November 5, 2004

Evergreen Library will be closing soon

By Tim Collins
Special to the Times

The holidays are upon us. Jingle those bells and roast those chestnuts. Come to the library for holiday CDs, holiday craft books and similarly themed materials now!

As plans are now, the existing Evergreen Branch Library will be closing in late December. Our collection moves to the new Tully Community Branch Library (on Tully Road at Kenoga Drive, about a mile west of Highway 101), which opens in late January.

The construction crew then comes to raze the old Evergreen Library and begin building the new Evergreen Library. Construction will probably last about a year and a half, with the new Evergreen Library ready for business sometime in 2006.

November story times
Our regular story times continue in November as follows:
- Fun for Ones: Fridays, Nov. 12 and 19 at 10:15 a.m.
- Pre-School Storytime: Friday, Nov. 19 at 11 a.m.
- Toddler Time: Thursday, Nov. 18 at 11 a.m.
- Family Story Time: Tuesdays in November at 6:45 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 6:45 p.m.- Magic Dan presents a special family story time, mystifying all with his amazing feats.
- Friday, Nov. 19 at 4 p.m. – In this craft program for elementary school age children, participants create their own festive Thanksgiving Day pilgrim hats.
- Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 6:45 p.m., P&T Puppet Show. Enormously popular puppeteer Peter Briggs presents a spin on the classic Christmas poem, “The Night Before Chris Mouse”, complete with classical music.
In December, our regular storytimes take a break for the holiday season. Come back for more in January at our new

Tully location!
Other events, holidays, requests
- TeensReach meeting: On Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 3:30 p.m. The teensReach group will be discussing upcoming library events and volunteer opportunities.
- Courtmobile: The Santa Clara County Courtmobile comes to the library parking lot on Wednesday afternoons between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. They provide free legal information on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information about this outreach program of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, visit their Web site at www.scselfservice.org.

Giant Booksale
Nov. 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Our Friends group wants your donations of saleable books. Our Friends support our library in many and various ways, especially in regards to children’s programs; book sales are the prime means they use to raise funds.

The Friends plan to have one more blowout booksale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 20. There ought to be some good deals! Thank you, Friends! (Children’s books will be on sale Nov. 20; because of this booksale, we will no longer be having our special twice-monthly Saturday children’s book sales.)

Bags and bottles - Recycle!
In addition to your books, library personnel provide you with other glorious recycling opportunities! Are you awash with grocery store plastic bags? Bring them to the library next time you come. Other customers will use them up quickly, carrying their quota of borrowed materials. With the rainy winter weather, such donations are especially appreciated.

Bottles, you ask? Yes, baby bottles, that is, baby food jars! We are planning a winter crafts program; whether it comes off or not depends on you! Please don’t throw your baby food jars away, parents. Bring them to the library.

Holiday closures
The library will be closed on Nov. 11 in observance of the Veterans’ Day holiday and Nov. 25 and 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Database news
Students out there, do you have to do a report on the pilgrims or the Puritans? Or perhaps you have a big report coming up on Lewis and Clark, and (as is typical) every book that the Evergreen Branch Library is supposed to have is alreadychecked out? Fear not! San José Public Library, in the form of the History Resource Center database, comes to your rescue.

Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their team made their famous expedition from 1803 to 1806. This being the 200th anniversary period of the Lewis and Clark expedition, it’s a common school assignment of late.

From the History Resource Center database alone, the words “Lewis and Clark” generated 18 articles from various reference sources, 66 periodical articles, three primary sources and four maps or pictures. The primary sources include excerpts from the journals, plus Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 address to Congress concerning the expedition.

The History Resource Center returned a similar wealth of “hits” when I plugged in the word pilgrims.

In order to use the History Resource Center, or any of San José Public Library’s databases for that matter, go to the www.sjlibrary.org Web site and click on the words “Articles and Databases” on the left. Then click on the choice “SJPL Remote and Branch Users.” If you have any questiond regarding your database voyage of discovery, please ask us here at the library for assistance. We’re happy to help!

Tim Collins is the Adult Services Librarian at the Evergreen Branch Library, one of the branches of the San José Public Library system. The branch is located at 2635 Aborn Rd., between White Road and Capitol Expressway. For more information about the library, please visit the SJPL’s Web site at www.sjlibrary.org., or call the Evergreen Branch at 238-4434.