Table of Contents
Executive Director's Message
From the City Librarian
Book Sale Dates
Literacy Visits to Three Shelters
When You Buy At Amazon.com, You Benefit The Library
A Literacy Student's Story
Software for the Visually Impaired
Language-Learning Software
Local History Has Global Reach
Haitain Folk Art Arrives
Good Books, Cheap!
Get Creative @ Your Library
Upcoming Events
Celebrate the Library's 5th Anniversary
April 17, 2009, marks the five-year anniversary of the opening of the Central Park Library. Each year the Library has had over 1,000,000 visitors!
To celebrate this special birthday, the Foundation & Friends is joining with the Library to throw a party. Between April 13th and 19th there will be a Chocolate Party and community grant event, free cake, a birthday card to sign, lots of speakers and activities, and lots of other ways to participate in the festivities.
For a schedule and more information, check the website for the Library:
http://library.santaclaraca.gov
Thanks to thousands of donors, generous corporations, and hundreds of used-book buyers, the Foundation & Friends has contributed over $775,000 for Library programs during the past five years.
Mission City Community Fund, Applied Materials, and Kaiser Permanente in particular have been especially generous, each giving between $5,000 and $35,0000 every year.
Our endowment funds to support the Library’s future needs are now over $136,000. Also a special thanks to Intel, whose Intel Technology Fund now contains $93,000.
Thank you all for your donations and assistance in making the Santa Clara City Library the special place that it is. We look forward to seeing you at the birthday party!
Maria Daane
by Karen Saunders
Since opening five years ago, the Library has made many improvements to its services and collections. In 2008, we were once again ranked third in the nation based on city population. Specifically, we were recognized for excellence in our programs and services, such as BrainFuse online homework help, Mango Languages, Ancestry.com, Link+ interlibrary loan program, the Read Santa Clara adult literacy program, and the Kaiser Permanente Health & Wellness programs and collections. There is truly something for everyone at the Santa Clara City Library.
As we begin the Library's sixth year, you can expect to see more innovative programs and improvements. We also look forward to working even more with both the Foundation & Friends and our Library volunteers in order to provide the very best in services to the more than 1 million people who use the Library each year.
Thanks to a grant from the Target Foundation, Youth Services Librarian Ellin Klor now makes quarterly visits to three homeless shelters in Santa Clara—the Bill Wilson Center, the Sobrato Family Living Center, and HomeSafe.
Ellin presents a story program for the children and adults at each shelter. During the program parents learn how to teach reading skills to their children. Each family receives children’s books, so parents can use their new teaching skills when they read to their families.
During literacy visits, Literacy Coordinator Priya Mascarenhas also encourages adults to enroll in Read Santa Clara, the Library’s literacy program.
Funded by the Foundation & Friends, these visits, children’s books, literacy and book reading programs and book reading training are among the most effective ways for individuals to better their lives. This funding also assures that those in the greatest need of learning and literacy training will receive it from our Library
Below participants take time to pose for a photo during story time at a shelter.
Every time you use the Amazon link on the Foundation & Friends website to make a purchase at Amazon.com, the Foundation receives a commission of 6% or more on each purchase.
This program raised about $1,200 for the Foundation & Friends in 2008.
If you would like to help raise more funds for Library activities and programs, please go to the Foundation & Friends website (http://www.lovethelibrary.org); then click the “Buy at Amazon” link or type the following web address in your browser when you want to shop at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/foufriofthesc-20/
“When I came to this program, I could not read well. I had somehow fallen through the cracks, not because I did not try, but because I could not grasp the information given to me. I am writing to you today to tell you that after years of not being able to read and write, I have much gratitude for Read Santa Clara. I have been in the program for ten months. I have tasted the possibilities of learning to read and write, and I hunger for more.” —Robert Charles Brown.
You can read all of Robert’s letter, and the stories of 40 other adult learners, in In Our Own Words, Volume VIII, Read Santa Clara’s annual book of learner writings. This book is available for checkout now from the Library’s collection.
