A recent addition to the Plaza Branch Library’s Green/Sustainability collection is David Owen’s Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability.
Author Owen argues that the ecosystems of big cities like New York can actually teach us a great deal about conserving resources.
Check it out, and see what you think.
Did you know that between 1999 and 2009, Arlington County energy management activities cut energy use at Central Library by 36%, saving nearly $100,000 each year in avoided energy costs?
Arlington’s Central Library is just one example of how the AIRE program is working to reduce energy use in our community. Learn about the energy consumption of the County’s entire portfolio by visiting the Building Energy Report Cards page.
Join us at the Shirlington Branch Library on Tuesday, April 13 from 7 – 9:00 p.m. for an immersion into the varied history that is Arlington, with the Arlington Branch, American Association of University Women’s “Telling Stories: A History of Diversity in Arlington through the Personal Stories of Arlingtonians Who Are African, African American. Latino, Asian, and White.”
Facilitators Andi Cullin and Marty Swaim will introduce the session with an opportunity for all participants to think about their own story. Listen to Ahmed Osman, Janet Phoenix, and three others, including a Latino, Asian, and White Arlingtonian share their stories. Mr. Osman, a political refugee, left his work as a photojournalist and fled the Sudan. A bilingual family resource assistant for the public school’s English as a Second Language office, he is raising his family here. Janet Phoenix, a physician who works on women’s health issues, was born and raised in Arlington and has raised two boys who attended Arlington Public Schools. She attended Drew Elementary School and was the first African American student to attend Patrick Henry. Child raising in Arlington will be one focus of the stories told by this group of speakers. After the stories told by the panel, we will have time for questions.
Bring a book you wish to swap and join in the “Bring a Book: Take a Book” at 6:30 PM to 6:55 PM before the program begins. Books left over will be donated to The Friends of the Library.
Winston Churchill said “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” But even though perfection is always our ideal, we don’t make big changes to the Library website too often. They can be distracting, and user adjustment takes time. So we’ve been saving a number of your suggestions (along with other things we wanted to improve) and have finally given the site a somewhat new look and feel.
Improvement is our goal. We hope it’s nothing too jarring, just a cleaner approach to finding what you need from the Library and its website.
What have we changed? Many redundancies are gone and we’ve stripped away some of the “architecture” that sent users on unwanted trips to the County government pages. The search feature should be easier for finding things in the catalog and on the website itself. And we’ve made Library news more prominent on the homepage so you won’t miss any new services and events.
PLEASE NOTE: Many users employ bookmarks to take them directly to parts of the site. Unfortunately, to improve the site we’ve had to switch to some new URLs (the alphabet soup toward the top of your browser beginning with http://www…). We encourage you to take a few moments to update any bookmarks and apologize for the inconvenience. The new URL for the website is http://library.arlingtonva.us/
And as user comments have inspired much of our evolving website, we hope you’ll keep sending us your friendly and useful insights. Feel free to use the comments link below or find us through our contact page.
Thank you for your understanding as we work to improve our site. It may not be perfect—yet—but we hope we’re getting closer.
The Columbia Pike Branch Library sends a special Thank You to our special storytime guests – Ms Cindy from the Arlington Career Center Animal Science program, and her tiny assistants – two mother mice and their babies.
Thanks to Columbia Pike Branch Library patrons for helping us celebrate International Women’s Day!
Monday, Mar. 8, 2010 was the 99th anniversary of International Women’s Day.
Library patrons often have questions and suggestions regarding the materials that end up on our shelves for the public.
From time to time, we’ll use this space to summarize some of the messages we receive (keeping any private information private) and share with you the responses we send.
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Q: In this period of budget cutting, I think Arlington Public Library should consider asking patrons to consider donating current titles to supplement those purchased by the Library. Is this on your radar?
A: Like many of libraries, Arlington Public Library is actively taking advantage of donations to the collections.
It is a delicate balancing act to solicit specific title donations and successfully predict and manage the results. To meet immediate demand, the Library orders popular new works in multiple quantities, generally weeks or even months before publication. These items are received from the vendors fully processed and nearly shelf-ready, making it possible to manage increasing volume with fewer staff. In turn it becomes less cost-effective to prepare books for circulation on-site and to manage specific single copy donations.
You are probably already aware of the semiannual Friends of the Arlington Public Library book sales and the year-round used book store at Central Library and in the branches. These outlets provide tremendous monetary support for Library collections, and serve as very effective resources for a continuous supply of pristine and very current titles. A dedicated group of volunteers works at Central Library on a daily basis sorting, pricing and packing donated books for the sales. They also review collection development wish lists and supply needed replacement and supplemental titles for the collections.
The number of donated titles added to the collections has increased dramatically over the past year, and now averages at least 50 items per week. This helps the Library replace popular standard works that have been well-used and are in need of refreshing, as well as providing good-condition copies of many older works no longer available for purchase in hard cover.
Through the Friends, the Library also participates in the “My Library Bookstore” program that provides a monetary return to the Library for every book purchased by a customer. You’ll find the blue MLB button by scrolling down the right hand side of the Library home page.
Library staff regularly share best practices with other libraries across the country, take advantage of new and proven project ideas and welcome comments from dedicated users. Thank you for the assistance.
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Q: Because I found such materials lacking in the catalog, I suggested several art instruction books and CDs for the Library collection. I was informed all were rejected because they were not offered by authorized vendors. I find this shocking. Please provide information on how the vendor process works.
