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Contact: Reference Desk
510-981-6148

Wish you could borrow eBooks from the library for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or laptop? Want to listen to eAudiobooks on your iPod, Smartphone, or MP3 player? Now you can! Berkeley Public Library recently started an eBook and eAudiobook collection through Overdrive. Now you can borrow eBooks and eAudiobooks in popular genres like bestsellers, biography, history, literature, mystery, romance and more all for FREE with your library card. Join us for a one hour workshop on how to access this exciting new collection.

Tuesday, November 15, 6 – 7 p.m., at the Central Library’s Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge @ Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

Be An Expert @ Berkeley Public Library The Berkeley Public Library has FREE online resources that you can use to develop marketable skills, conduct research, learn a language, help with homework or for entertainment — all you need is a library card. Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.

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Press Contact: Mary Ann Merker
Civic Arts Coordinator
(510) 981-7533

Berkeley, California (Wednesday, October 26, 2011) - Final presentation materials for the public art projects of the Berkeley Public Library's West and South Branch Construction Projects will be on public view inside the West and South Branch Libraries during normal branch library hours from Tuesday, November 1 through Thursday, November 3. These presentation materials will include material samples that accurately represent the finished work that each artist is proposing; a color sample board; a scale model / maquette or rendered drawing with appropriate details; a detailed project budget; and written statements or comments that will help to clarify the artist's proposal.

This is the opportunity for the public to comment on the individual proposals during the period that they are displayed. These comments will be collated and delivered to the Selection Panel. These informal comments may help to raise new perspectives and open issues for discussion by the Panel, and they may help the decision process in some way. The three finalists selected for South Branch are: Gina Dominquez; Mildred Howard; and Johanna Poethig. The three finalists selected for West Branch are David Ruth; Masayuki Nagase and Ene Osteraas Constable. Funding for alterations and improvements to all four Library Branches, including the public art projects, is provided by a local $26 million Bond Measure FF, approved by the voters in November 2008. For additional info regarding the Berkeley community support for our libraries, see the following website: https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/planning/about-library-bond-faq1. Commissions to the two selected artists will follow in the form of executed contracts. For more information, please contact the Berkeley Public Library at (510) 981-6195.

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Contact: Art & Music Desk
510-981-6241

Want answers to your art-related questions but don’t know where to start? Not sure if that Wikipedia article is accurate? All you need is a Berkeley Public Library card to explore an electronic art reference library from any computer with Oxford Art Online. Get information at your fingertips that we used to have to look in books for. Tuesday, November 29, 6 – 7 p.m., at the Central Library’s Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge @ Shattuck Ave., Berkeley Be An Expert @ Berkeley Public Library The Berkeley Public Library has FREE online resources that you can use to develop marketable skills, conduct research, learn a language, help with homework or for entertainment — all you need is a library card. Please note this is a rescheduled date for this event since the original presentation was canceled due to a power outage. Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.

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Contact: Reference Desk 510-981-6148

Come to a FREE training for tips and tricks to finding just what you want among the multitude of library materials. Learn how to locate Books, CDs, Movies, and eBooks by using the Library Catalog! Wednesday, November 9, 1 – 2 p.m., at the Central Library’s Electronic Classroom, 2090 Kittredge @ Shattuck Ave., Berkeley Be An Expert @ Berkeley Public Library The Berkeley Public Library has FREE online resources that you can use to develop marketable skills, conduct research, learn a language, help with homework or for entertainment — all you need is a library card. Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.

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Contact: Megan McArdle (Phone: 510-981-6124)

(Berkeley, CA) – October 25, 2011 – Berkeley Public Library has expanded its services with audiobook and ebooks, available to download from the library’s website. Library card holders can check out and download digital media anytime, anywhere by visiting http://overdrive.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. Users may browse the library’s website, check out with a valid library card, and download to PC, Mac®, and many mobile devices. Users will need to install free software. For audiobooks, music, and video: OverDrive® Media Console™. To read eBooks, users will need Adobe® Digital Editions. Titles can be enjoyed immediately or transferred to a variety of devices, including iPod®, Sony® Reader™, and many others. Some audio titles can also be burned to CD to listen on-the-go. Titles will automatically expire at the end of the lending period. There are no late fees! This new service, powered by OverDrive, is free for patrons with their library card. To get started downloading audiobooks, eBooks, and more, visit http://overdrive.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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Contact: Michele McKenzie
phone: 510-981-6241

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT & ARTIST WORKSHOP Man vs. Nature: quiet images from the frontline

Oakland photographer and life coach, Nancy Duranteau exhibits color prints from her series Man vs. Nature in Berkeley Public Library’s Central Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck, downtown Berkeley, from November 6^th through December 17^th.

