Category Archives: Membership

It’s M.A.D. time again!

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Hey Library Foundation Members: we appreciate you, and Member Appreciation Days are just around the corner!

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 3 – 5, 2013, show your Library Foundation Membership card to receive 20% discounts at participating stores and free admission at the following Southern California museums and institutions:

  • Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
  • Craft and Folk Art Museum (Friday only)
  • Heritage Square Museum
  • Japanese American National Museum
  • The Library Store at Central Library (Friday and Saturday only)
  • The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
  • MOCA Grand Avenue
  • The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
  • MOCA Pacific Design Center
  • Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
  • Museum of Latin American Art
  • Orange County Museum of Art
  • Pacific Asia Museum
  • Pasadena Museum of California Art
  • Pasadena Museum of History
  • The San Diego Museum of Art
  • Skirball Cultural Center

How-to-Book-Festival with Attica Locke

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Where else are you going to catch Margaret Atwood, Carol Burnett, Lemony Snicket, and Susan Feniger tag-teaming stages across a grassy college quad? The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is right around the corner, and to help guide your way through the largest public literary event in North America, we asked participating local author and Library Foundation Board Member Attica Locke for her tips on how-to-book-festival like a pro.

Attica Locke at ALOUD last year. Photo by Gary Leonard.

What sets apart the L.A. Times Festival of Books from other book fairs?

Locke: Besides Korean tacos and yoga pants, the L.A. Times Book Festival is the best thing ever to happen to L.A. It’s so incredibly comprehensive with an entire stage in Spanish, with music, cooking, and children’s events—it’s the most creative book festival around.

How have you participated with the festival over the years? And what are you doing there this year?

Locke: This is my fourth time being a panelist. I’m usually involved in the crime writing conversations, which draw very diverse crowds. This year, I’m on the “Crime Fiction: What We Can’t Tell You,” panel on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. But it always turns into a family event for me, so my husband and daughter come and we go around and explore.

What panels, readings, or events are you especially looking forward to this year?

Locke: On Saturday, I’m really looking forward to the Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen event. I’ve heard Lemony Snicket speak before and I’ve never heard an artist quite like him—he’s so entertaining. I want to pop in to the YA stage because as an author I’m interested in writing Young Adult fiction, and some of the greatest Young Adult fiction writers in the country will all be in L.A. on the YA stage. I want to hit the fiction panel on the “Social Novel” with Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Lethem, and Marisa Silver in conversation with David Ulin, the L.A. Times’ book editor—that’s going to be insane! I’m also curious about the “Hollywood Tales” history panel.

On Sunday, I’m amazed the day starts with the U.S.C. Trojan marching band, so I want get there early for that. Jamaica Kincaid in conversation with L.A. writer Hector Tobar sounds amazing, who is an incredible writer in his own right and he’s talking to one of the world’s most provocative writers—this will be a great featured event. Finally, the “Guns in America” panel is such a timely topic and I’m a big fan of Erwin Chemerinsky, who is an interesting thinker and a dean at the U.C.I. law school.

You’re an expert at this festival… Any tips for attendees?

Locke: Finding an out-of-the-way bathroom—away from the crowds is key. Also, to avoid lines, I think there’s some convenient stores around the U.S.C. campus that sell sandwiches for an easy lunch. Take public transportation—there’s no reason not to take the train to U.S.C. Also, if you plan to buy a lot of books like me, then bring one of those wheely things people take to Farmers Markets so you don’t break your back carrying around your load of books.

The days are jam-packed with events, but what about the evenings? What do the writers do after they leave the U.S.C. campus?

Locke: The L.A. Times Book Prize ceremony on Friday night is a big deal. But people are still talking about last year’s Book Drop Bash! I made so many connections with new people at the Young Literati’s Bash last year, and I’m a co-host of the event this year, which is at the downtown Central Library on Saturday night. It’s so fitting for everyone to gather there to continue the celebrations.

Everyone’s Staying Home to Support the Los Angeles Public Library!

