Vol 10 # 4 January 15, 2026

The Friends of PAL Are Fundraising

We’re new to fundraising. As we delve into that universe we’re reminded of the Blind Men and the Elephant parable. We’ve learned that capital campaign fundraising can be at the same time dull, fascinating, straightforward, complex, only for experts or achievable with enthusiastic volunteers.

The Friends of PAL have formed a Capital Campaign Committee (CCC) with a goal to raise $18-20 million. We have learned from other library capital campaigns that fundraising needs two to five years to meet a goal of $18-20 million. We have also learned that a common recommendation is to plan for three phases:

1.      Preparation phase – perform a funding feasibility study, recruit committee volunteers, plan the campaign.

2.      “Quiet” phase – raise 50-70% of the funding goal through private contacts with identified “lead donors” (80% of capital campaign $ goal comes from 20% of the individuals you contact).

3.      Public phase – raise the remainder from a wider audience relying on publicity campaigns.

The Friends of PAL-CCC remains in the preparation phase, working step by step, and seeking volunteers to join the effort.

Piedmont Avenue Library (PAL) has not had a permanent home since 2012 when the Citibank building on 41st St – for which the rent was $1 a month -- was sold and we were forced to find a new location. Currently PAL has a short-term lease for the small, portable building at 80 Echo Ave on the grounds of the Piedmont Avenue Elementary School.

While our talented librarians are making that portable building work for now, our community needs a more suitable space, and we of the new PAL-CCC are continuing the effort to secure one.

 A common expectation is that public library construction is funded by governments (city, state, federal). We are undertaking this capital campaign because there are currently no state or federal funding sources available for libraries, but we know that where there is a will, there is a way to be found. Consider the successful capital fundraising (multiple sources, including government and private funds) that delivered a 2011 opening of the Oakland Public Library 81^st Street branch on OUSD property.

Interested in learning more about our capital campaign? Stay tuned for a public meeting on CCC volunteer recruitment (early this year). Skills needed include event programming, fundraising, public relations, philanthropy, and advocacy. Most of all – bring your enthusiasm for libraries and belief in their high value for our communities! We welcome questions, suggestions and volunteers. Write to the Friends of PAL-CCC with an email to the interim co-chair Judith Stone stoneju1954@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

“A public library is predicated on an ethos of sharing and egalitarianism. … It stands in stark opposition to the materialism and individualism that otherwise define our culture. It is defiantly, proudly, communal.”

Susan Halpern, in The New York Review of Books, 4/18/19

Ongoing -



Toddler Storytime, every Tuesday,

10:15 - 10:30 am

Songs and stories for ages 18 months to 3 years. Stay and Play after Storytime with fun toys through 11:15 am.

Knitting & Crochet Circle, 1/26 & 2/9,

11 am – 1 pm

Join us for an early afternoon of knitting and good company every 2nd & 4th Monday. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting, everyone is welcome!

MOCHA at the Library!, Saturday 1/17, 11 am – 12:30 pm

Join us for monthly art workshops for children and families led by teachers from the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA). For ages 5-15 and caregivers.

Teen Pop Up Crafts, Tuesday, 1/27 & 2/9, 3:30 – 4:30 pm

Teens, come to hang out, every 2nd and 4th Tuesday, and get creative with the library staff. Supplies provided. Just bring yourself and creativity. 

Plot Twists & Page Turners: A Piedmont Ave. Branch Book Club,

2/9, 6 – 7:15 pm

Come together with your fellow book lovers, every 2nd Tuesday, and discover your next literary adventure at our monthly Book Club. Join to share your current reads or just hang out and chat about books.

More Events -

Gardening Workshop: Seed Starting, Saturday, 1/24,

2 – 3 pm

A UC Master Gardener Instructor will cover essential timing and techniques for spring vegetable seed starting, including which seeds thrive in our climate, the equipment needed for transplanting, direct seeding tips, and how to protect seedlings through the winter.

Lunar New Year Lion Dance! Saturday, 2/21, 12 – 12:30 pm

Celebrate the year of the Horse with a Lion Dance Performance by Cal's VSA Lion Dance! Watch as the colorful lion costume comes to life with music, drums, and dancing. This traditional Chinese celebration brings good luck and joy, making it fun for all ages.  

