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.

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.