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The Stay Home and Read a Book Ball on Friday, March 1, 2013 is fast approaching, and in anticipation, Library lovers are eagerly sharing their support for knowledge, reading, and books.

Howard A. Rodman, Professor at the University of Southern California and Vice President of the Writers Guild of America West, writes:

“I grew up in an atheist household in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. My parents told me there was no religion. But they lied. When I’d visit my doctor, he’d ask not, what’s wrong, or even, how’s school. He’d say, ‘What have you read?’ When I’d ask my grandmother a question she’d say, ‘You have a question? Look it up in a book.’ Then she would whisper, ‘A library is a place with a lot of books.’

Where others would have a hearth or a breviary niche, we had The Wonder Book of Knowledge. All the world’s knowledge, and all the world’s wonder, in twelve volumes: A to BAL, BAL to BYZ, CAB to CLI, CLI to DEN, DEN to FIF, FIF to GRE, GRE to JES, JES to MIN, MIN to PEA, PEA to SAN, SAN to TID, and TIE to ZWY. When my parents would fight I’d hide under the piano, inhaling the faraway fragrant scent of the waxed wood sounding board, the raised lid become a giant sail, and I would stare at the Wonder Book of Knowledge, a cyclopedia of destinations – of places I would rather be. A-BAL, BAL-BYZ, sailing to Byzantium, CAB to CLI, CLI to DEN, ‘round the North Sea to Denmark, DEN-FIF, FIF to GRE, down the Aegean to Greece, GRE-JES, JES-MIN, aboard the U.S. Minnesota, MIN to PEA, PEA to SAN, San Francisco! Shore leave in North Beach!, SAN to TID, and TIE to ZWY. The island of Zwyzwyzwantia, where iridescent spider monkeys climb from volcanoes, where telekinetic pandas control the weather, and where perfumed pheasants roost all day in sun-dappled trees, singing to each other, and to us. And that – curled up under the piano, hiding from my parents, gazing out at a cut-rate encyclopedia, in the heart of godless Brooklyn – was how I became a writer. And I would venture that most every writer I know became a writer in similar fashion: staring at books, reading our way through the Universe. The Universe, as Borges says: which others call The Library.

And so as a writer and, most proudly, as a reader: it’s truly gratifying to bring attention to the libraries’ essential role in the creative life of our community.

(With a h/t to Tom McGuane for the idea of a piano lid as ship’s sail, to John August for the weather-controlling pandas, to Thomas Pynchon for the iridescent spider monkeys…)”

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New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott‘s plans for March 1, 2013:

“I have gotten both dogs whipped up in anticipation of the Stay Home and Read a Book Ball. Heaven: we’ll share the couch, and some cheese, but we’ll each have our own book, as neither of them reads English very well.”

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Los Angeles-based author and journalist Hector Tobar‘s call for action:

“Down at the bottom of Bunker Hill, there’s a big building with a pyramid on top. It’s filled with thousands of magical devices, each the shape of a box. I go there, pick one up and take it home. I open it. Suddenly there are ancient Romans in my living room, a Spanish knight in my kitchen, a boy and a runaway slave on a raft floating down the hallway. Yes, every day is a ball, a journey or a miracle when you have a library card. Let’s celebrate the Stay Home and Read a Book Ball together.”

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Author Terry Tempest Williams shares her thoughts on the Ball:

“I open the door, walk outside and turn another page.”

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Los Angeles’ first Poet Laureate Eloise Klein Healy describes her clothing for the occasion:

“My usual reading attire at home is a comfortable outfit of plaid flannel shirt and pajama bottoms of a different plaid.  Since the Stay Home and Read a Book Ball is a formal affair, I plan to up the ante and read my book while clad in at least three plaids.”

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There’s still time to RSVP!  Also, make sure to let us know how you’re celebrating by emailing Erin Sapinoso at erinsapinoso@lfla.org, tweeting us at @LibraryFoundLA with the hashtag #LFLAStayHome, and leaving comments on our Facebook page.

