Volume 5 Number 2 - Fall, 2010
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The Big Read

The Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends has received a $6,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to help fund a project known as The Big Read, and an additional $6,000 is being matched by local contributions. Santa Clara is one of 75 recipients to receive funding to host a local Big Read project, where one of 31 literary works is chosen to be read, discussed and celebrated. The Big Read is a community event that includes involvement from fifteen lo- cal institutions, including the Santa Clara City Library, Santa Clara Unified School District, the Triton Museum, Mission College, Santa Clara University, the California Legacy Project and many others.

The selected work for the Santa Clara Big Read, the first city-wide reading program, is The Call of the Wild by Jack London. From March to April 2011, there will be book readings, events, demonstrations, and activities targeted at different groups within the community to help encourage the reading and discussion of the book. The intent of the program is to get as many Santa Clarans reading and discussing this storied tale.
“It is exciting that this grant will provide opportunities for the Santa Clara community to read and discuss a great American novel by a world- famous author that opens in Santa Clara in a location that still can be visited today,” notes Santa Clara’s Local History Librarian Mary Hanel.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. For more information about The Big Read, please visit www.neabigread.org.

© Naturablichter | Dreamstime.com
Jack London’s
The Call of the Wild
City-wide Read
500 Copies to be Given Away
Over 20 Events to be Held

Getting Out of a Reading Rut

Is your to-read shelf a gazillion miles long but wholly unenticing? Does that pile next to your bed consist of books that only held your interest for a few pages? Is your usual tried-and-true genre letting you down? Sounds like you’re in a reading rut—but all hope is not lost! It’s simply time to branch out, and here are just a few suggestions:
Explore the sub-genre. If you like mysteries, try some authors with a different bent. For instance, did you know there are many authors writing mysteries that revolve around food, some of which have recipes in cluded?

Branch way out. Try something completely new, like a graphic novel. Comics aren’t just for kids! Start off with the well-regarded Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi or Stitches by David Small. And while you’re at it, take a gander at Young Adult literature, where there are many gems to be found. Start with The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

Seek help. Come to the Library and the staff can help you find something new to read.

It’s time to experiment; you never know what you might discover!

Meet Julie Passalacqua, Santa Clara's New City Librarian

By Lance Jacobs, Foundation and Friends Volunteer
June of 2010 saw the appointment of Julie Passalacqua as the new Santa Clara City Librarian. While this post is something new for Julie, there is little she has not experienced in her 35-year tenure with the Santa Clara City Library. Previously the Assistant City Librarian, Julie has now stepped into the driver’s seat of an award-winning institution that lends out more than 2.78 million items annually.

Julie got her start as a library assistant while an undergraduate at Santa Clara University, where filing catalog cards in the university’s massive catalog rooms was one of her jobs. As her knowledge grew, so did her abilities and her desire to help fellow students navigate the system to find what they needed. Today Julie maintains: “It’s not really about the books, it’s about the people! Connecting the community to the materials and resources available at the Library is essential, as well as providing a space for people of all ages and cultures to come together for programs, workshops and celebrations.” Since the Library had over 1.4 million visitors last year, a penchant for helping people is certainly key to making things work.

The recent economic downturn has impacted the Library in unfortunate ways: budget cuts trans- late into reduced library hours, which leads to bigger crowds and longer waits; staff reductions mean fewer people doing the same amount of work; library facilities become used, worn and broken, and questions linger about what should be prioritized—can you imagine what 2.8 million footsteps actually do to carpet? Dealing with problems like these is part of the daily balancing act that is Julie’s job.

While technology continues to alter the Library experience, Julie’s mission for the Library remains essentially unchanged: to help as many people as possible gain access to the Library and its materials. This encompasses not only books and magazines, but also summer reading programs for kids and adults, Internet access, and programming from diverse sources such as Kaiser Permanente, the Mission City Opera, and Agilent Technology’s hands-on science for kids.

Looking for a job? Check out Career Transitions!

The library’s new electronic resource for job seekers, Career Transitions, is now available. Not only can you find current job openings or create a resume, but you can also fill out a career interest questionnaire which will then point you toward careers matching your interests.

Within the library or from home, access this resource via the Electronic Resources page on the Library’s website (http://bit.ly/a7Z8qa). Choose the Career Transitions database and create an account.

Brainfuse: Homework Help for Grades K–12

It’s back-to-school time, and homework can be frustrating for kids and parents alike. Free help is available through Brainfuse, a provider of one-on-one tutoring to students (grades K–12) in math, science, social studies, and English/language arts. This service, available from 1:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. every day in both English and Spanish, is supported by funding from the Santa Clara City Library Foundation and Friends.

To use Brainfuse, click on the Free Live Online Tutoring button on the right side of the Library’s home page (http://library.santaclaraca.gov/), enter your SCCL card number, choose Homework Help, then select the grade level and the subject. You’ll quickly be communicating with a certified, screened tutor through a chat session using an interactive white board.

Brainfuse also offers a writing lab, foreign language instruction, and live skills building. Call the Youth Services Department at 615-2916 for more information.

Laptops for Literacy

“The laptop has been helping me learn more. I like to use it because it’s easy and fun.”
—Silvester G.

Silvester and other adult learners in the Read Santa Clara program have benefitted from the Library’s acquisition of six Dell laptops that help bridge the “digital divide,” using technology to help adults with limited literacy skills. They use the laptops both during weekly two-hour tutoring sessions and on their own to improve their reading, writing, math and computer skills. The laptops were made possible by grants from the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends, the Mission City Community Fund, and through individual donations.

A frequent user of the Read Santa Clara laptops, Hiwet S., says, “I appreciate the people who donated computers for people like me to use. I used a computer for the first time after I joined the literacy program. I don’t have a computer at home. Now with the help of my tutor, I use a laptop at Mission library to check my email and find information on the Internet. I also use it to learn phonics with the Ultimate Phonics pro- gram. The laptop is really easy to use—I like it!”

To learn about volunteering for the Read Santa Clara program, call (408) 615-2956 or email readsantaclara@santaclaraca.gov.

Safari Books Online

Safari Books Online is now available through the Library website. Safari Books Online offers computer, technical, and business books from publishers such as O’Reilly, Peachpit Press, and Que, in electronic formats (PDF and HTML) that you can read online using a standard web browser. From the Electronic Resources page (http://bit.ly/a7Z8qa), choose the Safari Books Online database to see over 3,700 titles. This service is available from both inside and outside the Library. There is a limit to the number of simultaneous users, so if you are denied access, try again at a later time.

Santa Clara's History to Be Digitized

Thanks to grant funds from the Santa Clara Historic Home Tour and generous donations from the Santa Clara City Library Foundation and Friends, a project with Backstage Library Works is now underway to microfilm and digitize eighteen Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce Scrapbooks covering the years 1937– 1961. Brittle and unimpressive in appearance, these scrapbooks are nevertheless a treasure trove of information about how and why a small rural town like Santa Clara with under 6,500 people in 1937 grew tenfold in population in less than 25 years.

Backstage Library Works will microfilm these fragile scrapbooks to assure their long-term archival preservation and then will digitize the microfilm to provide more options for distribution and accessibility. When the microfilm and digitized records are received, the table of content indexes will be put online on the Library’s Local History web page (http://bit.ly/b0x- VWe) for all to see. Based on the number of research questions answered using the scrapbooks, Local History Librarian Mary Hanel believes historians, journalists, students, and city planners of the future will be delighted that the story told by these scrap- books is being preserved and made more accessible.