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You Brought Holiday Joy to Arlington.

Full of Gratitude for the Holiday Gift Nook: Free, Festive and Fun.

Library patrons at Central Library taking advantage of the free holiday shopping event.

The public enjoyed the free holiday shopping experience on Dec 10-11 at Central Library.

Last weekend, Arlington Public Library hosted the "Gift Nook," a free holiday market developed from thousands of items donated by the community.

Nearly a thousand children and adults participated in this free holiday shopping experience.

This successful initiative would not have happened without the generosity and goodwill of our caring Arlington community who donated thousands of quality re-giftable items at our Gift Nook drop-off boxes this fall. This economical and sustainable approach to holiday shopping for people on a tight budget exceeded all our expectations and put smiles on patron and Library staff faces.

Our Library staff and volunteers are thankful to all of you for playing a vital role in this wonderful initiative. Some of the positive feedback we received:

  • "You had the exact item I was looking for my son. This means so much to me."
  • "Love the selection of items."
  • "Will this happen again next year? Please come back!"

Always open. Always free. Always thankful.

Yours at Arlington Public Library.

Season’s Greetings From Arlington Public Library

We loved spending 2022 with you.

We have much to be thankful for. We:

  • Created the "Gift Nook," a free and festive holiday market made from thousands of donated items by the community.
  • Launched the free Teleconnect Space at Columbia Pike Library, for online social service appointments and job interviews.
  • Hosted playful, educational storytimes at every location, multiple times a week.
  • Renovated the library inside the Arlington County Detention Center and held several conversations with Arlington Reads authors inspired by Reginald Dwayne Betts' "Freedom Reads" project.
  • Partnered with the Washington Nationals for Summer Reading. Nearly 8,000 readers participated in our community Summer Reading program and thousands more attended events and to support the Potomac Conservancy in their mission to safeguard the lands and waters of the Potomac River.
  • Brought you 11 outstanding Arlington Reads author talks, thanks to the support of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.
  • Reduced wait times for popular eBooks and eAudiobooks and expanded popular book services with the one-time Arlington County budget increase of $543,000.

Thank you to the Friends of the Arlington Public Library and all our County and community partners.

Make the Library part of your 2023.

Always free. Always open. Always there for you!

New December Releases

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

Finish 2022 off strong by reading a few of these new books!

"Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion" by Bushra Rehman is a fierce examination of female friendship, queer love and navigating family expectations with self-discovery that takes place in the Pakistani-American community of Queens in the 1980s. Award-winning author Jane Smiley has a new book out. "A Dangerous Business" features two women in 1850s California who use detective skills learned from Edgar Allen Poe stories to hunt a serial killer the police aren’t interested in pursuing.

Explore the ways humans have tried to harness the cold throughout history and the effects it’s had — from preserving food to melting ice caps — in "Of Ice and Men" by Fred Hogge. Enjoy famed Maître D’ Michael Cecchi-Azzolina's dishy memoir "Your Table is Ready" which is full of stories about what really goes on at New York’s trendiest restaurants.

Young readers will pour over the illustrations in Jason Chin’s "The Universe in You" that keeps taking a deeper and deeper look at what makes up our body, that looking through an ever more powerful microscope.

Teen readers will be drawn in by Tessa Brunton’s graphic novel memoir "Notes from a Sickbed," a painfully real look at her life living with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Place Your Holds Now

Director’s Message

End-of-Year Reflections

"The word 'understand' … means 'to stand in the midst of.'"
— Andrea Elliott, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City."

Photo of Arlington Public Library Director Diane Kresh.

Arlington Public Library Director Diane Kresh.

Arlington Reads hosted Andrea Elliott in late November and since her visit, I have been thinking a lot about what “to understand” means to me in my role as director of Arlington Public Library. At a minimum, “to understand” means actively listening to others and putting one’s ego and preferences aside.

Easy, right? What’s harder — for me, anyway — is looking for and finding common cause in unexpected places and hearing from people I might not agree with. It is tempting to cut oneself off from deeper relationships based on biases and assumptions, be they political, cultural or historical in nature. And we must try to set them aside if we are to live in community with one another.

