#oakland public library

[missmickiescorner]

The Libraries That Made Me | Lakeview Branch Library

Welcome Ladies, Gents, and Nonbinary Folx to an interluding segment I'd like to call: The Libraries That Made Me.

In it, I will share my experience with a library I feel set me on the path to pursuing librarianship.

First up? The Lakeview Branch Library in Oakland, CA.

In the aftermath of my son’s birth, I spent a lot of time walking with him around the Lake Merritt area. We’d walk short distances to the corner store and even around the lake itself just to get out of the house; however, when a need arose for me to have access to the internet and Word in order to complete my classwork, we found ourselves walking the couple of blocks up to the library as well.

The best way to describe the atmosphere and environment of the Lakeview Branch is “intimate”—a word used here to mean “cozy,” or “comfortable,”—it’s one of the smallest libraries I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in and for such a small building there is no lack of material. Somehow the librarians have managed to utilize every nook and cranny and create literal literary nooks for almost every age group and subject matter; including a small storytime area for teeny and tiny patrons as well as four open-access (as opposed to catalog) computers.

In hindsight, I can see that it was my time spent in this branch that cemented my appreciation for all that the public library was outside of a building for books: it was a place where I could freely surf the internet and complete schoolwork without interruption, it was a place where I could find required books for school, interesting books to pass the time, and informational books to help me navigate my new journey into motherhood. Additionally, there was a sense of security in letting my son be a toddler. So many spaces seem to be becoming increasingly hostile to children, but in the library I could bring my toddler and there’s a designated area where he can play with toys, find instruments, or just be in a colorful and bright environment.

It is easily one of my favorite libraries I’ve ever called a temporary home away from home.

References

Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch: Oakland Public Library, photo, https://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/lva/.

Julia Gidwani, Lakeview Library at Lake Merritt, photo, https://www.510families.com/locations/oakland-public-library-lakeview-branch/

[costarringyourlocallibrary]

The exterior of the Main Library branch of the Oakland Public Library (Oakland, CA) in Alan Myerson’s Steelyard Blues (1973).

[eltristan]

(edited and revised 3/4 front view of right side of 1241, by railfan Otto Perry, presumably at the SP engine service at the yards in Oakland, California. Date, July 25, 1937.)

[aroacephotographer]

I was looking for Jeff VanderMeer at the Oakland Public Library when I stumbled across this. The book is The Art of Fiction, which introduces ten books and their authors. I only glimpsed at it but was shocked when I saw how far back the stamps went.

[deadpresidents]

With that lbj photo from the lbj library, how do you get help from them for things like that?

It might sound too easy to be true, but with that particular photo from the LBJ Library that I posted, I just asked! I had searched through the online photo archives (which they were in the process of updating at the time) and couldn't find the photo, so I reached out to the LBJ Library with a broad description of what I was looking for an archivist found a high-quality file of the image that they e-mailed a link to and a bunch of information about it. As I mentioned, that's something that they've done numerous times for me over the years and I'm so grateful. About ten years ago, I was looking for a photo of LBJ at the LBJ Ranch that I had seen on display during a visit to the LBJ Library. I don't know why but it was immediately one of my favorite photos that I'd seen as LBJ, but I couldn't find it anywhere and couldn't even describe it very well because it's just a photo of LBJ walking by himself:

Despite the fact that I couldn't really describe the photo in much detail and couldn't even remember which part of the museum it was displayed in, the archivists and volunteers at the LBJ Library went to work hunting for it, found it, and sent it to me. It's in a frame on a bookshelf next to a framed photo of me and some volunteers with Barack Obama from a 2007 campaign rally in Oakland.

Over the years, I've also received some help confirming certain facts or getting information about specific sources I was searching for from the awesome archivists who work for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senate Historical Office has been particularly helpful over the years and the Senate and House websites are fantastic resources for Congressional history. The House even has a standalone website dedicated to history and the incredible art collection at the Capitol that one can easily spend hours exploring. And the best part about all of this is that they didn't do these things for me personally because I'm cool and they are fans of my blog (although I'm sure ALL of those things are true because obviously I am cool and my blog is legendary and I'm also maybe even a hero). These are true public servants and these resources are available to all Americans interested in the nation's history. In many cases, it's as easy as sending an e-mail to the archivists or historians from the respective organizations.

[anastasiaoftheironwood]

California Public Library Access—More Than You Knew!

This came in today's email from my local library (City of Alameda)—California residents have access to libraries in other California cities! I did not know this!

Any California resident can get a free library card at the following city libraries — just fill out the application to access all their digital “stacks”! Los Angeles: click here San Diego: click here San Jose: click here Oakland: click here Checking out books and other materials from the library is great for several reasons: *Increased use of library services allows libraries to request additional funding from state and local budgets. *Authors get royalty payments for library check-outs — another great way to support the writers, musicians, and artists you love! *It gives your library a better idea of what's in demand. If you’re looking for a book, film, or album that your library doesn't carry, please request it so artists can get their work into more libraries and seen by more people!

