![\"Lance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Berkeleyside1219_11-900x600.jpg\")
The founders of Cityside, left to right: Lance Knobel, Tasneem Raja, Frances Dinkelspiel and Tracey Taylor. Credit: Celeste Noche for Cityside<\/p>\nThe founders of Cityside, left to right: Lance Knobel, Tasneem Raja, Frances Dinkelspiel and Tracey Taylor. Credit: Celeste Noche for Cityside<\/p>\n
The Berkeley Public Library Foundation has selected Cityside \u2014 the nonprofit publisher of Berkeleyside and its sister sites, The Oaklandside and Richmondside \u2014 as the recipient of its 2026 Fred & Pat Cody Award, in recognition of its \u201coutstanding work illuminating our literary and civic landscape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a \u201cchampion of local journalism,\u201d Cityside helps build community and restore trust in news media, the foundation wrote in a press release, adding that Berkeleyside has brought attention to \u201clocal authors, books, and the role of all of Berkeley\u2019s public libraries, including those of the University of California.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith its founding in 2009, Berkeleyside became a national model for the thousands of American communities where community engagement has been threatened by the closure of newspapers and censorship,\u201d said Christa Aboitiz, president of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe want to celebrate this valuable news organization started here in Berkeley and its commitment to providing readers with reliable, trustworthy sources of information \u2013 a value that our public libraries share,\u201d said Kathy Huff, executive director of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation.<\/p>\n
Cityside was founded in 2019 by Frances Dinkelspiel, Lance Knobel and Tracey Taylor \u2014 Berkeleyside\u2019s three founders \u2014 and Tasneem Raja, to offer a model for sustainable local journalism that fosters civic engagement, enriches people\u2019s lives and contributes to a healthy democracy. Underpinning the nonprofit\u2019s mission is a belief that access to local news is a right, not a privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cCityside is grateful to the Berkeley Public Library Foundation for recognizing the importance of high-quality local reporting. In far too many places in our country, the impact of declining local journalism can be seen in increased polarization, rampant disinformation and democratic decay,\u201d said Knobel. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t have to happen. Our work in the East Bay shows that people are truly interested in what happens in their city\u2019s government, schools, art and culture. Scores of news organizations around the country have borrowed from our model to create the local journalism that communities need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Books and libraries part of Berkeleyside coverage from the outset<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/large-booksinc-1-3.jpg\")
Books with Berkeley connections on a display at the now shuttered Books Inc. in Berkeley. Credit: Joanne Furio for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
From Berkeleyside\u2019s inception in 2009, Dinkelspiel, Knobel and Taylor made a point of reporting on Berkeley\u2019s libraries and reflecting the city\u2019s dynamic local literary scene. In fact, the first story to run on \u201cIn Berkeley,\u201d the short-lived precursor to Berkeleyside, was about a talk between Michael Pollan and Novella Carpenter at a Berkeley Arts and Letters event.<\/p>\n
\u201cLance, Tracey, and I all love reading, and from the start, we wrote about books and authors,\u201d said Dinkelspiel, who is herself a bestselling author<\/a>. She continues to write for Berkeleyside after leaving Cityside in 2022. \u201cLiterature is a huge part of the culture of the East Bay, and, even though author profiles and book reviews don\u2019t get as many clicks as police and city council coverage, we thought they were important. Over the years, Cityside has published hundreds of articles on new books, authors, book festivals, lists of the best Berkeley books, and the ins and outs of the Bay Area literary scene.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Recent books reporting<\/a> by Berkeleyside includes the Between the Lines column<\/a> by independent writer Joanne Furio<\/a>, highlighting Berkeley authors, and the year-end \u201creveal\u201d of the top books and tools checked out<\/a> by Berkeley library patrons in that year. Furio and others in the newsroom have reported on the closing of much-loved bookshops, such as Books Inc.