Libraries have long been known as a place for shushing, where quiet was not only encouraged but enforced. But times have changed, and many libraries around the country are attempting to reinvent themselves as social hubs. In Santa Clara County, the Gilroy Library is leading that charge — and finding success with the approach.
“We’re seeing a resurgence,” Gilroy’s Children’s Librarian Rosa Hughes de la Rosa said in an interview. “The library is no longer this quiet place for studying; it’s a place for community.”
Hughes de la Rosa, who is also a classically trained vocal musician, leads the library’s well-attended and popular morning storytimes. Families flock to them in droves to hear her teach kids about things like what sound Pancho the Perro, a dog puppet, makes. (It’s “woof.”) She sings and reads as children laugh and follow along intently.
After libraries were ordered to temporarily shut their doors in the COVID-19 pandemic, library staff had the daunting task of finding a way to bring residents back. But after service adjustments and special renovations, Gilroy’s library — the third-largest county library behind Cupertino and Milpitas — is finally seeing numbers trending toward pre-pandemic levels.
Library officials told this news organization that Gilroy saw a 20% increase in library visits in July compared to the same month in 2024. It appears to have had the largest increase in that time frame, with Saratoga showing a 17% increase, 13% in Milpitas and 7% in Morgan Hill.
Additionally, the Gilroy Library in June saw a 190% increase in daily visits compared to June of 2021, officials said.
“We really had to reassess how people access the library,” said Gilroy’s Community Librarian Cassandra Wong of the dramatic increases. “The pandemic really encouraged us to make these changes.”
The changes include the addition of a new 548-square-foot indoor Storybook play space called the Earthen Excursion, modeled after the library’s official mascot, MoleBot.
This new play space has specially designed devices that promote learning through obstacles to climb on and flashy buttons to press. But it also includes learning devices, such as words splattered throughout the play space in both English and Spanish, to better serve the prominent bilingual community in Gilroy.
Library officials largely attribute the recent surges in patronage to the new play spaces and say they are bringing in users who had never been to the library before.
As part of a $9 million project within the Santa Clara County system, Gilroy, Saratoga, Milpitas and Morgan Hill all have new play spaces, with Campbell, Cupertino and Los Altos expected to open theirs in the next year. Campbell will unveil the next one in November as part of its grand reopening, following the library’s major renovations.
Over the last few years, Gilroy has also implemented other new programs and services that it didn’t offer before. For example, now the library staff serve meals Monday through Friday during the summer at 1 p.m. for children and young people up to 18 years old. The library also hired an outreach specialist, who connects people experiencing homelessness to housing, employment and health care resources.
“Libraries are radical places,” Wong said. “And we take that tenet very seriously.”
The idea is for kids and their families to be able to invigorate their learning early in the day with an interactive storytime at 10:30 a.m., play for a short while and continue to keep their mind active in the play space, refuel their learning with a meal at 1 p.m. and finish the day with some extra reading and play through the afternoon.
Other counties around the Bay Area are also seeing a mass return to libraries since the pandemic, at least partly due to new programs and service changes.
Contra Costa County Librarian Alison McKee told this news organization that her area’s visitation numbers are almost the same as pre-pandemic through this fiscal year, according to their latest data.
“We are back,” McKee said. “We’ve really done things that we’ve never done before.”
This includes new advertisements on local buses and new TV ads marketing the library as a community gathering space.
“We’re modern spaces. … You walk into libraries now, and it’s not all about quiet reading spaces. We have noisy storytimes sometimes. We have big events with lots of people,” said Brooke Converse, a Contra Costa County library spokeswoman. “Libraries are extremely interesting places that go far beyond books.”
San Mateo County Director of Library Services Anne Marie Despain said that her county libraries are seeing patron numbers “nearing pre-pandemic levels” through this fiscal year, but haven’t quite matched them yet. However, she also noted that digital material circulation, such as e-books, audio books and movies, has “far exceeded” pre-pandemic levels, she said.
She added that residents have repeatedly shown a growing need for additional senior and social services at the library.
“Libraries, especially during the pandemic, have adapted pretty well,” Despain said. “There’s still our hallmark, traditional services, but I think libraries have done a good job at adapting to community needs. It will be interesting to see what comes next.”
Alameda County libraries have also expanded some services since the pandemic, according to spokeswoman Alicia Reyes. While some locations’ visitation numbers haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, others have seen major increases.
“During the pandemic, we shifted our service model to one with an equity focus, and ramped up our efforts to bring services to communities that face barriers getting to our brick-and-mortar libraries,” Reyes said. “We expanded our mobile and outreach services, and now provide library collections at social service and community centers, day cares and shelters.”
In Gilroy, this new era of library services is also attracting patrons from outside of the county to explore the fresh facilities.
“We just really appreciate the storytime here,” said Johnny Romero, a Hollister resident who has often brought his three-year-old son to Gilroy since the play space opened.
Jennifer Weeks, Santa Clara County’s community librarian, said that “all children deserve joyful learning spaces” and that the county is “focused on creating an equitable experience for every child wherever you live in the county.”
“They have individual themes that feature local flora and fauna and funness that are specific to Los Altos or specific to Milpitas, and at the same time, have those activities that are really important for those early literacy skill builds that children really need most,” Weeks said.
Ankur Ambastha, a 34-year-old Sunnyvale resident, brought her six-month-old daughter to Saratoga’s new Redwood Romp play space, which opened earlier this year.
“I think it’s way more engaging, because there’s so many colors and different kinds of structures and everything — more like an outdoor playground, but it’s nice,” Ambastha said. “It’s inside, it’s clean and there’s so much to look at, so many kids are running around. So, I mean, especially for a baby, this is a very different experience.”