Bookmark This! #6

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Happy New Year, everyone!

To ring in 2013, I’m excited to bring you another set of reading recommendations from more library enthusiasts.  This edition’s selections sweep us up in prose poetry; teach us about modern feminism; take us on a daring escape with a mother and her son; make us examine the concept of money in a fantasy world; and remind us about the intangible essentials to help survive the winter.

D. J. Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and other books about Los Angeles and Southern California. The New York Times praised his “gorgeous distillation of architectural and social history” in 2007. His most recent book is House, a collaboration with Diane Keaton.

D. J. recommends Even So: New and Selected Poems by Gary Young.

“I began reading Gary Young almost 45 years ago, accompanying a writer of subtlety and emotional honesty as he perfected a form of prose poetry that exactly captures the way the ordinary and extraordinary intersect in daily life. Recollected in Young’s spare but lyrical sentences, episodes of intense significance are released from the humblest materials: a gnarled apple tree, a child’s nightmare, a scar, a meal. In this collection, drawn from his previous books with the addition of new poems, you can follow the arc of a whole life in which beauty and tragedy mingle just as they do for all of us. Work, illness, joy, loss, birth, and ever-returning nature become the matter of a man’s quiet habits. I have prayed with these poems for years, certain they are redemptive. The bravest deed, these poems assert, is to be present in this broken world with unceasing wonder and forgiveness always ready.”

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Kenon Breazeale is a Member of the Library Foundation, art history aficionado and retired professor.  She can often be seen leading tours of the art and architecture of the historic Bertram Goodhue building and new Tom Bradley wing as a board member of the Central Library docents.  Join one of the walk-in tours (starting in the lobby in front of The Library Store) every weekday at 12:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Kenon recommends How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.

“Caitlin Moran’s How to be a Woman is a raucous, highly entertaining treatment of a serious subject. Moran, a thirty-something columnist for the Times of London, is writing to an audience of young women (Katy Perry comes to mind) reluctant to call themselves feminists. Her challenge: ‘Do you have a vagina? Do you want to be in charge of it? Congratulations! You’re a feminist.’”

“Moran’s ability to move smoothly between personal memoir, political rant and cultural analysis makes the book an easy read.  With her background in music journalism, Moran is especially strong on the way in which celebrity culture has become the locale where young women absorb lessons about femininity. She finds much to criticize but celebrates the rise of role models like Lady Gaga, rock star godmother to “all the nerds, freaks, outcasts, intellectual pretenders, and lonely kids. “ In other words, all the kids like Moran herself, who grew up as an overweight, literature-loving misfit in a chaotic working class household.”

“One more nice thing about Moran–she’s a lover of libraries. Here is a link to an article bemoaning the Tory government’s plan to balance budgets by closing local libraries.”

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Dale Hailey is the Assistant Director of Advancement Services for the Library Foundation.  A master of organization and lover of jewelry, she also makes some delicious lemon bars that are often in high demand at the office.

Dale recommends Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue.

“Room is told from the perspective of a five year old boy, Jack, whose entire life has been spent in an 11’ by 11’ Room with his mother (Ma) and a few basic household items.   His mother was kidnapped at 19, confined in a shed and repeatedly raped; Jack was born of these rapes.  What I found compelling was the intense relationship between Jack and Ma.  Ma created an environment rich in storytelling, songs, discipline, learning and love for Jack.  She spent little time (at least in Jack’s eyes) feeling sorry for herself and more time making his world as big and “normal” as possible.  Jack and Ma escape from Room, and Jack narrates how their lives change now that his world has been turned upside down.  I didn’t think I would find a book about this subject matter enjoyable, but experiencing life through the eyes of Jack with his innocence and joy was quite unexpected.”

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Dawn Coppin is the Library Foundation’s Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations.  She has managed to avoid almost all jobs involving heavy machinery, toxic chemicals, and yappy dogs and hopes to maintain this record for the next 25 years of her working life.  As a hedonist wanna-be, Dawn nevertheless finds herself spending much of the day in front of a computer writing about the realities of life made better by the Los Angeles Public Library.

