February 24, 2006

Off the Shelf

March: taxes, health consciousness,
and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

By Tim Collins
Adult Services Librarian

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, or so the proverb says. We celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, and mark Cesar Chavez’s birth anniversary, and many know that this is Women’s History month. On a medical note, March is Red Cross Month, Poison Prevention Awareness Month, Mental Retardation Awareness Month and Save Your Vision Month. And I wouldn’t be the librarian I am if I did not note that March 1-7 marks “Return the Borrowed Books” week.

For these and other timely gems, look up Chase’s Calendar of Events when next at the library.

Free ESL Classes (English as a Second Language)
Tully library offers free English classes for adults for whom English is not a first language. These classes take place Tuesday through Friday, 8:50 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The Overfelt Adult Center, part of the East Side Union High School District, actually conducts the class here at the Tully Community Room. Their phone number is 408-254-8101.

Sunday Vietnamese Parenting Workshops
On the six Sundays from March 19 through April 23, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., the organization ICAN (International Children Assistant Network) offers parenting workshops, primarily directed toward Vietnamese-speaking parents, grandparents and caregivers of three-to-six year olds. These workshops concentrate on how to teach children to be safe in various environments, and how to teach children “social well-being” (or, in other words, how to get along with each other). The workshops provide tips to caregivers to make personal story time sessions, reading aloud, more rewarding for both the reader and the listener. Because of the demographics of our community, these workshops are offered to Vietnamese speakers. However, ICAN as an organization offers similar programs and activities for people of all languages and backgrounds. Look up their website at www.ican2.org.

Tax Time
It’s tax time. San José Public Library does not directly offer tax forms. However, tax information can be obtained from the Internet:

Federal forms can be found at: www.irs.gov or www.1040.com . State forms can be found at: www.ftb.ca.gov
More tax information can be found at our library’s website sjlibrary.org by clicking on the link “Tax Forms and Information.” Among other things, this will direct you to where you can get free tax help, the latest tax self-help books, and tax self-help online. Some SJPL locations (though not Tully) have tax volunteers visit, who help elderly and low-income folk prepare their taxes. At this time of year, the library’s tax-related books may very well be all checked out at the time you come to the library. If that’s the case, you can put yourself onto the waiting list, but until such books become available you might want to look at the IRS Publication 17; or, if you’re a Spanish speaker, Publicación 579. These are quite comprehensive publications covering all aspects of tax rules applying to an individual.

Here in San José we are fortunate to have an office of the IRS downtown. It’s at 55 South Market Street, at Post Street, between San Fernando and Santa Clara. All the major print forms and publications can be obtained for free there, including the most common state forms. The closest office of the state agency, the Franchise Tax Board, is in San Francisco.

Health Organizations Invitation
As an organization, San José Public Library is looking for program and activity opportunities and partners to better serve adults in the wider community. We have meeting rooms of various sizes at our various libraries, including the Tully library, where meetings and events can take place. There generally is a fee for using our larger meeting rooms or community rooms, but if San Jose Public Library “partners” with another government entity or civic organization, such a fee can be waived if the program presented is for the public good and is open to the general public.

Personally, I am on the “Health Committee” of the Adult Services group of SJPL. If you are part of a health-related organization, or know of a health-related topic on which you would like to have a presentation to a wider community audience, please contact me or another staff member at the library, and we’ll see what we can work out to our mutual satisfaction. For example, for a while a local pharmacy presented seminars on hepatitis awareness at our location. Such presentations need not be a “one-shot” deal. Often we can arrange similar presentations at several library locations throughout San José in succeeding weeks.

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.

Tully Library’s Calendar

For Children and Families
Thursday, March 2, 4:00-5:00 p.m – Read Across America Day; teens will read to children

Tuesdays, 11:30 a.m. – Fun for Ones, followed by Stay & Play
Tuesdays, 6:45 p.m. – Family Storytimes

Thursdays, 10:30 am - Toddler Time, followed by Stay & Play or Parenting University

Fridays, 10:30 a.m. – Preschool Storytime followed by Stay and Play
Fridays at 4:00 p.m. – Fun for Youth activities
(Mar. 3 - Bingo; Mar. 10 – Game Day; Mar. 17 – Craft; Mar. 24 Videogame Tournament)
Fridays, Mar. 10, 17 & 24, 4:00 to 6:00 pm – Cambodian Cultural Dance

Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. – Family Storytimes
Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 12 noon – Cambodian language class
Saturdays, 1:00-3:00 p.m. and 3:00–5:00 p.m. – Vietnamese language classes

For Young Adults and Adults
Saturday, Feb. 25, 1:30 p.m. – Silicon Valley Reads author visit: Louise Steadman, The Souvenir

Sundays, 3:00-6:00 p.m. – Integral Tai Chi class
Sundays, March 19-April 23, 2:00-4:00 p.m. – Vietnamese Parenting Workshops

Tuesdays, 5:00 p.m. - Computer tutoring
Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. – Conversation Groups

Wednesdays, Mar. 1, 8, 22 & 29 - 6:00 p.m. – Beginning Internet classes in Vietnamese

Saturdays, 1:00-3:00 p.m. – Citizenship classes
Saturdays, Mar. 4 & Apr. 1 - 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Big Book sales

Monday, March 13, 6:00-7:00 p.m. – Friends of Tully Library Meeting

Wednesday, Mar. 15, 3:30 p.m. – Movie for Teens
Wednesday, Mar. 15, 6:00 p.m. – TeensReach meeting and orientation
Wednesday, Mar. 22, 6:00-8:00 p.m. – Vietnamese movie

Library Closures
March 31 – Cesar Chavez Day