Expand your horizons!

[thinkingimages]

Harry Houdini Scrapbook [Photographs with Jack London] 

Creator/Contributor: Quincy Kilby (1854-1931), creator; Harry Houdini (1874 –1926), contributor 

Date created: 1904-1926 

Physical description: scrapbook 

Summary: This remarkable scrapbook was compiled by Houdini’s good friend Quincy Kilby, a Brookline resident and Boston theater impresario. Materials in this large volume were collected over a twenty-year period and include personal letters, photographs, programs, newspapers clippings, and other unique memorabilia. Knowing that Kilby was amassing this collection, Houdini would send him items specifically “for your Houdini scraps book.”  

The scrapbook is open to an eclectic spread of photographs of Houdini with Jack London and their wives in Oakland, California, in 1924; a lecture advertisement in which Houdini promises a sensational expose of miracle-mongers; and a note on Houdini’s personal stationery to Kilby with an apologetic postscript, “I was in Boston but was so fixt could not get away. Only 1 night.”   

Location: Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts Department

[scotianostra]

November 13th 1850 saw the birth in Edinburgh of Robert Louis Stevenson, the renowned essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books.

Nowadays we remember the man with an anual event, Robert Louis Stevenson Day 2024 includes a number of events for fans to attend. The event which includes readings, screen shows and an unbirthday party. Although most events take place here in Edinburgh on Saturday you can find the unbirthday party in Monterey Public Library, Clifornia. Remarkaqbly this dates back to 1891 when Annie Ide, the 12-year-old daughter of the American Land Commissioner in Samoa, told RLS of her disappointment that there were no special celebrations to mark her birthday on Christmas Day, he came up with an ingenious solution. As a qualified Scottish advocate, he drew up a legal document declaring: ‘I, Robert Louis Stevenson . . . have transferred and do hereby transfer to the said A.H. Ide, all and whole my rights and privileges in the thirteenth day of November, formerly my birthday, now, hereby and henceforth, the birthday of the said A.H. Ide.’ Now each year the Robert Louis Stevenson Club of Monterey holds aan event as such.

Stevenson had a brief sojourn in the Californian town in 1879, he went there to court Fanny Osbourne, a woman he met in France and fallen deeply in love with. Fanny was from Oakland and had returned to attempt a divorce from her husband. She had summoned Stevenson from his family home in Edinburgh and he readily obeyed her request. He wrote a memoir of his journey from New York through the heart of America, to the West coast in The Amateur Emigrant. Although brief, Stevenson’s time in Northern California deeply affected his work, inspiring his classic tales of adventure. RLS boarded at the French Hotel there, it is now known as Stevenson Houseand is a museum and property of the Monterey State Historic Park. t holds a large collection of Stevenson papers and Stevenson memorabilia. It features a bas relief depicting the author writing in bed, as seen in the pics. The second of the photos is Robert Louis Stevenson's Memorial in St Giles, Edinburgh.

[coffeebooksandmore]

Reading is a form of attention.

Be it listening to the words on a drive or taking in the words of a book in the park with your eyes.

Reading is a book taking hold of you and refusing to let go of you. Going to your local bookstore, especially one where all the proceeds go to the library, can make the hours you spend there feel like participation in the community you want. I stepped into this beautiful old building full of books, The Bookmark Bookstore, which is owned and operated by the Friends of the Oakland Public Library and is staffed by volunteers. Isn't that the world you want to live in? Because I know I do. I know it's hard to just live sometimes because so much is out of our hands and is unjust, but supporting your community isn't. No matter how small the act might seem.

coffeeandbookss

[dailyanarchistposts]

Bibliography for FAQ

This bibliography lists all the books quoted in the FAQ. However, details for some of these books is missing. This information will also be added to over time. Some books are listed in more than one edition. This is due to the process of revising the FAQ for publication and using the most recent versions of books quoted. Once the revision is complete, the old details will be removed.

The bibliography is split into four sections: Anthologies of Anarchist authors; books by anarchists and other libertarians; books about anarchism, anarchists and anarchist history by non-libertarians; and books by non-anarchists/libertarians.

Anarchist Anthologies

Avrich, Paul (ed.), The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1973.

Brook, Frank H. (ed.), The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908), Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1994.

Dawn Collective (eds.), Under the Yoke of the State: Selected Anarchist Responses to Prisons and Crime vol. 1, 1886–1929, Dawn Collective/Kate Sharpley Library/PMB, Oakland/London/Berkeley, 2003.

Dark Star (ed.), Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader, AK Press/Dark Star, Edinburgh/San Francisco, 2002.

