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Contact: Anh-Vu Doan
Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6134
adoan@ci.berkeley.ca.us

Berkeley, CA.  September 20, 2016- Carine Elkhoraibi and the UC Davis Department of Poultry Health and Food Safety Epidemiology present a fascinating workshop and Q&A session designed to help people get started with raising chickens in their backyards. Join us on Saturday, October 15th from 2-4 PM in the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room of the Central Library, 2090 Kittredge Street (at Shattuck) and learn how to raise your backyard chickens in a way that's humane, conforms to laws and respects neighbors.

The workshop is geared to anyone interested in raising chickens - or currently doing so. The program will address issues ranging from chicken behavior and adopting from rescue shelters to minimizing common behavior problems and logistics, such as coop design and where to find equipment.

As urban farming and chicken husbandry increase in popularity, the workshop is an effort to provide vital information that keeps both the birds and the humans happy.

For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6148.

The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge St. and is open: Monday, noon – 8:00 pm, Tuesday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm, Wednesday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, and Sunday 1-5 pm. 

Wheelchair accessible.  For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability.  Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.  Visit the library’s website: www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org

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Contact: Wendy Hyman
Reference Librarian, A&M
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6241

AUTHOR DIANA LORENCE OF INNERMOST HOUSE TO SPEAK OF HER
“WALDEN YEARS” AT BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY

In celebration of the upcoming bicentennial of the birth of Henry David Thoreau, Diana Lorence shares her experience of seven years in a tiny, un-electrified cabin in the woods of California, in the manner of Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond. On this special occasion she will be accompanied by her husband, a director of the Thoreau Society of Concord, Massachusetts.

Berkeley, September 19, 2016 -- For seven years Diana Lorence lived a hidden life in an un-electrified, twelve-by-twelve-foot house she built herself, hidden in the woods of Northern California, in a world lit only by fire. Ms. Lorence will be accompanied by her husband, a director and ambassador of the Thoreau Society, as they speak of “Tiny Houses and the Legacy of Walden” on Saturday, October 1, at 3:00 PM at the Berkeley Public Library at 2090 Kittredge Street, in Berkeley.

Three years ago Diana Lorence emerged from her seclusion to give a talk at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Representatives of the Thoreau Society, the oldest and largest author’s society in the country, have since said that, “If we wish to know what Henry Thoreau would have to say about our modern world, Diana Lorence and her Innermost House are perhaps our best answer.” 

At Innermost House Ms. Lorence heated her home, cooked her food, and boiled her water over an open fire, illuminating the dark woodland nights with beeswax candles. Like Thoreau before her, she “went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

She writes, “Through the many years before Innermost House, I moved many times and lived in many different very small houses. I moved something like twenty or thirty times, living in Spanish houses in California, in salt boxes in New England, in an 18th century servant’s quarter in Virginia and a log cabin in the Alleghenies, forever seeking some simple spirit of American place I could not see.”

“I learned at last that simplicity for me lies in loving those few things that matter most as if nothing else mattered at all. I found my home in the woods among the permanent things that do not change—day and night, summer and winter, growth and decay. I lived among the ancient oaks and redwood trees, the living bearers of our oldest memories.”

When Ms. Lorence began to build her house in the woods twelve years ago, there was no tiny house movement. Innermost House has since been judged the World's Favorite Small House, the Most Beautiful Tiny House in the World, and the Most Inspiring Small House Ever.

Diana Lorence speaks across the country at universities, libraries, historical societies and environmental associations. Her Innermost House has been featured in House Beautiful, Fine Homebuilding, The Oregonian, Mother Earth Living, Green Style, The Examiner, Furniture and Home Fashion, Yahoo and AOL Homepages, Kiplinger, Tiny House Blog, Fair Companies, and hundreds of websites, books and newspapers around the world in languages from French, Turkish and Pakistani to Japanese and Chinese.

Diana Lorence's appearance in Berkeley is generously made possible by the Berkeley Public Library and by the Innermost House Foundation. Seating is limited, so please come early.

To learn more about Diana Lorence's Innermost House, please visit www.innermosthouse.org

For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6241.

The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge Avenue and is open Monday, noon – 8:00 pm; Tuesday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm; Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm; and Sunday from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website: www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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Contact: Tom Dufour
Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6134

HOW TO WRITE A PROFESSIONAL BLOG:
A Free Business Workshop at Berkeley Public Library

Berkeley, CA. September 14, 2016—If you have a small business you absolutely need a blog, but you need to do it right, says Karma Bennet, digital marketing and publicity strategist. The Library is sponsoring a free workshop on how to write a professional blog on Tuesday, October 11, from 6:00-7:30 pm. This free training will be in the third floor Community Meeting Room in the Central Library located at 2090 Kittredge (at Shattuck) in downtown Berkeley. For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6148.

