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On the go? Got a question?

Sacramento Public Library is now offering a text reference service through My Info Quest. Anyone with a cell phone and a text messaging plan can send in a question and get a reply from a librarian in minutes!

It's this easy: text your question to 309-222-7740, adding the library code SPL to your message. Hours of service are Monday-Friday 6am-8pm and Saturday 7am-3pm Pacific Time.

No more pushing buttons trying to get through to a live person; no more waiting in the telephone hold queue burning up your cellphone minutes. No more do you need to be logged in to your e-mail ... just text your question to the librarians at My Info Quest and the answer will be sent to your phone in minutes.

Look for the Txt4nswrs logo on the library's web site, as well as flyers and wallet cards at all our branches.

On the go? Got a question? Txt the library!

Sacramento History Photo(s) of the Week: Issue No. 21!

In 1950, men still wore hats, ties were bold and wide, and women's dresses were long. In order to display ties in line with the merchandising methods of the day, the manager of the largest Dobbs Hat Shop in Northern California designed the "Ty-namic." It could showcase up to six-dozen ties at the same time while also being able to display matching tie bars, tie tacs and cuff links.

As a senior in high school, Mary Louise Waggoner posed with the "Ty-namic" for this promptional photograph. One year later, she would marry her high school sweetheart, Al Babayco, who also worked at the store.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Farmers’ Market Book Sale

In general, I try to stay away from the Farmers’ Market. When I do go I either end up feasting on large bags of kettle corn, buying Chinese food I really didn’t need, or I somehow find myself straddled with carrying ten pounds of produce onto public transportation. (Trust me, you don’t want to try this.)

But there’s something else you can pick up at the Farmer’s Market that will neither add to your saddlebags nor way you down too much.

Books.

Come to Cesar Chavez Park on Wednesdays from 10 am - 2 pm to view a wide selection of books at unbeatable prices. Even if you don't buy anything, isn't it worth the trip just to see the shiny, happy people selling books?

RINCóN LATINO: PELíCULAS EN ESPAñOL

,,Morirse está en Hebreo" de Alejandro Springall


,,Morirse está en Hebreo" es una comedia mexicana que toma lugar en el barrio de Polanco en la Ciudad de México. Después de la muerte del patriarca Moishe la familia decide en prepara el tradicional velorio judío llamado shivah. Según la tradición, cuando uno nace dos ángeles llamados Aleph y Bet acompañan al ser recién nacido y lo acompañan el resto de su vida. Al morirse uno, éstos dos ángeles toman en cuenta todos los actos de uno y deciden cuál de los dos ángeles acompañarán el difunto al otro mundo. Para empezar no le va muy bién a Moishe porque su familia es un verdadero quilombo. ¡Qué disparate!

Sacramento History Photo(s) of the Week: Issue No. 20!

In August 1903, Edward and Augusta Sullivan gave birth to a child at 1100 “E” Street, deciding to name her Helen. Above is Helen Sullivan in her 1922 graduation photo from Sacramento High School. Following school, she spent the next ten years working as a telephone operator and stenographer for the State of California, and was married in 1933 to Tipton Randolph. Helen lived at both 1100 and 1110 at different times from birth through her late-20s.

Helen’s father, Edward, was a blacksmith for Southern Pacific. Her grandmother and grandfather, Peter and Mary, moved to Sacramento from New York state. All of the Sullivan boys, a total of three, and the senior Sullivan, worked for the railroad. Edward and Peter died within five months of one another in 1915, Edward of typhoid fever in August and Peter of a stroke in April. Both are buried at the Old City Cemetery. Etched on Edward’s grave is the word “Papa.”

Helen spent her latter years living in East Sacramento after residing for nearly two decades just outside the Alkali at Seventeenth and “G.” She died in May 1990.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

RINCóN LATINO: PELíCULAS EN ESPAñOL

[REC ] de Jaume Balangueró y Paco Plaza

Próximo Estreno



[REC] es una película española de terror rodada en la bellísima ciudad catalana de Barcelona. Esta película se trata de una joven reportera y su equipo de televisión cubriendo un extraño acontecimiento en un edificio céntrico donde un virus convierte a sus víctimas en virtuales monstruos. Ésta película fué estrenada en noviembre del 2007 y desgraciadamente nos llegará algo tarde ( jo-jo-jo) pero está en camino hacia nuestros clientes aquí en el bello oeste de California. Mientras por favor disfrutan de este espeluznante video mostrando algunas escenas de esta película. ¡Chau!

