California Room<\/a>. \u201cI think the California Room\u2019s real strength was in being open and publicly accessible,\u201d Leech said.\u00a0<\/p>\nHe said he tries in his role at the council to highlight the history of places that aren\u2019t well known or are underappreciated. \u201cAlmost every issue that we\u2019re working on, I will go to the California Room to learn more about it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the first place I will go to sort of uncover the history of the place that will hopefully lead to more public interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BCN-20260619-CALROOM-02.jpg\")
The closure of the King Library\u2019s California Room in San Jose has been temporarily averted. The library will remain open for at least another year after a City Council vote. (Anya Joseph\/Mosaic via Bay City News)<\/p>\n
Rory Fukuda, 68, a longtime San Jose resident, exhibited his intricate Japantown model for a month at the California Room. \u201cYou don\u2019t really need\u00a0 it every day, but when you do, it\u2019s there,\u201d he said of the room. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many resources and centers where you can go, and there aren\u2019t many places online, either, where you could find that kind of information that they have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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. \u201cI like their digital conversion station that they have, where they convert analog stuff to digital,\u201d Fukuda said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that most people only know how to pay for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staffing cuts raise concern<\/p>\n
While Fukuda is glad the room survived through the compromise, he worries about the logistics of a new two-day schedule. \u201cThat\u2019s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works. If you\u2019re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2014 Rory Fukuda, San Jose resident<\/p>\n
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,.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not sustainable. That would definitely negatively impact how the archive works,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re short-staffed, the archives are not going to be maintained properly.\u201d <\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully our budget will be better and we can continue to provide that as a core service,\u201d said San Jose Councilman David Cohen during budget deliberations. \u201cThat room has been part of the library since it opened 25 years ago, and should continue to be so.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the cuts to staff and hours, Leech was relieved about what was saved. \u201cWhat we felt was most important was maintaining the institutional knowledge of the 1.5 librarians that they will keep,\u201d he said. \u201cThe positions are so intimately familiar with the collections that losing them, or having them reassigned, would have been really detrimental.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to any cuts in the future, Leech found a \u201csilver lining.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDecision-makers now realize that there is a vocal constituency that really does value it and is willing to speak up for it,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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\u2019t think of as dispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anya Joseph is a member of the class of 2028 at Foothill High School in Pleasanton.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Room, a historical resource at San Jose\u2019s King Library, has earned a reprieve from threatened closure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[33959,2076,4110,20620,18912,418,35921,37991,55584,6080,88,5500,90,89,198],"class_list":["post-370500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-archive","tag-budget","tag-funding","tag-funding-cuts","tag-high-school-students","tag-history","tag-library","tag-preservation","tag-records","tag-research","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-city-council","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}