Karma Bennett is the current president of the Berkeley branch of the California Writers Club. Prior to founding Future is Fiction Communications, she was the publicist for the one of the nation’s fastest growing publishers, Ulysses Press.

Blogs establish credibility for you and your business, showcase your brand, drive leads, demonstrate your expertise, and allow you to build a following of loyal customers. In this free workshop, Bennett will walk you through everything you need to know to make your blog a success.

The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge St. and is open: Monday, noon – 8:00 pm, Tuesday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm, Wednesday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, and Sunday 1:00-5:00pm.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

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Contact: Isobel Schneider
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6150
ischneider@cityofberkeley.info

Author Cecile Pineda Discusses Her New Book and Life as a Writer at the Berkeley Public Library

Berkeley CA, September 14, 2016—Author Cecile Pineda reads from her upcoming book, Three Tides: Writing at the Edge of Being, and shares 40 years of the writing life, the breakthroughs, the discouragements, and the daily practice. Professor Marcial González, UC Berkeley Dept. of English, and author of Chicano Novels and the Politics of Form: Race, Class, and Reification will introduce her. There will be time for discussion and book signings after the reading.  This free reading occurs Saturday, September 24, 2016, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm, at the Central Berkeley Public Library at 2090 Kittredge St., in the third Floor Community Meeting Room. For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6150.

Pineda is widely recognized as the author of nine published works of fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent book, Apology to a Whale: Words to Mend a World, points to root causes underlying human alienation from the natural world. She is the winner of the Gold Medal from the California Commonwealth Club and nominee for the International 2015 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, often referred to as the “American Nobel.” Like the Nobel, it is awarded not for any one work, but for an entire body of work.

Marcial González is currently writing a book on representations of migrant farm laborers in Chicanx literature. Professor González is the recipient of research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.

“Cecile Pineda is a writer of the utmost artistic integrity.”  —J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize recipient

“Cecile Pineda has the nerve to ask the one simple question that eludes our public posturing and computations… What has happened to our mind that we are killing our world? What is it, at the root of our culture that sets us against the rest of creation? The genius of this book is that the question supersedes the answers and takes us on explorations where we make our own discoveries…Pineda has the rare capacity to address the big questions without falling into abstractions or sermonizing…” — Joanna Macy, author Coming Back to Life

The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge Avenue and is open Monday, noon - 8 pm, Tuesday, 10 am - 8 pm, Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm, and Sunday from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

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Contact: Sarah Dentan
Acting Deputy Director of Library Services
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6195
 

Berkeley Public Library Offers Cornerstones of Science as part of STEM initiative

Berkeley, CA. September 12, 2016—Berkeley Public Library is participating in a multi-library initiative aimed at bringing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) literacy to public libraries called Cornerstones of Science. Over the next two years, we will be looking at ways that we can further integrate science-related activities and resources into our library’s daily operations. With the assistance of Brandeis University, the Library is surveying our patrons to better understand how you use the library and to gain your perspective on how the Library can support science literacy on a daily basis.

Please take a few minutes to respond to this survey. This is an important effort for our library and we want to include your voice! The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. To take the survey, please click on this link: http://cyc.brandeis.edu/berkeleypatron.html

Please note that the survey is anonymous. No one at our library or any of the sponsoring institutions will see your individual survey responses. Please be as honest as you can be in your answers to the survey questions. The survey is also voluntary, but we hope that you will take the time to complete it today.
We will be using the data from this survey to help plan the project, so we can better meet community needs, and so we can document the impacts of our efforts over time.  We will be conducting a second, similar survey in 2017.

If you have any problems accessing the survey, please let a library staff person know or email the researchers at Brandeis directly at librarystudy@brandeis.edu

Founded in 1893, the Berkeley Public Library has grown from a small reading room with 264 books, into a five-story Central Library and four recently renovated neighborhood branches and a Tool Lending Library. For more information, visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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Contact: Sarah Dentan
Acting Deputy Director
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6195

Berkeley Board of Library Trustees Names Heidi Dolamore Library Director

Berkeley CA. September 9, 2016—The Board of Library Trustees is pleased to announce it has named Heidi Dolamore Director of Library Services for the Berkeley Public Library; she will start on September 30, 2016. “Heidi Dolamore's experience, professional capabilities, and personal qualities will make her an outstanding leader for our Library,” said BOLT President Julie Holcomb, “I could not be more pleased!”