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 19!

By 1915, the City Brewery had grown to occupy nearly an entire city block with storage, coopering, racking, washing, bottling, and transportation facilities. So noisy had the complex and its hearty denizens gotten, that Alkali residents like Fannie Goddard of 1227 “H” Street found it a nuisance and went so far as to sue for $5,000 in damages. She also told the Sacramento Bee in March 1912 that the brewery’s crew used “obscene and common swearing and cursing which assails the site and hearing of my family and visitors.” These fellows hardly look concerned.

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

A Finer Focus: Robert McNamara - The Face of Contrition

It was amidst the highest of expectations that a young Bob McNamara came out of Cal-Berkeley and Harvard. During the Second World War, he did not carry a rifle, summon stretchers or drive Higgins boats. He was given the charge of making daylight bombing more efficient - numbers applied to bombs, being dropped from 20,000 feet, and a chillingly impersonal way to contribute to the effort.

After World War II, he became President of Ford Motors. He would be credited with a applying an innovative number of approaches to production. His prescience, especially with the Edsel, earned him a position that had only previously been held by Ford family members. He was a McNamara, a so called "Whiz Kid," and Midas with every touch, so off to Washington he would soon go.

JFK tabbed him as Secretary of War. LBJ kept him on. If Ford made his name, Vietnam sullied it. Heretofore, his life would never be the same. Some argue that despite its preceived failure, the Vietnam War - along with several other proxy conflicts - was enough keep the Soviet Union off balance and more than contribute to its eventual bankruptcy. Most will agree that war-making during Vietnam was as dated as the use of Napoleonic tactics during the First World War. McNamara concedes this - he knew that he and his colleagues were trapped in a wicked trend of 'group think.' All of this is fully explained in McNamara's electronic letter to America - 'The Fog of War.'

Yesterday, McNamara died at the age of 93, sealing a long life and a lot of time to think about mistakes that were made between 1961 to 1968. However, rather than crawling into a cave, he became an advocate for the liquidation of nuclear arsenals and channeled the World Bank in a more activist stance, especially when it came to fighting poverty.

In a May/June 2005 article called "Apocolypse Soon" in Foreign Policy, McNamara wrote:

It is time—well past time, in my view—for the United States to cease its Cold War-style reliance on nuclear weapons as a foreign-policy tool. At the risk of appearing simplistic and provocative, I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. The risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high. Far from reducing these risks, the Bush administration has signaled that it is committed to keeping the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a mainstay of its military power—a commitment that is simultaneously eroding the international norms that have limited the spread of nuclear weapons and fissile materials for 50 years. Much of the current U.S. nuclear policy has been in place since before I was secretary of defense, and it has only grown more dangerous and diplomatically destructive in the intervening years.

To delve deeper into the life of one the more scorned public figures in American history, take a look at the following list of offerings from the Sacramento Public Library:

The fog of war [videorecording] : eleven lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara /cSony Pictures Classics presents @radical.media & SenArt Films production in association with the Globe Department Store ; producers, Michael Williams, Julie Ahlberg ; produced & directed by Errol Morris. (DVD 973.92 FOG 2004)

The living and the dead : Robert McNamara and five lives of a lost war /cPaul Hendrickson. (959.70433 M1692zh 1996)

McNamara /cHenry L. Trewhitt. (355.033 M169zt 1971)

Promise and power : the life and times of Robert McNamara /cby Deborah Shapley. (973.92092 M169zs 1993)

Argument without end : in search of answers to the Vietnam tragedy /cRobert S. McNamara, James G. Blight, and Robert K. Brigham ; with Thomas J. Biersteker and
Herbert Y. Schandler. (959.70433 M169a 1999)

The essence of security: reflections in officec[by] Robert S. McNamara. (353.6 M169)

In retrospect : the tragedy and lessons of Vietnam /cRobert S. McNamara with Brian VanDeMark. (959.70433 M1692 1996)

Out of the cold : new thinking for American foreign and defense policy in the 21st century /cRobert S. McNamara. (327.73047 M169 1989)

Wilson's ghost : reducing the risk of conflict, killing, and catastrophe in the 21st century /cRobert S. McNamara and James G. Blight. (327.17 M169 2001)