About Hillview Branch Library
 A new Hillview Branch Library, located in the heart of east San José, opened with a community celebration on January 20, 2007. A marching band from the adjacent school, Fischer Middle, kept up a lively beat as neighborhood children ate bags of popcorn and their parents mingled with city officials and community activists. As the ceremonial ribbon was cut, the crowd surged in, eager to sample the plethora of new materials, and curious to see the inside of the attractive, yellow and terra cotta colored building that had risen here, on what had been a grassy track and field.
The original Hillview Library had opened almost 42 years previous: August 1965. A unique octagonal building, the library was quite different than any of the other branches of the San José Public Library. It was located on a corner of Hillview Park (2255 Ocala Ave), directly across from the Reid-Hillview Airport, next to the Hank Lopez Community Center. However, with the growth of the surrounding area and the increased usage of the library, a new facility was needed.
 The design of the new facility began in mid 2003; the groundbreaking occurred in April 2005. What had been a cozy, tight 7,288 square foot building was shaping up to be a modern, beautiful 21,035 square foot library. Its location was changed about three blocks west (1600 Hopkins Dr.), on the campus of Fischer Middle School. It opened in January 2007.
Hillview Branch Library serves a diverse population of about 50,000 people. To meet the needs of our customers, the library has an extensive collection of materials in four languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. These materials include fiction and non-fiction books, DVDs, videotapes, music CDs, and audio books on tape and CD. There are citizenship materials, ESL materials, and materials to learn languages other than English. Other languages such as French, Hindi, Persian, and Tagalog are represented in the library’s DVD and CD collections. Materials checked out from any San José Public Library branch
can be returned at Hillview.
In the surrounding area, there are 13 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 2 high schools, and most of these are within a short walking distance of the library. As such, a large number of school-age children use the library and the library carries a vast quantity of materials that are needed by these students: books on science projects, mathematics, and history, for example.
Our new facility offers much more to the surrounding community: Most striking, there is a living room area, complete with a fireplace and comfortable chairs. There is a room for teens which has a flat panel television for movie screenings and its own computers. A technology lab with 13 computers has proven quite popular, and a 50 person capacity community room provides a great space for community organization meetings or library programs.
The staff at Hillview Branch Library strives to be friendly and helpful. We appreciate you stopping in and would love for you to stay and say “hello.”
- Recipient of the 2008 Honor Award given by the American Institute of Architects, Santa Clara Valley Chapter
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