The California Room, a historical resource at San Jose’s King Library, has earned a reprieve from threatened closure after pushback from supporters.
The repository, tucked away in a quiet room on the fifth floor of the MLK library, serves as a home to the study of the history of the Santa Clara Valley. The records span decades of local and state history, from large city planning maps to thousands of regional texts.
After 23 years in that location, the room was targeted for possible shutdown by the financially strapped city, until the San Jose City Council voted earlier this month to keep it going for at least one more year, although with cuts in staffing and hours.
An avenue for research and preservation
The action came as a relief to Ben Leech, head of the San Jose Preservation Action Council. Leech cited the value of the room in city planning, with its decades of historic records that detail construction and are crucial to San Jose development.
“This is raw material that feeds a huge spectrum of cultural output.”
— Ben Leech, San Jose Preservation Action Council head
“This is raw material that feeds a huge spectrum of cultural output,” he said. For example, some urban construction and renovation projects require structural and zoning data that can be easily accessed at the California Room. “I think the California Room’s real strength was in being open and publicly accessible,” Leech said.
He said he tries in his role at the council to highlight the history of places that aren’t well known or are underappreciated. “Almost every issue that we’re working on, I will go to the California Room to learn more about it,” he said. “That’s the first place I will go to sort of uncover the history of the place that will hopefully lead to more public interest.”
Rory Fukuda, 68, a longtime San Jose resident, exhibited his intricate Japantown model for a month at the California Room. “You don’t really need it every day, but when you do, it’s there,” he said of the room. “There aren’t many resources and centers where you can go, and there aren’t many places online, either, where you could find that kind of information that they have.”
Students regularly utilize the California Room for its free digitization services, which to users can be a convenient resource compared to high-cost online alternatives. “I like their digital conversion station that they have, where they convert analog stuff to digital,” Fukuda said. “That’s something that most people only know how to pay for.”
Staffing cuts raise concern
While Fukuda is glad the room survived through the compromise, he worries about the logistics of a new two-day schedule. “That’s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works,” he said. “If you’re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.”
“That’s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works. If you’re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.”
— Rory Fukuda, San Jose resident
The initial proposed cut would have reassigned all staff and closed public access to the room, saving the city around $400,000. However, after public outcry, the council unanimously voted on a last-minute compromise for the 2026-2027 budget year,.
“That’s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works,” he said. “If you’re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.”
The compromise leaves the room open to the public for two days a week and cuts the staffing to one full-time librarian and one part-time.
“Hopefully our budget will be better and we can continue to provide that as a core service,” said San Jose Councilman David Cohen during budget deliberations. “That room has been part of the library since it opened 25 years ago, and should continue to be so.”
Despite the cuts to staff and hours, Leech was relieved about what was saved. “What we felt was most important was maintaining the institutional knowledge of the 1.5 librarians that they will keep,” he said. “The positions are so intimately familiar with the collections that losing them, or having them reassigned, would have been really detrimental.”
Looking ahead to any cuts in the future, Leech found a “silver lining.”
“Decision-makers now realize that there is a vocal constituency that really does value it and is willing to speak up for it,” he said. “I hope that in the next year, more people will take it less for granted and use it. And that will further encourage the city to recognize that this is something that they shouldn’t think of as dispensable.”
Anya Joseph is a member of the class of 2028 at Foothill High School in Pleasanton.
Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.