Congratulations to the winners of the Library’s bookmark contest! The Foundation & Friends’-sponsored contest encouraged students to design an original bookmark to promote National Library Card Sign Up Month. Winning designs were printed as bookmarks and distributed to the public. For more information, see http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2011/12/engage-young-artists-with-a-bookmark-contest/.
Library Awarded Project BEST Grant
Congratulations to the Library on its receipt of a Project BEST (Basic Employment Skills Training) grant! The Library plans to use the funds to help job seekers improve their basic computer literacy skills and assist food handlers who need to take the mandatory training and assessment on food handling.
Librarian Mary Hanel says, “We are excited about Project BEST, our grant-funded project to meet these needs and help people needing assistance with the training and test for the California State required Food Handling card.”
The Foundation & Friends is supporting this effort by supplying the librarians with three laptops. The librarians will use the laptops to better serve those jobseekers who need one-on-one assistance either due to lack of computer literacy skills or lack of English skills.
Children’s Magazine Collection on Display
Take a look at the new magazine racks in the Children’s area. They were funded by the Foundation & Friends to make room for a new quiet reading area.
New Arrivals: More Easy Readers Added to the Children’s Collection
Did you know that easy readers are some of the most popular and “in demand” items in the children’s collection? The books are designed for preschool through second graders who are first starting to read independently. Parents appreciate the color-coded labeling system which indicates the reading level of the book. The labeling system helps them match the book to their child’s reading level. In response to the overwhelming demand for these books, the Foundation & Friends funded the addition of 300 easy readers! Thanks to our donors and customers who make these grants possible.
Easy Readers from the Children's Collection
Youth Services Posts 2011 Favorites
Our very own Youth Services department created a list their favorite books of 2011 for children and teens. If you still have some last minute holiday shopping to do for kids, this list is a great gift guide. Don’t forget to check our bookstore in the Library lobby.
First Annual Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends Holiday Craft Faire
December 10th, 2011
10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Central Park Library
2635 Homestead Rd.
Santa Clara, California
Heritage Home Tour is Here!
This year’s Santa Clara Holiday Historic Home Tour is this weekend, Friday, December 2nd from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday, December 3rd from Noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are still available for purchase at City Lights Espresso, 1171 Homestead Road, Santa Clara through Friday or at the Harris-Lass Museum, 1889 Market Street, Santa Clara on the days of the tour. Four private homes and the Harris-Lass Museum are on this year’s tour. One of the private homes is a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian built in the 1890s for the family of a Santa Clara blacksmith named James Parmer. The Harris-Lass House Museum, an 1865 Italianate Victorian, is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a public museum and each room of the house is decorated based on a verse from the book, Twas the Night Before Christmas. This event is a fun Santa Clara holiday tradition, now in its 33rd year, with proceeds benefitting local non-profits in Santa Clara (including the Library). For more details, see the Santa Clara Historic Home Tour website at: http://www.sc-hometour.com/.
Proceeds from this tour have, in the past, funded history and geneology materials and summer reading.
A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion – A Book Talk
On Tuesday, December 6 at 7:00 p.m. in the Central Park Library Cedar Room, Adult Services is presenting local author Ron Hansen, who will discuss writing and his new novel: A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion. The book is a fact-based fictionalized account of the famous torrid love affair that led to the 1927 murder of Albert Snyder and the subsequent scandal in New York City. Hansen, author of several popular historical novels, is the Gerard Manly Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University, where he teaches writing and literature. To reserve a space at this free book talk, made possible by the Foundation & Friends of Santa Clara City Library, please call the Reference Desk at 615-2900. Watch the library website: http://santaclaraca.gov or sign up for the City’s free e-Notify service to find out about other upcoming library programs and events.
Sponsored by the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends
ESL Coordinator Wanted
The library is starting an English as Second Language (ESL) Conversation Club and is looking for a volunteer to coordinate the program. The club will offer a comfortable environment for adults with limited English language skills to practice speaking in English.
In consultation with library staff, the ESL Conversation Club Coordinator will:
- Recruit, orient, and lead a team of Volunteer Conversation Partners
- Select curriculum materials for use by volunteers in the ESL Conversation Club
- Create flyers and other material to publicize the program
- Collect data and submit reports for program evaluation.
Qualities/Skills Required:
- Ability to recruit, motivate, and supervise volunteers
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds
- Enthusiasm, creativity, patience, and a sense of humor
- Ability to organize and pay attention to detail
Knowledge/ experience in the field of teaching English Language Learners preferable . Please contact Jenni Hsiao at (408)615-2906 or if you are interested.
Teen Moms Win with Grant from Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust
Read Santa Clara has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust toward their work with the teen mothers at the Young Parents Center (YPC) of Wilson High School to encourage them to read for pleasure and to share a love of reading with their young children. The Foundation & Friends teamed with Read Santa Clara to prepare and submit the application.
The Trust agreed with us that these teen Moms are inspirational – they are 15-18 years old and while pursuing their high school diploma they are also raising babies and toddlers. It is hard to fit reading for pleasure into the schedule of young Moms, but Read Santa Clara makes it easier by helping them to find books and encouraging them to make reading fun for their children. The program enables the moms to not only nurture the early literacy skills of their children but begin to view visiting libraries and reading books as pleasurable activities in their daily lives. Before the program, most of these teen moms had earlier considered reading not as a joy, but instead as a requirement for school.
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