Kathryn Olsen: Have You Visited the Local Library Lately?

Not only does your local branch library carry most bestsellers, we also carry popular movies and DVDs of your favorite television shows. If you find a title in our catalog that interests you, you can always request it and have it sent from another branch to the one closest to you. Reserving a book is free and something you can do yourself online through our Public Access Catalog.

Besides the popular Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings book series, younger readers might be interested in Brian Jacques' "Redwall" series about fantastic adventures in an animal world. We also carry Louise Rennison's popular fictional diaries of British teenager Georgia Nicolson. These series of laugh-out-loud diaries are popular with our teen readers.

Another series popular with both our teen and younger readers is "Artemis Fowl," by Eoin Colfer. Artemis is a 12-year-old genius on a criminal and magical adventure.

You'll always find the new Stephen King and V.C. Andrews titles on our shelves, but other newer books from the past few months include Peter Brazaitis' "You Belong in a Zoo: Tales from a Lifetime Spent with Cobras, Crocs and Other Creatures." Brazaitis, a bit of a rebel with pet snakes, began working in the Bronx Zoo in his youth and ended up superintendent of reptiles and, later, curator of animals at the Central Park Wildlife Center. This book shares his experiences.

In Linn Ullmann's "Stella Descending," a woman falls to her death from a rooftop embraced with her husband. The story unfolds like a mystery as we hear the perspectives and thoughts of the wife, husband, daughters and investigators. "Whose fault was it? Edward Marriott's Plague: A Story of Rivalry, Science and the Scourge That Won't Go Away," is a history of the plague from 1894 to today. And Matt Warshaw's comprehensive "Encyclopedia of Surfing" covers everything wave related, from the history of hollow boards to the life of Gidget.

Your branch library also has free monthly programs for children and adults. In the children's room at all branches, there are monthly lapsits and family storytimes. Branches also show movies monthly and some have monthly book groups. Call your local branch for dates and times. There are also free Internet and computer courses at the Main Library. All programs at the library are free.

The public library offers numerous free services ­ databases to search, books to borrow, DVDs to watch and music to listen to. We also provide free online one-on-one tutoring for children and teens. If you have Internet access from home, you can chat for free with a Homework Help tutor by clicking on the "kids" or "teens" links on our library's home page.

In the next few months, the Sunset area branch libraries will be planning for renovation. If you're interested in hearing more about this or getting involved, call your local branch (Sunset Branch Library, 355-2808; Parkside Branch Library, 753-7125; Ortega Branch Library, 355-5700) or go to the website at www.sfpl.org.

Kathryn Olsen is a San Francisco librarian.