Dawn recommends Making Money by Terry Pratchett.

“What is a leader to do in the time of fiscal austerity when you need more money to maintain and expand social infrastructure?  Well, if you’re Lord Vetinari of Discworld renown then you hire/persuade Moist von Lipwig (the con-man in the gold suit who got the post office running again) to take charge of the Royal Mint and accompanying bank.  Of course, he has to answer to the chairman’s barked orders, has an unfathomable machine in the basement that appears to cause the (dis)appearance of gold, is served by a peculiar chief cashier who must be a vampire, and needs to fend off the murderous intentions of family members.  It’s a fascinating and funny look at a parallel financial system, the possibilities in moving away from the gold standard, and a thought-provoking examination of what is the role of government vis-à-vis public debt.”

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A third-year student at UCLA majoring in art, Lydia Glenn-Murray interns with the Library Foundation, works for Miranda July, and is the art editor of Graphite (the arts journal published through the Hammer museum).  Also an artist, she experiments with all sorts of media.

Lydia recommends Frederick by Leo Lionni.

“Frederick is a wonderful children’s book about a little family of mice fervently preparing for winter. As the family gathers food, only Frederick seems to be idle. When the stocks run out and spirits are low, however, Frederick brings out the supplies he collected: warm sunshine, vibrant colors and words strung into a lovely poem. His contribution is profound. As an artist myself, I am constantly developing my understanding of the role of the artist in society. Only recently did it occur to me that the foundation of my personal belief had so much to do with this sweet story that my parents read to me when I was a child. I believe that art making should be, at its core, a process of generosity and contribution to society.”

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Still looking for something else to read?  More than six million books are available at the Central Library and 72 branches throughout the city and online at www.lapl.org in print, digital and audio formats.

Happy reading and stay tuned for next month’s issue of Bookmark This!

-  Posted by Erin Sapinoso

Live Homework Help Just a Few Clicks Away

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Last year, as part of its ongoing support of Live Homework Help, the Library Foundation secured funding to send outreach specialist Yago Cura into the Los Angeles public schools, non-profits, and family source centers to educate a wider audience about how students can reap the many benefits of this online tutoring program. The good news? The outreach has worked!

This past fall when students returned to school after word spread about Live Homework Help, the numbers of tutoring sessions were record-breaking. In September alone the program increased by 47 percent—over 4,500 tutoring sessions took place—the highest number for any month in the history of the five-year-old program. But then October surpassed those numbers, then November surpassed October with 5,600 sessions—an astounding 54 percent increase in usage in comparison to 2011.

Today the program continues to grow. No other free tutoring service like this is offered in the city, and in a still-recovering economy and struggling public schools, students need this resource now more than ever. In the fall of 2007, the Los Angeles Public Library began offering this online tool to enhance its in-house youth literacy and reading enrichment programs.

Since its inception, over 130,000 tutoring sessions have taken place in libraries, schools, homes, Starbucks, anywhere that a student needing help with math, science, social science, or English has online access. It’s the perfect blend of having the flexibility to work remotely while gaining the individual attention and expertise of a highly-trained professional tutor. For free, anyone (K-12, college freshman, as well as adult learners) with a library card, can log-in to the website and work with a tutor every day of the week between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.

“I’ve heard so many people who have used this service have become more confident about their homework assignments, and they are more likely to complete their homework,” says Dawn Coppin, who oversees the Library Foundation’s funding for the program. Post-program surveys backup these success stories with statistics, showing that 94 percent of users say they have received higher grades after their tutoring. For a region that has one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation, this is no small feat.

The Library Foundation is working hard to secure additional funding to keep up with the expanding program, which is now also accessible through smart phones, tablet computers, or any other Internet-enabled device.

