December is full of celebrations from Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, to Winter Solstice. Visit your local branch library for one of these fun events (click on the name of the event to view times and locations):

For Kids:

Holiday Card Making

Use Legos and other unusual items to make stamp art! We will be creating cards to give to friends and family over the holidays. For children ages 5-12.

Green Holiday Crafts for Families

Save Green and Go Green this Christmas Holiday. We supply the materials and suggestion, you supply the imagination. This family event is presented by Our City Forest.

For Teens:

Advanced Craft: Holiday Cards

Let your creativity loose and create cards or gift tags to use during the holiday season.

Teens and tweens are invited to use scrapbooking paper, stencils, paper punches and other supplies to create unique cards.  Bring your friends and join in the fun! All supplies will be provided.

For Adults:

Greening Your Holiday Celebration Workshop

Our City Forest will host a hands-on workshop focused on saving money and reducing waste during the holidays. Featured topics include eco-friendly gift giving, holiday crafts utilizing recycled materials and cooking with seasonal and local produce. Festivities will include complementary refreshments and a raffle of environmentally themed prizes.

Performances:

Mariachi Cihualteco Performance

Enjoy an hour of live Mariachi music at this fun concert for all ages.

The Fratello Marionettes Present: The North Pole Review

Join the fun with a puppet extravaganza. We will meet a frosty juggling penguin, an ice skating snowman, and the Hawaiian singing sensation the "Hi-Fi Sisters". Great fun for all ages.

Holiday Concert with the South Bay Guitar Society Quartet

Celebrate the holiday season with the acclaimed South Bay Guitar Society Quartet (Ben Zussman, Scott Swink, Tom Gardin and Jerry Snyder. Many traditional, classical and popular selections will be presented to bring in this joyous season.

Do you like to read? Change an adult's life by becoming a volunteer adult literacy tutor with Partners in Reading (PAR). You can help an adult or a small group of adults build reading and writing skills. Help them write a resume, read a book to a child, write a grocery list, or accomplish many other tasks small and large that will improve the quality of their lives.

Tutor orientation begins on March 13, 2013, at the King Library followed by tutor training on March 16 and March 23. Tutoring can take place in all San José Public Library branches or in other public places. We ask for a minimum 6-month commitment of 3 hours per week after training. Call PAR now at (408) 808-2361 for more information and to sign up, or visit the PAR website.

Rudy is an adult in a library literacy program. In this video he reads a letter he wrote to his tutor about how she changed his life. His tutor has volunteered for more than 10 years and has changed the lives of many adults.

Lately we have had a number of smaller earthquakes in the Bay Area.Last week, when my whole house shook, my husband thought it was the wind.But news reports confirmed a 3.8 quake on the Hayward Fault.

If you do feel a quake, go to Did You Feel It to register your experience.This crowdsourcing tool sponsored by the United States Geological Survey records the data and maps it.You can look back over the past 24 hours or even further back to see where earthquakes are occurring all over the world and also see how many people reported feeling it and how far away they were from the epicenter of the quake.

This photograph was taken after the earthquake in San Jose in 1906 and is a part of the Scan Jose tour, Tragedies and Calamities.

I’m told you can ask just about anybody who’s over the age of 30 where they were when the Loma Prieta Quake happened in October of 1989. I wasn’t in California then, but I was in 2007 on October 30th when the King Library was shaken so hard that hundreds of thousands of books fell off the shelves.

Are you ready for the next big quake? Have you reviewed your emergency plan with your family? Do you have an out of town relative that everyone can call to relay information if local phone connections don’t work? If you haven't, don't put it off. There is nothing more comforting that being ready just in case something goes wrong. There are many sites with good tips on preparedness and the very best are sponsored by government agencies. Ready.gov and FEMA both have concise and useful information on what to do to stay safe in case you feel the earth move under your feet!

John Wooden's 101st birthday would have been this week, on October 14. So, in honor of him, please take a moment to reflect on his life and what he has done for the game!

Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success: 12 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence is a fascinating book to read – even if you are not an athlete or a business major! Wooden teaches the fundamentals for achieving and sustaining success not just on the court, but also in life and at work. This book discusses the pyramid of success and each of the building blocks - what they mean and how to apply them to your life.

Coach Wooden may well be known as one of the best coaches of the 20th century, according to ESPN. Through his leadership and coaching ability, he brought the UCLA Bruins to victory, winning 10 NCAA championships in a 12 year period – with 7 wins in a row, and winning 88 consecutive games. He was named National Coach of the Year 6 times. He was also named as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame (1961) as a player, and as a coach (1973) – the first person in both categories!

Other great books by Coach Wooden.

Some great Wooden Quotes:

“I don’t care how tall you are. I care how tall you play.”

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

“If you are not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything.”

“Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your abilities.”

“Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.”

Top of the pyramid of success quote: “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”