If you would like to become a volunteer tutor in the literacy program, please call the Mission Branch library at (408) 615-2956 for information.
Mention the word JAWS and most people think of a very angry shark devouring everything in sight. At the Library, however, JAWS means Job Access With Speech, a software program for the visually impaired now available at the Central Park Library.
Last spring the Foundation & Friends provided a $5,700 grant to purchase this software, which is the preferred software in schools for the visually impaired and the most popular worldwide.
JAWS gives users access to information displayed on a computer screen by text-to-speech methods or by a Braille display that provides high-level interaction with the computer. Four computers currently are available: one for children, one for teens and two for adults. JAWS soon will be installed on a computer at the Mission Library, as well. All users will be able to use the software without assistance from a sighted person.
JAWS is just one part of the Library’s commitment to visually impaired patrons. Besides JAWS and access to the Internet, we are the only public library in the Silicon Valley with a Braille book collection.
Mango Languages is new software now available at the Library for learning Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Russian and Mandarin Chinese. Mango Languages also offers three ESL programs for Polish, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese speakers.
Partially funded by the Foundation & Friends, Mango Languages now is available on the Library’s website.
To access Mango Languages, go to the Library’s home page (http://library.santaclaraca.gov), click on the Research Databases link, and then click the Mango Languages link under the Language Learning heading.
If you’ve always wanted to learn a new language, try the Mango Languages software! Please call the Reference Desk at (408) 615-2900 if you need assistance or have questions.
The power of the Internet in promoting and sharing local history is amazing. Local History Librarian Mary Hanel provides one example of how she answered a question about Santa Clara Valley history by using Internet resources:
The Santa Clara City Library provided the Harris Family and Lass Family history to the Santa Clara’s Harris-Lass Museum website (http://harrislass.org).
A woman in Australia who saw the website emailed Mary to say that she was a relative of the Harris Family and wished to send information on the parents of Henry Harris, who built the Harris-Lass House, in exchange for information on Henry’s brother, Nathaniel.
Mary found information about Nathaniel in the San Jose Mercury News archives database from the 1880s, and emailed the information directly to Australia from the database website.
Coincidentally, another woman from Australia wrote a thesis titled From Mission to Microchips: The Continuity of Innovation in Silicon Valley and donated two copies to the Library. She also mentioned that she had used our Harris-Lass collection during her research.
It truly is exciting to know that Santa Clara’s history is of great interest to many people around the world.
Thanks to a grant from the Michael J. Kirsch Foundation, the Library acquired six delightful pieces of Haitian folk art—the first art purchased for the Central Park Library’s second floor.
Complementing similar art in the Children’s area, and the pierced-metal artwork suspended above the staircases, these whimsical Haitian folk art creations bring smiles to the faces of thoughtful researchers, serious students, and hardworking staff members as they cope with the stresses of everyday life.
This art is made from new or cast-off oil drums that are cleaned thoroughly, split down their sides, and then pounded into flat 4-foot by 6-foot pieces. Haitian artists then draw designs on this metal “canvas” with chalk. Finally, they cut, shape and contour the metal into lacy, intricate works of art.
Please visit the Adult Services area on the Library’s second floor to see these six new pieces of folk art! You will find:
- A flock of soaring birds—above the newspaper racks in the Periodicals Pavilion.
- A pair of giraffes munching leaves as birds fly overhead—in the Languages Pavilion.
- A Tree of Life with kittens, a lizard, and a bird hiding among the leaves—at the entrance to the Quiet Study Pavilion.
- A regal peacock with wings spread holding court—above the Reference wall shelving (pictured above.)
- On opposing pillars in the center of the second floor, a graceful giraffe hiding from the sun in the leafy jungle with two winged friends, and
By Lee Broughman
Monthly used-book sales are held every 3rd Saturday of each month, except December, in the Redwood or Cedar room of the Central Park Library. These sales are one way the Foundation & Friends makes money to support the Library. At a recent sale, I talked with two shoppers about their book sale experiences. Please join us at the next sale!
