Table of Contents
“Musical Mornings” for
Kids and Families This Fall
Helpful Programs For Hard Times —
Coming This Fall!
Thank You for Supporting the
Library
Many Thanks To Our Generous Donors
Wilcox High School Yearbooks
Are You on Facebook? It's Easy to
Become a Fan of the Library!
New Research Databases at the
Library
Library to Receive a Legacy Gift from
Patron & Volunteer
Share Your Love of Reading by Teaching
Others How to Read
Searching for Your Ancestors? Start—or
Expand—Your Rearch Here!
Brainfuse! Live, One-toOne, Online
Tutoring for Students in Grades 3–12
September Is “Library Card Sign-Up
Month”
Upcoming Events
Thanks to a Foundation and Friends grant awarded at this year’s “Spring Chocolate Party,” the Central Park Library will host two “Musical Mornings” this fall. Musical Mornings are live music performances especially for young children and their families. And everyone who attends will be encouraged to sing, clap, and dance along!
Saturday, September 19 at 10:30 A.M. Andy Z, a popular Bay Area children’s musician, will perform songs loved by kids and adults alike in his unique zany style.
Saturday, October 24 at 10:30 A.M. Eric Herman is traveling all the way from the state of Washington to perform his “Cool Tunes for Kids.”
Both events will be in the Redwood Room of the Central Park Library, and will last approximately 45 minutes. No advance registration is required. See you there!
Friends Olivia (left) and Danielle (right) sang along with the big pop hits at the Library’s Hannah Montana Karaoke Party in May.
Life can present a variety of challenges during difficult economic times, and the Library’s very large number of resources can help patrons deal with many of these challenges. At the Library you will find online access to job-search web sites, word-processing software for preparing resumes, books and magazine articles on how to create winning resumes, and DVDs on interviewing for a new job. The Library also offers helpful Internet classes on hunting for a new job.
In addition to the many resources available covering such topics as: creating a resume, searching for a job, preparing for a career change, dealing with foreclosure, hunting for less-expensive housing, locating bargains, and coping with stress, the Library’s Adult Services Division is planning a series of events this fall titled “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” to help patrons through the economic recession. Specific events will appear in the calendar and the “What’s New” section on the Library’s web page as they are announced.
The first event, Small Business Administration Program, will take place on Tuesday, October 20, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. At this 2-hour workshop, small business owners and prospective business entrepre- neurs will learn how programs offered by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) can help them start, manage, and grow their companies.
Nationwide, many public libraries are limiting their services this year because of drastic budget cuts. However, here in Santa Clara you’ll find the same services available as usual. Why is your Library different? Well, the City’s conservative financial management and the continued strong funding of the Library through the Foundation and Friends are two major reasons.
Whenever you’ve bought a used book at our bookstore or during a Saturday Book Sale, or donated funds or mate- rials, or volunteered with the Foundation & Friends, you have helped strengthen your Library.
With your help, the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends was again able to fund “Brainfuse Online Home- work Help,” the Summer Reading programs, the Kaiser Permanente Health and Wellness Collection, and the “Read Santa Clara”literacy programs—all presented at levels comparable to previous years.
Over $250,000 in donations were raised in the 2008–2009 fiscal year. In fact, during this fiscal year the number of donors who have contributed—and the amount of funds raised—is greater than ever before.
The Foundation & Friends is fortunate to have so many people who care about the Library and help support it. We offer our sincere thanks to all of you for all that you give and for all that you do. To learn more about our organiza- tion, please visit our web site at www.lovethelibrary.org or call me at 615-2978.
Maria Daane Executive Director
2009
Summer Reading Kick-Off Event.
The Foundation & Friends raised over
$25,000 this year to support the summer reading
programs. Over 4,000 children and adults were
enrolled!
The Foundation & Friends is able to make great things happen at the Library due to the kindness of our many donors and the work of our volunteers. Listed below are a few of our donors who gave gener- ously during our 2008–2009 fiscal year.