Beneath the Paving Stones: Situationists and the beach, May 1968, AK Press/Dark Star, Edinburgh/San Francisco, 2001.

Dolgoff, Sam (ed.), The Anarchist Collectives: self-management in the Spanish revolution, 1936–1939, Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1974.

Ehrlich, Howard J, Carol Ehrlich, David De Leon, Glenda Morris (eds.), Reinventing Anarchy: What are Anarchists thinking these days?, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979.

Ehrlich, Howard J. (ed.), Reinventing Anarchy, Again, AK Press, Edinburgh/San Francisco, 1996.

Friends of Aron Baron (ed.), Bloodstained: One Hundred Years of Leninist Counterrevolution, AK Press, Edinburgh/Chico, 2017.

Glassgold, Peter (ed.), Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth, Counterpoint, Washington D.C., 2001.

Graham, M. (ed.), Man! An Anthology of Anarchist Ideas, Essays, Poetry and Commentaries, Cienfuegos Press, London, 1974.

Graham, Robert (ed.), Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas — Volume 1: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE to 1939), Black Rose Books, Montreal/New York/London, 2005.

Guerin, Daniel (ed.), No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism (in two volumes), AK Press, Edinburgh/San Francisco, 1998.

Krimerman, Leonard I. and Perry, Lewis, Patterns of Anarchy: A Collection of Writings on the Anarchist Tradition, Anchor Books, New York, 1966.

Woodcock, George (ed.), The Anarchist Reader, Fontana, Glasgow, 1987.

[reasoningdaily]

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

This FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD is from THE BLACK TRUEBRARY

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

A collection of essays written by scholars and former Panthers incorporates participant-observer perspectives in an exploration of the party's organization, gender dynamics, and legacy

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Here is a searing, illuminating and unapologetic look at the Black Panther Party, whose 1966-1982 history is one of the most controversial and dynamic political dramas of our time.

Georgia State University African American studies professor Jones uses original writings from insiders, including former officials like former communication secretary Kathleen Neal Cleaver (who now teaches law in N.Y.C.), who writes about the Algerian exile she and her then-husband Eldridge Cleaver experienced during that era; and rank-and-filers like Steve D. McCutchen, whose Panther-era diary makes engrossing reading. The 18 chapters include original essays and memoirs by, and interviews with, former Panthers.

Contributors include scholars of Panther history like Stanford's Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Nakhil Pal Singh of N.Y.U., Clarence Lusane of American University and Trayce Mathews, a Chicago-based political activist whose dissertation explores gender dynamics in the Black Panther Party. Founded in Oakland, Calif., by Bobby Seale and the late Huey P. Newton to promote armed self-defense of the black community from an allegedly brutal police force, the Panthers soon grew into a national force.

The Panthers, argues contributor Chris Booker, "embodied the highest aspirations of a generation of radical African American youth." These essays are mainly sympathetic to the Panthers' aims, and there lingers among some of them a bit of uncritical nostalgia. But contributors also critically investigate the party's complex attitude toward violence (police reprisals and inner-party conflict killed over two dozen Panthers from 1967 to 1969), inner-party gender relations, the consequences of the unstable membership mix of political activists and quasi-criminal types, and the group's romantic notions of social revolution.

From Library Journal

Revisiting the revolutionary reputation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) of the turbulent 1960s, political scientist Jones (African American studies, Georgia State Univ.) contributes a six-part, 18-chapter probe of the reality behind the rhetoric and the substance behind the much-maligned Panther image.

The anthology mixes interviews with analysis, reflections, and recollections. Former BPP members such as Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Regina Jennings, and Melvin E. Lewis and others delve into the contextual landscape of the BPP's founding in October 1966, recruitment of rank and file, organizational and gender dynamics, decline, and complex legacy.

This work provokes serious thought about how authority in government and media manipulate public perception of black protest. But even more, it unfolds dimensions of the BPP as a base of black nationalism and a bridge to intercommunalism, signaling a move beyond mere memoir to helpful scholarship on the BPP's integrity and interactions.

THIS BOOK IS PROVIDED FREE COURTESY OF THE BLACK TRUEBRARY here on Tumblr

[missmickiescorner]

The Libraries That Made Me | Diamond Branch Library

As an elementary school child, I can count the amount of times that I went to the Diamond Branch Library on my hand. It was a little out of the way, it had a very small parking lot, and frankly, I don’t think there was any perceived reason to go to this particular branch when Eastmont was in walking distance.

