 Hi, I'm David Schwabe for At the Public Library, and today I'm in the offices of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, and joining me is Margie O'Driscoll, Director of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, and Olive James, Managing Librarian of the Humanities and General Collections Department of the Main Library. And we've come together today to talk about the Farewell Old Friends Postcard Project that was sponsored by the Friends of the Library and was a huge success with patrons all over the city, and could you tell us, Margie, how the Farewell Old Friends Postcard Project came about? Well, one of the things that we had heard in the weeks before the library closed was lots of wonderful stories from patrons and from staff and people in the community about getting their first library card at the main library and how sad they were to see an old friend close. It's tempered, of course, with great excitement about the new building, but we wanted to help people acknowledge the memories that they had of the old building. So what we'd like to do is share some of those memories with you. And whose idea for the postcard? I think it's attributed to many people, the Friends of the Library and also to Olive, who brought it to our attention that people would want to have a souvenir of the building as it was closing. Well, the response was tremendous. Just tons of postcards have come back and let's read some of them and share them with the viewers. One thing I'd like to mention is we distributed about 20,000 of these postcards to every public school, private school, as well as university libraries and to our branches. And so we're reading you just a selection of the hundreds of responses that we had back, which you can see in a special display inside the new main library when it opens. This is one of my particular favorites. It's from Sally Kirby. She writes us saying, I met my husband at the old main in the fall of 1964. I was doing research on my MA thesis and he was a reference librarian. We met at the card file. He took me out for coffee. We were married the next year and celebrated our 30th anniversary last year. This one says, when I was a child, my father referred to the main library as the whale and the neighborhood library as the shrimp. On Saturday he would say, shall we go to the whale or the shrimp today? I suppose today he would say, the whales closed for a while. Let's go to the shrimp. And that's from Sister M. Thomas McGee. Here's one. I have many happy memories of working as a page and head page at the main library when I was going through SI High School from 41 until 1945. My experience made me a lover of books. Sincerely, William J. Dunn of San Francisco. Here's another one that I like written in very tight handwriting. This is from Valentin Thaser in the castle apartments here in San Francisco. On one of the last tours of the cadaverous cavernous, but somewhat endearing old building, a friend of the library, a lady in a jaunty velvet hat, guided our little group of visitors. She was dressed all in black, in deference to the event perhaps, and went by the name of AJ. She gave an admirable account of the vast reference network and took us into the stacks and down back stairs and into every section, including the comfortable history room. It was a pleasure to find someone who could radiate with such enthusiasm and love for all the good things the library represents. This one is short and poetic. Farewell, old friend, you will be missed by all who've shared your treasure. Gifts you've bestowed on young and old are too great to be measured. That actually is from a board member of the Friends of the Library, Barbara Gabriel Berman. Oh, that's very nice. This one is the author, she didn't, or he didn't care to list who they were, but it's interesting. I was discouraged by all the negative things happening in the world, crime, violence, poverty. I walked into the library and it was packed with people learning. I felt much better. Here's a wonderful memory from Marguerite Rominello. So many memories, so many good days and hours. My first trip to the library at the age of seven with my father, pretending I was a princess, descending that grand staircase. Memories of friends working as pages. Memories of days before security gates. And most of all, anticipation of the new library becoming my new friend. And the last card I want to read holds a photograph too. It says, I'm about three years old in this photo, taken a few decades ago in front of the main library. I don't actually remember my parents taking this picture, but I know that I started using the library at an early age. I guess I was destined to work for SFPL. I'm now a children's librarian at a branch library here in San Francisco, Jens Sehu. Wow, that looks just like her. It does, doesn't it? Here's an interesting one. My wife and I met at the main library, as main library employees in 1985. We now have two wonderful children and will celebrate eight years of marriage in April when the new main opens. And that one was sent in by me. It's lovely. Well, I'll tell us about what exciting things library patrons will find in the humanities and general collections departments of the new main library when it opens. Well, first, of course, they'll find a wonderful new building, an expansive floor, where they'll have access to many more books than they had before. But in addition, there'll be new centers funded by people in the community who care about their library. For example, there'll be a new gay and lesbian center, a new African-American center, Chinese-American, et cetera. There'll be that kind of thing throughout the building. So I think people will really enjoy being here at the public library. Yeah, it's going to be very exciting and very stunning. I can't wait to see what people's reactions are going to be. And what new and exciting things will be going on for the friends in the new main library? Well, the friends will continue with our welcome desk, which serves to supplement the services provided by librarians to help people answer simple questions about where to find things within the library. In addition, we're embarking on a new business venture to raise additional funds for the library, which is to open a gift store inside the main library. It's going to sell a limited supply of books and other materials by San Francisco authors and San Francisco artists. And in addition to that, it'll carry the staples, the things that people need when they come to the library that they don't always remember to bring, like pencils and paper and computer desks. So we hope you'll join us inside when we do our opening for the new store in April of 1996. And maybe some of our viewers would like to join the friends. Could you tell how people can join the friends? Well, it's a wonderful way to support our library. We have membership at all levels. One of the most popular levels to join is at the $50 level, because people receive what we call a bonus bookstore card, which enables you to receive a 10% discount at most independent bookstores inside San Francisco. So it's a wonderful way if you're a book lover to save some money and also help the public library system. In addition to that, we operate a bookstore at Fort Mason, which is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 to 5, and all sales directly benefit the San Francisco Public Library. So if you have books to donate, please bring them down to our bookstore and come shop there, because it's got the best deals around. Great. So the farewell old friends postcards will be gathered and put in the San Francisco History Room archive? There's initially going to be a display of them that the exhibitions program will be mounting, so that people can see both sides of them. Great. Well, we'll look forward to that. I'd like to thank you both for joining us today on At the Public Library and see you when the new main library opens. Absolutely. Thank you.