In 2019, the Berkeley Public Library asked Berkeley residents for feedback on its services. Community members responded that they wanted the library to launch a cooking collection – and the library delivered. Now, niche cooking tools like air fryers, ice cream makers and special pans are available for checkout in the Berkeley Tool Lending Library.
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Crazy. Bewildering. Momentous. A “time of great confusion.” These are the words that come to mind for Berkeley and Oakland public librarians when thinking about March 2020, the month that changed their jobs.
Before Berkeley Public Library, or BPL, branches closed down last March, supervising librarian Dan Beringhele said he and his colleagues initiated various cleaning protocols, including cleaning all surfaces around the library. When news came out about the severity of the COVID-19 virus, Beringhele originally believed the library would be closed for a quick two weeks. Those two weeks then turned into three months.
It would not be until mid-June that the majority of Beringhele’s staff could return to the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch building to carry out modified library services.
Jim Manheimer, Berkeley High School class of 1979, reunites with his lost yearbook at Berkeley Public Library on Kittredge Street. Photo: Aimee Reeder
The last time Jim Manheimer saw his Berkeley High School yearbook, President Jimmy Carter held office and the McDonald’s Happy Meal had just been invented. But with the help of a linguistics expert, a Facebook group, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s use of the word ‘hella,’ Manheimer was reunited last Friday with the yearbook he’d lost on the day he graduated in 1979.
Let’s back up a few steps. The reunion started after Ben Zimmer, a linguistics expert and language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, heard Schaaf say she’s “hella proud, and hella relieved” that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election, Zimmer told Berkeleyside. Harris also used the word in one of her post-election speeches, he said.