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.