Arlington Public Library To Develop Strategy, Vision For New Period Of Growth

ARLINGTON, VA — With its newly renovated Courthouse library branch scheduled to open later this month and firm plans in place for a new full-service library to open in Crystal City in 2025, Arlington County now wants to take a look at the overall direction and vision of the county library system that could guide the library's growth over the next few decades.

Arlington Public Library leadership will be meeting with officials from the county manager’s office later in 2023 to discuss how the library can best provide services in the decades ahead and how the locations of the county’s library branches can best meet the needs of county residents.

“In the second half of 2023, the County Manager’s Office and Arlington Public Library leadership will engage with the community in longer-term strategic discussions about these issues and how to best provide library services in a changed and changing environment,” Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz said in his message included in the county’s fiscal year 2024 proposed budget.

In these meetings, officials will likely discuss how to prioritize competing needs of new locations, established locations, a sustainable budget for library collections, and a staffing model that provides the highest level of reliability and service for residents, according to Schwartz.

“The public library plays a pivotal role in leveling the playing field of opportunity and providing free access to all community members regardless of income or status,” Schwartz wrote. “Using data and an equity lens framework, the strategic discussion will look at how current and future library services and locations can best meet the needs of all Arlington residents, today and in the future.”

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Any recommendations that come out of the 2023 meetings could be included in the county’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, according to the county manager.

Schwartz emphasized that Arlington County remains committed to its libraries, "a highly valued and trusted resource in the community."

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent labor market issues hit library services particularly hard due to an over-reliance on temporary employees, according to the county manager. Now that the libraries are back to regular service, the county manager is recommending a review of future facility and materials funding for the system.

Arlington’s population has grown from 135,449 in 1950 to an estimated 235,500 in 2022. A lot of this growth has occurred in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor and the Richmond Highway Corridor. Together with the Columbia Pike Corridor, 84 percent of Arlington’s population growth is forecast to occur in these three planning corridors between 2020 and 2045, according to the county manager.

Since 1950, though, the general siting of Arlington public library locations has remained largely unchanged. In 1950, the library locations in Arlington were Aurora Hills, Cherrydale, Clarendon (now Central), Columbia Pike, Glencarlyn, Fairlington (now Shirlington), and Westover.

Aside from the remodeled and expanded Courthouse library scheduled to open in March inside the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center, the most recent change to the county’s libraries was the Westover library moving in 2009 from its cozy location on 18th Street N. to a larger building at the corner of N. McKinley Road and Washington Blvd., next to the new Cardinal Elementary School.

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“After nearly 15 years, Arlington Public Library is about to embark on a time of growth, which brings the opportunity to reach new and more Arlington residents with library services,” Schwartz wrote in his county manager’s message in the budget proposal.

As part of this growth, the county will be looking at the future of the Columbia Pike library branch. With Arlington Public Schools’ planned expansion of the Arlington Career Center building, which has housed the Columbia Pike library since 1975, the county purchased just under an acre at 3108 Columbia Pike in 2022.

The location is identified as a potential site for a future Columbia Pike library and for co-locating affordable housing, one of the county’s top priorities, Schwartz wrote. The site on Columbia Pike currently has a surface parking lot.

As for currently approved plans, the newly renovated library in the Bozman building’s lobby will offer children’s services for the first time and offer similar hours to the county's other neighborhood-based locations, including evening and Saturday hours.

As part of a residential redevelopment project, JBG Smith is financially supporting a new 7,200-square-foot library location at 1901 S. Bell Street in Crystal City. The full-service library is scheduled to open in 2025.

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