Builders Club

Posted by on 08 February 16

Children ages five and older are invited to join us at Builders Club. We provide the Legos, you bring the ideas and imagination. Participants can both build freely and participate in a Lego Quest challenge. Space is limited. Please sign-up at the Children’s Reference Desk, or give us a call at 415-485-3322.

Understanding Your Child’s Difficult Behaviors and How to Help

Posted by bonnie on 03 February 16

In this free presentation, you will get a deeper understanding of your child’s difficult behaviors, how to get help for yourself, and tools to restore your child to the loving person he/she truly is.  Questions and answers will follow at the end of the presentation.  The focus is infancy-early adolescence.

Sushila Hart is a mentor/consultant to parents and families.  She is a Hand in Hand instructor where she facilitates Parent Support groups, and has many years experience as a preschool teacher. She has extensively studied early childhood through adolescence. She is presently a mentor/nanny for two families.  Sushila has successfully raised her two daughters (now ages 26 & 28)

Learn more about Hand in Hand at http://handinhandparenting.org

Rare & Special Books & Charming Oldies

Posted by bonnie on 29 January 16

The San Rafael Friends of the Library will have a sale of Rare and Special Books & Charming Oldies  at the First Presbyterian Church, across the street from the downtown library.

The sale for the general public will start on Saturday, March 12 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.  Ample parking can be found on the street or in the lot at E and Mission Streets.

Included in this sale will be rare and special books from 1730 – 1960 including vintage sets, leather bound books, and charming oldies… covering history, cooking, and many books on the arts:  fine art, architecture, and design. The will also be children’s books.

A Members’ Only Preview (with drinks and treats including delicious ‘library cookies’ and world famous brownies) will be from 2:00 – 4:30 on Friday, March 11.
You can become a member at the door starting at $15.

All proceeds of the sale will benefit the San Rafael Public Library and Pickleweed branch.

Growing Edibles: Plan to Plot to Plate – The Next Chapter: Retirement

Posted by bonnie on 29 January 16

Want to learn about growing edibles?  Come and hear about the preparation of planting beds and containers, selection of plant varieties including tomatoes, best watering practices and managing diseases and problems – lessons learned from a real garden!

The Speaker: Anne-Marie Walker, a UC Marin Master Gardener since 2005, leads a program teaching third and fourth grade students about edible gardening. She lives on an acre in San Rafael where she and her husband raised their four children who learned to grow vegetables and fruits for the family dinner table.

Blast Off! Space Science for Martian Families

Posted by on 28 January 16

Have fun with your mini-Martian in this fun, hands-on space science program. Explore, create, and discover using simple materials, creativity, and imaginative problem-solving! Don’t forget to pack your sense of wonder for an out-of-this-world experience. No registration required. For families with kids of all ages. For more information, call Children’s Services at 415-485-3322. This event is part of the 2016 One Book One Marin series, and is sponsored by the Friends of the San Rafael Public Library.

Ancestry.com for the Absolute Beginner

Posted by bonnie on 27 January 16

Your San Rafael Library card gives you access to the library’s subscription to Ancestry.com. Find out how you can access the library’s subscription.

This class is will introduce you to Ancestry.com at the basic level. We’ll preform some basic census searches and see how that one search connects to others.  You’ll also get tips on other eResources and organizations that will help you get started in creating your family tree.

More advanced Ancestry.com classes will be coming in March.

Lilypad Homes

Posted by bonnie on 23 January 16

San Rafael just passed a Junior Second Unit ordinance that will allow homeowners to turn a spare bedroom into a private, legal rental unit to house family members, caregivers, or renters.  Come find out what a junior second unit is, the benefits of having one, and what it takes to create one, step by step.  There will be time for Q&A.

Lilypad Homes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to provide much-needed housing, to make home ownership more affordable, to house loved ones, caregivers and people who work in the community, and to create resilient, self-sufficient communities capable of housing critical service providers.

Find out more here: http://lilypadhomes.org/

The Power of Story – The Next Chapter: Retirement

Posted by bonnie on 12 January 16

The View from Mars: NASA Ames Research Center talk

Posted by diane on 05 January 16

While people have yet to set foot on the red planet, robotic explorers have extended our senses to Mars, giving us our first views of the surface. Giant volcanoes, canyons, polar ice caps, surface frost and clouds await the first explorers.

Join us as Jay Trimble of NASA Ames Research Center talks about the exploration of Mars, what we’ve learned from our robotic explorers, and what the fictional astronaut Mark Watney might see in Acidalia Planitia, his home on Mars.

At NASA Ames, Jay is the Mission Operations and Ground Data System Manager for the Resource Prospector Lunar Rover Mission. Prior to this, Jay founded and led the User Centered Technology Group, which developed the MERBoard Touchscreen for Mars Rover Operations. He has also worked at the UC Berkeley Space Science Lab, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Johnson Space Center.

This program is part of a series of events in celebration of One Book One Marin 2016, a county-wide reading program, whose featured title this year is The Martian, by Andy Weir. Tons of events are happening county-wide. Hope to see you there!

Clues to the Origins of our Solar System

Posted by diane on 05 January 16

Travel back almost 5 billion years with Vivian White, of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, to discover how our Sun and planets formed from a cloud of dust. See how today’s scientists are using clues from all over our Solar System and beyond to piece together our humble beginnings. Find out what questions we still have and how we aim to answer them with future missions.

Vivian White has been an astronomy educator with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for a decade. She uses her degree in physics, a Dobsonian telescope, and a fascination with human learning to inspire people to look up in wonder at the riches of the night sky.

Vivian designs activities for the NASA Night Sky Network, a coalition of over 450 astronomy clubs across the US. Her love of the sky has taken her far and wide – the most recent adventures include teaching astronomy to Buddhist monks in India, visiting cloud top observatories in Chile, and giving tours of the sky on the White House lawn. Her blog is called My Head is in the Stars.

This program is part of a series of events in celebration of One Book One Marin 2016, a county-wide reading program, whose featured title this year is The Martian, by Andy Weir. Tons of events are happening county-wide. Hope to see you there!