Friday Following - Sutro Library or Not!!

 

 So I'll bet you are really wondering how the bus trip to Sutro Library went on Wednesday. This was my first trip down with the new location on the campus of the University of San Francisco. I am very glad I was not driving down there, parking (or lack of ) and coming back home. Leaving the driving to a professional (Kathy) is wonderful.

Thanks to Melanie Howard our organizer from GAS (Genealogcal Association of Sacramento). She supplied coffee, water and donuts plus little prizes. Thanks Melanie.

The bus actually parked in a loading zone on the edge of the campus a short block up the street from the Library. I have no idea where you would park if you drove down on your own. (Maybe someone out there has been and knows where to park). We did arrive 30 minutes early, so we walked down to the library and explored the first floor. Sutro Library is located on the 5th floor and if it is not 10am or later the button in the elevator will not recognize your request for the 5th floor. We know, we kept pushing it and pushing it not realizing this. DUH!! the light finally went on and we understood...........

This is on the building coming in from the campus side of the university

                 
                 This is your view of the library building coming down the hill from the bus stop.

     ...and as you enter from the street side you pass through the computer lab...... on the left side you will see nothing but PC's and on the right side you will see nothing but Mac's. This is a very large room.             
                                          

 As you continue through the room at the far end you run right into this wonderful bench......  it shows the history of California in squares of wood in-lay. Sorry that it is not as clear as I would like but you will get the jest of the bench.........  Absolutely wonderful..........

 

 As you turn left from the bench you will be seeing PEET's Coffee at the far end with lots of tables and booths and plenty of students..........  you can barely see the doors to the library behind and between the white pillars. .........

 

 Anyway, you enter, turning again to the left and follow along till you get to the elevators....... and finally it is 10am, the elevator 5th floor button works and up we all go......... I think that there were about 40 researchers on our bus........ members from Root Cellar, GAS and Roots & Gold Dust and guests of those groups too.........

 

Coming around the corner from the elevators is your first view of the library but again you are stopped from going in..... you first need to put all your items in a locker. Because there were so many people at one time it was necessary to share lockers. A quarter does it, and each time you open the locker your quarter returns just to be put back in again after retrieving something from the locker. You are not permitted to take in most things........ computer, iPads, tablet of paper, pencils, camera's no purses, bags, packages, folders, boxes, bacpacks and more. And they after this is complete you stand in line signing in at the entrance of the door........ administrative desk right in frontof that. Tours were given. Just too many people in each tour to make it worthwhile for everyone to hear and see. If you wanted to use computers, catalog online for Sutro, microfilm/fisch, copier you needed to request a library card. With 40 + people this process took quite awhile to complete.

 

                                    

As you are standing at the administrative desks you will look left and then right and you will see stacks of books, tables & chairs.........

 

 ........looking closer you will see some computers on the left side with tables and chairs ............ 

 

 ...........looking closer down the right side you will also see lots of tables & chairs, plus Microfilm/fisch area, surname and locality cards ...... cabinets of microfilm/fisch at the furthest end. Also you will find the Restrooms and water fountains.

We were cerainly getting our exercie today, it seems if you were sitting on the left side tables you needed all your books etc on the right side and vice versa.

 

 And here is the copier area.......  only one station. Yes you heard right only one copier station. It has changed and upgraded just a little..........  you can make your usual paper copy, but now you can also save it to a flash drive (which they had for sale for $5 for 2gigbytes- pretty good deal, but I wouldn't depend on them having them when you go, bring your own and be surprised if they do have one) or you can send the copy by email.......... Now that has really been updated.

 

Again, looking out the windows of Sutro Library you can see a building peeking out on the left side of the picture......  that is the Student Hall and Food Court. We were all thankful that it is so close by but didn't know what to expect. I think some of us were thinking vending machine 'food'. It was amazing!! The Food Court offers many many different types of food. We had no problem finding something good to eat at a very reasonable price. Lots of variety. This was a very happy surprise. Yes, it was busy with students too but I think the Food Court people are use to the volume of people coming through and getting people through the lines quickly.

 

 

Last but not lest, I wanted to show this picture. It was around 4-4:15pm looking out the windows of Sutro Library. No the picture is not out of focuss it is FOG rolling in, very visible and LOTS of it too.

 

We left the area at 5pm. Smooth ride home with people talking all the way.... discussions of great finds in their research, other things they found, or NOT and what the next step would be.

 

It was a very good day. Big Thanks for Melanie Howard and GAS for organizing this bus trip,

 

 

posted for your enjoyment by Sandra Gardner Benward