Over the past year, how has Arlington Public Library tried to understand the Arlington community better? 

The pandemic made more visible inequities in income, housing, education, and technology for many of our residents, inequities we sought to address through programs and services.

For example, we hosted six Kindergarten kickoff events in which we joined with parents and educators to prepare their children for Kindergarten. More than 400 children and families from across the County participated, with waitlists suggesting significant interest and a role for libraries in learning readiness.

Our "Arlingtown" play community at Central Library — think re-purposed Amazon boxes, designed and decorated to look like the streets and neighborhoods of Arlington — hosts nearly 2,500 of our youngest readers per month. It is a joy for our staff to see what a little paper, scissors, paint and glue can do to spark the imagination of children.

We designed a community gifting project and collected gently used (and sometimes new) items for a free holiday shopping experience. We launched the Teleconnect Space at Columbia Pike Library to provide a free, private room for telehealth, social service appointments, job and college interviews.

We fully refreshed the collections and the spaces of the library inside the Detention Center and hosted programs featuring Arlington Reads authors. The free indoor and outdoor WiFi hot spots were used 1,600,000 times, nearly double from the year before. For the first time, we joined a nationwide effort to celebrate "Welcoming Week," announced by a proclamation by Board Chair Katie Cristol, which offered activities to bring together neighbors of all backgrounds.

How have we begun to train ourselves to listen to the stories around us and to increase our understanding of others?

There are many ways we come together as a community. By joining our weekly storytimes, signing up for a sewing class, attending a U.S. Citizenship or foreign language or English conversation class, participating in our Community Quilt project or joining our Summer and Winter Reading programs. You could also submit materials for the REAL Archives Project, or el Re-Encuentro de Arlington Latinos, designed to illustrate the rich, vibrant history of the Latino community in Arlington County.

We have stood "in the midst" of challenging social issues with our signature author talk program Arlington Reads. We have been doing this since 2006 with our first book "Digging to America" by Anne Tyler in which we had conversations on adoption, immigration and what it means to be "other," an "outsider."

So, the question remains, are we there yet?

During our event with Andrea Elliott, she said that to understand "does not mean that we have reached an ultimate truth. Rather it means that we have experienced enough of something new and something formerly unseen to be provoked, humbled, awakened, or even changed by it."

Not a destination, a journey.

As we close this year and anticipate the next, all of us at Arlington Public Library leave you with a promise:

We will keep paying attention. We will keep showing up. We will keep listening. And we will continue to stand in the midst of others.

Will you join us?

Signatue of Library Director Diane Kresh.

Diane KreshDirector, Arlington Public Library

Marking Arlington’s Border in Stone

You might know that Arlington was once a part of Washington D.C., but did you know that Arlington’s boundary stones are some of the country’s oldest federal monuments?

These stones were created as a result of the Residence Act of 1790, which gave President George Washington permission to select an area for a new Federal capital along the Potomac River.

To facilitate this deal, both Maryland and Virginia agreed to cede a section of land, with Virginia ceding much of what is now Arlington. Since 1731, the Virginia land had been designated as part of Fairfax County.

Washington selected the southernmost section of the Potomac River in order to include as much of Virginia and the city of Alexandria as possible. Although Arlington was largely rural at the time, Alexandria was one of the most important port cities in the region.

Boundary Stone No. 7 SW at Carlin Elementary School, photo 2022, CLH.

The Survey

Once the boundaries had been chosen, then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson appointed Major Andrew Ellicott to survey the 10 square mile area for an official border. Ellicott was chosen because he was one of the most prominent surveyors of the time and possessed some of the most advanced mapping equipment of the time period. He was joined by Benjamin Banneker, a free black man who had taught himself mathematics and astronomy.

The men set up camp at Jones Point, Alexandria and worked with a small team to chart the stars and complete the necessary calculations for drawing the borders.

Arlington at the time was mostly rural with dense forests, making surveying work extremely dangerous for the men in the field. Many suffered from the harsh climate, influenza, and one worker was even killed by a falling tree.

