June 13, 2008

Off the Shelf

Library gets an early start on summer

By Tim Collins
Special to the Times

Astronomers tell us that summer begins on June 20 at 4:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. But we tend to get an early start on summer here in the United States. With San José Public Library, our annual Summer Reading Celebration starts on June 14.

Summer often is a time of change. Families often find this time of year least inconvenient to move. Many organizations that run on a fiscal year basis close the books on one year on June 30, and start a fresh new year on July 1. The City of San José operates this way. Likewise, this is a time of change for me, your humble library correspondent.

Summer Reading Begins
Summer Reading begins on Saturday, June 14 and runs until Saturday, August 9. This is always a big, special time of the year for us at San José Public Library. All locations throughout the SJPL hold special events during this time, including the Evergreen and Tully Community Branch libraries.

Throughout the summer, dedicated volunteers assist us in giving out reading logs, checking the completed and partially completed reading logs, and awarding prizes. Special events performers can also be expected to draw crowds. We felt kind of buggy this time around: the theme for the children’s reading celebration is Catch the Reading Bug! For teens, an age of change, appropriately enough, the theme is Metamorphosis @ Your Library. Only the adults among us have escaped the insects: the theme for the adult Summer Reading program is Savor the Summer @ Your Library.

Here at Tully, we kick off the celebrations with a June 14, 11 a.m. performance of Sandi and Stevie, musicians who will share their “Bug Songs” with us. In the following weeks, we’ll have a Metamorphosis Art Contest on June 20 at 4 p.m., turning an ordinary object into a fantastic work of art. Then, on June 27 at 4 p.m., we’ll have a bug origami craft time.
Summer Reading involves the whole family! Adults and teens, don’t let the kids have all the fun!

Anime/Manga Graphic Novel Contest extended to July 11
Both the Tully and the Berryessa libraries are holding an anime/manga graphic novel making contest. We’ve extended the deadline to Friday, July 11. During summer, more people might have more time to wield their pens and pencils! The winner will earn a $20 cash prize, and 50 colored copies of his/her work will be published and distributed at the Tully and/or Berryessa libraries

Tully Book Club; Last Wednesday of the month, 7 p.m.
The June 2 book of choice will be House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III, which is set right here in the Bay Area. Care to be a book club member? Let us know! We have been meeting the last Wednesday of the month, but if another time would be more convenient for you, we’d love to hear from you. The books we choose are indeed that…books we choose. So if you’ve got a favorite book, but you’d like to share insights about it with others, great! Come and join us!

Adieu…. I’ve had a lot of fun!
Folks, this is my last Evergreen Times column, at least for the foreseeable future. My colleague Vanessa Menor based at the Evergreen Library will continue to keep you up-to-date with events at Evergreen, special happenings at Tully, and news of San José Public Library generally. This being a time of transition, there may be a gap in news delivered to you by a Tully-based columnist, at least for a little while. Reason? I was selected to assume a new position in the SJPL organization, in the Technical Services unit at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library downtown.

I started at the old Evergreen Library in February of 2000, and started writing for the Evergreen Times shortly thereafter. It was actually in part thanks to you, the Times readers, that I got the job: along with the job interview itself, it was a requirement that we submit a sample Evergreen Times column.

Readers, I’ve had a lot of fun writing this column. Whenever I see a Chase’s Calendar of Events or hear an observation that it’s National Hot Dog Day or the like, I’ll remember you, my readers, with a smile. Thank you for indulging my love of wordplay and my quirky sense of humor all these years. (But then, everybody has their own unique sense of humor…we in the library system are trained to respect and honor differences!)

But of course, the library is a wonderful subject to wrap a column around. There’s always something happening at your local public library…for many, the materials in a library are their earliest portals to discovery.

In these columns of mine of late, it’s natural to focus on specific events or programs taking place in the upcoming weeks…and here at Tully, Evergreen, the King Library downtown, and indeed throughout the city’s library system, that can provide sufficient fodder for a column in and of itself. But libraries offer basic information services both during business hours, and through the internet and the databases we subscribe to, after business hours as well. Remember some 15 years or so back that the doomsayers claimed that the internet would be the death of libraries? Nothing could be further from the truth. Here at your local San José Public Library location, we’re busier than ever, and that’s largely in part because of computers, not in spite of them.

But even basic old-fashioned librarian services will always be needed. I have done some of my best work as a branch librarian when a customer comes in three minutes before we close, sending the customer off with several books or something appropriate for their needs. We librarians, and library staff generally, act as guides to our public. There’s an assumption at certain levels here in San José that of course everyone is computer literate. Like most assumptions, that isn’t true. There’s a real need for the services libraries and library staff provide.

I’ve been honored these past several years to assist people in need of those services, most obviously when I’m out at the Information Desk. But writing this column has been a form of service as well. And there is no finer, more dedicated staff, committed to serving you, than the staff at the Tully and Evergreen libraries all these years.

City-Wide Library Events
For a listing of all upcoming Tully events, pick up a calendar next time you visit us. For library events citywide, including the Dr. King library downtown, check the Events section of the SJPL website www.sjlibrary.org.

Tim Collins is the Adult Services Librarian at the Tully Community Branch Library, 880 Tully Road, between McLaughlin and Senter. The library’s phone number is 808-3030, and its email address is tu.sjpl@sjlibrary. org.