Book Making on Friday, December 19!

We are so very lucky to have a special guest from San Francisco Center of the Book at Mission Branch this Friday! She will teach school aged children how to create and bind their very own book. Perfect to house children's own illustrations and writing. Our project will be from 3pm until 5pm, feel free to stop on by!
All are invited!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, it is hard to believe how time flies! We at Mission Branch wish you and your families the very best holiday week. We are thankful for your visits, for sharing your favorite books with us, and for being the best patrons in town!
Just a reminder, we will close at 5:00pm on Wednesday, November 26, and will remain closed on both Thursday, November 27 and Friday, November 28.
We will open again at 10:00am on Saturday, November 29.
Look forward to seeing you then!

Fire Truck Visit!

Get ready for another exciting Saturday at San Francisco Public Library's Mission Branch. We are so very lucky to have a visit this Saturday, November 22, from 11:00-11:30 with San Francisco's Fire Department.
They will have a fire truck in front of the library and will be meeting patrons and giving tours of the truck and lots of information about being a firefighter to kids and adults alike. You sure won't want to miss the chance for your little ones to meet our city's firefighters and see a fire truck up close!
Afterwards, head back into the library for some fire truck arts and crafts!
See you then!

Citizenship Resources from the San Francisco Public Library!

Hi all!
As many of you may already know, the US government has recently implemented changes to our country's citizenship process. Whether you, or someone you know, is interested in learning more about the updated process of immigration, the San Francisco Public Library has a great new online tool that includes video, community support resources, detailed information regarding the process, and the updated citizenship test questions.
But best of all, the library offers all of this information in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Russian!
Take a peek at our new Citizenship resource page for all the goodies!

Climate Change Workshop---Tonight!

Tonight we are so lucky to have an exciting presentation on Climate Changes at the Mission Branch. The presenation will be given by members of the same group that worked with Al Gore on An Inconvenient Truth.
We'll expect to see you here at the Branch in the Children's Room at 7pm for this timely presentation!

Celebracion del Mes de la Herencia Hispana en la Biblioteca de la Mision

El sabado, 13 de septiembre del 2008 de 2:00-4:00 pm celebraremos el Mes de la Herencia Hispana con el grupo de Jovenes, Futuro Picante!!! Buena Musica para escuchar y para bailar!!
Tambien venga a aprender sobre las contribuciones de los hispanos-americanos y las cultura de sus paises de origen; con el uso de la computadora, habra proyeccion de diapositivas y pantallas de informacion.
Refrescos y bocadillos gratis!!!

Conceptos Básicos de Ciudadania en la Biblioteca de la Mision

El Lunes, 8 de septiembre del 2008 de 6:30-7:30 p.m. un agente de relaciones de la comunidad representante de los Servicios de Ciudadanía e Inmigración (USCIS) de los EE.UU, presentará una charla acerca de los requisitos generales para obtener la ciudadanía. Entre ellos: La forma de aplicar, cómo prepararse para la entrevista, orientarles en caso de que Vd. necesite tormar el nuevo examen, donde y como obtener mas información.
La presentación será en ingles, pero estará presente una bibliotecaria bilingue que asistirá a traducir.
No se discutirán casos individuales durante esta presentación.

Poets 11

A Poets 11 reading is happening here at the Mission branch on Monday, August 25, at 6:30 PM!! Poets 11 is an annual event that celebrates San Francisco’s rich literary community and thriving poetry scene. The event is sponsored and organized by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the San Francisco Public Library, and San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman. The 11 is in reference to San Francisco's 11 supervisorial districts. Residents of each of the districts are encouraged to submit their poems, and a few poets from each district are chosen to read their works at a Poets 11 event held at a specific branch library within each district. Poets from the 9th supervisorial district (which includes the Mission District) will be reading their poems here at the Mission branch on Monday, August 25, starting at 6:30 PM. The poets will not be announced publicly until the night of the event. We hope to see you here!!

Futuro Picante

I'm excited to announce that Futuro Picante will be performing at our Hispanic Heritage Month event here at the Mission branch library on Saturday, September 13, 2008. Futuro Picante is a band that is comprised of members of the Mission Cultural Center's Latin Jazz Band Program. They also performed at our recent open house back in May. Along with band directors José León (youth director of the Mission Cultural Center) and Miguel Govea, and with occasional help from local musicians, such as Osvaldo Carvajal, Camilo Landau and Sergio Duran, Futuro Picante consists of 14 musicians between the ages of 8 to 16 years old who play a variety of instruments. Here's a link to their MySpace page.

