After a two-year renovation, the Mt. Pleasant Public Library is ready to open its doors.

Photo by ewilfong 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. There will be an interim library erected in a trailer in a storefront at 3164 Mount Pleasant St. NW, but that won’t open until April 19, as library staff will need a…

View from the lower level of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library branch, currently under construction. The entrance pictured will lead to the children’s room, which will be located under a new reading terrace. Image courtesy DCPL. 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. DCPL spokesperson George Williams took…

Authors Matthew Gilmore and Andrew Brodie Smith dug through a wealth of treasures at the Library of Congress and in the D.C. public libraries to produce Historic Photos of Washington, D.C.. Gilmore and Smith will be at Candida’s World of Books tonight to sign their weighty book. Though certainly an attractive book for anyone with a coffee table, Historic Photos is also a gem for local history buffs, with nearly 200 photos that span…

Of all the city government’s agencies and departments, it’s usually the big names that get the lions share of criticism from residents. The schools, the DMV, the public libraries, the Department of Public Works — it’s these that we’re all quick to point to as proof of government incompetence. But with the fire that destroyed an entire building in Adams Morgan on Monday, it was the Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) that came under fire…

Good morning, Washington. It’s the last Friday in July, and we can already feel the impending doom and gloom of D.C.’s traditional No News August, a time when the Washington Post publishes lengthy ruminations on humidity and local TV news begins investigating whether your children’s toy water guns are really safe. But as if feeling the need to grant us one last interesting Friday before the new month begins, D.C. Council member Harry Thomas…

On December 30, 2004, D.C. Public Libraries closed four branches — the Anacostia, Benning, Tenley-Friendship and Watha T. Daniel/Shaw neighborhood branches — announcing replacement libraries in 18 months. That schedule was upended by DCPL management changes, leaving those communities without functioning libraries, and D.C. residents everywhere complaining about the sad state of a city that seemed to have the wrong priorities. But over the last few months, things have started to turn around. First, interim…

They may be short on books, under-staffed, and generally depressing, but the District’s public libraries are now all Wi-Fi hotspots. In late May the Georgetown branch announced it was the first public library in the city to offer free Wi-Fi, and now the remaining 20 branches and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library will similarly do so. The District’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the D.C. Public Library’s Information and Telecommunications Office worked…

Just as the leaves turning lets us know that autumn is upon us, the multitude of campaign signs littering city streets, yards, and lamposts reminds us that an election is soon to come. The Washington Times this weekend uncovered the simmering frustration some voters have with the signs, most of which are increasing in almost exponential fashion as election-time nears. We love politics, but even we have to admit that we’re ready for the…

The District’s public library system may be bad enough that the person tapped to lead it will be paid more than the mayor, but at least it’s moving into the 21st century. Through a post on D.C. Watch’s twice-weekly online newsletter we find that the public library’s branch in Georgetown has recently launched its own Wi-Fi network, part of a larger plan to offer free wireless internet access in 20 public libraries around the city…