By Michelle Jeffers Speaking of children’s picture books, earlier this month San Francisco Public Library participated again in Jumpstart’s annual Read for the Record program which aims to get readers across the country reading the same book to promote the importance of reading to children. Here’s how one SFPL children’s librarian, Joseph Liebman, experienced the [...]

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A relic from analog days, here you can learn how to make “off the air” recordings from this 1965 tape recorder handbook. Daily Treats are sweet finds from our Treat Avenue Donation Center. Hungry for more collectibles?  Find us at Amazon and AbeBooks.

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By Marcia Schneider A recent New York Times story, Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children, reporting on a downturn in bookstore sales of pictures stories, was deeply disturbing, with a logic that was counterintuitive. Why would we deprive our youngest readers of the imaginative and creative qualities of beautifully illustrated books in favor [...]

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Yesterday was an exciting day for San Francisco literary arts, as WritersCorps, a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Public Library, was recognized with a prestigious national award by First Lady Michelle Obama! WritersCorps was chosen from a pool of more than 400 nominations and 50 finalists as one of [...]

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Tawdry Avon anthology of mistress tales. Daily Treats are sweet finds from our Treat Avenue Donation Center. Hungry for more collectibles?  Find us at Amazon and AbeBooks.

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By Michelle Jeffers and Marcia Schneider Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is a book that every person in this earthquake prone, diverse Bay Area should read. It is a story about integrity, friendship, trust, loyalty and doing right by one’s community. It is a story that demonstrates the power of one. But, perhaps most importantly, it [...]

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By Marcia Schneider Protecting one’s self as well as the environment is a worthy goal, but sometimes the concept is easier said than done. Luckily for us, Cella Mitchell, librarian at the Main Library’s Wallace Stegner Environmental Center, is dedicated to helping us to find safe, healthy and green personal care products. In the following [...]

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal Dean Rader’s day job is teaching at USF; the kaleidoscopic purview of his interests and accomplishments move far beyond the academy.  Dean’s first book of poetry, Works & Days, won the 2010 T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize. MEH: How did you become a poet, and how do you stay one while working [...]

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By Byron Spooner Part 4 of 4-Paris (France) at Shakespeare and Co.’s literary festival, Festival & Co. Somewhere between the Guillotine Pub and the Festival I manage to lose Robert and locate Judy.  Yusef Komunyakaa is just finishing up and does better than most with the Q & A, salvaging interesting answers with real emotional [...]

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By Byron Spooner Part 3 of 4-Paris (France) at Shakespeare and Co.’s literary festival, Festival & Co., After spending the afternoon screwing around with Robert Mailer Anderson and blowing off the Festival almost completely, we figure the least we can do is blow in to yet another party, this one on the Rue de Bac. [...]

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