Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Firefighters at the Library!

Some 60 children and 40 adults braved the rain to attend a special firefighter storytime at the San Marino Public library Saturday, February 19. Captain Keith Eddie and firemen Russell Wilcox, Chris Evans and Dwayne Carlton, from the San Marino Fire Department read stories and answered kid's questions about fighting fires. Following the reading, the sun came out just long enough to allow the children to climb the fire engine and to get a first hand look at some of the tools fire fighters use that help them put out fires.

Capt. Keith Eddie
San Marino Fire Captain Keith Eddie reads about fire fighting.

Library Kicks Off Community Campaign

This March marks the beginning of the community phase of the San Marino Public Library’s Capital Campaign. This phase of the fundraising project provides individuals in the community the opportunity to be a part of San Marino’s brand new library.

Donations from corporations, foundations and others have helped the campaign reach $9 million to date.

Now’s your chance to complete the task! Look for the letter coming soon in the mail, or you can stop by the library or visit our special website, www.brandnewlibrary.org to see how you can help. Years from now, you’ll be able to look back at the new library with pride, knowing you were part of its success.

Spotlight on the Los Angeles Times Database: An Online Subscription from Your Library

Need to do some research but can't get to the library? No problem! The San Marino Public Library subscribes to eleven different services that you can use through our Web page with your library card at any time of day or night.

One very useful subscription we offer is the Los Angeles Times online. This database contains the entire text of articles in the Times going back almost twenty years, to 1985. Search by words in the title, the lead paragraph, or buried in the full text. Narrow your search by specifying the year you want, or even an exact date. Articles from The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Diego Union-Tribune can also be searched from this site.

Students love this database because it means that they don't have to physically go to the library and spool through yards of microfilm to find the information they need. Parents find this collection useful when they want to find an obituary or remember that cookie recipe from two Christmases ago. This service can also help busy businesspeople to find local and regional information right from their desks at work.

How do you reach this information treasure? Point your browser to http://sanmarinopl.org, and then click on "LA Times". On the next screen, type in the first five digits of your library card number for both the username and password. On the following page, choose the service called "Los Angeles Times". Now you are ready to explore the last two decades of our major metropolitan newspaper online--all with a strong guarantee of quality, courtesy of the San Marino Public Library.