San Jose Public Library

Elizabeth Karr is the branch manager for the Hillview and Dr. Roberto Cruz-Alum Rock Branches with San José Public Library; she is also the Committee Chair for the Summer Reading program, which works closely with the Summer Meal program committee. She was formerly the Peace Corps Librarian at Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC and a past Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Philippines, 2007-2009). She has also worked as an academic librarian in Montana and is a proud graduate of San José State University Library and Information Science School. She is also a San José native.

The Summer Reading program is San José Public Library’s largest program and is one of the most interactive and rewarding: during our summer 2016 program, 17,732 youth registered and our readers went on to clock a total of 4,191,898,169 minutes read! Over the past couple of years, the Summer Reading program has aligned with our summer meal program, which fed over 16,000 people last summer, mainly youth under 18 years of age. Elizabeth will discuss how both of these programs are essential to combating childhood hunger and illiteracy in San José and what the plan for this summer program is. SJPL has also launched several new services over the past year to meet our various communities’ needs that Elizabeth will highlight, some of which include: the MakerSpaceShip (a mobile “maker” laboratory); SJ Works initiative which offers career and job resources; TeenHQ, a new teen space and series of programs at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library; Citizenship Corners in ten of our branches; and a new bridge library at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, amongst other cool things.