Category Archives: branch libraries
Johnston Branch Library turns 30 – help us celebrate!
This Saturday, June 18, newly elected District 4 City Councilman Rey Saldaña will join poet Naomi Shihab Nye, Library officials, and members of the Johnston family to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Johnston Branch Library, 6307 Sun Valley. The ceremony will kick off at 2:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
In addition to Councilman Saldaña’s remarks, the program will include a reading by Naomi Shihab Nye, author of You and Yours and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East; remarks by Carter Johnston, grandson of the branch library’s namesake Leah Carter Johnston; and readings by Young Pegasus poets.
The emphasis on poetry during the anniversary ceremony is a tribute to Leah Carter Johnston, for whom the library was named. Ms. Johnston was the San Antonio Public Library’s first children’s services librarian, serving in that capacity from 1922 to 1955. During her tenure, in 1927, she began the San Antonio Public Library’s Young Pegasus Poetry Awards, designed to recognize and reward the work of young authors up to the age of 18. Still sponsored annually by the Library, the Young Pegasus Poetry Competition is the longest-running such program in the United States. Ms. Johnston was also the author of San Antonio – St. Anthony’s Town, published in the mid-1970s and still in the San Antonio Public Library collection today.
The Johnston Branch Library opened on August 23, 1981, on land donated by Ray Ellison Industries. Construction costs totalled approximately $575,000, funded by the 1980 City of San Antonio bond initiative. On opening day, the 9,000-square-foot branch library had a staff of nine and a collection containing 13,000 items. In 1994 work began to renovate the library and enlarge it by 3,000 square feet, funded by $785,470 from the 1989 City bond election. The updated, expanded facility re-opened in 1996.
We couldn’t do it without them!
At 2:00 p.m. at the Central Library on Sunday, June 12, the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees will honor individuals and organizations who have contributed to Library service in the community by presenting them with Library Champion Awards. Join us to celebrate the gift of volunteering!
This year’s honorees are:
Councilmen Justin Rodriguez and John Clamp
Deedee Lu
Library Volunteer Marketing Team
Mari Aguirre
Mike Bacon
Angela Bartels
Becky Bridges
Jessica Cerda
Rosenda Rios
Andi Rodriguez
Anamaria Suescun-Fast
Mercedes O’Higgins
The Rackspace Foundation
Karen Sagun
Chairs of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation
Gene Ames
Pat Flynn
Kye Fox
Nick Hollis
Alice Lynch
Dennis Martinez
Mike Molak
Guillermo Nicolas
Carol O’Malley
Debbie Prost
Also being recognized are the three individual volunteers with the greatest number of service hours:
Richard Kierbow – 1,158 hours
Paula Parra – 845 hours
Pamela Miller – 693 hours
Thanks to all of you – we couldn’t do it without you!
Bannwolf Library at Reagan High School discontinues public library service
At 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 29, the Bannwolf Library at Reagan High School will discontinue its public-library operation. The opening of the new Parman Branch Library at Stone Oak allows the San Antonio Public Library to offer full-time public library service to the north central area, in turn allowing the Reagan High School facility to return to full-time service as a high school library. San Antonio Public Library items currently housed at the Bannwolf Library will be transferred to other branch libraries throughout the system.
The innovative school-public library partnership opened its doors in October 1999, and its success led to a second collaboration, the Pruitt Public Library at Roosevelt High School. The Pruitt Library will continue its dual service as both a public library and a school library.
Ramiro Salazar, Director of the San Antonio Public Library, thanked partner North East Independent School District: “We appreciate that the North East Independent School District and their librarians embraced this new service model to bring public libraries to underserved areas. The school district’s cooperation and support helped us offer public library service to new neighborhoods and continue to make a difference in our community.”
Former users of the Bannwolf Library are invited to visit the Parman Branch Library to take advantage of the full range of San Antonio Public Library resources, programs and services.
2011 Young Pegasus Poets try their wings!
This weekend San Antonio’s young poets will be recognized at the 85th annual Young Pegasus Poetry Awards ceremony, scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 15, at the Hermann Sons Grand Lodge, 515 S. St. Mary’s. This year more than 2,000 poems were submitted for consideration, with 71 poems by 61 young authors – ranging in age from 6 to 18 – selected for publication in the 2011 Young Pegasus Poetry Anthology. Those lucky enough to attend will hear these creative young writers read their own poems aloud.
Items of interest:
Two new libraries are now open to serve you!
Mission Branch Library, 3134 Roosevelt Avenue 78214 (on the former site of the Mission Drive-in Theatre)
Parman Branch Library in Stone Oak, 20735 Wilderness Oak 78258
Don’t forget it’s almost time for Summer Reading, sponsored again this year by Mayor Julian Castro! For information on the kids’ program, gohere, and to find out what the teens are planning, go here.
We couldn’t do it without them!
Do you know someone – a volunteer – who is the support and mainstay of your local branch of the San Antonio Public Library? Someone who is always there to help with storytime, to shelve books, to assist teen services staff with projects? A business or organization that has sent volunteers or donated funds to support Library programming or provide new resources? The San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees wants to hear from you!
The Library Board is seeking nominations for the 2011 Library Champion Awards. These awards recognize individuals (not employed by the Library), businesses, and community organizations for their substantial involvement with the Library system, or who have contributed time, talent or resources that resulted in the enhancement of library service in San Antonio.
