Libraries provide a safe space and “third place” for community members to engage in meaningful programs, access vital information, and connect with their neighbors. Each day, we see the real impact that the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System (PGCMLS) has across the county. The Library Check-In is a seasonal newsletter that tells the stories of that impact.
On this page, you will read about news, events, and happenings related to the individual communities and neighborhoods served by PGCMLS’ 19 branch libraries. Click here for general feature stories that show the ways in which PGCMLS serves the entirety of Prince George’s County.
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Thank you for being a part of our Library story — dive in and enjoy!
For more than a decade, PGCMLS has hosted a number of young workers through the county’s Summer Youth Enrichment Program (SYEP). This year, SYEP participants posted at the Oxon Hill, Upper Marlboro, Largo-Kettering, Spauldings, Greenbelt, and Accokeek branch libraries gained job skills, built workplace readiness, and learned how to collaborate with PGCMLS staff and peers while exploring a public library career path.
At the Accokeek Branch Library, lead branch Librarian Johanna James was excited to have a student worker, Layla, who already had some awareness of a public library career through a family member who had worked at the DC Public Library. This gave the Accokeek team more flexibility with assigned work tasks, with Layla able to jump into some program support on top of the basic circulation and pick-list tasks more typical to SYEP positions.
“We were so impressed by how much of a help she was — how much she stepped up and stepped in wherever we needed her,” Johanna says. From assisting on one staff member’s “DIY Shrinky Dink Keychain” craft program to supporting another on storytimes, Layla got high praise from Accokeek branch staff across the board. She also took a lot of program photos — for a smaller branch like Accokeek, this is a huge bonus!
Johanna is looking forward to working with SYEP students again in the future. Thank you to all 2026 SYEP workers and host branches for another great summer!
In July, the Baden Branch Library’s always-packed Thursday morning storytime was devoted to learning about the Chesapeake blue crab!
In a first-time engagement with PGCMLS, an educator from CoreShark H2O joined the branch with two live specimens for kids to observe and interact with.
After listening to a brief lecture about the anatomical differences of male and female crabs, kids enthusiastically answered all quiz questions put in front of them, then waited patiently for their turn to pet the shell of the chilled-and-sleepy male crab as it was brought around the program space. Several kids even came back for a second round!
In late July, the excitement, teamwork, and gameplay strategy of the World Cup made its way to the Beltsville Branch Library with a “STEM Fun” program that invited families to make their own foosball tables using cardboard boxes, plastic dowels, and miniature clothespins.
Tasked with engineering and accurately measuring out the field, then designing and installing both opposing “teams,” participants got to practice their skills in strategic thinking, engineering, and collaboration. And then they walked away with working foosball tables!
In the lead-up to this year’s “Unearth a Story” summer library challenge, the Friends of the Bladensburg Library donned a set of inflatable dinosaur costumes and led a prehistoric parade throughout the branch. “I suspect the baby will search for the dinosaurs during subsequent visits!” said Bladensburg Branch lead Librarian Debra Capponi.
These puffy dinos heralded a summer filled with fun storytime, craft, and STEM programs — including a visit from Eco Adventures in June that gave kids the opportunity to get up close and personal with some modern-day dinosaur relatives, including lizards, a parrot, and a giant yellow Burmese python!
In early summer, a dozen Bowie High School theater students trucked a hand cart filled with foam blocks over to the auditorium at the Bowie Branch Library to put on the first ever public performance of their adaptation of Cori Doerrfeld’s “The Rabbit Listened.” Dressed in animal-ear headbands and matching drama-closet finds, the high schoolers delighted their storytime audience with a fifteen-minute production that they had designed intentionally to be both simple and interactive.
A favorite of the county’s Books from Birth families, “The Rabbit Listened” is the second title adapted by students in Ms. Bowen’s “Theater for Young Audiences” (TYA) program, following last year’s production of “Dandelion Magic” by Darren Farrell.
“We had to think about how we could do justice to the book,” said BHS student Maya ahead of the performance. Maya was cast as the Elephant in this year’s production, and, as a veteran of the TYA program, used her experience from “Dandelion Magic” to help make sure that this year’s script would be ready to meet the real-world unpredictability of their young audience. “We added a lot of space for breaks for them to react, [and] had to remind everybody that kids are going to say things on the fly that might throw you off, so you have to be able to improv your way through it.”
This turned out to be important prep, as members of the young audience remained on stage participating enthusiastically with the teens’ animal characters throughout the entire production.
“It was a lot more than I thought [it would be]!” said Maya’s fellow TYA veteran Hannah (Chicken) after the show. “I didn’t expect to see all the kids on the stage when I walked on, but you just have to be ready to adapt!”
“It was about trying to make what we were saying adapt to what was around us, and what the kids were saying,” added Myles (Bear), a first-time YTA student.
Giving the theater students a chance to demonstrate their improv skills in action, one of the pre-school-aged kids who’d joined them on stage for the whole show came back up to join the debrief interview. She liked the performance, she affirmed, and thought they did a great job making a book she had read real. Indicating that Hyena was her favorite character, she got a fist bump, then headed back offstage.
