Arlington Public Library

News

Connection: Crystal City Pop-up Library Closing December 27, 2019

Thank You for Three Great Years

After 3 years in Crystal City, the Connection Pop-up Library will close its doors on December 27, 2019.

The Library would like to thank everyone who has supported the Connection Pop-up Library and the staff who have worked there.

The Connection opened its doors in September of 2016 and was planned as a temporary pop-up project designed to integrate the Library into the daily lives of Arlington residents in Crystal City. This closure is a mutual decision between the County and the landlord, JBG, and was written into the leasing agreement.

Connection patrons are encouraged to use the Aurora Hills Branch Library, located 0.8 miles west on 18th Street, behind Fire Station 5.

Please note the following dates, which may affect your service:

  • Tuesday, Dec. 3 - Connection: Crystal City can no longer be chosen as a location for new holds.
  • Friday, Dec. 20 - External book drop closes.
  • Saturday, Dec. 21 - Last day to pick up holds at the Connection. Any holds arriving after December 21 will be routed to the Aurora Hills Branch.

If you would like to change your location to a different branch, please speak with a staff member.

Serving our Communities in Ever Evolving Ways

Pop-ups allow libraries to innovate, engage with new users and experiment with new service models. The Library and staff are very grateful for the opportunities we had in Crystal City.

Thank you for your continued support of Arlington Public Library.

Make Your Holiday Shopping Easy with Consumer Reports

Looking for the Perfect Gift?

wife leaning over husband to give him a hug as he opens a gift

Each year Consumer Reports’ experts test thousands of the latest products and services, to bring you buying recommendations you can trust.

And it's free with your library card!

Explore Consumer Reports Now

Use the Library’s online subscription to get test results, ratings, reviews and buying guides on everything from coffee makers, bike helmets and treadmills, to airlines, home security systems and car insurance.

This year's Holiday Guide also includes the best Black Friday deals on robotic vacuums, TVs, mattresses, cars and refrigerators.

Craft Swap at Columbia Pike Branch: Monday, December 9

Have yarn that’s knit your style? Maker space looking a little messy? Acrylics accruing in the corner?

Bring your unwanted craft and art supplies to swap out for someone else’s!

All materials should be clean and in good condition. The library does not guarantee availability.

All leftover supplies will be donated to library programming, so you don’t have to take anything home!

RSVP for an event reminder; attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Become A Home Owner: Tuesday, December 3

Learn how to begin your new home search.

Melissa Cabral of Fairway Mortgage Corporation will walk you through the initial steps of the pre-approval process; from gathering documents to choosing a realtor and honing in on your ideal neighborhood. She will explain the difference between receiving a pre-approval vs. pre-qualification and how much stronger an offer is from a buyer with a bonafide pre-approval letter. She will also go through the ins and outs of a buyer’s credit history and show you ways to bump up your score. Yes, there are programs for most types of credit situations – perfect credit is not necessary!

RSVP for an event reminder; attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Library Director’s 2019 Playlist

Forever "Too Cool for Yule"

Years ago I began creating a holiday playlist each November, known variously as “Don’t Touch that Dial,” the “Too Cool for Yule” blog, and more simply, the Director’s Playlist.

Each playlist is a collection of seasonal tunes -- from schlock (hopefully not too much of that) to rock and everything in between. By now we have managed to amass quite an eclectic set of “mix tapes.” This year is no exception.

Before you start clicking and singing along, however, a couple of explanatory notes (pun intended) are in order:

Peter Tork (born Torkelson in 1942 in Washington, DC) died earlier this year.  Known as the keyboardist and bass player of The Monkees, Tork, along with Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones, formed the mid-sixties American answer to the Beatles and over the course of their career sold over 75 million records worldwide.  Not bad for a made for TV band (track 5).

Soul singer Roberta Flack (track 13) was raised in Arlington, and rose to prominence singing upstairs at Mr. Henry’s, the Capitol Hill bar and restaurant.  Established in 1966 by Henry Jaffe, within two years Jaffe hired a local school teacher to sing in the pub. “She told me that if I could give her work three nights a week, she could quit teaching,” Jaffe later recalled.  The singer, none other than Roberta Flack, would go on to win four Grammys for the songs “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

I’ve closed this playlist as I did last year’s list with a song by Bob Dylan whose lyrics are as relevant today as they were when he wrote them. Released as the title track of his 1964 album of the same name, “The Times they are a Changin'” was Dylan’s attempt to create an anthem of change. Read through the lyrics and see if you agree.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Open playlist in Spotify

Whether you eat Chinese food and see a movie on Christmas Day, attend a church, binge watch “Mindhunter,” curl up with a good book or board game you borrowed from the library, or sit quietly with your thoughts, all of us at Arlington Public Library wish you and yours the very best.

Diane

Scrawled DK signature

Transgender Day of Remembrance – November 20

Read About Transgender Lives

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

buttons in the colors of the Transgender flag

The week before TDOR, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise visibility for transgender people and address issues the community faces.

You can learn more about transgender lives with these recent memoirs by trans authors:

Transgender Day of Remembrance was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester's death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

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