Enrich Your Community

The Man Who Didn’t Forget

Shashi Raval loved books. He was one of eight children whose parents emigrated to Kampala , Uganda from India . The family was poor. Each child of the eight children had just one shirt and one pair of pants. None of the children could attend school.

Shashi discovered the library in the U. S. embassy in Uganda. He would sneak in, hide in a corner and "read" the picture books. The librarian asked him if he had a library card, and when he said "no", she asked him to leave. But that didn't stop Shashi. He kept coming back. When the librarian saw Shashi's quiet persistence and realized that he could not read, she not only issued him a library card, but taught him to read, bought him a pair of shoes, and paid for his first year at school.

As a teenager, Shashi left Uganda for England and then graduated with a Bachelor's and a PhD in Physics as well as a Law degree from the University of London. After living on three continents, Shashi moved to Belmont in 1986. He acquired a fourth degree, a MBA at Stanford, began work at Hewlett Packard, married, and started a family. He rose to prominence in the computer and business world. While living here, Shashi came to the Belmont Library regularly on weekends where he enjoyed chats with the library staff, who kept a look out for his favorite authors and the latest fiction.

Shashi Raval died December 6, 2005 after a two year battle with leukemia. Friends near and far have honored him with contributions to our New Belmont Library. Their generous donations will be acknowledged on the Donor Wall at the Fellowship level.

Many are moved by Shashi's story.

"We marvel at this man's genius and his remarkable devotion to libraries, but we also learn how in the beginning, it was a Librarian who gave him his start - a Volunteer - who coached him on her own time and started him on his way. We celebrate Shashi Raval and his memory. His experiences also point to the importance of volunteerism in the library environment." - Betty Jones

Librarian’s Report

Carpets and tile are in.  Shelving is up. The "marketplace new book area" will be installed soon. The shady heritage oaks lean towards the natural light of the tall windows.  What a venue to relax, read, browse, or surf the Internet.  Children and teens will have their own spaces, including “ Homework Place ”.  There will also be a computer center, sponsored by Oracle, a mini-cafe, study rooms, and a fireplace area. The result is an energetic and colorful Library.  Watch for news of Opening Day Festivities.

Bring your checkbooks on opening day.

On opening day and beyond, everyone is invited to buy a memorial plate from a selection of new books, DVDs and tapes. Your choice will be held for you free of charge as the first user .

Linda Chiochios

Book Nook

We’re are back in business after a busy holiday season, only to discover that our shelves in the children's section are almost bare! Santa's elves must have made a raid behind our backs. So, if you have any gently-used books, tapes, etc., especially for kids, please help us restock.

We are excited at the potential for our new book shop in the New Library. We will house some special materials for sale, plus a small work room for cataloging and sorting. We will need volunteers to help us keep current and to enjoy our beautiful new building - PLUS sip a beverage in its new cafe.

The Book Nook still will be open during its regular hours: 12 noon to 4 p.m. on the second Saturday and Sunday and the fourth Friday and Saturday of each month, plus any special Park activities.

Still more - and a first for us - The FOBL will participate in a Live Book Auction with  the San Carlos Friends on April 29 and 30. We will need volunteers to help us set up for this auction, so please let us know if you can help. The Friends want to invite you to attend this affair -- it should be lots of fun. We will have a great variety of books at all prices.

To arrange for book donations, or to offer volunteer help, call 593-5650 or 591-3261.

Adele Carney and Maralyn Clark

Volunteering

Volunteer Coordinator Position Available
The FOBL has an opening for a Volunteer Coordinator. If you are interested please call Pam or Joan at 593-6175 or 593-9514.

Library Fundraising Goal Achieved

Donations are being tallied, and preliminary results show that the F urnish Our New Belmont Library Committee achieved its goal of $350,000 from over 550 separate donors. The FOBL created the Committee about two years ago to raise funds through donations, endowments, and grants. The “Donor Wall”, listing the top donors, has been finalized and sent to the architect. The Donor Wall will be in the entrance of the new library.

Book-Sorting Technology Purchased
A specialized book-sorting machine, the FKI Logistex Library check-in technology, has been ordered for the library . The cost and installation will total $161,500 and has been funded entirely from donations received by the Furnish Our New Belmont Library Committee. Although the square footage of the library will more than triple in size, the staff funded by the county will not increase in a similar ratio. The machine will allow the librarians to spend more time helping patrons rather than sorting books and will significantly increase their efficiency. Machines from the same company are being installed in San Francisco, San Jose, and Washington libraries, and similar technology is used by the U. S. Postal Service. Books can be returned through units located on the outside of the library, allowing patrons to return books 24 hours a day. Returned books will be delivered to a designated bundle via a conveyor system. The system can process up to 30 items a minute. Since planning began, the library staff has identified this sorter as critical for the handling of increased volume of the new collection. We are proud that the FOBL and our community have made this technology a reality.

Mike Heagerty

Treasurer’s Report

July 1 thru December 31, 2005

General Fund
Income $17,991.91
Expense $5,733.43
Net Income $12,258.48

New Library Fund
Income $153,417.75
Expense $187.72
Net Income $153,230.03

Summary
Checkbook Balance $48,662.33
Investment Accounts $275,835.87
Total $324,498.20

For information - jrviolet@pacbell.net

John Violet

Web Site

Browse the treasure chest of all the children’s books reviews posted since 2002 (over 200). They cover all age categories and many subject categories. You will find books “you never knew you wanted”.

John McMaster , senior at Carlmont High School, designed and coded this project. Thank you, John, for a significant contribution to the Belmont community.

The Event Gallery now offers a slide show of pictures from the Allende event of Oct. 5, 2005. You may be in the show yourself!

The web site will provide the latest information about “Opening Day” of the New Belmont Library.

Don Jones

Renew Your Membership

I am very excited to get our 2006 membership drive underway, but I sure have my work cut out for me. In the past two years our membership numbers have fallen drastically. Our 2005 regular membership number stands at only 33, not counting the lifetime members. We believe this reflects that most members donated to the New Library for the past two years instead of renewing their memberships. In 2006, we must rebuild our membership numbers in order to provide the programs and services we have sponsored in previous years.

Please, renew your memberships. Please, help us recruit new members. Our neighbors provide some comparison. San Carlos has approximately the same size population as Belmont and their Friends group has 500 members. In Woodside, 12% of their households are Friends. Twelve percent of Belmont’s households would yield 1400 members!

All Lifetime Memberships will remain intact and no further dues are necessary. However, we invite lifetime members to consider renewing their memberships or donating annually as many lifetime members do now. In 2005, we had 72 life members. This is such a large portion of our existing total membership that we cannot offer lifetime memberships in the future. Otherwise we would not have enough renewable income from dues to continue our programs as before.

Your membership is vital to strengthen our library and enrich our community. Your membership dues have funded items in the library budget such as extra copies of popular books, additional periodicals, books on tape/CD, sound equipment, computer equipment, and promotional banners . Your dues have also funded many library programs offered to the public free of charge. These have included children’s programs: storytellers; magicians; jugglers; puppet shows; animal programs; ethnic programs: such as Divali, Cinco de Mayo and the Chinese New Year; musical programs; special programs: the Bat Lady; Circus Suzie; Bubble Lady and Bubble Man. The FOBL have also sponsored adult programs: a panel of Romance writers; a panel of mystery writers; a panel of hometown authors; speaking events with several Pulitzer and NY Times bestseller authors.

Your membership renewal will enable these quality programs to continue. If we can increase our membership sufficiently, with your help in recruiting, we hope to add new programs such as after school tutoring for children, adult workshops, live music in our amphitheater, themed film festivals, and local museum docent programs.

Starting in 2006, we are changing our membership period to the calendar year. Therefore your annual membership will run from January 1 to December 31 in a given year. Members as of October 2005 will enjoy a 15-month membership. To save and make the best use of your dues, we will launch our annual membership renewal drives through a January newsletter and will no longer send you separate mailings. All members that renew will be acknowledged in the proceeding newsletters.

We now offer six membership categories: Friend $15, Good Friend $25, Family Friend $50, Best Friend $100, Business Friend $100, and Generous Friend $250. Dues and donations are fully tax deductible.

Your membership in the FOBL includes a quarterly newsletter.

Cheri Hariri

Upcoming Meetings and Events

The Belmont Rotary Club is hosting a Leadership Breakfast as a major fundraiser for the New Belmont Library, featuring guest speaker Senator Jackie Speier on Friday, Feb. 24 th, 7:30 am at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City. All are welcome. Tickets $50. per person. For info or to buy tickets call 593-8216 or go to www.jsc.com

San Carlos Library Program “Fierce Warriors and Benevolent Mothers: Goddesses in Asian Art”. March 8 th, 7:30 pm in the Community Room. Call 650-591-0341 x238

"Great Decisions 2006" discussion group forming. 7 – 9 pm. Thursdays. San Carlos Library. $15. Call 650-678-0758.