Corporate & Organizational Sponsors
- Kaiser Permanente: $25,000 contribution for the Health and Wellness Collection
- Applied Materials: $10,000 for the Library’s Summer Reading Program
- Fairfield Residential LLC: $5,000 for the Summer Reading Program
- National 1st Credit Union: $5,000 for the Library’s 5th Birthday Party Celebration
- San Francisco Forty-Niners: $5,000 for the 5th Birthday Party Celebration
- Mission City Community Fund: $4,000 for the Summer Reading Program
- Rotary Club of Santa Clara: $2,000 for the Early- Learning Literacy Program for Low-Income Families
- Michael J. Kirsch Foundation: $1,650 for the Children’s Endowment and other projects
- Santa Clara Historical Homes Tour: $1,275 for the Local History Collection
- Intel Corporation: $1,160 as a Corporate Matching Gift based on total volunteer hours donated
- Target Corporation: $1,000 for the Early-Learning Literacy Program for Low-Income Families
Individual Donors
Individuals who contributed $500 or more during the past year: Thomas Biagini, Lee Broughman, Maria Daane & Chi Dang, Carol A. Jossi, Helene Leichter, Pat & James McElroy, Louise McFarlane, Sandra S. Rich, Neelambari Paradkar & Suhas Thakurdesai, Virgil Parsons, Ferdousi Rahman & Shahriar Akramullah, Jennifer Robinson, Karen & Gregg Saunders, David Stringer-Calvert, Nancy Toledo, Ken & Nancy Young.
The most popular resource in the Central Park Library’s local history collection is the high school yearbook collection. Located next to the old Santa Clara City Directories, these old school yearbooks serve as an excellent source of local history and genealogical information.
Some people use them to look for the local advertisements written to appeal to teenagers at the time. Other readers want to see the hair and clothing styles of a certain era. And some users are searching for pictures of parents or grandparents when they were in high school. Or for the photograph of a favor ite teacher. The Library’s yearbook collection also provides great ideas for planning class reunions.
The Wilcox High Yearbook Collection. Until recently the Library’s collection of local high school yearbooks—those for Santa Clara, Wilcox, Peter- son and Buchser—was incomplete. Then, in April, Wilcox High School presented the Library several of the yearbooks that were missing.
The addition of missing yearbooks actually began five years ago, when Joe Miller, the head custodian and an honorary archivist for Wilcox High, found extra copies of many yearbooks from the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He presented them to the Library and they are now part of the new Central Park Library Heritage Pavilion collection.
Then, when Bob Buchser, a retired Principle of Wilcox High School, donated an 1881 “Examination of Teachers” book that had belonged to his father, Emil Buchser, a former Superintendent of the Santa Clara Unified School District, he learned about the incomplete Wilcox High yearbook collection. Bob then suggested that the Library contact Wilcox High Vice Principal, Kathleen McDonald, who had been one of his students. Kathleen then helped the Library to obtain a copy of each of the 18 missing Wilcox yearbooks.
First Library Building Dedicated in 1955. The Library also learned that Kathleen’s mother, Thelma Keech, had been the Chair of the Santa Clara Public Library Board of Trustees when the first Santa Clara Public Library building, located at Lexington and Main Streets—now the Mission Library Family Reading Center—opened and was dedicated in October 1955!
Now Perhaps You Can Help. Yearbooks are still missing from its Santa Clara High School collection: The years needed are 1972 through 1983, and 1992 through 1997. If you know someone who would be willing to donate one of these missing yearbooks, please contact Local History Librarian Mary Hanel at 615-2909 or email: mhanel@santaclaraca.gov.
Thelma Keech (3rd from right) attends dedication of first Santa Clara City Library on October 30,1955
Thelma Keech receives a new American flag for the first Santa Clara City Library
Do you do Facebook? Become a fan of the Santa Clara City Library, and stay up to date on the latest library news and events! You’ll also have access to exclusive content like video book reviews from staff and patrons—delivered directly to your news feed.
If Facebook is new to you, this Palo Alto-based company has revolutionized the way people use the Internet to stay connected to family, friends, and organizations across the globe. You can sign up now for a free account at www.facebook.com.
The Library now offers a new collection of electronic databases from EBSCOhost, one of the largest private information service companies in the world. You can find these new databases on the “Research Databases” link of the Library’s web site.
Look for the “NEW” icon—there are over thirty—to access the databases, which will give you an amazing amount of information on a wide range of topics.
MasterFILE Premier, for example, contains full-text articles from over 1,700 magazines and periodicals covering business, arts, cultural, health, education, science, and multicultural studies. MasterFILE Premier also provides easy access to nearly 500 full-text reference books; over 160,000 primary source documents; and an image collection of over 400,000 photos, maps and images.
Other highlights of these new electronic resources include full-text access to:
- Consumer Reports
- Academic Search Complete
- Consumer Health Complete (also in Spanish)
- Business Source Complete
- Points of View Reference Center
- Literary Reference Center
- Career Library (with resume builder, college information, and ACT/SAT quizzes)
- You also will find detailed information on animals, arts, business, history, legal issues, science, technology—and much more—for both adults and children.
