​Children,  Youth  & 
​ Family  Services 

Friends helps the Library bring over 12,000 free programs to more than 440,000 children and their families at all branches every year.

• Early literacy and K-5 programs feature special authors, artists and craftspeople at story times, STEM activities, the Tricycle Music Fest, Big SF Playdates, and the annual Dia de los Niños festival
• Teen programs focus on connected learning, college preparation, work force development and summer internships for teaching STEM activities. 
• Host the annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture and Award for a distinguished author of children’s books and literature.

“Friends’ members come from all corners of the city. Every gift at every level makes a difference. Thank you!”
​Marie Ciepiela, Executive Director

​The  Mix  at  the  Main 

Over 10,000 teens drop into the media center annually for educational programs in video and audio production, coding, game design, college preparation, makerspace, Youth Speaks, and the Board of Advising Youth leadership activities. Friends funds furniture, equipment and specialized youth service providers at The Mix.
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“The Mix helped me graduate from high school with honors, supporting me and helping me study.” Transgender and formerly homeless teen.

​Community  Programming  &  Exhibitions

Friends funds over 5,000 free programs at the Library for patrons of all ages. 

• Special exhibitions in 2017 included: Al Mutanabi Street; Alcatraz Florilegium; Patient No More, about the disability rights movement; Everyone Deserves a Home, portraits of homelessness; Reclaiming Earth: Works by Women Eco Artists; and the annual Schmulowitz Wit & Humor exhibit, Bombs Away: Humor Goes to War. 
• The One City One Book Program, a program that brings the city together by inviting everyone to read and discuss the same book every fall. The OCOB book selected in 2017 was Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party, by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin. OCOB activities include panel discussions, film screenings, book clubs and a special of the ACT costume shop.

Summer  Stride 

The annual summer reading program, aimed at reinforcing reading skills over the summer, is a Friends’ favorite! Funded every summer, it has grown over more than 20 years to include a partnership with Chronicle Books, Inc. and the National Park Service. During the summer of 2017 alone:  

• 26,731 children and adults tracked their weekly reading, totaling 14,362,444 minutes! 
• 32,325 attended 1,135 free programs including STEM activities, film series, and 28 Ranger-lead talks at branches 
• 9 free shuttles brought patrons to local national parks, including the two Story Walks featuring two children’s titles installed at Mountain Lake and Land’s End. 
• 63% were first time participants 
• 84% were children and teenagers 
• 90% read more 
• 82% visited a park

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​“I enrolled my kids in camp this summer but after looking through the Summer Stride Program Guide, I wish I could just send them to the Library all summer!” —Parent

​Special  Collections  &  Affinity  Centers 

• The James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center endowment supports numerous programs, including the Queerest.Library.Ever exhibit, the Radar Reading Series, Lesbians of Color film series, the Lambda Literary Awards and Drag Queen Story Hour.
• Acquisition of special materials and collections and community program are supported by Friends in all Affinity Centers at the Main Library
  • African American Center
  • Chinese Center
  • Deaf Services Center
  • Filipino American Center
  • International Center
  • James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center
  • Latino Hispanic Center
  • Library for the Blind
  • Wallace Stegner Environmental Center
    

​Digital  Inclusion

Friends supports the Library’s continuing efforts to expand its free technology offerings, including seeding the new Digital Inclusion week, held in May, which attracted over 800 patrons to participate in , hands-on trainings, panel discussions, tech expos and device giveaways. 

Grants  to  Branches 

With Friends’ help, all twenty-seven branches host annual neighborhood festivals and programs in health, wellness, dance crafts and cooking, reflecting the rich cultural communities of each neighborhood. 

​Service  Excellence  & 
​Professional  Development

• The City Librarian’s Community Learning Tour engaged residents in all 11 Districts about their aspirations for the Library and promoted greater awareness of services citywide.
• Fifty-two Library staff obtained training at conferences, seminars, and continuing education classes.
• Library leadership teams attended annual ALA and CLA conferences participating as thought leaders in the future of libraries at the state and national level.

 Public  Relations  &  Marketing 

• Friends helps the Library let you know what is happening at branches throughout the city through the At the Library monthly publication, the design and production of program guides, neighborhood outreach, and the Discovery and Go lending pass program. 
  
• The Library was awarded the prestigious Cotton Dana Award from the American Library Association (ALA) for marketing materials for 2016 Summer Stride and the Tech’d Out laptop lending program.

The  Wiley  Innovation  Fund 

Courtesy of Peter Booth Wiley, this fund grants financial support to librarians for exploratory projects through research, piloting concepts and implementation. The 2017 recipients are Kelly Trahan for Citizen Science bioblitzes in neighborhood branches; Eleana Pulu for refurbishing a “paletero” ice cream vendor cart into a rolling street-level library; Brian Weaver for developing a plan for a Genealogy Center at the Main Library; and Yael Shwartz for the second year of a User Experience Design initiative training Library staff in the UX service design approach for systems changes with increased perspective of patrons.

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IMPACT WHERE IT’S NEEDED Innovation and Rapid Response

In 2015, Friends established an innovation fund as part of its annual gift to the Library enabling quicker responses to creatively enhancing the role of libraries in our communities today. In 2015-2017:

​• The Library opened the Online High School program at The Bridge at the Main, a web-based curriculum for adults to gain their high school diploma. Friends funded the Mobile Hotspot Lending pilot program providing mobile hot spots so that participants can work on coursework at home with free connectivity.  “I love this program. It makes it so easy for me to do my school and the Wi-Fi box is the best thing to have in the house. Me and my kids are able to access the internet without any worry.”  – Online High School Student

• The Library created the TechMobile, a mobile computer lab/makerspace to bring digital technology experiences directly to 1,000 users, both youth and seniors, throughout the City.  Friends joined the Library to launch Tech on-the-Go funding equipment, curriculum development for STEM literacies, and specialized teaching support for the Techmobile to visit 28 branches and after school programs, with special emphasis at Treasure Island and in Bayview Hunters Point. Popular classes included basic computer use, circuitry and robotics, coding camp and Minecraft classes. A 12-year old at Parkside commented after an iPad animation class, “I found today was really difficult because it takes a long time to create a 30 second video!”

• SFPL Librarian Lia Hillman, used Friends’ innovation funds to create Biblio Bistro, the Library’s moveable kitchen, where she applies her experience as a chef to hands-on cooking classes at farmers markets, street festival and neighborhood libraries, promoting nutrition, highlighting library resources and increasing health and wellness literacy.  Biblio Bistro was awarded a 2016 Top Innovator honor from the Urban Library Council. 
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