Sue Rogoff uses a very organized approach when she comes to a Friends & Foundation book sale: She brings a detailed list of the books she knows she’d like to buy. Sue especially likes to read fiction, and says that recently her greatest finds have been hardcover editions of Hermann Wouk’s The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.
Charlie Eckhaus is a long-time shopper, both at the monthly book sales and in the Foundation & Friends bookstore. He says: “My two greatest buys at a monthly sale are a 1918 edition of The Making of Motion Pictures, and a novel by Charles Dickens published in the late 1800s.”
Summer Reading 2009 celebrates music and the arts with the themes Be Creative @ Your Library for children, and Express Yourself @ Your Library for teens. Summer reading club sign-ups begin on Saturday, June 6 with a kick-off celebration beginning at 1:00 PM. As part of the summer activities, the Foundation & Friends is sponsoring the weekly Family Night programs, a multicultural musical series. These concerts will showcase the diverse cultures of our Santa Clara residents. Taiko drummers, Folkloric dancing, and the Native American drummers, Swift Cloud Band (pictured to the right), and its dance ensemble will be among the performers. The Family Night programs are scheduled for Monday evenings in the Central Park Pavilion beginning June 22 continuing through July 27. For additional information on the summer reading programs, check the children’s calendar on the Library’s website (http://library.santaclaraca.gov) or call the Youth Services desk at (408) 615-2916.
Swift Cloud Band
Upcoming Events
During the next six months your Santa Clara City Library and the Library Foundation & Friends have many interesting activities planned. The calendar below and on the back of this page provides information on some of these events. Be sure to check the Library’s website frequently for updates regarding events that we added after you received this newsletter.
April |
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6 Monday 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Me, My Child, and Nutrition! Supporting a Healthy Eater Jean Wilson, teacher and parent educator, presents a program on good nutrition for parents of children two to five years old. |
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13 through April 19 Central Park Library |
Central Park Library 5th Anniversary Celebration Join us at the Central Park Library all week to help us celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Library. See page 7 for more information. |
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14 Tuesday 7:00 PM — 8:30 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Francisco Jimenez Book Talk (Central Park Library Anniversary Event) Professor Francisco Jimenez, PhD, is a renowned author and educator who emigrated with his family from Mexico to California and worked alongside his parents in the fields as a child. Professor Jimenez has written several autobiographical novels, including the recent Reaching Out, a sequel to Breaking Through, based on his experience as a Santa Clara University student. Join Professor Jimenez as he discusses his books and writing at this return engagement, made possible through the generous support of the Foundation & Friends. Sign up for this free event at the Reference Desk, or call (408) 615-2900. |
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15 Wednesday 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Mission City Opera (Central Park Library Anniversary Event) Mission City Opera was founded in 1996 and is dedicated to presenting professional performances of operatic works at affordable prices in intimate productions. Several members of Mission City Opera will sing selections from current and past seasons’ operas in an exciting performance at the Library. Made possible through the generous support of the Foundation & Friends. Sign up for this free event at the Reference Desk, or call (408) 615-2900. |
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18 Saturday 11:30 AM – 5:45 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Extravaganza for Teens (Central Park Library Anniversary Event) Teens in grades 7–12 are invited to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Santa Clara Central Park Library. There will be a Wii Mario Kart Tournament at 11:30 AM, a Gothic Plushies craft event at 1:30 PM, and a movie, pizza and cake at 3:00 PM. Sign up for these free events by visiting the Youth Services Desk, or call (408) 615-2916. |
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20 Monday 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
You Make Me So Angry! Managing Anger in Healthy Ways As A Parent Anna Welsh, Parent Education Coordinator for Santa Clara Unified School District, discusses techniques to help parents manage anger more effectively. |
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21 Tuesday 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Teen Poetry Open-Mike Night Teens in Grades 7–12 are invited to share their own poetry, as well as others’ poetry, or just listen and encourage their friends! |
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25 Saturday 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Special Genealogy Program: Presenting Christine Rose Christine Rose is renowned for her talks at genealogical seminars throughout the United States and for the many genealogy “How–To” books she has authored. The Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society and the Foundation & Friends are co-sponsoring a genealogy lecture by Christine Rose. Following the talk, a selection of her books will be available for sale and autographing. For more information, contact Local History Librarian Mary Hanel at |
