The South San Francisco Public Library is located in

South San Francisco, California South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially known as "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. ...

, California. It is an independent

city library A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and part of the

Peninsula Library System The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California, United States, which serves the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as " The Peninsula". The system has dozens of br ...

, a consortium of city, county, and community college libraries in

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

. The library holds approximately 166,000 volumes and has 29,000 borrowers. In the fiscal year 2007-2008, the library circulated 687,000 items. The library provides access to homebound delivery services, numerous children's programs, a literacy program, a community learning center, 77 public computers, and free Wi-Fi.

History

In 1914, local teacher Rue Clifford rode through town on horseback collecting

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...

signatures in support of creating a local public library. In 1916,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

provided funding and building plans for construction of the Grand Avenue library. In 1966, the new city library on West Orange Avenue opened to the public. The Grand Avenue library became the city's branch library. In 1998, the Community Learning Center, a new service of the library and collaborating agencies serving youth and adults, opened.

Locations

The library has three locations: SSF Grand Avenue library front

Collections

The library offers current, high-demand, and high-interest materials for all ages in a variety of formats. The Grand Avenue branch has a sizable Spanish-language collection. The Main library features the Figoni Opera Collection, the largest collection of opera CDs and DVDs in Northern California. These collections are complemented by a wide variety of electronic resources including GALE databases, online, and e-book services. The library also offers homework help for students in grades 4-12. In addition, the library provides an online reference service 24 hours a day through the AskNow service.

Children and Teen Services

The Children's and Teen Services department provides collections, programs, and services for children from babies to young adult. It offers story times for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, families, and story times in Spanish. Seasonal and afterschool programming is offered throughout the school year. The department also has extensive summer programs, including the Summer Reading Club, Teen Reading Club, and a program that matches middle and high school students with elementary school students who need help practicing reading. The After School and Summer Volunteer programs allow teens to fulfill community service requirements for their schools or service clubs. The department provides homework help for students from 4th grade through college introduction through

Tutor.com Tutor.com is an online tutoring company founded in 1998 that connects students to tutors in online classrooms. The service offers on-demand and scheduled tutoring to students, from fourth grade through college. Users can connect with live tutors ...

. It also offers Tumblebooks, an online collection of animated, talking children's picture books as well as puzzles and other educational activities.

Project Read

Project Read, the library's

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

program, is a free service for English-speaking adults who want to improve their reading and writing ability. Project Read offers a wide variety of programs including Families for Literacy story times for learners and their children; a Computer Learning Lab where learners can use programs to help with reading, spelling, and phonics, as well as learning the basics of computers, typing, and the internet; and Learning Wheels, a mobile preschool classroom.

Community Learning Center

The Community Learning Center serves to meet the educational needs of South San Francisco's multicultural residents. Its programs include English Language Classes, Computer Instruction, Homework Assistance, Activities for Children, Native Language Literacy Classes (Spanish), Kindergarten Preparation, Job Training, Parent Education, and Civic Engagement.

History room

The South San Francisco History Room is devoted to the historical development and current events of South San Francisco. The History Room was established in 1967 and is located in the basement of the Grand Ave. Library. The collection contains approximately 2000 photographs and slides from the 1850s to the present. The collection also contains local school photographs and yearbooks from 1917 to present. There are also general genealogical reference materials, city directories, an historic building survey (1986),

Sanborn maps Sanborn maps are detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally published by The Sanborn Map Company (Sanborn), the maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbaniz ...

(1910 and 1929), South San Francisco zoning and area maps (1840s to present), and

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

tapes.

References

External links

*
Peninsula Library System website
{{Authority control Public libraries in California Carnegie libraries in California Libraries in San Mateo County, California Library buildings completed in 1966