July 13, 2007

Off the Shelf

Celebrate Bastille Day at the Tully Branch Library

By Tim Collins
Adult Services Librarian

It’s July 14, Bastille Day, as this issue of the Evergreen Times gets distributed. Vive la France! Come to the library and pick up your “travel in France” guides and “learn French” audios, or go online to our website and check out a Pimsleur language study e-book!

July 22, ironically enough, marks both Parent’s Day and the reputed anniversary of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Come get your parenting books here at the library, or attend a parenting program while your children Stay and Play.

That brings us to August: Happiness Happens Month, Children’s Eye Health Month, Cataract Awareness Month, and National Inventors Month. Protect your eyes, be creative, and come and be happy here at your local San José Public library.

Special Events at Tully: mid-July through mid-August

- Parenting workshop - Saturdays, July 21 and 28, 12-1 p.m.

Parents will learn parenting tips from experts in the field, viewing “The Now and Future Parent” videos. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and share their parenting experiences with other parents. This informal forum will enable parents to voice their concerns and share resources, information and parenting knowledge.

- P&T Puppet Theatre - Thursday, July 26, 4:30 p.m.

The Adventures of Spider and Fly: “Come into my parlor,” said the spider to the fly. Everyone loves a puppet show, especially kids, and this creepy little tale withstands the test of time. Enjoy!

- ESL Life-skills Workshop - Wednesdays, Aug. 8 - 29, 7-8 p.m.

This life-skills series is designed to help ESL learners work on career development skills, for example, creating resumes and cover letters, preparing for job interviews, conducting a job search online and developing public presentation (speaking) skills. No registration is required.

- Tully Library Carnival - Thursday, Aug. 9, 3-5 p.m.

Let's find out how many fun games you can play at our carnival this summer. Be an excellent detective and investigate at least 10 games in the carnival to solve the mystery. The surprising and mysterious gift will be awarded at the carnival Wheel of Prizes. The program is designed for all ages as part of our Summer Reading Celebration.

- Vietnamese Bilingual Story Time - Saturday, Aug. 11, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Stories will be read in English and Vietnamese by well-known community members. Judge Thang Nguyen Barret of Santa Clara Superior Court will be our honored guest reader. Other special guest readers include journalist Tuong Anh Nguyen and her team. Arts and crafts follow the story time. The program is designed to encourage pride in cultural heritage among Vietnamese-American children. Families with children from preschool to seventh grade are welcome. This is a collaborative program brought to you by SJPL and VNHELP.

Summer Reading
Our Summer Reading celebration continues through July 31 for adults and through August 11 for children. Participate and win prizes!

Harry Potter, Harry Potter
On the night of July 20, San José Public Library celebrates the release of the seventh Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The gathering takes place at the Almaden Branch Library and Community Center starting at 10 p.m. Come as you are, or dress up as your favorite Harry Potter character. There will be crafts, games and a magical time to be had by all.

Pictures in the Attic
Recently, it was necessary to go through the contents of my parents’ attic. We discovered an old painting of a sailing ship up there. And thereby lies a tale…

In the 1860s, while the Civil War was raging, Bostonian Stephen Salisbury Tuckerman set sail for England. Although in his thirties, being a member of a socially prominent New England family, he managed to avoid getting drafted into the Union army. In England, he studied his painting technique and became known for his seascapes. He made a name for himself in the artistic community, even exhibiting his works at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhi-bition in 1876. Alas, Mr. Tuckerman’s daugh-ter Mary Josephine got mixed up with a lower class Irishman, a livery stable worker at that! Definitely a fellow from the wrong side of the tracks: Melvin Collins was his name.

Fast forward 130 years or so: Mary Jo and Melvin’s great-grandson Tim Collins is typing out this column for your reading pleasure.

I was curious about the reputation of great-great-grandpa Tuck, but through the sources readily available to me, and I’m a reasonably capable branch librarian, found very little. So I went to the San José Public Library website www.sjlibrary.org, clicked on the “Contact Us” link at the bottom left of the page, and sent an email off to the Dr. King Library, requesting any biographical information they could find on Stephen Salisbury Tuckerman. The King Library has both an extensive reference collection and, equally or even more important, an intrepid staff who know the reference collection. My inquiry got directed to my colleague Barbara Evans, who found several references to Tuckerman in various British and American art directories. She even found a reference to him in the society pages of the time, wherein it was noted that he was sailing to Liverpool on the ship Campania. Barbara Evans apologized to me for being able to find so little. I thanked her profusely for being able to find so much.

It is true that nowadays, with the Internet and Google, and yes, online library databases, people do more of their own reference work than in days past. But often enough, your research efforts may hit a roadblock, or the resources available to a person online just aren’t enough.

This particular inquiry, about an obscure 19th century artist, was somewhat frivolous. A grade did not depend on it, a business opportunity would not fly or fail because of it, and certainly no health or sickness issues depended on it. But often enough, reference librarians throughout the SJPL system, but especially at the King Library downtown, deal with serious matters for our customers. The reference collection there covers all fields: law, medicine, literature, history, religion, and yes…the arts and genealogy.

So the Contact Us link on our SJPL webpage leads customers to multiple ways to ask for reference help, including telephone, email and Ask Now live reference. SJPL Reference librarians will provide brief answers to factual questions, help with search strategies, and provide information on library resources. They can commit a maximum of 30 minutes to each email question they receive. In my individual case, the King Library reference librarians, through their in-depth knowledge of print and electronic information resources, were able to uncover more information about Mr. Tuckerman in 30 minutes, than I on my own could have done in several hours.

We, of course, can’t guarantee such successful results for every inquiry received. But we can guarantee that we’ll provide you our best effort. Service is our reason for being.

Tim Collins is the Adult Services Librarian at the Tully Community Branch Library, 880 Tully Road, between McLaughlin and Senter. It is one of the branches of the San Jose Public Library. The Library’s phone number is 808-3030. For more information about the library, visit the website at sjlibrary.org.