Please help spread the word about these great resources at the library. You can also support Live Homework Help* by donating to the Library Foundation here.
*If you want to donate specifically to Live Homework Help instead of general Library Foundation support, please give through the same donation link above, but in the comments section of the form include “designated for Live Homework Help.”

 

Spread some love for the Los Angeles Public Library this holiday season!

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Still searching for that perfect present for the library lover?  Consider giving the gift of membership with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.  Benefits include:

- Advance electronic notification of ALOUD programs;
- Discounts on ticketed ALOUD and This is Your Library events;
- A subscription to the Library Foundation’s quarterly newsletter; and,
- Store discounts and free admission to other Southern California museums and institutions during Member Appreciation Days.

Want to add something extra?  Tack on a USB featuring a curated set of ALOUD programs from the past 20 years with guests like: Susan Sontag, Robert Pinsky, Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Richard Ford, Justice Stephen Breyer, Wael Ghonim, Terry Tempest Williams, Patti Smith, Philip Levine, and August Wilson.

Thank you for supporting the Los Angeles Public Library and best wishes for happy holidays and a wonderful new year!

Bestselling Author Ken Follett Talks Spies and Libraries

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Recently, internationally renowned author Ken Follett took a break from working on the third book of his Century Trilogy to make a special appearance at an event for The Council of the Library Foundation, supporting the Los Angeles Public Library. Before the event, Fifth & Flower caught up with Follett to discuss what lead him down the path of epic storytelling—from humble beginnings to selling over 130 million copies of his books worldwide.

Ken Follett speaking to guests at the California Club. Photo by John Lucas.

What was your first experience with writing and literature?

Follett: I learned to read very early when I was four-years-old. My parents were neither rich nor poor, but they could not afford to buy the number of books that I wanted to consume. I would get a book for my birthday and a book for Christmas and that was nowhere near enough. I was born in a city called Cardiff, which is the capital city of Wales, and less than half a mile from our house, there was a public library and I joined it when I was seven. From then on, for many years, I went to the library once a week and that’s where I got all my reading. Of course, everyone who eventually becomes a writer starts out as a voracious reader.

Who are some of the writers that you fell in love with at an early age?

Follett: There’s an English writer called Enid Blyton, who was hugely popular when I was a kid. I just loved her books. I read the Bobbsey Twins—that was an American series I really liked as a boy. I read a lot of classics, but I think I probably read them in special abridged editions for kids because this was when I was eight, nine, ten; I can’t have read The Tale of Two Cities in the full version, but I remember reading it. Uncle Tom’s Cabin I read when I was a kid. I liked anything with space rockets in it and anything with detectives in it. And I still do!

You do copious amounts of research for your books. Can you talk about that process?

Follett: Well, the first book I researched was also my first successful book, The Eye of the Needle. Because it’s set in World War II and I was born in 1949, after the war was over, I was obliged to find out what everyday life was like at the time and how it was different from what I knew. That turned out to be a very helpful process for me because the research gave the book a feel for the grain of everyday life, which I had not achieved before. I do have natural curiosity—that relish for details has found its way into my books and I think made them better.

Writing about spies, whose lives are presumably so different from your own, takes a lot of immersion in details. Where did you do that kind of research?

Follett: What I found important in spy stories was to locate the spy at a moment in a war or in a conflict when what he does can change the course of history—that makes the book so much larger in scope. That’s really why I started studying battles and the cause of wars, with the constant thought in my mind: How might this have been different? How might I persuade readers that this could’ve been different if a James Bond or a Henry Faber was there, acting and trying to change the course of events? And anyway, [spies are] making it up as they go along, so you might as well do the same. 

You’re very politically active and aware, but why write your new trilogy, the Century Trilogy, now?

Follett: After World Without End, I wanted to do another book with the same sort of scope: a long historical novel covering many years with many characters and earth-shaking historical events. But I didn’t want to write another medieval story right away. And so I thought, what period of history could I write about that could be as exciting as the Middle Ages? I thought of the twentieth century; it’s the most dramatic century in the history of the human race, with the worst wars that we’ve ever had, terrible mass murder, the invention of the worst weapons that we’ve ever devised, and yet it’s also our story. I, and most of my readers, were born in the twentieth century and so it’s about where we come from.