With a decade of experience in Bay Area Libraries, Dolamore brings a wide range of experience to the position. "My professional philosophy is deeply informed by the community-led service model that grew out of work in Canadian and UK libraries," said Dolamore. Her focus on service to the community is evidenced in her work: as Assistant Director at San Jose Public Library, Dolamore initiated membership in the CENIC broadband consortium, launched Career Online High School, and improved staffing models to promote greater equity among branches. While Deputy Director at Solano County Library, she led participation in the Gates Foundation's Edge Initiative and developed a programming plan that facilitated marketing and evaluation of key services; as a manager at Contra Costa County Library, Dolamore led a team to reinvent the former Central Library by focusing on community engagement.

In addition to her work locally, Dolamore is active on the state and national level. She is a member of the California Library Association leadership development committee and has served as an elected member of ALA Council, the governance body for the American Library Association.

Dolamore, who has attended a number of Board of Library Trustees meetings as an observer, acknowledged the importance of strengthening relationships, saying, "It will be critical to build trust with community members and staff. While building trust takes time, I am optimistic about what the future holds." Library Trustee Darryl Moore echoes Dolamore’s optimism: "This is the start of a new time for the Berkeley Public Library. It is my desire that everyone will support our fantastic new director."

The role of Library Director has been filled on an acting and interim basis since the previous director resigned in September 2015.

Founded in 1893, the Berkeley Public Library has grown from a small reading room with 264 books, into a five-story Central Library and four recently renovated neighborhood branches and a Tool Lending Library. For more information, visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

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Contact: Jack Baur
Supervising Librarian
Berkeley Public Library, North Branch
510-981-6050
jbaur@ci.berkeley.cs.us

Berkeley Public Library Sponsors Mayoral Candidates Round Table:
 Solving Homelessness through Community and Collaboration

Berkeley, CA.  September 8, 2016 – According to a January 2016 Berkeley City Council report, homelessness is on the rise. Beyond the immediate impact upon those living without shelter it is on the minds of Berkeley residents and business-owners and is important to Berkeley voters this November. As the 2016 election cycle heats up, the Berkeley Public Library partnered with the Northbrae Community Church and Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action  to bring you this discussion about homelessness.

We invite the public to Solving Homelessness through Community and Collaboration: Mayoral Candidates Roundtable at the Northbrae Community Church on Sunday, September 25, from 4:00 – 6:00pm. The Northbrae Community Church is located at 941 The Alameda in Berkeley. All are invited to this free event, followed by light refreshments and a reception to meet the candidates. For more information call 510-91-6050.

Moderator Peter Leyden (former managing editor at Wired, founding director of the New Politics Institute, and founder/CEO of Reinvent) will engage the Berkeley Mayoral candidates in a conversation looking at ways to address Berkeley’s growing homelessness crisis. Tackling this critical and often difficult issue means answering a host of questions:

• How can Berkeley best address the issues of the escalating costs of affordable housing and the support for persons who are homeless?
• What policies or ordinances would candidates seek to repeal or propose?
• How do the candidates feel about sit/lie ordinances?
• What role should business, development, and public agencies play in working toward a community that meets every people's basic needs?
• Is housing a human right?

This free event is made possible by a generous gift from the Pace Trust, in support of the Berkeley Public Library North Branch.

The Berkeley Public Library opened in 1893 with 264 books. It now has a Central Library located at 2090 Kittredge Street, Berkeley, CA 94704 and four state-of-the-art neighborhood branches with thousands of books, audiobooks, music CDs, DVDs and online streaming and downloadable materials.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

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Contact: Anh-Vu Doan
Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6134
adoan@ci.berkeley.ca.us

 

Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures
at the Central Berkeley Public Library

Berkeley, CA.  September 7, 2016— How do our inborn cultural biases influence how we view things? Is a cow dinner, dowry, or divine? Learn more when Joe Lurie gives a fascinating talk on how culture shapes and informs our perceptions of the world.  Join us for this free lecture on Tuesday, September 27, from 5:30-7:30 pm in the third floor Community Meeting Room at the Berkeley Public Central Library, 2090 Kittredge (at Shattuck). For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6148.

Author Joe Lurie will discuss his award-winning book, Perception and Deception, which is about misperceptions and miscommunications across cultures in a globalized, often polarizing world. He'll explore the implications of messages and meanings that escape those who hear and see mostly what is familiar within their own cultural confines and share fascinating stories of intercultural dialogue and interchange from his distinguished decades-spanning career in international relations.  Copies of Lurie’s book will be available for purchase and signing after the talk.

Joe Lurie is Executive Director Emeritus of the University of California Berkeley’s International House, whose mission is to foster intercultural respect and understanding for the promotion of a more peaceful world. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and is currently a Cross-Cultural Communications Trainer, Lecturer and Consultant.

The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge St. and is open: Monday, noon – 8:00 pm, Tuesday, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm, Wednesday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, and Sunday 1:00-5:00 pm.

Wheelchair accessible.  For questions, 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 five working days will help ensure availability.  Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.  Visit the library’s website.

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