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Saturday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Foundation & Friends Monthly Book Sale Select from a huge variety of used books. Fill the bags that we provide and pay only $5 per bag. Members of the Friends may enter at 9 AM; the general public enters at 10 AM. Books of more value are available in our book store. |
May |
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16 Saturday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Foundation & Friends Monthly Book Sale Select from a huge variety of used books. Fill the bags that we provide and pay only $5 per bag. Members of the Friends may enter at 9 AM; the general public enters at 10 AM. Books of more value are available in our book store. |
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19 Tuesday 7:00 PM – 8:45 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Update on “What’s New” for Genealogists & Local History Researchers from Central Park Library Local History Librarian Mary Hanel will review some of the new resources provided to genealogists by the Library in the past year. These include some new databases added to the Ancestry Library Edition, the Historical San Jose Mercury News database, some excellent genealogy books, and an upcoming redesign of the Library’s home page that will include a Genealogy icon for direct access to these databases and more! For information, contact Mary Hanel at (408) 615-2909. |
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20 Wednesday 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Opera San Jose Opera San Jose offers educational opera programs, and this will be the company’s third presentation at the Library. Several singers will perform selected arias from operas presented during the current and past seasons. Made possible by a donation from a member of the Foundation & Friends. To reserve a place at this popular, free opera program, contact the Reference Desk at |
June |
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3 Wednesday 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
NASA Space Missions NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Eric Norris will return once again to give an exciting multimedia presentation on NASA space mission updates. The event is recommended for 6th graders and older. To sign up for this free program, stop by the Reference Desk, or call (408) 615-2900. |
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6 Saturday 1:00 PM Central Park Library |
2009 “Be Creative @ Your Library!” Summer Reading Program Kickoff Party Arts, crafts, and entertainment for the whole family to celebrate the beginning of Summer Reading! |
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6 through July 19 Central Park Library |
Sign up for the Summer Reading Club (birth through 6th grade) Keep track of the books you read during the summer, and get a free paperback book! |
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16 Tuesday 7:00 PM – 8:45 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Canadian Genealogy Research Learn more about finding and using Canadian records, including those for French Canadians. Jessica Hacken is a member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and one of her specialties is Canadian genealogy research. For more information, contact Local History Librarian Mary Hanel at (408) 615-2909. |
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20 Saturday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Cedar Room Central Park Library |
Foundation & Friends Monthly Book Sale Select from a huge variety of used books. Fill the bags that we provide and pay only $5 per bag. Members of the Friends may enter at 9 AM; the general public enters at 10 AM. Books of more value are available in our book store. |
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22 through August 1 Various Times |
Summer Reading Events Story times, multicultural events, family movies, school age programs, and teen events. |
August |
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3 through August 31 Check website for time |
Pick up Summer Reading Program Certificates and Book Awards Grade school students turn in their Summer Reading Logs and receive a certificate and free paperback book of their choice! Teens receive gift cards! Pickup times vary. |
September |
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12 Saturday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
PSAT Practice Test Kaplan Test Prep will administer a Practice PSAT. Students should bring two No. 2 pencils and a calculator. This program is for grades 10–12. Call the Youth Services Desk at (408) 615-2916 for more information or to sign up. |
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18 Friday 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Redwood Room Central Park Library |
Practice PSAT Results Workshop PSAT results and strategies for those students who took the practice test on September 12, 2009. This program is for grades 10–12. Call the Youth Services Desk at (408) 615-2916 for more information or to sign up. |
Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends
Copyright © 2009
Santa Clara, CA 95051
Phone: (408) 615-2987
www.lovethelibrary.org