<\/a> and Eastwind Books<\/a>, the city\u2019s underground poetry scene<\/a>, the indie Berkeley publisher whose author won a Nobel Prize<\/a> and the Berkeley resident who became a first-time novelist at age 96<\/a>.<\/p>\n Berkeleyside also reports on the library as an institution, including when it has faced challenges, such as a controversial book weeding process<\/a> at its central branch in 2015, and the 2017 ousting<\/a> by the City Council of the president and vice president of the Board of Library Trustees.<\/p>\n Berkeleyside hosted many authors at its Uncharted Ideas Festival<\/a>, the Bay Area\u2019s first ideas festival, which ran from 2013 to 2018, as well as at Berkeleyside Idea Makers<\/a>, and has been a partner of the Bay Area Book Festival since its launch in 2015 and the Litquake literary festival.<\/p>\n The Oaklandside and Richmondside continue books reporting tradition<\/p>\n The Oaklandside and Richmondside have continued Berkeleyside\u2019s tradition of reporting on public libraries and literature in Oakland and Richmond. Oaklandside has published stories on Bookmark<\/a>, the used bookstore run by the Friends of the Oakland Public Library, and the recently opened Nomadic Bookstore<\/a> in Uptown; about free and unexpected things to do with a library card<\/a>, and a profile of The Town\u2019s \u201cfavorite librarian,\u201d Dorothy Lazard<\/a> who was also a guest at Oaklandside\u2019s Culture Makers<\/a> event in 2023.<\/p>\n Richmondside, which launched in June 2024, has profiled many Richmond residents affiliated with books, including children\u2019s author Nikoo Yahyazadeh<\/a>, Tamara Shiloh, owner of Multicultural Books<\/a>, and author and former librarian Tarnel Abbott<\/a>, who is also Jack London\u2019s great-granddaughter. The newsroom has also reported on a nonprofit providing \u201cbooks for babies\u201d<\/a> in Richmond and San Pablo, and the July 2024 closure of Richmond\u2019s main library<\/a> for two years to undergo a $30 million renovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n All three news outlets regularly include library events in their weekly arts coverage and on their events calendars.<\/p>\n A commitment to writing about books amid national decline<\/p>\n Cityside is committed to writing about books at a time when book coverage in newspapers and digital news outlets, both locally and nationally, is declining. The Associated Press ended its regular book coverage<\/a> last year, and the San Francisco Chronicle laid off its book editor<\/a>, John McMurtrie, and stripped down its book section in 2019.<\/p>\n The Cody Award<\/a> was first presented in 2004 and is named for Fred and Pat Cody<\/a>, the founders of beloved Berkeley institution Cody\u2019s Books, a pioneering independent bookshop known for fighting censorship and bringing \u201cthe paperback revolution\u201d to Berkeley. Cody\u2019s opened on Euclid Avenue in 1956. It moved to Telegraph Avenue in 1960 and closed in 2006. Other Cody\u2019s stores on Fourth Street and in San Francisco were relatively short-lived.<\/p>\n Past recipients of the Cody Award include News from Native California and Berkeley Roundhouse, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Pegasus Books, and Malcolm Margolin<\/a>, founder of Heyday..\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The award will be presented to Cityside at the Foundation\u2019s 23th annual Authors Dinner<\/a> on Feb. 22, 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018A mighty redwood of a man has fallen.\u2019 Remembering Malcolm Margolin, founder of Heyday books<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tAugust 20, 2025Aug. 20, 2025, 8:28 p.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\tMiranda July\u2019s \u2018All Fours\u2019 and extension cords: What Berkeley library patrons checked out most in 2025<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tDecember 24, 2025Dec. 24, 2025, 6:02 a.m.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/large-Dorothy-Lazard-4.jpg\")
Dorothy Lazard, former librarian at Oakland History Room, photographed at Oakland Main Library. Credit: Amir Aziz\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\u2018A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Malcolm-Margolin-by-Richard-Nagler.jpeg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Miranda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Entrance-to-the-Berkeley-Public-Library-e1584373681682.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Berkeleyside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Berkeleyside-founders-Photo-Tippett-Studio.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n