Tag archives: Santa Barbara Public Library

Now that Towbes Plaza has been ceremonially launched with an enormous pair of scissors, here comes the Local Author Book Festival to break the place in! Santa Barbara is unfairly over-blessed by the g*ds of literary talent, and here’s a chance to walk among these leading lights. Poets, novelists, authors all – some 40 of […]

Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie made a lot of money and couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. “The man who dies rich dies disgraced,” he wrote, and lived his credo. His stubbornly stated goal was to give away – in his lifetime – his entire fortune to causes which he felt would raise and edify […]

The Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation supports charter amendment (Measure A2024) featured on the March 5th ballot.  In partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library and the City, the Foundation has been working to revitalize the Library Plaza since 2012. After many years of working through the City Hall approval process and completing a successful […]

Santa Barbara Public Library (SBPL) will be hosting local authors, particularly independent authors, to participate in this year’s Local Author Book Fair, taking place in the Faulkner Gallery at the Santa Barbara Central Library on Saturday, December 2 from 2-4 pm. The public is cordially invited to come, meet the authors, browse a selection of […]

Local authors who have yet to chalk up sales enough to attract Chaucer’s but want to reach area readers might want to get in touch with the Santa Barbara Public Library, which offers a small display area at the Central Library downtown for Santa Barbara County writers to share their work. Get more details or […]

I read in last week’s edition [of MJ] that someone has told the food trucks not to come to Montecito because of complaints. I find this shocking – that someone would complain when the people eating lunch at these trucks are mainly working for them! I am a direct next-door neighbor to the Olive Mill […]

I am glad that “Robert’s Big Questions” are published regularly in the weekly Montecito Journal. The writer is among my most interesting friends (among other things, he’s the widely grinning high-brow guy cavorting about on his unicycle in parades and events around town), and I find it worthwhile to consider how and what he thinks. […]

Each year, Santa Barbara Public Library chooses a social topic of interest or challenge that the community is facing and develops a series of programs to explore potential solutions. Through selected readings, presentations, and community engagement, the library hopes to inspire action in the community to improve lives and invest in a more sustainable future. […]

On Saturday, October 22, the downtown library’s Make SB Celebration brings three out-of-town rock bands – Pancho & the Wizards (San Luis Obispo), Jacklen Ro (Los Angeles), and Outwest (Ventura) – in a concert event that marks the closing of its speculative-inspired art show “Through Many Windows: A World Reimagined”… The Latin rock band Mezcal […]

The Santa Barbara Library Foundation’s director Lauren Trujillo is in a celebratory mood.  The foundation’s $5.4 million capital campaign to revitalize the historic plaza at the Santa Barbara Library, a once bustling pedestrian thoroughfare that had fallen into disrepair, has been fully funded. The organization raised nearly 60 percent of the dollars from private contributions […]

Library staff have had a grand old time this Summer Reading Program, encouraging the love of stories and books with readers of all ages. We’re going to celebrate the close of summer and the start of the school year with an event meant to share the magic of the library with families in our community. […]

Summer is fast approaching and Montecito Library is hosting a Summer Reading Program for folks of all ages. See our calendar at SBPLibrary.org for what’s happening! We are delighted to invite everyone to two library programs in June with professional photographer and beekeeper, Branden Aroyan. Bearing the gift of fresh honey from Hope Ranch beehives, he […]

A new era for the Santa Barbara Public Library recently began as the City Council approved a $9.3 million contract for the construction of the new Michael Towbes Plaza. “The Library Plaza Campaign has made evident the importance of the public-private partnership that our City and County must continue to invest in and foster to […]

Spring is almost here and the Montecito Library is keen to bring back some weekly programs for younger children! Our answer? Stay and Play, an outdoor opportunity for little ones to play and their grownups to chill. No rushing to get anywhere at a certain time or abrupt transitions, just a wide window of time […]

In a perfect universe there would be unlimited funds and proactive civil, charitable and political involvement on the Hot Springs Trail issue that seems to engender such considerable interest on the part of Bryan Rosen. No one can reasonably dispute that his desire to clean up the trail from potentially dangerous and unsightly impediments makes […]

The magic of the printed word is its lasting legacy. Books help preserve the wisdom of the past for the future, and if that is the case, then libraries can conjure all kinds of enduring impressions with the collective knowledge they contain. Of course, public libraries are more than just a collection of books – […]

It is with great joy that I announce our two new Library Technicians, Kelly and Carli. Starting a few weeks ago, they have been working hard, training on the many facets of public library work and the small branch culture that we cultivate at the Montecito Library. They are looking forward to meeting you! We […]

“A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” – Andrew Carnegie In case you think libraries are not exciting or boring, wrong. A group of donors and patrons recently gathered in the Faulkner Gallery for cocktails, moving on to the Santa […]

Race, class, family, and belonging are central themes in Members Only, a novel by local author Sameer Pandya. Accused of racism at both his tennis club and university teaching job, the main character’s experiences provide ample opportunity for readers to use the book as both a mirror and a window.  How do we respond when […]

As the inaugural collaboration between UCSB’s much-lauded Launch Pad artist residency and performance program with Local Theater Company, the Boulder-based leader in new play development, Yellowstone will have a lot of voices shaping its first-ever fully staged reading on Friday, September 24. But for playwright Jennifer Barclay, the process has been playing out for more […]