Whatever the case, what few times I went to Diamond certainly stuck with me because as I entered my teenage years, I would often catch the bus just to come and sit and read for a couple of hours. In all honesty, I might have just liked the branch because going so far away made me feel more “independent”—of this, I can never be sure—however, what I do know is that because I had to get to this branch of my own accord, it became sort of like a dock for all my teenage activities. Diamond Library is up the street from Diamond Park, so when I would go on dates at the time I would stop by the library to check out books and then we’d sit on the grass and read together. Eventually, when we had a child, we’d take our son to this branch and do the very same thing—check out books, walk up the street to the park, sit on the grass and read. This was even the place where my son eagerly got his first library card.

[californiastatelibrary]

These images and documents, all of which are available via the National Archives (archives.gov), show a part of United States history that should never be forgotten.

Image Caption: Oakland, California, April 1942. Part of family unit of Japanese ancestry leave Wartime Civil Control Administration station on afternoon of evacuation, under Civilian Exclusion Order Number 28. Social worker directs these evacuees to the waiting bus.

"On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, stripping people of Japanese descent of their civil rights.  That order and the subsequent actions carried out by the Federal Government represent one of the most shameful chapters in our Nation’s history.  On this Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, we acknowledge the unjust incarceration of some 120,000 Japanese Americans, approximately two-thirds of whom were born in the United States." — President Biden, 2022

Image Caption: Los Angeles, California, April 1942. Mr. and Mrs. K. Iseri have closed their drugstore in preparation for the forthcoming evacuation from their "Little Tokyo" in Los Angeles.

The State Library's California Civil Liberties Public Education Grants are part of our efforts to shine a light on this dark time in our history. The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program funds projects which seek to spread awareness of civil liberties injustices of all types — including, but not limited to, the internment of Japanese Americans during Word War II. 

Image Caption: Oakland, California. Following evacuation orders, this store, at 13th and Franklin Streets, was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the "I AM AN AMERICAN" sign on the store front on Dec. 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. 

The deadline for grant applications is April 14, 2023. To learn more, and to submit an application, please visit the Civil Liberties Program page at https://www.library.ca.gov/grants/civil-liberties/.

Image Caption: Document from “Evacuee Property Department” with handwritten numbers showing the number of evacuees, vehicles, and property under Civilian Exclusion Order Number 23 (Vacaville).  

Image Caption: Page one of the Official Exclusion Order (sometimes also called Evacuation Order) for Multnomah County, Oregon. “Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry” is written in large letters across the top. 

[lboogie1906]

Henry ‘Harry’ Albro Williamson (October 25, 1875 - January 3, 1965) was a postal worker and a prolific researcher and writer on the subject of Freemasonry.

He joined the Brotherhood of Freemasonry in 1904 and did extensive research documenting the progress of Black Freemasonry to determine its origins and authenticity. His research has been used by modern-day Masons to decry “bogus” Freemasonry. He was a member of the Grand Lodge of New York (Prince Hall) where he served as deputy Grandmaster, Grand Lecturer, and Grand Historian. He organized the first Lodge of Research in Prince Hall Freemasonry, becoming its first and only Master in 1943. He filled the role of Grand Secretary for over thirty years. His papers, consisting of over 1200, items including his Prince Hall Masonic collection were given to the Schomburg Center at New York Public Library in February 1936.

His parents were William Edward Williamson and Mary Elizabeth Pauline Williamson. He was born in New Jersey but moved to Oakland in 1880 when his father died. His papers are held in the New York Public Library Archives. He married Laura Julia Moulton (1901). He married Blanche C. Atkins (1920).

Works and publications

Origin of Freemasonry among Negroes in America (1914)

Negroes and Freemasonry (1920)

The Negro in Masonic Literature (1922)

The Prince Hall Primer (1925)

A Chronological History of Prince Hall Masonry, 1784-1932 (1934)

The Order of the Eastern Star (1938) #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[8-rock]

My design was chosen! It honors Black women.

I can't wait until its February debut. 🥰

[sistahscifi]

Sabrina, we love your review of Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall!!!

You can check out Wake from your #locallibrary! Today, we highlight Oakland Public #Library @oaklibrary!

https://sistahscifi.com/products/wake-the-hidden-history-of-women-led-slave-revolts-hardcover

Credit to @sabrinabookshelf I read a graphic novel by Rebecca Hall called “Wake: The hidden history of Women-led slave revolts.” It’s based on the author of the book who is a Historian, a granddaughter of enslaved people, who sets out on a mission to find erased history of the women who planned & led slave ship revolts. This book is a mixture of nonfiction, historical fiction & imaginative fiction.

Rebecca Hall did a good job of filling in the gaps with her own story, but this novel was more about her struggles with finding the archival evidence.

This graphic novel would be an excellent source for younger readers or anyone new to the history of the transatlantic slave trade who prefers a more visual approach. It provides a good introduction to the topic and highlights the often overlooked role of women in resistance efforts.

@simonandschuster

@wakecomicbook

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#sistahscifi #rebeccahall #wakethehiddenhistoryofwomenledslaverevolts