 And now, here's some news and notes of interest about the San Francisco Public Library System for May 1995. Friends for Life volunteers bring the riches of the San Francisco Public Library to people who can no longer visit the library themselves. As key participants in this new outreach program, Friends for Life volunteers provide a link between the San Francisco Public Library and people who are homebound due to AIDS or HIV disease. I have the privilege of serving as project coordinator of Friends for Life, which means that I am responsible for the general aspects of the program, including recruiting and training volunteers, recruiting clients, matching volunteers with clients, and also selecting books because we have the opportunity to build a collection that's for the use of Friends for Life volunteers and clients. Friends for Life got started a couple of years ago when there was some energy on the part of a member of the Friends of the Library for there to be such a program to serve the needs of people homebound with illness, and at that time, there was a particular interest in focusing on serving the needs of people with AIDS who were homebound. And out of the Chief of Branch's office, a grant was written to the State Library and some federal funds were awarded last year to, in fact, begin this program. The training of Friends for Life volunteers involves a commitment to three sessions. And the first session is generally a library orientation where we introduce people to the San Francisco Public Library system and to the main library in particular because that is where most people who are volunteering will be working out of and where most of the resources of the system are held. We also want volunteers to know how to use the online catalog, which a lot of people are not familiar with. That's one session. The next session is all about AIDS and related diseases, emergency procedures and taking care of the volunteer and also of the client from a medical point of view. And then the third session focuses on the client and volunteer relationship, which is a very delicate one. We are asking volunteers to go into the home of someone who's quite ill, and yet we are not asking them to become a caretaker. So there are some boundary issues that volunteers have to be comfortable with. Friends for Life is always interested in hearing from people who are interested in volunteering. The library's Office of Volunteer Services is always happy to take calls from potential volunteers. Paul Signorelli is the person to contact. And his phone number is 557-428-0. Friends for Life clients have to meet several criteria. One is that they have to be a San Francisco resident. They have to be homebound for the purposes of this program, which means that they generally don't go out for social reasons, but more for medical reasons. They need to be under the supervision of a case manager. And they have to have a diagnosis of AIDS or HIV. And a person who wants to receive service can contact us in one of two ways, either directly or by getting their case manager to contact us and introduce us over the telephone to the client. And the phone number to contact Friends for Life is 557-4352. Friends for Life enjoys some real nice relationships with the AIDS service community as well. This is an outreach project that is very much involved in what else is going on in San Francisco, serving people with AIDS and HIV. Right from the start, the grant was written so that there would be partnerships involved, and that, in fact, is what has happened. As the project has grown, we've been in touch with AIDS service organizations like Open Hand and Shanti and the AIDS Foundation, but also with Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Community HIV Project and Rafiki Services and Bayview Hunters Point AIDS Services because we're very, very much committed to supplementing the services that are available in the city rather than creating something new in a vacuum. We're also interested at Friends for Life in having good relationships with these organizations so that our clients can be notified about the existence of Friends for Life by these programs, many of which, in fact, do provide extensive services and can then be introduced to Friends for Life by people at the AIDS Foundation and Shanti and similar organizations. Friends for Life is probably a unique program. When we started, we tried to find other libraries that are providing this service, and the most we came up with was a slew of inquiries from other libraries who were interested in providing this service. But as far as we can tell, this is indeed unique. There are many systems that provide services to homebound elders or people who are considered shut-ins. But right now, this is the only program that has a mandate to provide service to people in a certain illness category. And in time, Friends for Life is designed to expand so that we can serve other people with debilitating illness in addition to people with AIDS and HIV. For more information about Friends for Life, call 557-4352 and to find out how to become a Friends for Life volunteer, call 557-428-0.