April 2, 2004

Book and Bake Sale scheduled for this weekend

By Deborah Garvey
Special to the Times

The Friends of the Willow Glen Library are sponsoring their spring book and bake sale on Saturday, April 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Willow Glen Branch Library, 1157 Minnesota Avenue. Although sales figures await next month’s column, we would like to thank the many volunteers and community members who help us support our local branch library through donations of time, books, baked goods and by purchasing at our sales.

The Willow Glen Branch is pleased to welcome the new part-time Adult Librarian, Lynne Jorgensen, to the Willow Glen Branch. Although her official start date was March 14, she began helping out the library in February. Contingent on funding levels, current plans are for her to stay at Willow Glen until the new Rose Garden Branch opens in about 16 months’ time. Lynne completed her masters’ degree in library science at the age of 50 and was hired by the San Jose Public Library system about a year later.

Like most newcomers to the system, Jorgensen started out as a pool librarian.
She was fortunate to land a regular position at Rose Garden before she retired from her other career of 31 years as a social worker with Santa Clara County. Jorgensen has worked at many branches over the past 10 years in addition to her regular part-time schedule at Rose Garden.

Jorgensen is happy to be at the Willow Glen Branch. “Willow Glen was my childhood branch, and I can remember (vaguely) riding my bicycle [to the library] from Spencer and Atlanta Streets and filling my basket with books. I’m delighted to be... getting to know this community again and serving some of our Rose Garden customers while I am at it,” she said. Welcome to the Willow Glen Branch, Lynne!

Budget cuts eliminated printing from the Willow Glen Library’s public computers in late January. However, users may save documents they have created to a floppy disk for printing later at other facilities (information on printing options is available at the library).

Library patrons can call the Willow Glen High School at 535-6330 or the Willow Glen Middle School at 535-6277 for information on holiday closures. The media center is only open during the school year and will close for spring break April 9 through April 16.

Reading to Children is a library program in which trained community volunteers share the joy of reading with children of all ages. The San Jose Public Library is gearing up for a round of volunteer reader training in April. The Willow Glen Branch is in need of folks to read to kids during morning, afternoon and evening library hours. If you have a few hours a week to spend with children and are interested in becoming a Reading to Children volunteer, please contact Volunteer Services at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at (408) 808-2181 or send an email to volunteer.sjpl@sjlibrary.org. Volunteers must be at least 15 years of age and be able to make a six-month commitment to volunteer at least two hours a week.

Community members are cordially invited to attend a free talk entitled “Common Mistakes That Shrink Your Social Security Income.” Margaret K. Chan, CFP, CPA, Certified Financial Planner, will present a one hour lecture for retirees on how to avoid five common mistakes that can shrink Social Security income. The event will be held Wednesday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the library. Please call the library at (408) 998-2022 or visit www.sjlibrary.org for more information. To arrange for an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please call (408) 808-2397 or (408) 808-2130 (TDY) at least 48 hours prior to the event.

The Willow Glen Branch Library, located at 1157 Minnesota Avenue is open Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.and closed on Sunday. You can reach the library by calling 988-2022 or the recording at 988-2053 or access the main library’s Web page at www.sjlibrary.org/ and go to the Willow Glen Branch through the links on the bottom of the home page.