Locations and Hours
921 South First St.
San José, CA 95110
(408) 294-1237
bla.sjpl@sjlibrary.org
Hours
Manager -
Kimnhung Nguyen
kimnhung.nguyen@sjlibrary.org
Account Question? - Email bla.sjpl@sjlibrary.org
Biblioteca Events 
Biblioteca News
Summer Reading Celebration
You're Invited!
Sunday, June 3 from 1-4 p.m
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
The kickoff event invites people of all ages to participate in a scavenger hunt inside the King Library (Lower Level-4th Floor).
The scavenger hunt will be divided into three groups: families with small children, teens and adults. Each group will have their own set of clues and will have to search for hidden treasures inside the library to be eligible to win a prize.
Prizes include tickets to ...
- Great America
- Tech Museum
- Laser Quest
- Happy Hollow Park and Zoo
- Children’s Museum
- San Jose Giants
The kickoff event will also feature a community resource fair and plenty of live entertainment.
Downtown Parking:
Free parking in the street and the 4th and San Fernando Street Garage located across from the King Library
Teens: want to do something more imaginative than just writing a review for Summer Reading books that you have read? Create and submit a book trailer review for Summer Reading, and you could win a Kindle Fire! Upload a short clip, no longer than 4 minutes, to YouTube, providing your review of the book. Be creative! The contest is open to all participants in the Teen Summer Reading Celebration.
How to enter:
- Create your own book trailer, reviewing a book that you read for Summer Reading. You can submit more than one video, but each video has to be for a separate book.
- Post the video on YouTube using the tag: SJPL2012SRC
- Sign up for Summer Reading here, starting in a few weeks.
- When you log the book you read on the Summer Reading website, make sure to include a link to your video in the review field.
Entries will be judged on creativity and content by a panel of library staff.
Need some examples? Check out the winning entry from last year's Book Trailer Contest, created by Nathan Verdonk.
Here are links to some professional book trailers:
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Teens who submit links to their Book Trailer will automatically be entered in the contest. The top 3 winners will receive:
- 1st place: Kindle Fire
- 2nd place: $50 gift card for iTunes
- 3rd place: $25 gift card for Jamba Juice
Entries for the contest must be submitted between June 1 and July 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in August.
If you have a talent for creating comic/manga style illustrated short stories, you are invited to enter San José Public Library’s Graphic Novel Making Contest for all ages as part of our Summer Reading Celebration, 2012. This contest is sponsored by San José Public Library, Hijinx Comics, San José Museum of Art and TRY Japan Culture Group.
Here’s how to enter …
- Create your own comic book with a maximum length of 8 pages, including the cover page.
- Use letter-size paper (8.5 x 11) with black-and-white drawings and text on one side only
- Each submission must be the creative and original work of a single individual—the author/illustrator.
- Computer generated images are acceptable as long as they are your original work (no clip art)
- Consider submitting a photocopy that is an accurate reflection of the original (as submissions are non-returnable).
- San José Public Library reserves the right to reproduce your work. You can reuse all your work after the contest
- Be sure to print and complete the creative works release form. Include your Name, Age, Contact Information and Signature.
- Entries can be submitted to any San José Public Library location no later than 8p.m. on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. There is a limit of one entry per contestant.
Entries will be judged on content and illustrations by a panel of library staff and comic industry professionals. All cash prizes will be awarded as gift cards.
- Children (up to age 6): first place will receive Art Supplies
- Children (7-12): first place $40, second place $20
- Teens (ages 13-17): first place $100; second place $70; third place $50
- Adults (age 18 and above): first place $100; second place $70; third place $50
Winners will be announced and prizes awarded at a reception to be held at the Berryessa Branch Library on Saturday, August 25th at 2:00 p.m.in the Community Room. Check out the award winning entries from 2011 and 2010.
Learn how to make your own comic book, graphic novel or manga! Author Oliver Chin will be teaching this free workshop for teens at some San José Public Library branches.
San José Public Library staff members are ineligible to participate.
San José Public Library reserves the right to refuse submissions that are not appropriate for a general audience.
SOCIAL WORKERS IN THE LIBRARY
NEED HELP?
Help is here: SOCIAL WORKERS IN THE LIBRARY
At King Library: Every 1st and 4th Mondays of the month, 6 – 8 p.m.
Call: 808-2350
Or
At Biblioteca Latinoamericana – offered once a month – every 3rd Wed. of the month 6 – 8 p.m. (Spanish/English bilingual Social Worker available)
Call: 294-1237
Is something happening in your life that you have questions about concerning:
· Education
· Emergency Services - food/clothing/housing and crisis support
· Employment
· Family Matters - parenting, childcare, divorce, elder issues and domestic violence
· Health Improvement - mental, physical and health insurance
· Immigration
· Support Groups - men, women and teens
Make an appointment to get a FREE 20 minute session of information and referral or advice, from a member of the National Association of Social Workers. Everyone at some point in their lives could use the advice of a social worker. Our volunteer social workers are offering it - Free of Charge.
Social Workers in the Library, is a partnership between the San José Public Library, San José State University's School of Social Work, National Association Of Social Workers - California Chapter, and the SJSU School of Library and Information Services.
Barry’s The Great Influenza is a history of the 1918 flu epidemic. However, the book is of interest not just as history, but as an education in the science of medicine and the nature of disease. Largely forgotten today, in its era the epidemic was as much of a crisis as the first world war that was being fought at the same time. Barry’s narrative moves along at a brisk pace as he explains how wartime preparation and troop movements altered the progress of the epidemic at the same time that the epidemic forced changes in the conduct of the war. Rural areas far from the fighting, both in the US and elsewhere, also suffered from the ravages of the disease despite never hearing a shot fired in anger. But while the public has largely forgotten, medicine has not forgotten the 1918 epidemic, as in the intervening decades researchers have continued to study samples collected during the plague years, advancing the science of epidemiology against the possibility of future plagues. And Barry seamlessly integrates these modern discoveries into the historical record, creating a rather interesting detective story which traces the origin, spread, and decline of the disease. In an era when world-wide epidemic scares are a feature of the evening news, Barry’s tale of one of the first pandemics is useful as well as entertaining reading.
New at this Library