Duranteau explores the complex relationship of humans and their natural environment by focusing on the futile struggle to replace chaos with structure.  Her series of photographs depict functional objects created by man facing inevitable destruction at the hands of nature.  Exploring this process through photography provides an opportunity to embrace that which is natural within us and in the world around us, yet improperly labeled disorderly and undesirable by society.   Access to the exhibit is available during the library’s open hours: Monday 12 – 8; Tuesday 10- 8; Wednesday - Saturday, 10 – 6; Sunday 1 – 5.

In conjunction with this exhibition Nancy Duranteau will present a FREE workshop "Building your Dream Life out of Chaos" on Saturday afternoon, December 17^th at 3:00 pm in the Community Meeting Room on the 3^rd floor of the Central Library.  Duranteau will speak about her approach to life coaching and how you can use documentary photography to achieve your goals.  Please call the Art & Music Department at (510) 981-6241 to register for this workshop.

Duranteau explores documentary photography through the lens of life coaching.  Her unique approach to life coaching integrates photography as a medium to facilitate self-awareness and explore emotions.  Duranteau’s educational background includes undergraduate work at Boston University where she received a B.A. degree in Economics and graduate work in Organizational Psychology at Columbia University in New  York.  She’s completed formal coaching programs including certification from JFK  University and Personnel Decisions, International.  An exceptional coach with a wealth of experience, she’s been featured in Fitness Magazine for her work.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org. Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.

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Contact: Andrea Mullarkey (Ph: 510-981-6144)

Berkeley Public Library invites you to participate in a discussion of the myths and reality of school violence with Annette Fuentes and Jody Sokolower. Author Annette Fuentes and editor Jody Sokolower will speak about zero tolerance discipline and the school to prison pipeline in the community meeting room at the Berkeley Public Library’s Central Library, 2090 Kittredge Street, at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1. Annette Fuentes spent two years as an investigative reporter researching discipline systems in public schools. The result is her recently published book Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse which traces the penetration of prison culture into daily life in public schools. Jody Sokolower is co-editor of Rethinking Schools, a magazine about social justice education for K-12 teachers and education activists. Her work is informed by years of experience as a teacher in public schools including six years at Berkeley High School. Join us for what promises to be a lively discussion of the way education policy impacts violence in our public schools. Please note this is a rescheduled date for this event since the original presentation was canceled due to a power outage. Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m.  For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.   Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.  

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Contact: Andrea Mullarkey or Andrea Moss (Ph: 510-981-6148)

Berkeley Public Library invites you to a free financial education seminar on credit reports, your most important financial tool. Learn what your credit score means, how it’s calculated and how it affects your future. Also become more familiar with your credit reports and how to monitor them. This one-hour seminar will be held in the Community Meeting Room at Berkeley Public Library’s Central Library, 2090 Kittredge Street, at noon on Tuesday, October 25. This is the first in a series of seminars brought to you in partnership with the USE Credit Union. There will be one seminar a month through March 2012. Come to one or all six. Future events will address budgeting, identity theft, home loans, investing and more. To learn more about this program or the series, please call (510) 981-6148.

Berkeley’s Central Library is open Monday 12 noon until 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m.  For more info please call 510-981-6195 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.   Wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least three working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.  

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Contact: Debbie Carton
Ph: 510-981-6236

On Sunday, November 6, 2011, at 2 p.m. at Central Library (2090 Kittredge at Shattuck) in the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library’s Playreaders will present a Performers’ Showcase, reading scenes from Rostand to Nottage for your entertainment. Each week, participants in the Playreaders program meet to read aloud from great plays, changing parts frequently. With several retired professional actors in the group and many talented amateurs, we’ve discovered (and rediscovered) favorite scenes, which we would like to share with others. There will be Shakespeare, Neil Simon, A. R. Gurney, James Thurber and more. For more information, call 510-981-6241. This program is sponsored by Friends of the Berkeley Public Library. For accessibility information, call 510-981-6107, TTY (510) 528-1240, http://berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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Contact: Debbie Carton (Ph: 510-981-6236)

Berkeley Public Library invites you to participate in an examination of The Last Station, a critically acclaimed film based on Jay Parini’s novel of the same name. The book and film are about the final years of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, in which he renounces his title, property, and family in favor of poverty and celibacy. Countess Sofya, his wife of nearly fifty years, discovers his plans to leave the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his own family, and decides to use every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, to fight for what she believes is rightfully hers. Discussion group participants will read the book at home and then gather at 1:30 on Saturday, November 5, 2011 in the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room at Berkeley’s Central Library, 2090 Kittredge Street to view the film together. After viewing the film, participants will discuss the book, the movie and the adaptation process. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, this free Book and Film program at the Central Library takes place every other month and offers adult and teen patrons the opportunity to discuss books, films and the art of adaptation. Participation is limited and registration is required. Please call (510) 981-6236 to register for one or more of these programs. The Central Library is open Monday, noon-8 p.m., Tuesday, 10 a.m.- 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. For questions and accessibility information, call 510-981-6107, TTY 510-548-1240, http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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