A: We’re sorry you were dissatisfied with the automated response to your purchase request. The volume of purchase suggestions received by the Library precludes an individual staff response to each request. However, each purchase request is reviewed for a decision by collection development staff.
Per County purchasing regulations, the Library bids a materials acquisitions contract at prescribed intervals, and is authorized to purchase from a pool of vendors that respond to the Request For Proposal and successfully meet the Library’s criteria for discount pricing, scope of inventory, shelf-ready vendor packaging and labeling, etc. Suppliers on the current contract include Ingram Library Services, Baker & Taylor and Brodart. Our contract vendors for media materials are Recorded Books and Midwest Tape.
You note an absence of art instruction books in the Library’s collections. We are very proud of the scope and range of the Library collections and regularly review and proactively redevelop all subject areas. All art areas were addressed just last quarter, and I am confident you will be seeing a significant number of new title additions on art technique subjects becoming available over the next few months. The Library maintains a limited collection of instructional DVDs because experience has shown that DVD is not a format preferred by our community for “how-to” information. Because the specific titles you suggested were not available, collection development staff has also ordered a number of new DVDs on artists, schools and art techniques.
The Library welcomes your suggestions for more specific art technique subject areas that you believe would benefit from further enhancement. The online purchase suggestion form is the best way assure your suggestions are promptly reviewed.
We hope this information is helpful.
Melanie Bartlett is one of the Columbia Pike Branch Library’s fabulous volunteers. Melanie has been volunteering at Columbia Pike for 7 years. She comes every week to help us with withdrawals. Melanie also volunteers at the Central Library and at the Westover Branch Library.
Melanie is an Arlington native, living in this area all her life. She loves Elvis, having recently enjoyed an Elvis Impersonator Cruise with her family. Melanie has 2 cats (Jazzy and Callie) and a dog (Bailey). Melanie also enjoys horseback riding in Great Falls every week.
Local author Al Burt wrote his first book, Cut the Strings, entirely on the computers at the Aurora Hills Branch Library. He spent 6-8 months putting the book together, using a flash drive and the public PCs.
Burt, an Arlington resident, Virginia Tech graduate and retired aerospace engineer, spoke to a group at the Aurora Hills Senior Center on Wednesday, March 3, about the “systematic, subjective technique that helps chart one’s personal course to a better life,” outlined in “Cut the Strings.” The book, a combination of fiction and self-help, and which Burt dedicated to the Arlington Public Library, has sold 40 copies so far. To order a copy contact Burt by email at dcamiadca@yahoo.com, and put “Cut the Strings” in the subject line.
Burt is also an active member of The Wilderness Society, and was recently interviewed in their online newsletter.
Installed: 2010
Created: 1930s, restored 2004
Material: Leaded stained glass
Permanently installed at the Westover Branch Library in 2010. Watch a short video of the windows being installed.
Many thanks to Cultural Affairs’ Public Art Program for helping the Library to procure the windows, as well as the previously installed granite finial. We hope that our patrons will enjoy seeing them!
Three other Tiffany windows rescued from the Abbey Mausoleum were installed at the Arlington Art Center in 2004. From an Arlington County press release:
It was the type of discovery that makes an historian’s heart quicken. Three years ago, Arlington County staff rescued 13 stained glass windows from the Abbey Mausoleum, slated for demolition.
Upon closer examination, Cultural Affairs Division and the Historic Preservation Program staff discovered a signature pane on one of the windows that read “Louis C. Tiffany, NY” which appears to be authentic, based upon typical examples Tiffany’s signature from the period and consultation with several stained glass experts.
Today, three windows have been restored to their original beauty and installed at the Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd.
Twelve of the 13 original mausoleum’s windows had a simple geometric/floral composition. The 13th and largest window is religious themed, portraying Christ extending his hand in benediction. It is this window which contains the signature pane, which confirms, at minimum, this panel’s authenticity to the degree possible absent written documentation of the commission.
The window is dedicated to E. St. Clair Thompson, a wealthy Mason who was interred at the Abbey Mausoleum in 1933, and likely commissioned by his family, possibly with the rest of the geometric windows, in memoriam. The panel (as well as all the windows when originally removed from the Mausoleum in 2001) is severely damaged from years of vandalism and neglect and in storage until an appropriate mode of deaccessioning it may be determined.
The restoration and expansion of the historic Maury School for the Arlington Arts Center provided the windows with a new home. Three geometric windows were selected for restoration and installation at the Center and were successfully repaired with the use of matching glass fragments from the other Mausoleum windows that were damaged beyond repair. The windows now appear much as they did when they were first installed at the Abbey Mausoleum decades ago.
About Abbey Mausoleum
Built on a hillside overlooking Arlington Cemetery and the Potomac River in 1924, the Abbey Mausoleum was once a grand final resting-place for Washington, DC’s elite. The mausoleum, built by the United States Mausoleum Company from 1924 to 1926, was an impressive Romanesque style structure that neighbored Arlington National Cemetery and in 1942 was included within the grounds of Henderson Hall, the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters.
With its granite exterior, marble interior, and stained glass windows, the building was said to have resembled a cathedral. With the bankruptcy of the managing Abbey Mausoleum Corporation in the 1950s, the building fell victim to vandalism and neglect.
In 2000, the U.S. Navy gained ownership of the site, which it wished to redevelop. Based upon the mausoleum’s poor condition, the Navy decided to tear it down. They then assumed the enormous task of contacting the families of those interred at the mausoleum in order to relocate remains, a process which took several years. Arlington County was given the opportunity to salvage architectural features from the historic building, including the Tiffany windows.
Learn more from Arlington Public Art.