Convoy of Hope

Terry Sterling, Headquarters

The library was well represented at the Convoy of Hope on November 7. More than 10,000 attendees were expected. Job Service Outreach Librarian Bernice Kao was joined by Community Bookmobile staff members Ron Martin and Karen Maj. Youth Services staff member Howard Hamm also assisted.

NOYS: 'Tis the Season

Looking for holiday books to recommend to kids & teens? Try these:

Picture Books

Grumpy Badgers Christmas by Paul Bright

The Hanukkah Mice by Steven Kroll

Hoppy Hanukkah! by Linda Glaser


I Love Christmas by Anne Walker

Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton

Tyrannoclaus by Janet Lawler

Who Would Like A Christmas Tree? By Ellen Bryan Obed







Inbetweens

Candlelight for Rebecca (an American Girl novel) by Jacqueline Dembar Greene

The True Gift: a Christmas Story by Patricia MacLachlan
 
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-You Notes by Peggy Gifford




Children's Nonfiction

Paper Crafts for Christmas by Randel McGee

Winter Lights: a Season in Poems & Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines





Children's Fiction

 
The Christmas Genie by Dan Gutman

Confessions of a Bitter Secret Santa by Lara Bergen

Forever Rose by Hilary McKay





Teens

Ex-Mas by Kate Brian

Jingle Boy by Kieran Scott

Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

Mistletoe: Four Holiday Stories by Hailey Abbott, Melissa de la Cruz, Aimee Friedman, and Nina Malkin

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Catherine Hapka

Woman of the Year

Terry Sterling, Community Libraries - East

Sandi Kuykendall was honored by the Orange Cove Chamber of Commerce in October as the Woman of the Year for her years of service to the city through the library and her community involvement. Supervisor Judy Case presented Sandi with a statue noting her award as well as proclamations from the City of Orange Cove, Senator Diane Feinstein and State Representative Mike Villines. Congratulations, Sandi and thank you for your many years of dedication to Fresno County Library.

Annual Meeting Memories

Roberta Barton, Headquarters

Better late than never! Photos from the Annual Library Meeting (way back) in October are now posted on the P drive in the FHQ Public Relations folder in the ALM 09 subfolder. Relive the excitement of service awards, speakers, workshops, basket raffle and edible books!

You may recall that we did not take the time to announce New Hires and Promotions at this year's meeting. This very worthy group is noted here:

New Hires
Gabriela Calderon, LA I, Central - Circulation
Karen Coletti, Administrative Secretary - Confidential, Headquarters
Amirtee Gons, Librarian I, Orange Cove
Dwayne Howell, LA I, Fowler
Jamie Knudsen, LA II, Politi
Monica Lopez, Library Aide, Cedar-Clinton
Lee Martin, Maintenance Janitor, Maintenance
Emma Mejia, Librarian I, Mendota
Janet Murphy, LA II, Cedar-Clinton
Charlie Phanvong, Library Aide, Support Services - Mail/Delivery
William Paul Rayner, SLA, Adult Services - Corrections
Gwendolyn Roberts, Library Aide, Woodward Park
James Verdugo, LA I, Fig Garden

Promotions
Robyn Aguiar, Librarian II, Sunnyside
Faythe Arredondo, Librarian II, Kingsburg
Raman Bath, Librarian II, Caruthers
Laura Fleek, Librarian II, Fig Garden
Gary Jon Gibson, Support Tech II, Support Services
Brian Guenther, Librarian II, Adult Services
Howard Hamme, Librarian II, Youth Services
Kari Johnson, Librarian III, Youth Services
David Rodriguez, Network Systems Engineer IV, SJVLS - Computer Operations
Jonathan Waltmire, Librarian II, Selma

NOYS: Weeding YS collections...

...is a communal task.

I have inherited the opportunity to coordinate the weeding of our Library’s Children’s and YA collections, there are some changes being made to this process, and I want to give branch staff a heads-up about what the plans are:

1) To use a 3 year weeding schedule based on which branch has been weeded most recently. Basically this means that aside from Central (which gets weeded every year) the plan is to weed each branch once every three years in rotation.

2) To run a circulation report on Children’s and YA collections. This will be sent directly to the branch to help get staff started on pulling older and low circ items.

3) To follow up 1 to 2 months later with a visit to the branch by YS staff to help finish the weeding for that year, and assist in better planning what items will be replaced.

This has to be a collaborative effort, so that we can assist branch staff with information and help, and branch staff can provide vital input on their particular collection, because nobody knows their collections better than they do.

Watch this spot for more general weeding news in the future, and keep an eye out for e-mails from me outlining specific info for your branch in the near future (especially Auberry, Clovis, Kingsburg, Easton, Mendota, Sanger, and of course, Central).

Feel free to contact me with any questions about weeding, or really, about anything else you need to know.

Your Branch Support Specialist – Nancy Wirt

NOYS: Teen Read Week Reviews

While Teen reviews are submitted regularly on ReadWatchListen, the number of book reviews that Teens turned in during the month of October even impressed us!

There were more than 135 book reviews, which can be accessed here.

One of the reasons for such an increase is that during Teen Read Week (Oct 18-24), each book review that a teen submitted resulted in $2.00 being removed from their fines.

Remember that Teens can still review books, movies, music, video games...(whatever they'd like) at any time, and they send those here.

These reviews will be for the pure joy of information exchange, rather than library fine waiving.