Anyone may submit a nomination for Library Champion. Previous recipients are eligible for nomination. A nomination form is available on the Library’s webpage or by calling (210) 207-2638.
The deadline for nominations is March 1. Recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony on Sunday, April 17, at the Central Library.
The San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees created the Library Champion Awards in 1996 to honor notable contributions to the Library system. Past award recipients include Dr. Amy Freeman Lee, former San Antonio City Manager Alex Briseño, author Barbara Stanush, Wings Press publisher Bryce Milligan, the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library, the San Pedro Hills Women’s Club, the San Antonio Express-News, and the San Antonio Public Library Foundation.
I have a new eReader – now what do I do?
Did you get an eBook reader as a holiday gift? Wondering what to do with it? Wonder no more – the San Antonio Public Library wants to help! From January 10 through early February, the Library will offer free eReader clinics to help you get the most out of your eBook reader. Starting with the basics, you’ll soon be using your reader to explore the entire Dewey Decimal System, as well as fiction!
Get started with your eBook reader!
Did you get an eBook reader as a holiday gift? Wondering what to do with it? Wonder no more – the San Antonio Public Library wants to help!
From January 10 through early February, the Library will offer free eReader clinics to help you get the most out of your eBook reader. Starting with the basics, you’ll soon be using your reader to explore the entire Dewey Decimal System, as well as fiction!
Here’s a clinic schedule:
January 10 6:00 p.m. Thousand Oaks Branch Library
January 13 1:00 p.m. Maverick Branch Library
January 15 2:00 p.m. The Tobin Library at Oakwell
January 20 2:00 p.m. McCreless Branch Library
January 22 10:00 a.m. Las Palmas Branch Library
January 23 1:00 p.m. Brook Hollow Branch Library
January 26 6:00 p.m. Great Northwest Branch Library
January 29 3:00 p.m. Cody Branch Library
January 30 11:00 a.m. Igo Branch Library
February 3 6:00 p.m. Central Library
February 5 12:00 noon Landa Branch Library
…and a chance to add to your movie and audiobook library…
With the increasing popularity of new formats such as downloadables, DVDs and CDs, items on tape are not being checked out as often – as a matter of fact, books on tape and movies on VHS account for less than 1% of our annual circulation. So we’re giving you the chance to snap some up at great prices, and help the Library too!
On Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9, the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library are holding a special sale of audiobooks on tape and movies on VHS. Proceeds will benefit the Library.
If you’re in the neighborhood, check out what’s available at one of these locations:
Bazan Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Brook Hollow Branch Library
Saturday, January 8 • 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Carver Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Collins Garden Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.
Cortez Branch Library
Saturday, January 8 • 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Johnston Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m.
Maverick Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
McCreless Branch Library
Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9 • 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.
Memorial Branch Library
Saturday, January 8 • 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Thousand Oaks Branch Library
Sunday, January 9 • 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m.
Welcome home, Fiesta Tower!
In October 2009, Dale Chihuly’s colorful glass sculpture, Fiesta Tower, was disassembled from its display location in the Central Library and placed in secure storage during roof work and replacement of the Central Library’s skylights located directly over the tower.
Now the Fiesta Tower has been reinstalled and the Central Library’s second-floor atrium will shortly reopen.
To celebrate the Fiesta Tower’s homecoming, the San Antonio Public Library will host a family craft event from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, in the second-floor atrium at the Central Library, 600 Soledad.
During the come-and-go event, local artist Susie Monday will guide participants in creating their own Chihuly-style works of art. The event is free and open to the public. One hour of free parking is available in the library parking garage with validated ticket.
A gift of the Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts through a grant to the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, the Fiesta Tower was originally installed in the Central Library in 2003 as part of the celebration of the San Antonio Public Library’s 100th anniversary.
Notes: The Memorial Branch Library, 3222 Culebra Road, will close for renovations on Monday, November 8, 2010. The project is expected to take approximately one month to complete.
All San Antonio Public Library locations will be closed on Thursday, November 11, in observance of Veterans Day.
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Saturday, September 25, sees the kickoff of Banned Books Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. The website of the American Library Association, which originated the annual observance, says, “Intellectual freedom – the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular – provides the foundation for Banned Books Week, [which] stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.”
Most of the books spotlighted during Banned Books Week have been the subject of challenges about their inclusion in school or public library collections, or on students’ assigned reading lists. Books that have been challenged or removed include The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Twilight series, Huckleberry Finn, Gone with the Wind, the Goosebumps series, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, A Wrinkle in Time, and probably some of your favorites (I know some of mine are in the list above.)
Why is it important to talk about this? I think it’s because we are reminded that if you or I can ban a book someone else likes, then it’s entirely possible that a book we find important can be banned as well. Part of the price of an open conversation is that sometimes we might hear something we don’t like.
If you’re interested in continuing the conversation about what we read, join us on Thursday, September 30, at 7:00 p.m. in the Central Library Auditorium, 600 Soledad, when Dotty Griffith, ACLU of Texas Public Education Director, will discuss the Banned Books report for this year. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, she will also reflect on the book’s significance for us today.
What books would you want to protect? Drop us a line and let us know.