- Users can email, download, or print the results of their research. They can also easily obtain the correct bibliographic citation format—a great boon to high school and college students. Anyone with a current Santa Clara City Library card can access these new databases at both the Central Park Library and the Mission Library Family Reading Center.
If you need assistance using the new EBSCOhost databases, stop by the Reference Desk, call 615-2900, or email “Ask a Librarian,” which you’ll find on the Library’s web site.
The EBSCO login screen is your key to accessing thousands of reference publications, reference books, primary source documents, and over 400,000 photos, maps and flags. Just select MasterFile Premier from the Research Databases page on the Library’s web site, enter your Library card number and search away!
Lee Broffman, a long-time library volunteer, has announced that she is including a monetary gift to the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends in her will. Following is a recent interview with Lee about her decision:
How did you decide what should be done with your assets at the end of your life? About fifteen years ago while planning for retirement I went to an attor- ney to have the will drawn up. My attorney was also very helpful in guiding me through the process of making the many choices that doing a will requires.
What did you choose to do? I wanted my family to be free from the typical issues that can occur when someone passes away.
So my will states that all of my assets will be sold and a percentage of whatever assets I have will go to a number of relatives and a few charities—including the Friends & Foundation. By basing my gifts on a percentage of assets I can enjoy them now without any concerns about not fulfilling specified gift amounts.
Why did you decide to leave money to the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends? Well, I wanted good things to happen with my money. I especially love our Santa Clara Library, and the Library has always meant so much to me, so naturally I included it in my will. I also decided to designate my gift for the Library to use in whatever way it chooses to meet a need at that time.
If you are considering a gift to the Library Foundation & Friends and want more information about how your gift can be used, please call Maria Daane, at 615-2987.
“In Santa Clara County 1 adult in every 6 lacks basic literacy skills.”
–The National Center for Education Statistics
Imagine for a moment what it would be like:
- If you could not read these words.
- If you knew how to do a job well, but could not fill out the job application.
- If you went to a restaurant and could not read the menu.
- If you could not read a bedtime story to your children.
- If you had to take a medication without being able to read the name or warnings on the bottle.
- If you lived alone and did not know how to write the check to pay your rent.
Imagine if this is what you faced not just for a moment, but for a lifetime...
For many adults—parents, grandparents, workers and community members—being unable to read is not an imaginary experience, but their reality. They speak English well, but they struggle with everyday tasks that involve reading or writing.
Recently, an adult learner in the “Read Santa Clara” program wrote: “What I really, really want is to be able to read and comprehend what I read. I have found that I add words, change words, skip words in sentences, which changes the information in the sentences that I am reading. Even when I read the information over and over, I am not able to understand what I read.”
What can you do to help?
- If you know a friend, family member or co-worker who struggles with everyday tasks that involve reading and writing, encourage them to call “Read Santa Clara” at 615-2956.
- If you know someone who can volunteer for 2 hours each week for a minimum period of six months, ask them to consider sharing their gift of reading with another adult.
- Your gift of time and money to the Library’s Foundation & Friends raises funds for library programs that make a lasting difference, such as the “Read Santa Clara” adult literacy program.
September 8 is International Literacy Day!
Our Library offers you the largest genealogy collection of any public library in Santa Clara County. This collection is also one of the largest public library collections in Northern California.
What’s New? Whether you are just beginning to search for your ancestors or have been researching your family history for many years, we now subscribe to Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest Online. These two resources are among the Library’s most often used subscription databases.
The Heritage Pavilion Wing still feels “like new” after its dedication in 2004 when the current Central Park Library opened. Now in its sixth year serving patrons who are “building a family tree” or doing local history research, the Heritage Wing is a unique feature of our Library.
The Heritage Pavilion provides the much-needed space for the Library’s extensive genealogy collection, and for the many public and private local history collections on hand. The Pavilion also includes a large number of study desks, copier and printing stations, microfilm and microfiche readers, and a large collection of U.S. and international atlases.
How Our Genealogy Collection Grew. First, the Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society offices and collections have been in our main Library building since 1967. This partnership between the Library and the local genealogical society greatly increased our collection of local materials and allowed the Genealogical Society to continue its great work for the community.
Secondly, the Library joined the Cooperative Infor- mation Network and the South Bay Cooperative Library System in the 1970s. Made up of public, university and private libraries in both Santa Clara and San Benito counties, participating libraries can receive additional Federal revenue-sharing funds to build their own specialized collections.
