Oakland Grown

Of all the topics people come to the Oakland History Center to research, few subjects are more popular than the Black Panther Party. If Oakland has contributed anything to society that is internationally known, it’s the Black Panthers. So many books, articles, dissertations and films have been written about them, and deservedly so. But the Panthers did not spring--as many researchers assume--wholesale from the earth, without influences, mentors or predecessors. Taking them out of their historical context may not reduce their luster, but it certainly compromises the story of Black liberation struggles in America. One of the Panther’s key influences was a local organization called the Afro-American Association (AAA).

Founded in 1962 by a group of graduate and law students at UC Berkeley, the Afro-American Association’s central mission was to educate African Americans about their history. The founding members--Donald Warden, Donald Hopkins, Otho Green, and Dennis Ramsey--knew that many of the obstacles that faced their community were due to lack of self-knowledge. They

If you’ve ever written a memoir, a novel, a collection of poems, short stories, or anything else that could be considered a book, you may have wondered how you can share it with your community.

With Biblioboard, local authors can share their work electronically with their communities through their library. Biblioboard allows you to create your work, share it, and discover works by local, independent authors. You can also win awards and honors, such as inclusion in the Independent Author Project's Select Collection or a self-publishing award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Create:

With BiblioBoard’s

OverDrive has acquired the RBdigital platform. RBdigital content will move to OverDrive, and the RBDigital platform will eventually go away. You should see updates about this in the RBDigital app. 

Digital magazines will still be available via RBdigital for now. 

You can yes, export your wishlist and reading history by logging in to your account, and going to My Account -- Profiles; there is an option to export transactions there. 

Current checkouts will be available through the remainder of the item's lending period in the RBdigital app. Current checkouts will not be moved to OverDrive but you should be able to finish your title without losing your place in the book. 

Holds will not be moved to OverDrive. You can export your Transaction History from the RBdigital

Since no one knows yet how long we’ll be sheltering in place, we might as well make the most of our time at home. For many of us, that means spending more time in our gardens, planting new flowers, shrubs, and vegetables for spring. For many more of you who don’t have gardens, you now have the time to start one of your own. 

The Oakland Public Library offers all the practical tips you need to plan, start, and nurture your garden whether it be a a row of pots on an apartment balcony or a large urban farm. Gardening has many benefits. It’s environmentally restorative, economical, physically stimulating, meditative, and creative. 

The library offers a variety of e-books on every aspect of gardening. Here are a few to get you started: