The Fall 2012 edition of the Library Foundation newsletter is now available to read and download. 

The State of the Library report mentioned in the newsletter is now available to read online.

Register to vote, find your polling place, research ballot measures, and track election results through the links in our Elections page.

Kids! Do you need an encyclopedia article for your homework? A biography of Beyoncé? A photograph of a phalarope? A recipe from Romania? A map of Minnesota?

We have online versions of the California missions Fact Cards, the World Book encyclopedia, Wildlife Encyclopedia, and CultureGrams, so you can look up the same facts on your computer at home as you can look up in the reference books at the library.

Our Biography database includes articles from standard Gale biography references. And with Searchasaurus and Student Research Center, you can find magazine and news articles on all subjects.

Check out all our great homework databases, free from anywhere with your library card. Need help getting started, or help with the reference books in the library?  Ask your librarian next time you're in the library. Good luck on your homework!

Today our new e-books are available for you to borrow.

Click the download e-books / audiobooks button on our home page to go to our OverDrive site and browse the available titles. 

Quick start guides are here, covering what to install and how to check out and download your books on Android, Kindle/Kindle Mobile, iPad/iPod/iPhone, and Nook.

Want more e-books?  Okay!  This page lists other kinds of e-books you can get with your library card.  Borrow from Open Library, sample local authors' works, or download PDF copies of up-to-date legal books and test prep books.

Want to read library books on your Kindle, Nook, or iPad?  Starting Thursday, September 6, you will be able to browse and check out e-books for your computer, tablet, or e-book reader.  E-books will be available in formats including PDF, EPUB, and Kindle.

Read the press release

Find out more about supported devices

Pick up your hold requests by Friday and stock up on those holiday weekend reads!  The Library will be closed over Labor Day weekend, Saturday through Monday.

Starting Saturday, September 15, these will be the late fines for items returned after the due date:

• 25 cents a day on all items other than DVDs
• $1 a day on DVDs
• $10 maximum late fine per item

Also, there will be a change to the policy on unpaid fines and fees.   A patron whose library account has $5 or more in fines and fees will not be able to use Library services until the amount owed is lower than $5.

On August 14, 2010, the Healdsburg Post Office burned in a spectacular fire. 22 Engine companies from Healdsburg and all over the North Coast responded. Photographer Austin Brewin and local Healdsburg columnist and photographer Ray Holley captured the drama. The fire came after a rancorous public debate about moving the Post Office from this favored downtown site.
 

Photographs by Brewin and Holley will be on display at the Healdsburg Library through August 31. 

Lots to do at the Library this August! An art show is at Guerneville Library August 4 – 18 and at Rohnert Park-Cotati Library, a photo exhibit runs August 14 – 25.

Enjoy music of William Florian, the Susan Comstock Swingtet, and Catfish Jack, performing at libraries around the county.

At Petaluma Library and Sonoma Library there are book sales August 15 – 18, and at Guerneville Library, a book and bake sale August 22 – 25.

And on August 25, Xtreme Science Magic comes to Sebastopol Library and Northwest (Coddingtown) Library. Kids 5 and older, get ready for a fast-moving and interactive show full of experiments, demonstrations, and oodles of audience participation!

This month at the Library

P.S. Thank you, Friends! Friends of the Library coordinate exhibits and book sales, support special programs for kids and adults, and help make August a great time to visit your Library!

Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of Santa Rosa Libraries, we have two new resources available for your genealogical and historical research!

GenealogyBank

• Find local news from small-town newspapers dating as far back as 1690. Research in local histories, military records, and other hard-to-find documentation of family history.

San Francisco Chronicle 1865-1922

• Search through the full text of early issues, and see exact copies of the articles as printed on the original pages of the Chronicle.

These are available only at the Local History & Genealogy Library, located behind the Central Library in downtown Santa Rosa.