Chart showing the original boundary milestones of the District of Columbia / Fred E. Woodward (1906).
Image Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The First Stone

The first boundary stone was set up at Jones Point on April 15th, 1791. Ellicott and his team (now without Banneker, who had retired due to his health shortly after the first marker was placed), then began the process of placing the remaining 39 boundary stones across Virginia and Maryland.

Each stone was made of sandstone from Aquia Creek and placed at one-mile intervals. Engraved on each marker was “Jurisdiction of the United States”, with the accompanying state and year the stone was placed.

By the end of 1791, 14 stones had been placed in Virginia and the remaining 26 were erected in Maryland the following year. It would take another 10 years for the District of Columbia to be formally incorporated, with the federal capital remaining in Philadelphia until 1801.

The First Boundary Stone under Jones Point Lighthouse, Alexandria in 2010; Image Courtesy of Something Original at Wikipedia

Preservation Today

The stones would remain in place while the face of the city changed around them, often leading to some stones being buried or lost in the growth of nature. The section of Virginia that is now Arlington and Alexandria would remain as part of D.C. until 1847, when unhappy Virginia citizens forced the federal government to give the land back to the Commonwealth.

Boundary stone preservation efforts began in 1915, as the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) began placing iron cages around the remaining markers. Although some of the remaining monuments today lie on private property, there are 36 stones that can be visited across the D.C. area.

To explore the Boundary Stones online, visit the Boundary Stones of DC Story Map

Boundary Stone No. 9 SW at Benjamin Banneker Park, Arlington, photo 2022, CLH.

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Too Cool for Yule: #15

Photo of a vintage cassette and cover on a wooden surface.

For most of the years I have worked with Arlington Public Library, I have created a holiday playlist variously known as “Don’t Touch that Dial” or "Too Cool for Yule."

This annual tradition is deeply personal. It reminds me of the hundreds (thousands?) of hours I’ve spent over the years making mixtapes for friends, siblings, work colleagues, and often, just for me. Granted, with the likes of Spotify and iTunes, it’s a lot easier these days to put together a mixtape. No more painstaking searches through LPs, careful dropping of the stylus onto the correct groove, long waits by the radio to capture the perfect tune to fit the mood, person or occasion.

Like all art, holiday mixtapes tell a story. The best ones contain an eclectic blend of edgy and whimsical, happy and sad, a little silly, a little snappy, and occasionally, a little sappy. I had fun putting it together and I hope you have fun listening.

Open on Spotify

Every year I honor a few of the musicians who have left us. Norma Waterson, Loretta Lynn, Ronnie Spector, Jerry Lee Lewis … gone and not forgotten. And I close each list with a song I hope speaks to all of us. This year’s selection is Woody Guthrie’s "This Land" sung by the Staple Singers.

As 2022 winds down, take a break, grab a beverage, and give a listen to "Too Cool for Yule 2022." And don’t be shy about singing along. It will make you feel great.

From all of us at Arlington Public Library. Always Free. Always Open.

Diane Kresh
Director
Arlington Public Library

Scrawled signature of Diane Kresh

Read Outside the Lines

New Subscription Service

In 2023, let us help you expand your reading horizons! Explore new genres, subjects and voices with our new subscription service.

Have you thought about exploring a new genre or literature from a different culture but have no idea where to start? We have you covered.

Every month, two adult books will be placed on Central’s hold shelf for you to pick up. The books will be a surprise chosen by our biblio-experts on that month’s topic. Topics will include different genres, subjects and authors’ voices.

You’ll also get a monthly email full of further reading and resources, and even upcoming programs.

Don’t read what everyone else is reading — dare to read outside the lines. Always Free. Always Open. Always Personalized!

Learn More

New November Releases

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

We’re always thankful for books, and this month we’re especially grateful for these new titles!

Fans of Derry Girls will want to read "Factory Girls" by Michelle Gallen, a darkly comic novel set in 1994 about a group of friends working a summer job at a factory in Northern Ireland while waiting for their exam results. For a cozier read, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s "Before Your Memory Fades" is the third installment in the series that started with "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" about a coffee shop that lets you travel back in time for just a few minutes.

"Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World" by Malcolm Gaskill explores a witchcraft trial in Springfield, Massachusetts forty years before the Salem witch trials. Novelist Nick Hornby’s "Dickens and Prince: a Particular Kind of Genius" plays tribute to two artists who inspire him, drawing surprising parallels between novelist Charles Dickens and musician Prince, despite their more obvious differences.

Middle Grade readers will want to check out "Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston" by Esme Symes-Smith, the first in a new series about a a group for friends who have to fight the bigotry in their own kingdom before they can help defeat an encroaching evil.

Stevie has a grand plan and several friends to help her carry out a grand romantic gesture to win back her girlfriend Sola, but Atlanta is preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm. As they battle the weather, Stevie and Sola won’t be the only couple finding love on this cold night in "Whiteout," a heart-warming teen romance written by the dream team of Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk and Nicola Yoon.

Place Your Holds Now

Arlington Reads Engages Arlington And Beyond

Did you wish you had attended Arlington Reads with George Saunders last week? You still can! Watch his amazing author talk on YouTube, available through November 4.

While the event with Barbara Kingsolver has a waitlist, you can still RSVP for Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Andrea Elliott on Nov. 17.

Arlington Reads: Andrea Elliott

Thursday, Nov. 17, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Central Library

Join us for a conversation between Pulitzer Prize-winning author Andrea Elliott, Library Director Diane Kresh, and Department of Human Services Director Anita Friedman to discuss Elliott's book "Invisible Child."

The conversation will be followed by audience Q&A and a book signing. Books will be available for purchase during the event, courtesy of One More Page Books.

The free event will be livestreamed for registered attendees. There will be no recordings after the event has concluded.

RSVP

Arlington Reads: Barbara Kingsolver

On Tuesday, One More Page Books will present a conversation between acclaimed author Barbara Kingsolver and Library Director Diane Kresh. The author will discuss her new book, "Demon Copperhead."

The event registration is full, but One More Page Books has a waitlist.

Click here to see all our titles by Barbara Kingsolver in our catalog.

2023 Arlington Reads

In 2023, we are looking forward to a new Arlington Reads season, "Get Graphic," featuring an incredible lineup of graphic novel authors: Alison Bechdel (Mar. 9), Jerry Craft (Apr. 27), Gene Luen Yang (May 4), Art Spiegelman (Sep. 21) and Liana Finck (Oct. 19). Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

Arlington Reads is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.

Join Us for a 4-Part Graphic Novel Workshop Series

In collaboration with the DC Conspiracy, join three local DC comic book artists as they talk about their work, share resources with aspiring comic book artists and provide a hands-on approach into at the art of making comics.

For this 4-part series, local artists Santiago Casares, Evan Keeling and Hobbes Holluck will share their knowledge on the creative process of creating comics — from start to the finished product.

Each event builds on the previous workshop but can be attended as a stand-alone event as well. Sign up for one or more classes, or the whole series.

Register

Story Telling
Saturday, Oct. 29, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Registration required.
Comic artist Evan Keeling will discuss his artwork and provide a hands-on workshop for participants who want to write and storyboard their own sequential stories.

Line Drawing
Saturday, Nov. 5, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Registration required.
Evan Keeling will discuss his comic style and provide a hands-on workshop for participants who want to turn pencil artwork into reproducible ink drawings.

Coloring
Saturday, Nov. 12, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Registration required.
Comic artist Hobbes Holluck will discuss the process he uses to color his artwork and provide a hands-on workshop for participants who want to add color to their own line art.

Publishing
Saturday, Nov. 19, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Registration required.
In our fourth and final session of this mini-series, we will be joined by comic artist Santiago Casares, who will discuss his comics and how they were published while sharing how participants can use similar tools and resources to take the next step in mass-producing their own comic work.

About The Shop

The Shop is the Library’s makerspace, where people and ideas connect. Did you know that we have 3D printers, a 3D scanner, a laser cutter and more? All free.

Open Lab is a great time to work on personal or collaborative projects, get feedback or try something new. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and offer help. Come explore The Shop.

The Shop
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