Hey, if the Office of Tax and Revenue and the Department of Motor Vehicles can do it, why can't the D.C. Public Library? The city's bookmasters announced this morning that -- beginning December 5 and through February 5 -- they'll be launching their own amnesty program, forgiving fines on overdue, lost or damaged books, CDs, DVDs, and other materials. more ›

Move the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, or leave it be? How about splitting the difference? more ›

This morning, D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan announced that the city had come to a $6 million settlement with contractors who were renovating the Georgetown Public Library when a fire crippled the building on April 30, 2007. more ›

Imagine a season of Project Runway where almost none of the designers has ever used a sewing machine, one of the models becomes a winning designer, all the contestants are nice to each other -- and they're all in their teens. more ›

Turns out we weren't the only ones gushing over the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library, which opened in August -- the Wall Street Journal named the modern facility as one of its best buildings of the year. more ›

Mayor Adrian Fenty, along with D.C. Public Library Chief Ginnie Cooper and D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin, will cut the ribbon on the restored Georgetown Library this morning. The 75-year-old building, located at 3260 R Street NW, had suffered crippling fire damage in April 2007. (Officials claimed that efforts to fight the two-alarm blaze were hindered by low water pressure in hydrants around the library -- the actual cause of the fire is still not completely clear.) The library had been operating out of an interim location at 3307 M Street NW until September 13. The complete restoration project, which cost $23 million, included several upgrades to the facility -- a new third floor with a larger space for the Peabody Collection, an outdoor reading terrace overlooking Book Hill Park and restored woodwork. If you can't make it over to the library this week, there is a Grand Opening Party scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., where you can check out the new digs. more ›

Beginning November 1, D.C. Public Libraries -- except for Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library -- will no longer accept cash as payment for fines and late fees on borrowed materials. The change in policy is due to a new District law which requires armored vehicles to come and retrieve all city revenue from government buildings; obviously, it wouldn't really be cost-effective for DCPL to pay for armored cars to show up at every single one of its libraries to pick up the small amount of money that they collect. (The late fee on books: a whopping twenty cents per day.) But, really, those of you who are reading this right now shouldn't need to ever pay a late fee -- you can extend the amount of time you can hold your borrowed materials pretty easily online here. more ›

When I say "library," what's the first thing that comes to mind, other than books? Is it an old librarian? Card catalogs? That dusty smell that comes off rows and rows of paperbacks, some of which haven't been cracked opened in years? Kind of boring, yeah? Well, the brand new Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library is a place that has the potential to erase all of those associations. That's probably because, well, it's not really just a library. more ›

The Mt. Pleasant Interim Library will reopen on Saturday, May 15, following the completion of repairs to a wall next to the building's rear exit, library officials announced. more ›

Someone driving an SUV managed to crash into the rear of the Mt. Pleasant Interim Library this afternoon, damaging the rear exit of the building. D.C. Public Libraries spokesperson George Williams said the library is currently closed while authorities assess the situation. more ›

The long-awaited overhaul of the Mount Pleasant Library is just about to begin. The building as it currently exists will lend its last book at 5:30 p.m. on March 27, and will then be closed for about 17 months. more ›

The Petworth Interim Library officially opened on Jan. 11, and the librarians there say they're getting settled in pretty well at this point. The interior of the 4,500 sq. ft. portable space has been painted bright yellow and teal, 20 computers connected to the internet are up and running, and a shipment of new chairs arrived today. more ›

The D.C. Public Library launched a redesigned web site today, and it appears to a substantial upgrade from its previous version. Check it out for yourself at www.dclibrary.org. more ›

The Examiner reports today that there's a little bit of controversy brewing over the design for the new Washington Highlands public library branch in Southwest. No big surprise there: when it comes to public libraries in the District, suddenly everyone's an architecture critic. The main arguments presented in the Examiner story seem to be that the design, by famous British architect David Adjaye, is just too weird and doesn't "fit the neighborhood." Presumably, the ANC commissioner quoted in the story would rather have some kind of more classical, square brick building that blends in with the rowhouses around it. Personally, I think it looks pretty rad, but that's the thing about aesthetics, I guess. You can't ever please everyone. more ›

Renovations at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library branch are now underway, as We Love D.C. noted yesterday, so we checked in with folks at the D.C. Public Library to see how things are coming along. more ›

The Associated Press is reporting that D.C. Public Library Director Ginnie Cooper has already formally decided to reduce hours at the city's libraries, effective March 2. It was just yesterday that Cooper was merely considering a reduction in service in order to address mounting budget constraints. A message on the DCPL web site still says the reduced library hours are just a possibility. more ›

Earlier this afternoon D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty made his first public appearance in several days (since re-injuring his fractured foot) to announce that he had secured funding to keep the D.C. Public Library system open full-time. more ›

So the D.C. Public Library system is facing a $2 million reduction in next year's staff budget. The word is that all city libraries will probably have to close on Fridays, as well as reduce hours on weekdays and close completely five kiosk branches that serve needy neighborhoods. This is bad news. Mayor Fenty has said, however, that he is committed to finding the money to keep the libraries open at their normal hours. more ›