was added for the DVDs, a children’s collection and the special collections.
With all this growth, our catalog system had to keep up. We moved from the card catalog to an Excel database, and then to an online system. In 2014, we migrated to the cloud hosted Evolve system we have today, which allows you to search, reserve and renew books online. We can access extensive catalog data from other libraries, and obtain detailed statistics. Through all of these changes, the two HOAs have equally shared the annual cost for our library catalog.
The Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries continue to provide generous funding annually for the purchase of new library materials, while the HOAs provide the facilities and IT support.
We have much to celebrate! Learn more about the Libraries at sblibraries.com.
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