Encore catalog search

The San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) has added a new search feature to its Web site called Encore. It's being described as a "discovery tool." Basically it's an additional online SFPL catalog search option, similar to SFPL's own online catalog search function, but the difference is that Encore has more built-in searching and material discovery features, such as tag clouds (groupings of subject headings that link to other similar titles), easy ways to refine your search, and a great misspell correcter, similar to Google's, in case you misspell or mistype a title, author's name, or subject phrase. I highly recommend using Encore if you want to browse online for books about a particular subject and aren't having much luck with the SFPL Web site catalog search tools. You might just stumble upon something you may not have otherwise found. You can access Encore right from the SFPL homepage (it's the green search box under the yellow catalog search box in the upper left). Give it a try...

One City One Book

The new One City One Book title for 2008-09 has just been announced: West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story by Tamin Ansary. Check out all the info about the book and the author, including events with the author at the Main's Koret Auditorium. There are many copies on order for the library to meet the demand, but the Mission branch does have a couple copies on the shelf right now (as of 08/05/08). So get your copy while you can. If you read this post and find that our copies are checked out, it's never too late to reserve a copy!

The Complete Persepolis

I'm happy to report that The Complete Persepolis is circulating really well. Of course, that's due in part to it being the San Francisco Public Library's (SFPL) current On the Same Page selection for July-August. If you don't already know, On the Same Page is the SFPL's bimonthly book club. Every two months we choose a book with the intent of getting San Franciscans to read and discuss the same book.

The Complete Persepolis is a graphic novel. It is a moving, humanistic story told in words and pictures about the author's coming of age in Tehran, Iran, before, during, and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It is also an informative look at how the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution affected the lives of normal Iranian citizens. Satrapi's Persepolis was originally published in two parts (Persepolis and Persepolis 2), but in 2007 Pantheon Books combined the two in one volume called The Complete Persepolis. That is the version of which we have purchased multiple copies for On the Same Page. I highly recommend reserving a copy for pickup at the Mission branch, since all our copies are usually checked out. I want to also point out that the Mission branch has Spanish language versions of Persepolis, divided into four parts.

Also, in 2007 the animated film version of Persepolis was released. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film (but lost to Ratatouille). SFPL has the DVD on order right now. It should be available soon to reserve and check out.

Summer Reading in Mission Begins June 14!

Wow, this summer offers great opportunities to us all at the Mission Branch! Children from one day old right up to their 13th birthday are encouraged to participate in our Summer Reading Club. Starting on June 14, children can sign up for the program. We are open every day of the week, so stop by to sign up when it works best for your schedule.

Children who are too young to read on their own are still encouraged to participate: they can record on their reading log any time you spend reading with them, and we will also give credit to children when they participate in our storytimes.

For every two hours of reading logged, children will recieve a small prize, and infants/toddlers will receive a finger puppet!
After eight hours of reading, children receive a Grand Prize of their choice. How fun!

In addition to this great program, we are offering lots of special programs, including:

Wild Art Group each Friday from 3-4
Reading Club each Friday from 2-3
Bilingual Baby Bounce and Baby Playtime each Monday from 1-2
Preschool Storytime each Wednesday from 10:00-10:30
Bilingual Lapsit for children ages 18 months to 3 years each Thursday at 10:10 and 11:00
Round-Up of Reading for school aged children each Tuesday at 12:oo
Game Night at 6:oo on June 18, July 2, 16, and 30

We'll have special guests also!

June 17 The Peña-Govea Family at 4:00
June 24 Donna's Bilingual Circle Time at 4:00
July 1 The Bubble Lady! at 4:00
July 8 Swetha Dixit at 4:00
July 15 It's Yoga Kids at 4:00
July 22 It's Yoga Kids at 4:00
July 29 Bonnie Lockhart at 4:00
August 9 Ballet Folklorico de Santa Paula at 4:00

Please come by, we'd love to see you!

Children's Room Website!

Hi everyone!
Be sure to take a peak at the Mission Branch Children's Room website were you'll find our monthly schedule as well as recordings of the songs we use during storytimes. Look soon for Summer Reading Club information as well. Let us know what you think!
http://missionkidsread.org/