Yolo County Library - Mary L. Stephens Branch

Location

315 East 14th Street

Hours

Mon 1:00PM-9:00PM

Tue-Thu 10:00AM-9:00PM

Fri & Sat 10:00AM-5:30PM

Sun 1:00PM-5:00PM

Phone

(530) 757-5593

Website

Stephens Branch

Yolo County Libraries

The Mary L. Stephens Branch is part of the Yolo County Library system. It used to be known as the Davis Branch as the sign in the picture below indicates, but the name was changed in December 2006 to honor the former Yolo County Librarian.

For more information see The Blanchard Community Room.

Good-sized. Includes children's movies and their own check-out desk.

Read a story about storytime in the children's room in Davis Life Magazine.

People preparing for standardized tests may utilize the library's digital practice test database, a free feature from http://www.learningexpresslibrary.com. Available tests include: ACT, ASVAB, GED, SAT, CBEST, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and more. Go to the reference desk and ask for more info. As previously mentioned, they also have a section for test books.

These are internet-access computers for public use. There are 15 computers available, in almost constant use. The library has WiFi throughout the building. You can access wifi by sitting outside the library as well. Unfortunately, the wifi connections allow only HTTP - even VPN connections are blocked. Ethernet jacks are in the meeting room, but the Ethernet jacks require authentication and are for staff use only.

What exactly does this mean? 802.1x? The last time I tried to get ethernet here, the jacks I tried in the main area were just dead (if memory serves, and this was before the installation of web OPAC), and LUGOD lore says that dhcp is available from the red jack in The Blanchard Community Room but only tcp port 80 can go out to the internet. —NickSchmalenberger

There is a shelf across from the Science-Fiction section that includes cassettes and CDs to help you learn other languages. Some of the audio material comes with books. Languages available include: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Danish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish and more.

If you want books in large print, there is quite a large section. = )

There are both DVDs and VHS.

After 1:30-2:00PM weekdays, students from the local schools come in and usually fill the available tables/study space.

You may check out as many as 50 items with the following limits:
3 non-fiction books per subject
6 audio cassettes
6 music compact discs(CDs)
3 books on compact disc (CDs)
3 DVDs

• 3-week circulation period: CDs, Audio Cassettes and Books
  

• 1-week circulation period: Videotapes, DVDs, Magazines
  

• Reference materials do not circulate.

The following may be renewed for 2 successive periods if there are no requests for them:

• Videos, DVDs and magazines - 1 week per renewal
  

• CDs, books and audio tapes - 3 weeks per renewal

Online and phone renewals available. Library card number (and library pin number for online renewals) is required.

Online renewals: Go to http://web-iii.yolocounty.org, click on "MY RECORD", enter the number from your library card and your library pin number, and check the boxes for the items you'd like to renew. Be sure to verify that the items have been renewed successfully. Someone may have placed a hold on an item, and if so, you will be unable to renew it.

Automated phone renewal available 24/7 at 530-666-8016 or 530-666-8017. Have library card and items ready. Listen for confirmation of renewals and note due dates.

Fine per day per item:

• $.20 for book, magazine, audio cassette, CD, video cassette, DVD, and special materials.

• Damage Fee up to $5.00
  

• Replacement fee is cost of item plus $5.00 processing fee (new, identical items accepted as replacement).

• Lost or damaged card - $1.00
  

• Copies (per page) - $.15
  

• Color copies - $1.00
  

• Returned check - $25.00
  

• Meeting Room
  

• per hour (closed hours only) - $10.00
  

• food/beverage use $10.00
  

• staff call back $50.00

Weekdays before 2PM and after 6PM are the best times to go to check out a book or just browse. After 1:30-2:00PM weekdays, students from the local schools come in and usually fill the available tables/study space.

The Yolo County library system has a pretty good selection of books, movies, and more. However it is spread across several branches, and popular books and DVDs other than Richard Simmons' Workout are generally snatched up quickly. If there is a particular book, movie, or other media that you desire (including items currently located at other branches) and you have a library card and PIN, you can look it up and reserve it from home through the online catalog. You will be emailed when the item is available, and can then pick it up from the hold shelves. This is also good for busy people - reserve your items ahead of time, and you can be in and out in five minutes, with no searching.

Parking is usually not a problem, but because it is a city lot, the lot can fill up at certain times and days of the week. This is true for weekdays around 2:30-3:00PM, when tons of parents commandeer the lot, waiting to pick up their little darlings from North Davis. The same parents will overrun the lot on Saturday mornings, when they come to watch the same little darlings participate in soccer. This has occasionally led to frustrated library patrons complaining to library staff, who can't do anything about it because it's a city lot.

Every two months, the Friends of the Davis Public Library will hold book sales at the library. These are good for picking up some fiction or non-fiction on the cheap, and are usually in the Dick Blanchard Room (named after a long-time friend of the library who worked at Shields Library). Be aware that members of the Friends get first dibs on the night before the sale is opened to the public. The Friends also maintain a book/magazine nook just inside the library entrance— a good opportunity to pick up older magazines or cheap beach books for mere change. The funds are used by the Friends of the Library to enhance the services and collections of the library.

Take some time to wander the sidewalk between the library and its parking lot. Embedded in the concrete are bronze plaques with ameboid edges, one of the Public Art projects installed at the site. (Others are the etchings on the glass of the doors and windows, and the ceramic installations around the two water fountains.) Each plaque has writing on it using a different writing system from around the world. There was some controversy because the writings are not actual texts — they artistically use the writing systems, rather than using the languages. There are 13 plaques with Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mayan writing, cuneiform, and others, designed to "provoke curiousity rather than satisfy it which is purposely left for the appropriate institution, the library", according to Wang Po Shu who created the artwork.
Unidentified text in an italic hand, roughly early 16th century Arabic? Looks like an early form of Korean with Chinese characters integrated Fantasy early Greek with multiple epichoric variants mixed.