We chose to expand our genealogy and business reference collections. Palo Alto added to its art books collection, while Mountain View increased its collection of automobile repair manuals.
Then in 1977, the Santa Clara County Free Library System transferred many of its genealogy reference books to our library in order to assure that most genealogy reference resources available at that time would be available in a single collection at the Santa Clara City Library.
Thanks to Our Supporters. Since 2004, the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends has funded the administration and growth of the History/Genealogy Fund. Financial support from the Foundation & Friends and proceeds from the annual Santa Clara Historic Home Tour has helped the Library purchase a subscription to the San Jose Historical Mercury News database, 1886–1922. And the Michael J. Kirsch Foundation has contributed to local genealogy activities and microfilming projects.
Back-to-school time means—homework! And again this fall free Brainfuse homework help is available for anyone in grades 3–12 with a Santa Clara City Library card. Brainfuse provides one-to-one, online tutoring in math, science, social studies, and English/language arts.
Tutoring is available from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. every day in both English and Spanish. Students receive individual attention from certified tutors through a kid-friendly online classroom.
Students can submit papers to the writing lab and receive expert advice on editing and structure. Coming soon is an enhanced Test Center offering a complete library of online assessments for academic tests such as the SAT, ACT and GED, and citizenship tests. Academic subjects covered include language, math, science, writing and social studies.
Students attending schools throughout the Santa Clara community value Brainfuse highly and use it frequently. From July 2008 to April 2009, more than 2,800 Santa Clara City Library cardholders used Brainfuse for thousands of total sessions.
As the Library’s Youth and Extension Services Department continues to develop this service with local schools, we expect the number of users to grow even higher.
An Adult Learning Center will also soon be available to offer job assistance, test preparation, and online academic skills classes taught by online tutors specifically trained to work with adults.
Thanks to the Foundation and Friends for funding such an important service for learners of all ages in the community.
September is “Library Card Sign-up Month,” and the Santa Clara City Library wants all children in the community to go back to school with the most impor- tant item of all—a library card. Studies show that children whose parents read to them at home and who use the library as they learn to read on their own perform better in school and are more likely to continue to use the library as a source of lifetime learning.
An increasing number of adults are also realizing how valuable their free library cards are. In these difficult economic times, people are borrowing books, DVDs, CDs, and magazines from the library rather than buying them. In record numbers, families are also using the library for free quality activities, such as children’s story times, reading programs for youth, and a wide range of events for adults. Many adults who are looking for work during this economic downturn are also using the Library more often—for free access to the Internet, for books about the best strategies for finding a job, and to attend classes on how to prepare a winning resume.
From July 2008 to May 2009, Santa Clara City Library issued 16,195 library cards. To put this in perspective, 14,047 library cards were issued from July 2007 to June 2008.
To celebrate “National Library Card Month,” magician Tony Daniels will delight and amaze children with his show, “The Magic of Reading,” on Monday, September 28, at 4:00 p.m. in the Redwood Room of the Central Park Library. Children ages four and up, plus their parents or caregivers, are invited. No sign-up is required. See you there!
Upcoming Events
During the next three months your Santa Clara City Library and the Library’s Foundation & Friends are offering many interesting activities. The calendar below and on the next page provides information on the events already planned. Be sure to check the Library’s web site frequently for updates regarding events that were added after you received this newsletter.
Please note that all events listed here take place at the Central Park Library location.
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September |
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15 |
Tuesday
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“How
to Find Your Civil War Ancestors”
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19 |
Saturday
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Friends of the Library
Booksale
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Saturday
Redwood Room
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“Musical Mornings”
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22 |
Tuesday
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Galileoscope Program
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28 |
Monday
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The Magic of Tony
DanielsM
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29 |
Tuesday
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Genealogy Workshop – “What to
Do When You Hit a Brick Wall”
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October |
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10 |
Saturday
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Beginner’s Genealogy Seminar –
Part I: The Basics
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17 |
Saturday
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Beginner’s Genealogy Seminar –
Part II: Census & Internet
Research
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Saturday
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Friends of the Library
Booksale
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20 |
Tuesday
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Small Business Administration
Workshop
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24 |
Saturday
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“Musical Mornings”
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Saturday
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October is History Month –
Focus on the Civil War
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November |
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17 |
Tuesday
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Photographing Santa Clara
Valley Historic Landmarks – including a
PowerPoint Presentation on Santa Clara’s
Lovely Historic Houses
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21 |
Saturday
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Friends of the Library
Booksale
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