Posted on November 25, 2014 by Nina Lindsay to Children's Services Blog

Oakland Mayor's Toy Drive Needs New Books!

Buy a book at your local independent bookstore to donate to an Oakland child in need of a holiday gift. While you're at it, use our shopping list for the children in your life too!

The library is partnering with the Oakland Mayor's Toy Drive to ensure that a new book is included in every gift bag.   You can help by shopping at your participating local independent bookstore.   The following stores will be selling books for the Oakland Mayor's Toy Drive. Stop by, buy a book or more and leave it with the store for donation to the Toy Drive!

Laurel Book Store 1423 Broadway

Pegasus Books Oakland, 5560 College Ave

Marcus Bookstore, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way

Great Good Place for Books, 6120 LaSalle Ave

Click here to read more

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Tamar Kirschner to Advice for Readers

Condé Nast Titles Now Available on Zinio

ZINIO. JUST. GOT. BETTER.

“Do you carry the New Yorker digitally?" "When are you going to get Wired online?” FINALLY, we can respond “YES!”, “and “NOW”! With Zinio, our popular e-magazine platform highlighted in a blog post last June by Magazine & Newspaper Librarian Kirsten Baldock, Oakland Library cardholders can download and keep digital editions of the current issues of popular magazine titles, now including Condé Nast magazines!  Since OPL began subscribing to Zinio over a year ago, patrons have been asking for many of these formerly-not-available-to-libraries titles. Condé Nast and Zinio struck a deal this fall, and our patrons now have access to (drum roll): 

Click here to read more

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Erica Siskind to Children's Services Blog

Q&A: Patrons ask; librarians answer: Beginning Readers too boring? Write your own!

Children’s Librarians talk with parents, caregivers, and children all day, every day. The kindergarten teacher tells my child to read on her own at home, but the "Readers" she's capable of reading bore her. How can I keep her interested and still do what the teacher says?

Book cover of I'm Bored by Black & OhiQ: My youngest child is just learning to read, but she finds all the beginning reader books boring. Do you have any more exciting ones? 

A: Maybe! First let’s take a look at that section, to make sure you’ve seen the ones that young readers enjoy the most. Children’s Librarian Miriam Medow posted a great list online about a year ago, and we can

Click here to read more

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Mary Farrell to Advice for Readers

Notes on GOING CLEAR: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright tells you more than you'd ever thought you'd learn about the pseudo-science beliefs of Scientology and the enforcement of its secrets by its creepy hierarchy. Stranger than Science Fiction!

What a fascinating topic! There were 8 of us at our Lakeview Book Club Meeting in August to discuss Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. Most had read it all. Some read most parts or didn't quite finish. Two were new to our group. One of the new people came, because of the topic, while not having had the opportunity to read the book.
 
Lawrence Wright, an investigative reporter,  is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. He is from Dallas, Texas and is a graduate of Tulane University and English in at the American University in Cairo in Egypt and received his MA in applied linguistics in 1969.
 
Going Clear was based on extensive research and over 200 interviews of current and former

Click here to read more

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Sharon McKellar to The Library Community

Participate in a discussion - earn $100!

Help inspire OPL to improve our services with design thinking!

We are one of four libraries that have been selected to apply the Design Thinking methodology for improving services. We need your help – we’d love to ask you about your experiences. Inspire us!  All interviews will take place Tuesday, November 18th from 1-2pm over lunch and the compensation will be $100. 

Is this you? 

  • You are a new resident in Oakland within the last 3 months 
  • You are a new home owner in Oakland (having moved from a different state)
  • You are new to Oakland without family or friends in the area 

If you are interested, please describe which of the above scenarios may apply to you and why. In addition, tell us a bit more about yourself and answer the questions below.  Email your

Click here to read more

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Miriam Medow to Children's Services Blog

Hands-On Science Books

A list of recommended science experiment books available at the Oakland Public Library.

During this season of colder weather and shorter days, you can find plenty of inspiration for activities to do with kids in the science section of the library. These are just a handful of our favorite books that help curious kids explore the world around them through scientific experimentation. Check them out!:

Crazy Concoctions book cover

Click here to read more

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Christy Thomas to Advice for Readers

10 Great Reasons to Read Fiction in November 2014

Are you a fiction lover? Here are 10 great books coming out in November.

 

Click here to read more

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Mana Tominaga to Reference Services Blog

Essay Contest for "War Comes Home" - win an iPad Mini!

Write an essay on "War in Your Life" for the chance to win an iPad Mini!

Did you know that OPL is one of 43 libraries throughout California to be awarded the California Reads grant - to help promote understanding and empathy around the veteran experience? We're working with some partner agencies to plan programs and we're doing an essay contest with Veterans for Peace East Bay. This essay contest for adults and teens is taking submissions now - and the prize for each is a iPad Mini! The guidelines and judging criteria are available here. Good luck and please let me know if you have any questions - you can email me at mtominaga@oaklandlibrary.org. 

Click here to read more

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Barbara Bibel to Reference Services Blog

Ebola Facts and Fiction

Ebola is serious but not highly contagious.

The Ebola virus has been in the news. The current outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea has killed thousands. Despite the frenzied commentary of some journalists, there is no danger of an outbreak in the United States. Drug resistant bacteria and motor vehicle accidents kill more people in the United States than this Ebola outbreak (current statistics from the World Health Organization show that 4,500 people have died so far).

Yes, Ebola is a serious disease that kills between 60 and 90 percent of those who contract it, but it is not highly contagious. The host is the fruit bat. People get the disease when bodily fluids (blood, saliva, feces, urine, semen) enter the body through broken skin or mucous membranes. The disease is not airborne. It can only be transmitted via direct contact, which is why health care workers are at high risk if they do not take proper precautions.

The symptoms are similar to many common infections such as the flu: fever, weakness, muscle aches, sore throat, so unless the patient tells his/her health care provider about possible

Click here to read more

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Sharon McKellar to The Library Community

C.L. Dellums: An Oakland Civil Rights Hero

Thanks to our Archivist, Sean, at the African American Museum & Library at Oakland, we have a fascinating blog post about C.L. Dellums, an Oaklander you should know about.

Thanks to Sean, the Archivist at the African American Museum & Library at Oakland for this amazing post.  Have you heard of C.L. Dellums?  

                        

When C.L. (Cottrell Laurence) Dellums arrived in Oakland, California in 1923, he had dreams of one day attending law school at the University of California. He came to California for many of the same reasons other African Americans came to the state - to escape the segregation and racism of the South in the hope of finding social and economic equality.

But Dellums soon realized that things were not much different in California than in Texas, and the only jobs open to African Americans were low-paying positions in the service sector as waiters, janitors,

Click here to read more