San Francisco Public Library officials and residents of San Francisco will celebrate the renaming of the Bayview Branch of the city’s library system today, library officials said.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 5075 Third St. residents and officials will share music, dance and food as library leaders officially rename the branch the Bayview Linda Brooks-Burton Branch of the San Francisco Public Library.
Brooks-Burton served as the librarian of the Bayview Branch from 1995 until 2011 when officials promoted her to the southeast district manager. She worked for the San Francisco Public Library for 30 years, library officials said.
Brooks-Burton died Sept. 19, 2013, from a sudden heart attack and some residents had been calling for the branch to be named after her since her death.
Library officials said Brooks-Burton was a “tireless community champion” and officials called her the quiet champion behind the effort to build a new branch library in the Bayview. The new branch opened in February of 2013, replacing a previous building that opened in 1969.
Brook-Burton co-founded and led the Bayview History Preservation Project starting in 2007. The project collected and recorded information about the migration of blacks to jobs at the Hunters Point Shipyard and the culture that developed in the area.
Brooks-Burton also co-founded the Bayview Footprints Network of Community Building Groups in 2008. Bayview Footprints brings together dozens of community groups that tell the story of the Bayview online.
Officials with the library system said Brooks-Burton was an advocate for education, youth and families. She practiced and advocated for education and lifelong learning.
Officials said generations of Bayview and Hunters Point residents said walking into the branch was like walking into “Linda’s House.”
Keith Burbank, Bay City News
