Some clarification on Merced Bookmobile stop.

Good day, everyone!

A few patrons have recently inquired about the Merced Bookmobile service stop, asking where its exact location might be. To one and all, we say that the Merced Bookmobile can be located at Buckingham Way, near the UA Twin Cinema at Stonestown Mall, each Monday and Saturday, 10am-12:30pm.

Preschool Storytimes for Merced Branch, meanwhile, are presented each Monday at 9:30am, at the Stonestown YMCA Childwatch Room.

Many thanks for reading, and we look forward to serving you in 2010!

Bookmobile service coming to Presidio Branch community!

Saturday, December 19, the Presidio Branch begins its renovation period with a closing party from 2pm-4pm, featuring entertainment, food, and music! Starting Wednesday, December 23, look for the Branch Bookmobile from 10am-12:30pm at 2715 California Street (at Scott). We'll also be open for service at the same location each Friday from 10am-12:30pm. Step aboard and take a look at our selection of books for all ages, DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, and CD-ROMs, all of which can be checked out with your San Francisco Public Library card. Need a card? We're happy to help! Come aboard and register with a photo ID and proof of current California address, and you can check out items right away. It's all free!

Bookmobile service:

Wednesdays, 10am-12:30pm
Fridays, 10am-12:30pm

Don't forget Children's Preschool Storytime each Thursday at 10:15am, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, during the time of the branch's renovation. Parents and caregivers welcome!

Any questions about Bookmobile service for the Presidio Branch Library community? Call 557-4353 for answers. Many thanks!

Seldom does one door close, when another opens!

Good day, all!

This Friday, November 20th, 2009, at 1pm, Mini Ortega opens for business! A temporary branch library service site at 3223 Ortega Street, Mini Ortega will provide patrons with regular branch hours 7 days a week: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays - 10am-6pm, Wednesday and Thursdays - 1pm -9pm, Fridays - 1pm-6pm, and Sundays - 1pm-5pm. Complete branch library service will be available, along with computers with internet access. Children's Programming, including weekly Storytimes, will be scheduled in the adjacent Rec. Center. (call 415-504-6053 for dates and times, and to confirm location). We of the Branch Bookmobile Department thank the Ortega Branch community for their patience and kindness during the admittedly trying time of the new branch's construction. It's been very pleasant to serve you!

Patrons of the Golden Gate Valley Branch can now find the Bookmobile ready to serve them at the corner of Green and Gough Streets (1700 Green Street, southeast corner of Allyne Park) each Tuesday from 10am-12:30pm, and each Friday, from 2:15pm-5:30pm. Come aboard and see what we have to offer! You'll find the latest best sellers, popular non-fiction, new DVDs and audiobooks, graphic novels for all ages, and a useful collection of picture books and beginning reader titles for young children. Feel free to make us your pickup point for Reserves and Interlibrary Loan items! Golden Gate Valley Branch Toddler Tales, in the meantime, are held Tuesdays at 10:15am in the library of Sherman Elementary School, 1651 Union Street (at Franklin).

Eureka Valley Branch Reopens! Final evening of Bookmobile service Tuesday, October 20th.

As Eureka Valley Branch prepares to reopen its doors, we bid goodnight and thank-you to the Branch Bookmobile at 1 Jose Sarria Court (near 16th Street). Patrons may visit the Eureka Valley Bookmobile for the last time on Tuesday, October 20th, from 3:30pm-7:00pm. All leftover hold items and reserves will be transferred after 7pm to the Eureka Valley Branch, where they will be available for pick-up when the branch resumes regular library service on Saturday, October 24th, at 2:00pm.

Yet make sure to be there for the Grand Reopening, kicking off at 1pm that Saturday! Entertainers, special treats, a ribbon cutting ceremony, and the exciting lion dancers will join in the celebrated return of this beautifully remodeled branch library!

Temporary Friday Morning Bookmobile Service to Ortega Branch.

Look for the Bookmobile in the Ortega Branch Library community each Friday for the next several weeks, from 10am until 2pm, beginning September 11th. We'll be parked and open for service at the bus loading zone for A.P. Giannini Middle School at 3151 Ortega Street. Have you Reserves to pick up at the Ortega Branch? As of Friday, September 11, you'll find them ready to check out aboard the Branch Bookmobile! Just call 415-557-4336, if you've any questions or concerns. See you soon!

New Bookmobile service location for Merced Branch beginning this Saturday, July 25th.

