Library Foundation SD

08/31/2026

Your gift today will:

🔹 Help families learn to read — together. Our Family Literacy Services reach parents and young children who are building foundational skills side by side. These families often have the fewest resources and the most to gain.

🔹 Keep beloved programs thriving. Books Unbanned fights censorship by connecting young readers who’ve been denied access to books with a library card and the freedom to read. The Summer Reading Program keeps kids engaged all season long. Together, these programs reach tens of thousands of readers each year.

🔹 Keep the Library open and accessible. We actively work with city leaders to protect Library funding and prevent cuts to hours, staff, and services. When budgets are on the line, your support puts the Library’s voice in the room.

🔹 Invest in the people who make it work. Skilled librarians and staff are the heart of every great library. Your gift helps them grow through professional development so they can bring stronger programs and more services to every branch.

Your generosity creates a stronger Library. Donate to Library Foundation SD: bit.ly/lfsd-sasm

08/30/2026

08/29/2026

Our Midday Music Series returns for a new season! 🎶

Join us for the first Midday Music concert of our 20th season, featuring San Diego Symphony musicians Ai Nihira Awata (violin), Kenneth Liao (viola), and Nathan Walhout (cello). The trio will perform a dynamic program of works for strings, including Ernő Dohnányi’s Serenade in C Major, Op. 10 and more.

Bring your lunch and enjoy the music with gorgeous views of downtown San Diego.

Free community concert
Friday, August 14 at 12 PM
Central Library @ Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common
Shiley Special Events Suite (9th floor)

Presented in partnership with the San Diego Public Library.

08/29/2026

08/28/2026

📚 Due to the FY ‘27 budget cuts, starting this Saturday, August 29, hours are changing for three San Diego Public Library branches.

🕓 Locations with new Saturday hours, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.:

San Diego Central Library @ Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common
Point Loma/Hervey Library
Rancho Bernardo Branch Library

🕓 All other branches will continue with regular Saturday hours, and the hours at 15 branch locations open on Mondays will remain unchanged.

🛍️ Library Shop SD at Central's Saturday hours are shifting too, now 10:30 a.m.–4 p.m.

Good news: Library Shop Mission Hills is open daily, including Sundays, with 100% of proceeds supporting free San Diego Public Library programs across all 37 branches.

🚧 Starting Sept. 1: Ocean Beach Library and Rancho Peñasquitos Library close for renovations.
🚧 Currently closed for maintenance: Clairemont Library + San Ysidro Library.

Full hours by location: mysdpl.org/locations

08/27/2026

You play a crucial role in the Library. Your gift today helps San Diegans achieve their dreams: helping families learn to read together, keeping Books Unbanned and the Summer Reading Program thriving, and keeping SDPL open and accessible.

Please donate today: bit.ly/lfsd-sasm

08/26/2026

Due to this week's heatwave, the Ocean Beach Library will have limited open hours. From Wednesday, Aug. 26 through Saturday, Aug. 29, hours are 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 29 is our last day open to the public before closing for renovations and expansion, so please stop by and say goodbye (for now)! We'd love to see you!

08/25/2026

🎶📚 Today we lost one of the greatest champions literacy has ever had. Dolly Parton didn’t just sing about mountains and dreams, or even Jolene, though we love those too. Her songbook is a library in itself, full of stories about labor, class, shame, pride, and women looking out for each other, storytelling and representation long before those things were easy to put in a song.

And she built a real bridge from those stories to the real world, one book at a time. Through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, she mailed more than 200 million free books to children around the world, simply because she believed every kid deserves access to books at home, no matter their zip code.

Us too, Dolly, us too....

Tonight, we’re grateful for the stories she gave away for free, both the ones she sang and the ones she mailed to kids’ homes, and for how many kids grew into readers because of her.

💛 Rest easy, Dolly. Thank you for the songs, and for the books.

08/21/2026

📚 Twenty years of bringing San Diego together, one book at a time.

Tomorrow, the winning titles in all three categories for One Book, One San Diego's will be announced live at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival at the University of San Diego! Since 2007, this program has united readers across San Diego and Northern Baja through shared stories, tough conversations, and the kind of connection that only a good book can spark.

You can buy the 2026 One Book selections at the Library Shop SD booth tomorrow from 10 am to 4 pm at the KPBS Book Festival or at either of our two physical locations! Here's to the next chapter. 📖

See all the One Book, One San Diego selections here: https://www.kpbs.org/one-book-one-san-diego

08/20/2026

During this year's FY27 budget cycle, San Diego showed up for its Libraries. 📚

When the City's budget threatened to cut SDPL down to a five-day-a-week system, thousands of patrons sent postcards, showed up to City Hall, and made their voices heard. Together, we helped restore $1.2 million to the San Diego Public Library budget.

That's just one story in our Summer 2026 Impact Update. We're also celebrating a $60,000 Ready to Learn Grant from Dr. Seuss Foundation and San Diego Foundation, part of $2 million the two foundations jointly awarded to 38 San Diego County organizations this year. The grant will expand SDPL's 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program with new kindergarten readiness workshops, inclusive literacy support for families, and STEM learning opportunities for kids under 5.

Plus, groundbreaking on the new Oak Park Library, Library Shop SD news, and more reasons to love the San Diego Public Library!

Read the full update at the link in the comments.