library

Your Call's best books of 2012

Ali Budner — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:00:00 +0000

See the full list of recommendations from our bookworld specialists, and from other listeners!

Oakland library begins a fresh chapter at a new location

Ashleyanne Krigbaum — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:47:01 +0000

As I walk into the new Piedmont Branch of the Oakland Public Library, I see what looks like a library: librarians quietly working, people reading, and there are walls filled with books.

Branch manager, Jenera Burton has been working on the relocation of the library for about two years.

The People’s Library continues despite city crackdown

Kyung-Jin Lee — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:29:46 +0000

Book lending and community gardening continues in front of an abandoned library in Oakland’s San Antonio district despite a police raid earlier this month. The historic building, a gift from Andrew Carnegie to the city back in 1918, was a branch library until 1976. Two other ventures have come and gone, but the building’s been vacant since 2001. The city says it’s not safe to use.

The blighted property has since attracted drug use, prostitution, and violence. So when activists moved in to reclaim it, local residents enthusiastically joined the effort.