A $75 parcel tax measure to provide funds for Oakland’s libraries will be on the city’s June primary ballot.

Oakland City Council voted unanimously February 6th to put the measure on the ballot, with revised language that would ensure that the money libraries get from the city’s general fund every year will not be replaced by the funds generated from the parcel tax.

The tax is estimated to generate about $10 million annually for 20 years

If the parcel tax passes, the city can avoid having to close branches, maintain reading and education classes, and ensure that libraries provide a safe place for children and teens after school.

You can help pass this measure. Place a sign in your yard or window, host a house party or volunteer in so many other ways! 

Contact ProtectOaklandLibraries@gmail.com

The Oakland Public Library offers a variety of e-books and downloadable audiobooks. Library cardholders can download digital content any time, to a computer or a mobile device. The Piedmont Avenue Branch offers one-on-one assistance by appointment Saturdays 2:30-4pm



http://oaklandlibrary.org/online-resources/e-books-and-digital-content

Overdrive has a more user friendly app called LIBBY. Download it today and see the difference

https://meet.libbyapp.com/

Ancestry Library is available at the Main and branch libraries, but not outside library facilities. This database provides access to public records and genealogy tools for the family historian with an emphasis on immigrant lists, passenger lists, and other public documents. 

http://oaklandlibrary.org/online-resources/articles-and-databases



Are Glamour and Excitement Enough?

When George Washington was 16, he copied “The Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation” into a notebook to learn how best to behave as an adult. The 110 rules he wrote are a touching memorial to Washington’s earnestness and openness as an eighteenth century adolescent.

The characters in Amor Towles “The Rules of Civility” are making the same choices about adult behavior as Washington. They are young men and women in New York City in 1938 just as the city is recovering from the Great Depression and years of disappointment and uncertainty.  The girls have immigrant parents and stifling proper parents and the boys have parents who have lost their money, their confidence, or their position in society. But these youth are 25 years old and they are full of excitement as they explore their choices for the future.

The glory of this book is in the delicious descriptions of the glamorous world they inhabit. These young people don’t simply drink cocktails, they drink them at the 21 Club where the waiter greets them by name, gives them a great table, pours ice cold martinis from a silver shaker, and serves them complimentary oysters. Jazz musicians in dark, sophisticated night clubs befriend them. They live in luxurious apartments near Central Park where they launch paper airplanes to adjacent terraces and banter with doormen who know many secrets. On the weekends, they drive sports cars to wealthy country estates for parties.

But is this exciting world what they really want? Will they be seduced by all this romance or will they try to build lives where rewards are the result of hard work and ideals? Like George Washington, each one must figure out what is most important and what they want to be as adults.

I have a goal for our Library. I grew up with libraries which introduced me to new things, in which, with no goal, I could browse and stumble upon things I knew little about. I stumbled upon volumes on Psychology, Astronomy, upon writers no one mentioned in English class, all in that most precious human spirit of exploration. For circumstances beyond our control, we cannot browse in our local branch in its small temporary location. It really is now a combination of community center programs like baby café and author presentations (run by a very capable and devoted staff) and a pick-up point for books and videos which can be ordered from not only the entire Oakland Library system but from libraries across the state. That’s all very valuable and I use the latter prolifically. The programs serve to introduce libraries as a resource to newer and older generations. The groups of children seated before librarian Margaret as she reads to them will become better citizens because they know about books and about libraries. And when we get a real home for our branch with space for rows of shelves will all of us be able to explore. That is my goal - to hold on to what we have until we can get what we want, a building filled with books on every known subject.

~ John Celenza

above: Mercy & Madness on the Streets of God’s Favorite City , Author Talk by Brad Newsham

Ongoing:

Wednesdays: 10:15am – Toddler Storytime

Wednesdays: 11:00am – Pre-School Storytime

Fridays: 3:30pm – Lego Mania is now Build Fridays

Saturdays: 10:30am – Baby Café

Saturdays: 2:30pm – eBook Help

Saturday March 3rd 1 pm: Berkeley Rep Docent Talk, Office Hour . After enthralling audiences with Aubergine , Julia Cho returns to Berkeley Rep with a searing and touching play that tunes into the plight of “the other” in a country steeped in mistrust and intolerance. Join the discussion.

Saturday March 24th 1 pm: Five Fabulous Women Artists, an art talk. Local artist Marlene Aron presents slides of the inspiring art of Mary Cassatt, Berth Morisot, Marie Bracquemond, Eva Gonzales, and Camille Claudel. Take a journey through the artistry and lives of the movers and shakers of the Impressionist movement. 

Saturday April 14th 2 pm: Credit Reports and Credit Scores.

Tuesday April 24th 6 pm: Will Drafting Workshop

Financial Education Workshops sponsored by Habitat for Humanity.

All events unless noted take place at the Piedmont Avenue Branch

80 Echo Avenue, Oakland Ca 94611