You mention your readers. When you write, who do you imagine are your readers?

Follett: There isn’t a specific reader. I don’t think of, say, a man on a commuter train or a woman on an airplane or anything like that because I don’t think there is a profile of a Ken Follett reader. But I do think of the reader all the time and what I believe readers want out of literature. And I think: Am I providing that? Am I creating tension and characters that they like and satisfying resolutions to conflicts and so on?

What are you currently reading?

Follett: I just finished the new Tom Wolfe. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I raced through it… What I like about him is that he writes very well about society, very sarcastically, very critically, quite maliciously, but very well. At the moment, I’m reading two books at the same time. I’m reading a new book called Portrait of a Novel, which is a book about how Henry James wrote Portrait of a Lady. And, I’m reading Portrait of a Lady. I have them both on my Kindle and I’m trying to synchronize so that I read in the literary book about Henry James’ visit to Rome and then I read the chapter in Portrait of a Lady where the heroine of the story, Isabella, goes to Rome. Of course I’ve read Portrait of a Lady before more than once, but I’m especially enjoying it with this analysis going alongside.

 

Become a Member and Double Your Impact!

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For a limited time only this holiday season, a generous member of our Board of Directors will match your gift dollar for dollar:

     – When you join the Foundation as a new Member;
     – When you re-join the Foundation if your Membership is currently expired; or,
     – When you upgrade your Membership as a current Member.

 

This challenge grant will double your gift so we can increase the impact of our efforts to support and enrich the Los Angeles Public Library.

For more information about Membership opportunities, contact Membership Director Erin Sapinoso at (213) 228-7552 or erinsapinoso@lfla.org.

Spread the joy of free and universal access to information, lifelong learning, and critical thought by becoming a Library Foundation Member today!

Attention Library Foundation Members!

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This holiday season, visit The Library Store and enjoy 20% off your purchases through the entire month of December.  Show your Membership card to the cashier or enter your Member code upon checkout for online purchases.

If you’re still looking for suggestions, how about giving the gift of membership?  Also, we’ve whipped up this helpful gift guide:

Happy shopping!

Catch The Library Store On Wheels at a Branch Near You

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On Monday, December 10, we’ll be launching The Library Store On Wheels, a mobile incarnation of our beloved and critically-acclaimed Library Store.

Featuring a unique and carefully-curated collection of literary-inspired gifts, we’ll be visiting six different neighborhood branches during our first two weeks, as well as Hollywood’s world-famous Amoeba Music. To celebrate our new wheels, City Librarian John Szabo, Foundation President Ken Brecher, and others will be joining us at various stops along the way.

Here’s where we’ll be:
Monday, Dec. 10 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Palms Rancho Park
Tuesday, Dec. 11 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Sherman Oaks
Wednesday, Dec. 12 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Exposition Park
Thursday, Dec. 13 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Mid-Valley
Saturday, Dec. 15 from 1 to 5 p.m. – Cypress Park
Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Fairfax
Wednesday, Dec. 19 from 2 to 6 p.m. – Amoeba Music

For directions to branch libraries, please visit the LAPL website.

There’s sure to be something for every library fan on your gift list, including: the Out of Print The Very Hungry Caterpillar Kids’ Tsh, the Quoteyak Writer Tin, and the Read Much Pennant.

The Library Store opened in 1993, just one year after the Foundation was founded in response to the 1986 fires that nearly destroyed the Central Library. The Library Store On Wheels follows the success of last year’s branch pop-up stores and will mark the first time this one-of-a-kind shopping experience will be made readily available to library lovers all over Los Angeles.

Proceeds from the Foundation’s Library Store On Wheels will benefit the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library and 72 branch libraries.

Hope to see you on the road!