Falls Church City Community Center, 223 Little Falls Street. Near the intersection of Route 7 and Lee Highway in Falls Church.

Friday, April 13….9 am-9 pm.  Saturday, April 14….9 am-4 pm.

November 14, 2011
   
For the fourth year in a row, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library in the City of Falls Church has been named one of the best public libraries in the U.S. by the Library Journal.  The City library is one of only 262 top libraries out of 7,513 public libraries in the country to receive “star” ratings in a rating system similar to that used in the Michelin Guide.  The City library received four stars out of five (up from three stars the first two years of the award) and is one of only three libraries in the state to be chosen this year.

The public library national rating system rates libraries with expenditures of $10,000 or more that serve populations of at least 1,000.  Ratings are based on four per-capita service indicators:  library visits, circulation, program attendance, and public Internet computer uses.

For more information about the Star Library program visit the Library Journal website.  For  more information about the Mary Styles Public Library, visit its website or call 703-248-5035.

Click Read More to access links.

October 30, 2011

The Library will launch its new downloadable ebook service on Wednesday, November 16.  Over 1000 titles will initially be available, covering all age groups (children, teens, and adults) and a wide range of topics and genres, including general fiction, mystery, romance, fantasy, biography, history, religion, essays..and much more.  New titles will also be added each week. 

The downloadable eBooks will be compatible with most standard reading devices like Nooks, Sony Readers, iPads/iPhones, and Android phones and tablets.  Many will also be compatible with Kindles!

More information will be available about this new service as the launch date approaches.  Until then, please feel free to visit the Reference Desk or call 703-248-5035 with questions

November book discussions include The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara on Thursday, November 3, and Second Epilogue to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy on Tuesday, November 8.

Details on these and many other November events are available in the Library’s monthly newsletter.

October 4, 2011

In support of local food banks and shelters, the library will conduct its annual “Food for Fines” drive from Sunday, October 23 through Saturday, October 29.

October family events include Twilight Tales for Halloween on Wednesday, October 26 and Halloween Magic with Wes Iseli on Saturday, October 29

Book discussions include Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham on Thursday, October 6 and A Defence of Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Tuesday, October 11.

Details on these and other October events are available at the library’s website.

August 31, 2011

September book discussions include City of Thieves by David Benioff on Thursday, September 1 and Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal Omar on Tuesday, September 13.

Story hours resume in the Youth Services Room on Monday, September 12.

A special story hour will be held on “Talk Like a Pirate Day”, Monday, September 19.

Details on these and other events are available in the library’s monthly newsletter.

August 2, 2011

The library’s website is being redesigned and folded into the official City of Falls Church site, which will – once the redesign is complete – provide easier, more direct access to both library and City services.  During the redesign, which should take a few more weeks, patrons will not be able to access library services and information through www.fallschurchva.gov/library web address. Instead, a temporary page with basic information has been mounted on the City of Falls Church web site.

August  book discussions include Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison (August 4) and The Great Wall of Lucy Wuwith author Wendy Shang (August 9, ages 9-18).

Sunday hours, reinstated July 10, continue, however the library is now closed Wednesday mornings.

The Local History Room is only accessible by appointment. (To schedule an appointment to use the Local History Room, please stop by the Reference Desk or call 703-248-5035).

The book signing, which will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday September 15 at One More Page Books, 2200 Westmoreland Street, will spotlight “Elly Peterson: ‘Mother’ of the Moderates,” written by Sara Fitzgerald. The event is free and open to the public.

Peterson was a leading figure in moderate Republican politics in the 1960s and 1970s. She was an early leader of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and later served as co-chair, with Liz Carpenter, of ERAmerica, the coalition of organizations, including the League, that worked for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1976, she served as deputy chairman of the Gerald R. Ford’s presidential campaign, at that time the highest professional job a woman had held in a presidential campaign. She was the first woman to chair a state party organization for the Republicans, ran for a U.S. Senate seat from Michigan in 1964, and twice served as assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee.

When Peterson stepped down from the RNC in 1970, the late David S. Broder wrote: “It is, I think, accurate to say that her abilities would have earned her the national chairmanship were it not for the unwritten sex barrier that both parties have erected around that job.  Certainly, her organizational talents made her views as respected and her advice as sought-after among her colleagues in the party as anyone in the past decade. . . .”

Fitzgerald, a former editor at The Washington Post, earned a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan and was the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily, the campus newspaper. Her work on the book included personal interviews with Peterson before her death in 2008. Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Haynes Johnson contributed a Foreward to the biography.

July 1, 2011

New hours start today. The library will still be open 64 hours each week but with the following changes:

Sunday hours, which were suspended in FY11 because of budget cuts, will be reinstated starting July 10.

In order to reinstate Sunday hours, the library will be closed Wednesday mornings.

The Local History Room will no longer have regular hours but will instead be accessible by appointment. (To schedule an appointment to use the Local History Room, please stop by the Reference Desk or call 703-248-5035).

The library will be closed Sunday, July 3, and Monday, July 4 for Independence Day..

July events at the libary include Peter McCrory’s One Man Band on July 6, Waiting for Harry Potter on July 11, and Didgeridoo Down Under on July 21.

Details on these and other July events are available in the library’s newsletter.   [click on Read More to access]

June 1, 2011

June book discussions in June include The Helpby Kathryn Stockett (June 2) and Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Artby Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (June 7).

A reception to celebrate the life of TJ teacher Carey Rainey Gray will be held June 18, at 10:00 am.

Summer reading registration begins on Monday, June 20.

Details of these and other events are available in the Library’s monthly newsletter.

Opening Thursday, May 12, running through Saturday May 14^th.  Curtain is at 7:30.  Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.

George Mason High School Auditorium, 7124 Leesburg Pike.