Year End Notes from University Heights Library Staff: Reflections on 2025
I’m celebrating my fifth year here and looking forward to more years to come. The UH community is amazing! - Rachel Esguerra, Branch Manager
The past year has been so much fun working here at the University Heights Library as the “new” Youth Services Librarian! I’ve had such a warm welcome and am so grateful to work with an amazing staff and to serve this vibrant community of library users. I spent the last four years at the City Heights/Weingart Branch running a weekly Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEAM) program for 3rd - 6th graders. I hope to bring some version of that to UH in 2026. Looking forward, my personal goals are to eat, not just more greens, but the entire rainbow, and to reach the advanced intermediate level of Spanish. (¡Favor, habla lentamente!). As a librarian, I want to help you find your next book, or 3 peer-reviewed papers for your next school report, or to print out your next delivery label. Stop by soon! - Susan Alden, Youth Services Librarian
As I look at the close of 2025, I am most proud of our programming. From hosting newly inaugurated San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capo-Garcia back in April to creating the first of its kind four-part Filipino American History Month Poet Series this October, I am excited to see the UH Library be THE place for fascinating topics and people to gather. Along with Banned Book Trivia Night, our wildly successful first-ever Puzzle Swap (which will come back again on January 10th!) to vegan cooking classes to Lunar New Year celebrations, stay tuned. 2026 will be our most ambitious year yet. - Peggy Goings, Library Assistant III
With winter solstice upon us, I’m encouraged by the spirit of reflection, renewal, and celebration this time of year embodies. Winter chills bring warm sweaters, longer nights reveal brightly burning stars, and stories and traditions bring us together in powerful ways. May this next year bring our UH library community joy, wonder, inspiration...and some awesome reads! - John Fortier, Jr., Library Assistant II
As a recent transplant to the University Heights Branch Library from a much larger location, I’ve been adapting to being less anonymous and more involved in the activities of the library and the lives of our patrons and the community in general. It has been a happy transition, to be sure, and I look forward to forging bonds that only services like a public library can fashion. I also intend to diversify my reading next year to increase my book knowledge along with my empathy for those with different backgrounds and ways of seeing the world. It is no exaggeration to say that the prospect of serving this community alongside my awesome new coworkers has inspired me to grow—not just career-wise, but as a human. - Ryan Long, Library Assistant II
All City Libraries will be CLOSED on Dec. 24, Dec. 25, Dec. 31; Jan. 1 and Jan. 19. Select libraries will be open from Dec. 26 -30. Please visit www. sandiegolibrary.org to learn more – Happy Holidays!