Criss-cross with the Community Bookmobile

The Bookmobile, your traveling branch of the Fresno County Library.

If you ever had a doubt that the library's reach spread far and wide in our Valley, take a look at the community bookmobile's route to rural and underserved communities like Raisin City, Malaga, Friant, Tollhouse.

With gas prices as high as they are, I'm sure a lot of residents are glad the library can come to them.

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For more information about the colorful Community Bookmobile call its office: (559) 458-7323

How much is your library card worth?

Sometimes you don't pay for what you get.

A library card? Free to you.

Buying what the library offers for free? It can add up to hundreds of dollars a month!

Just 4 books, 3 movies and one event (dance lesson, music performance, presentation) can add up to 153.00!!!

Try out our fancy library calculator to estimate how much money you saved this month. Feel free to give us your figures in the comments section.

Of course we have tons of books on personal finance for just about everyone that can help you make some other smart money decisions--besides using the library, of course.

Our career center services in action

Many of you know about our career services managed by Librarian Bernice Kao. Just this Wednesday, she and a team of volunteers from the library and from the State Center Community College North Centers offered a free mock interview service and workshops to job seekers at the Fresno Bee's Career Builder Job Fair at Pardini's from 9am - 2pm.

The mock interviews helped dozens of job seekers in ALL fields polish their interview skills.

Just some tips included:

• Tell a story about your skills, list the highlights when you went above and beyond
• Keep your resume simple, employers size it up in 7 seconds
  
• Tie your past experiences into the job you are interviewing for
  
• Never ask about benefits during an interview (wait until the job offer), ask instead about opportunities for professional development
  

In case you missed the job fair, but would like help, you can always visit the career center at the central library branch at 2420 Mariposa Street, Fresno, California 93721 near the Fresno Water Tower.

Regular classes:

• Help with Resumes --Every second Tuesday at 2pm

• Mock Interviews--Every fourth Thursday at 4pm

Bernice also conducts various workshop presentations out in the community.

Visit the library's job and career services page for more information about the library's job-related services.

We're back!

We haven't been blogging, but we have been busy!

We'll be updating this more regularly with news, events and tips on how to get the most from your free library card.


Many of you have seen what a success the summer reading program has been systemwide: "Catch the Reading Bug."

Thank you Linda Richards of Fresno for writing a letter of thanks that was published in the Fresno Bee Aug. 22:

"I'd like to thank the Fresno County Library for providing a wonderful summer reading program called, "Catch the Reading Bug."

This program offered incentives and prizes to children of all ages. I hope teachers will celebrate the students who have read during the summer vacation. I suggest that next summer schools coordinate a summer reading program that will encourage children of all ages to use our Fresno County libraries in their area."

The library was also mentioned briefly in another letter to the editor in response to a story about a house in Fresno built for the movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House."



Patron Mary Jane Weaver of Fresno mentioned she had just borrowed the DVD from the Fresno County Library before the Bee story "Living in a Dream House" came out Aug. 20. What a coincidence! With our extensive DVD collection, you never know what real-life connections you might make.


The Fresno Bee's online archives do not let you retrieve articles older than a few weeks. But as many of our saavy patrons know, you can access Fresno Bee articles through our online databases here.

All you need is your library card barcode.

To search for more DVD's check out our catalog at the library's main web page.