All of you Merced patrons who wonder where your Bookmobile's gone this Saturday (July 25th), take a look on Buckingham Way at Stonestown Galleria, across 19th Avenue. Thanks to Stonestown and the City Attorney's Office coming to an agreement, the BLIP Bookmobile's new service location during the renovation of Merced Branch will be on Buckingham Way, nearby the UA Twin Cinemas. We hope this location will better serve parents and children attending storytimes at the Stonestown Family YMCA each Monday morning, as well as give our vehicle a place to park out of the way of Merced Branch's construction zone. We hope this switch doesn't create too much frustration or confusion. Many thanks to all for your patience!

Ask the Bookmoblog Dog!

Have a question about BLIP Bookmobile service? Fire it to us in the form of a comment, and we'll try to post an answer on this blog promptly! Here's one now:

I'm a patron of the Parkside Branch (currently being remodeled), and I see nothing posted around the branch itself informing the public of the presence of a Bookmobile at 24th Avenue and Santiago, one block away from the branch. I think this is a shame, because I think the Parkside Bookmobile would do a lot more business if people knew it was there.

Thanks for the heads-up! We have, in fact, got right on top of this and had vinyl banners made for posting both at Parkside and Anza Branches. If they are not yet hung in a prominent place at each branch location, they soon will be. For the record, Parkside Branch is served each week by the BLIP Bookmobile at 24th Ave. and Santiago Street each Monday and Wednesday from 1pm-5pm. Anza Branch patrons will find Bookmobile service at 31st Avenue and Balboa Street each Tuesday from 10:30am-1pm, and each Saturday from 1:30pm-5pm. Hope to see you there!

Babies need books!

Look for the BLIP Bookmobile to make a special appearance at The Homeless Pre-Natal Program (2500 18th Street), Friday, August 14, from 1-3pm. Babies need books (it's never too early to start reading to them out loud!) and the BLIP Bookmobile's full of new titles just waiting to check out. Don't forget -- it's the perfect time to get a free San Francisco Public Library card as well!

BLIP Bookmobile's busy Sunday . . .

Not one, but two big events on the BLIP Bookmobile's calendar last Sunday! They were:

Bernal Heights Children's Day -- Over 400 children, parents, and caregivers were welcomed aboard the BLIP Bookmobile at the Annual Bernal Heights Children's Day on Sunday, July 19, from 10am- 2pm. While games, crafts, booths, food, and music packed the playground behind the Bernal Heights Branch Library, Bookmobile pilot Keith Lu and co-pilot John Lac put into eager children's hands 300 giveaway picture books in English and Spanish. Co-sponsored this year by the Bernal Heights Parents Club and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the event was free to all visitors. Donations, however, toward the Bernal Heights Branch Library's ongoing renovations were gratefully accepted. Thanks, Keith and John, for putting our best foot forward!

Sunday Streets -- Imagine a car-free San Francisco!
Sunday Streets, on July 19, from 10am-2pm showed an enchanted public what a neighborhood could look like with its streets devoted (if only for a day) to bicycles, stickball, soccer games, people and pets, ice cream carts, and whole families of skateboarders. Of course, we had to get the BLIP Bookmobile in on this! Thanks to pilot and co-pilot Robert and Julio for welcoming aboard the Bookmobile (parked at Harrison & 26th Street) over 200 children and adults. If it was a first visit for some, we hope it will be the first of many!

Bookmobile Crew Takes Pride In Stride

Sunday, June 28th, the BLIP Bookmobile rolled in San Francisco's biggest public event of the year -- the 39th Annual Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Pride Parade! Escorted by the members of the GLBTQI Committee of SFPL's Adult Services Division, the Bookmobile coasted down Market Street from the Embarcadero to Civic Center Plaza, turning off at last on 8th Street. Cheering crowds on either side of Market Street clamored for fortune cookies handed out by committee members, each cookie packed with a slip marked "SFPL.ORG" on one side and "QUEEREST. LIBRARY. EVER." on the other. Signs displaying the book covers of landmark works of queer literature bobbed and waved in SFPL marchers' hands, setting off fresh cheers as favorite titles were recognized by the multitudes.

The Bookmobile springs into parade mode -- last Sunday! Thanks to those that joined us at the Union Street Spring Celebration where we were parked and open for service, and then featured in the parade at 2pm. Happy Spring!

Check out a slideshow of the event here! Thanks Richard and Keith!

2009 Vietnamese Tet Festival

The Branch Bookmobile will be in San Francisco's Little Saigon district on Sunday January 18, to help the neighborhood ring in the New Year.

"Each year between mid-January and mid-February, the Vietnamese community observes the Lunar New Year. The occasion is for the Vietnamese residents of San Francisco to remember their heritage and traditions and to pay tribute to their ancestors."

From the Vietnamese Community Center of San Francisco