Portola Garden Tour Presentations

Portola Garden Tour Presentations at The Portola Branch Library, 380 Bacon St.

Come see one or two (or both) presentations about The Portola Garden Tour past and present on:

Wednesday, March 7th from noon—1:00 p.m. 
with Larry Zabo, neighborhood activist and Portola Garden Tour and Scholarship Committee member

or 

Wednesday, March 14th 6:30-7:30 p.m. 
with Ruth Wallace, Portola Garden Tour Organizer

See The Portola’s beautiful hidden gardens.

Learn why The Portola has always been San Francisco’s Garden District

Find out how you can be part of this fun, neighborhood event

Mark your calendar for the Portola Garden Tour on Saturday, September 29th, 2012

Great Programs at the Visitacion Valley Library

Programs for February at the Visitation Valley Branch Library, 201 Leland Avenue
 
~On Mondays (2/6, 2/13, 2/27):

11-11:30 - Family Story time
Join us as we read, sing and play together. Fun for the entire family from infants to grandparents.

~On every other Tuesdays (2/14, 2/18):

10-10:30 Preschool Films and Videos
Titles to be Announced.
Children ages 5 and younger

~On every Tuesdays (2/7, 2/14, 2/21, 2/28):

11-11:30 - Preschool Story time
Stories, songs, finger plays and more. For children up to 5 years

~On every Wednesday (2/1, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 2/29):

11-12 - Play and Growth: Toddler Story time
Play and Grow: Toddler Fun with Reading, Rhyming and Recreation is an early literacy play group that promotes parents child interaction and kindergarten readiness. The group is intended for parents, grandparents,caregivers, and children birth-age five.

This program is a collaboration effort between Edgewood Center, Parent
University, APA Family Support Services, and San Francisco Public Library.

~ Thursday (2/9)Black History Month Celebration with Yolanda Rhodes
5-5:45 Please come join us to celebrate Black History Month with a storytelling performance by Yolanda Rhodes.

~Friday (2/17)Hands on Snakes with Douglas Hall
4:45-5:30 Learn about the "extraordinarily docile, beautiful, harmless, non-venomous" snakes that are indigenous to California.

For Adults

~On Thursdays (2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23)

10:45 - 12:45 - In a joined effort between the Visitacion Valley Branch Public Library and the APA Family Support Services, the APA Parenting Class provides effective communication for parents or caregivers with children infants to 12 years of age

~On Thursday (2/9)
5-6 - Visitacion Valley Library will be offering one-on-one computer instruction in the use of the library's online catalog, research databases, the internet and email.

Additional Information

The library will be closed on the following dates:
02/20

For a complete list of programming at the Visitacion Valley Branch, click here or call 415-355-2882

EVENT: IMBIBE at the Potrero Branch Library

IMBIBE at the Potrero Branch Library

Friday, Dec 2, 7-10PM
Potrero Branch Library (1616 20th St at Arkansas)

Ahoy, me mateys and buccaneers—save the date for IMBIBE at the Potrero Branch Library!

Man the halyards and tighten the jib as we set sail for the nautical-themed edition of our Member-exclusive, after-hours cocktail party.

Come about and mingle on the mizzen with Potrero's own Rebecca Solnit, author of Infinite City, while you browse the library's collections.

FREE for Friends Members. Current Members RSVP to imbibe@friendssfpl.org. Not a Member? Join today to attend! Memberships start at just $35 and help support programming at the San Francisco Public Library above and beyond the city's budget.

Open bar and noshes provided by local favorites:
Anchor Brewing
Anchor Distilling
The Good Life Grocery

About IMBIBE
IMBIBE is an exclusive, after-hours quarterly event. Friends Members are invited to mix and mingle amongst the stacks with special literary guests, all while enjoying complimentary food and drink in some of the most beautiful, newly-renovated branches in the San Francisco Public Library system.

Check out photos from our past events:
IMBIBE at the Eureka Valley Branch
IMBIBE at the Marina Branch
IMBIBE at the Richmond Branch

For more information, please contact:

Mary Abler 
Outreach Manager 
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library 
391 Grove Street 
San Francisco, CA  94102 
(415) 626-7512 x107

Visitacion Valley Turns a Page

Wish I could have been there today - was out gardening with Quesada Gardens until too late to make the festivities...

