The Sunnyvale Public Library is a public library in Sunnyvale, California, USA.

History

The library was originally the Reading Room, which opened in 1908. It grew from 50 books to 500 within a year. In 1914, the collection, which had been managed by the

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program ...

and had grown to over 1100 books, was passed over to the city to form the Sunnyvale Public Library. It became part of the county library system in 1917. The library was housed within the Wright building and later within the Civic Auditorium of the old City Hall, on Murphy Avenue. In November 1960, the library moved to its current location on Olive Avenue. A bookmobile service operated from 1973 to 1978 and again from 1982 to 2003. A branch library opened in 1975 in north Sunnyvale but closed in 1978 due to budget cuts as a result of

Proposition 13 Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process. The initiative was approved by California voters on J ...

. The library building has been expanded twice, in 1970 and 1985 to its current size of . In 2007, a bond measure for $108 million for construction of a new library building failed to pass, receiving only 59.08% of votes cast, short of the 2/3 majority needed for passage.

Services

The library has books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs,

Blu-ray discs The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

audiobooks An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

, SAMs Photofacts,

eBooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

, eMagazines, eAudio, streaming video, music, storytimes, and homework help. Free Internet access is available using Library PCs or client devices . The library was a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC).United States Patent and Trademark Office
"Patent and Trademark Resource Center Map".
/ref> As a PTRC, the Library provided free access to

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

and

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

documents in various formats, access to the PubWest database for patent searching, resources for historical patent research, patent searching guides and other reference materials on

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office-trained staff to answer patent and trademark questions, and classes and events related to intellectual property.

References

External links

Official Website(Mobile)Friends of the Sunnyvale Public Library
- advocacy group *City of Sunnyvale
"Adopted Fiscal Year 2014/15 Budget and Resource Allocation Plan."
*Library Development Services Bureau, California State Library

{{Coord, 37.37192, -122.03910, region:US-CA, display=title Libraries in Santa Clara County, California Public libraries in California Education in Sunnyvale, California Link+ libraries Library buildings completed in 1960 Library buildings completed in 1970 Library buildings completed in 1985