Gardening Workshop: Planning Your Vegetable Garden Saturday, 2/28,

2 - 3 pm

Are you new to gardening or excited to grow your vegetables? UC Master Gardeners will guide you through the essentials, from soil preparation to pest management. Learn how to select the right crops, create a personalized garden plan, nurture your seedlings, perfect watering techniques, and manage common garden pests. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Film Festival at AAMLO

Monday 1/19, 11 am – 6 pm

African American Museum and Library, 659 14^th St, Oakland, Ca 

Register here

The Avid Reader by Louis Segal

I’ve been an avid reader since I could read. In high school I used to cut school to read in the Berkeley Public Library.  I’m writing this column to share some of the books I love. I hope, perhaps, you might grow to love a few of them. 

The Crazies: The Cattleman, The Wind Prospector, And A War Out West

by Amy Gamerman [2025]

She is a poet and activist, born and bred, in Berkeley and he, a painter and woodworker, was born in Montana. They spend the mid-fall to mid-spring in Berkeley and then return to Montana where they live until half-fall again turns to winter. They are our friends.  This September we drove to Montana, up through Idaho, catching glimpses of the Grand Tetons, up along the Gallatin River and into Big Sky country, home of the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and the Blackfoot who once roamed the plains and are now mainly confined to reservations.  Sheep and cattle ranchers, miners, hipsters are in the valleys of Bozeman and Livingston. Up north in the Crazy Mountains we visited the ranchlands where the Painter grew up.  We visited the remains of a cabin the both built nestled into the Crazies. In a single day drought and winds burned down trees, grasslands and their cabin in a day. The land and sky, valleys and mountains are lovely, stunning, wild, and treacherous.

If I wanted to understand the Western Plains, the Poet said “read Gamerman’s book”. I did. Gamerman, a journalist, wrote this complex and wonderful book about ranching families struggling to maintain their land, farms and ranches. They are tough, hardworking people who have been in Montana for generations. Their children and grandchildren, through grit and resilience, now struggle to maintain their land. Debt and drought and avarice threaten their livelihoods. There are also Billionaires who have recently built huge stone mansions nestled in the Crazies. Indeed, they own mountains and mighty rivers and tens upon tens of thousands of acres. Some are old money folk who have made their fortunes in cattle and oil in Texas and now own the mountains and rivers and hunt and party and roam; or a wily Las Vegas lawyer who made his fortune defending gamblers, bikers, gangsters and celebrities and recently bought 2 miles along the Yellowstone River; the Macmillans, heirs to Cargill fortune, pedigreed aristocrats, built mansions on purchased mountains with sole access to rivers.  They wish to keep their lands, their mountains, their rivers “pristine.” They value their privacy. They aren’t good neighbors. And then, of course, there are Crow Indians, descendants of Clovis people who traveled from Siberia down into the Americas 14 or 15 thousand years ago. The mountains, for them, are ancient and sacred places.

One indebted rancher met an entrepreneur who convinced him that the winds that blow through these mountains can be harvested for energy and the two, along with other ranchers, try to maintain their land and cattle by harvesting the winds. Gamerman tells the story of an epic battle between ranchers and billionaires and the Crow people with their sacred dreams. 

If you want to understand how these peoples’ struggle for mansions, ranches and their historical claims The Crazies is a wonderful book. It doesn’t end well. The Billionaires and their lawyers laid waste to those who labored on the land for a 100 years and those who have been here for millenia, and climate activists strive to end our dependence on carbon fuel. If you love this country I commend you to read this important book. 

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/566900?m=false

https://www.mtpr.org/podcast/the-write-question/2025-08-28/encore-amy-gamermans-the-crazies-part-two

Our library is open 6 days a week

Sunday Closed

Monday: 10 am - 5:30 pm

Tuesday: 10 am - 8 pm

Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pm

 Thursday: 10 am - 5:30 pm

Friday: 12 pm - 5:30 pm

Saturday: 10 am - 5:30 pm

Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library Board of Directors 2024

President: Ronile Lahti; Secretary: Arleen Feng; Treasurer: Joanna Smith; Judith Smith

The Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our tax ID is 84-4203055.

All contributions are tax deductible.

Donate to Friends of PAL