March 24, 2006

Off the Shelf

April is all about the kids

By Tim Collins
Adult Service Librarian

April is the “Month of the Young Child,” and events commemorating it take place throughout the City of San Jose.

Tully Library is no exception. This month we picnic with Teddy Bears on April 6, hunt for Easter Eggs on April 14 and welcome Ned the Puppet Man on April 22! We kick up our heels for Khmer New Year when the Cambodian Cultural Dance group holds its recital on April 22. Come to the library and have fun, April is National Humor Month!

Author Visit
Quang X. Pham - April 8
Quang X. Pham, author of the memoir A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey, will speak and sign books at Tully Library on Saturday, April 8, from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Publisher’s Weekly reviewed the book as follows:

“Quang Pham’s well-told memoir, his book debut, tells the story of father and son, with an emphasis on the family as a whole. The author’s mother, Nguyen Thi Niem, struggled mightily and succeeded in learning English, finding work and educating her children. The author’s father nearly died, and nearly had his spirit nearly broken, during 12 years in re-education camps in Vietnam. … Quang Pham tells his story bluntly, without disguising his hatred of the Vietnamese Communists and his criticism of American politicians, the antiwar movement and the American news media.”

We at Tully Community Branch Library are pleased and proud to welcome another author to our library! Mr. Pham should present a very interesting discussion.

LitFinder
It being National Poetry Month, it’s a perfect time to plug one of San José Public Library’s databases: LitFinder. Has a certain line of a poem come back to haunt you, and you can’t remember the title of the poem or who the author is? LitFinder is the database for you!

LitFinder is an international database comprised of essays, plays, poems, speeches and short stories. Access over 100,000 full-text poems, over 1,000 complete plays, speeches from the past 2,500 years and thousands of full-text short stories and essays. Also included are biographies, explanations and pictures.

If you have an SJPL library card and a computer with an Internet connection, this valuable resource is available to you 24/7. Just follow these steps: (1) go to sjlibrary.org, (2) click on “Articles and Databases”, (3) click on SJPL Remote and Branch Users for a list of all the databases available to you, and (4) click on LitFinder.

Inventions
It’s that time of year again! The invention report! If you are looking for background on certain inventions, here are a couple of good resources:

Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things delivers exactly as it promises. Largely organized as though you were walking from one room of the house to another, Panati’s cleans up in its discussion of dishwashers, noses around the history of perfume, cakewalks through footwear, springs forward with Slinkys, and cooks up the goods on pancakes, Aunt Jemima and Betty Crocker. Here at Tully, we keep it as a reference book, Dewey 031.02.

Online, a fairly good website for this project is http:// inventors.about.com. If you look on the index on the left “A to Z inventions”, you will find a fairly comprehensive list, from adhesives to zippers.

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
Sundays, 1:00-3:00 p.m. – Vietnamese Dance

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

Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. – Toddler Time, followed by Stay & Play or Parenting University
Thursday, April 6, 3:30 p.m. – Teddy Bear Picnic; children 2-5 years old bring their teddy bears

Fridays, 10:30 a.m. – Preschool Storytime followed by Stay and Play
Fridays at 4:00 p.m. – Fun for Youth activities (Friday, April 14 – Easter Egg Hunt for children ages 3 to 8)

Saturday, April 22, 3:00 p.m. – Cambodian Cultural Dance Recital (Cambodian New Year celebration)
Saturday, April 22, 11:30 a.m. – Ned the PuppetMan
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
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 (ICAN)

Tuesdays, 5:00 p.m. - Computer tutoring
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:00-9:00 p.m. – Ballet México Folklórico dance classes (not April 6)

Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. – Conversation Group

Wednesdays, Apr. 5, 12 & 26 - 6:00 p.m. – Beginning Internet classes in Vietnamese

Saturday, Apr. 8, 4:00-5:30 – Author visit: Quang X. Pham, author of A Sense of Duty
Saturdays, 1:00-3:00 p.m. – Citizenship classes
Saturdays, Apr. 1 & May 6 - 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. –

Big Booksales
Monday, April 10, 6:00-7:00 p.m. – Friends of Tully Library Meeting

Wednesday, Apr. 19, 3:30 p.m. – Movie for Teens
Wednesday, Apr. 19, 6:00 p.m. – TeensReach meeting and orientation
Wednesday 22, 6:00-8:00 p.m. – Vietnamese movie