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!