Read more about the new Visitacion Valley Branch of the SF Public Library at SFGate

EVENT: He said what?

The Potrero Branch of the San Francisco Public Library presents

HE SAID WHAT?

Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Rose Guilbault, and Victoria Zackheim discuss their book.

Saturday, August 6, 2011, 4 p.m.

Potrero Branch Library Program Room

I love you. The meeting ran late. I want a divorce. One little word, one casual lie, one devastating announcement and our lives are turned upside down forever. In He Said What? Women Write About Moments When Everything Changed, 25 gifted women writers share profoundly personal moments in which a man in their life said something good or bad that changed them irrevocably. Funny, provocative, touching, and thrilling, He Said What? illustrates the powerful impact the right—and yes, even the wrong—words can have on a person’s life, and perhaps change that life forever. Join authors Victoria Zackheim, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Rose Guilbault in discussion of their book as they share a journey we’ve all traveled at least once.

Coffee, tea and dessert provided
Books available for sale and signing

All programs at the Library are free.

1616 20th St. (near Connecticut) (415) 355-2822 sfpl.org

Ground Breaking at new Bayview Library

Mayor Edwin M. Lee joined neighbors and community leaders to break ground on the new Bayview Branch Library, the 23rd library project in the 24-library, Branch Library Improvement Program (BLIP). The new 9,000 square foot building on Third Street will provide youth and the Bayview community with a seismically safe, universally accessible and environmentally sustainable library facility. San Francisco is building libraries when other cities are closing their libraries.

Read more at SFAppeal

EVENT: Visitacion Valley Branch Library Re-Opening July 30

SAN FRANCISCO, July 8, 2011 - The San Francisco Arts Commission is pleased to announce a new public artwork at the Visitacion Valley Branch Library by the award-winning artist team of Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector. Suspended 20 feet above ground in the central dome of the newly-built library, Full Circles is a dynamic constellation of interlocking steel hoops embellished with recycled bicycle gears. According to the artists, the artwork is intended to evoke a "universe of possibilities" and communicate to "all walks of life." The public will get its first glimpse of the artwork at a ribbon-cutting celebration on July 30 at 1:00 p.m.

"Everyone who visits the new Visitacion Valley Library will be swept away by Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector's beautiful installation, which sparkles against the ceiling's oak beams and dark blue vaulted ceiling," said Director of the Public Art Program Susan Pontious. "The work evokes the cosmos and inspires contemplation about a host of topics from astronomy to the humanities, and what better place to delve into those topics than at a library?"

Laughing for the Health of It at Portola Branch of the SFPL

From SF Weekly,

"Laughing is like changing a baby's diapers -- it doesn't permanently solve problems, but it makes things more bearable for a while," says Beverly Bender. She's a certified laugh leader and laughter yoga instructor, and she believes that we should all be laughing more, for the sake of our health. Bender holds a free laughter workshop, "Laughing for the Health of It," at the S.F. Public Library's Portola branch Wednesday evening (tonight).

SF Weekly talked to Bender about the health benefits of laughing, getting adults to loosen up, and how to "fake it till you make it."

Read more at SF Weekly

Visitacion Valley Branch Library Re-Opening

The Visitation Valley Branch of the SF Public Library is anticipated to re-open on Saturday, July 30 at 1PM.  Check the SFPL Website for more information.

And, if you have any overdue books, according to SFGate, you shouldn't expect to get a reminder in the mail starting July 1.

Bayview's Historical Footprints - SFPL

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, BAYVIEW-ANNA E. WADEN BRANCH  
"Bayview's Historical Footprints," ongoing. A permanent photographic exhibition celebrating the diverse history of Bayview Hunters Point featuring multimedia oral histories from community elders.  

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Wednesday, 1 p.m.-8 p.m.; Thursday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m.; Friday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. 5075 Third St., San Francisco. (415) 355-5757, http://www.sfpl.org

This weekend at your SF Public Library

With the weather taking a turn this weekend, how about visiting the Potrero Hill Branch Library, 1616 20th Street, Potrero General Floor Area, from 4:00-5:00 PM, where Yaqui Indian Storyteller and Hoop Dancer, Eddie Madril, will entertain and amaze with stories, songs, and dance from Native American cultures.