“It was really refreshing to see all the people that come to things like this,” said Maya, about getting to bring another performance to the Bowie Branch Library this season. “You don’t always expect there to be a lot of people, but there [were] a lot of people here today. It’s nice to see that there’s that community, that it’s just a fun thing to do! Having that connection with the library, with it right next to our school where we can just come right over, is so nice.”
For more photos from “The Rabbit Listened,” along with photos from the “Ready 2 Read” storytime that immediately preceded it, check out the PGCMLS Flickr.
On August 6, the Fairmount Heights Branch Library hosted “The Maker’s Corner Debut,” a makerspace showcase in the branch’s top-floor Dream Lab. In addition to the Dream Lab’s own team, other makerspace-fluent staff came out from the Laurel, Glenarden, and Bladensburg branches to support. Several dozen attendees packed into each session throughout the day, and more than 170 people ended up coming out overall!
From noon to the end of the day, PGCMLS staff led presentations that introduced all of the cool tools and equipment available to the community for free with a PGCMLS library card. Community members from South Bowie, Greenbelt, and further were in attendance, called to check out the creative tools available to them at the Dream Lab.
“We live at library programs through the summer,” said one Greenbelt mom who had two teenagers and a toddler in tow. “This was something we absolutely couldn’t miss!”
For the first half of the day, attendees concentrated in the Makerspace studio, where they learned about creating files for 3D printing, using the Cricut machine to make unique T-shirt designs, and operating the laser engraver. Later in the day, the showcase moved to the recording studio space, where PGCMLS staff broke out their instruments and customers were shown how to use the Lab’s professional audio engineering and podcasting equipment.
“It was so cool!” shared one attendee on Instagram after the event was over. “I made an appointment to come back and try [the equipment] again next week!”
For more photos from the Maker’s Corner showcase, check out the PGCMLS Flickr.
A nationwide initiative derived from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Books from Birth funds a free book each month to the homes of children ages 0-5 in Prince George's County, starting them on a life-long literacy journey. Since the PGCMLS Books from Birth program’s launch in 2017, the Library has provided over 1.3 million free books to children in the county, and has consistently stood as the most active Imagination Library program in the state of Maryland, providing our littlest community members with books — and memories — to last a lifetime.
This has certainly been the case for two-time Books from Birth parent and longtime PGCMLS staff member Jisselle Vides, who works today as a clerical aide at the Glenarden Branch Library. Her oldest child, Caspian, recently received his final Books from Birth book… just in time for her youngest, Sammy, to receive his very first one!
“It was so exciting for Caspian to get each new book in the mail every month, and now he is excited to start reading to Sammy as he gets his books,” Jisselle shared during a family visit to the Glenarden branch on her off day. “When we got Sammy’s first book, it triggered a memory for all of us of when Caspian was a baby, and it was like, oh my gosh, this is really special. Because when we'd gotten his last book, the kindergarten one, I was like, oh, this is it!”
Caspian echoed these happy memories, showing off the pages of his favorite Books from Birth title (Dolly Parton’s “I Am a Rainbow”) while talking about how he has especially loved having his parents read with him every night before bed.
“I think Books from Birth has really brought us closer together as a family, particularly with the nightly storytime,” said Jisselle. “Mommy and Daddy reading to Caspian makes him so happy, and especially when I was pregnant with Sammy, we made it a point to do that nightly.”
Now that it’s baby brother Sammy who is getting books in the mail every month, Caspian has started to flourish in his big-brother storytime role. “Oh, it melts my heart when I see Caspian reading to Sammy!” she said, noting that “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is Sammy’s favorite. “It will be interesting to see how their love of reading flourishes [because of this program].”
Jisselle has always been aware of what a valuable and unique opportunity Books from Birth is for Prince George's County residents, but was recently reminded of how true that is when a family member in another Maryland county shared her jealousy of Jisselle’s access to the PGCMLS Books from Birth program. “How beautiful to be able to receive all these books in the mail!” Jisselle said. “Gosh, it is really special.”
A system-wide favorite, the “STEM Fun: Ozobots” program is designed to make coding accessible and exciting to kids of all ages and programming backgrounds — even if that background is drawing with different colored markers!
“They like to call it ‘screen-free coding,’” explains Greenbelt Branch Library Associate Matt Hartman, who brought Ozobots back to the Greenbelt branch in July. Built to operate like miniature robotic cars that use sensitive optical sensors to follow courses drawn in black, red, blue, or green marker, Ozobots give kids a way to bring creativity to STEM. “It’s so tactile as a way of introducing programming to kids in a way that can get them away from a screen and get them really enjoying something that kids have loved for a long time: tiny moveable cars!”
Following the program, one parent called the branch back to share the impact it had made on his kids. “They would not stop talking about it on the drive home!” he told Matt. “And they can’t wait for the next one.”
In late May, the Hillcrest Heights Branch Library hosted PGCMLS’ second Early Learning Media Ambassadors (ELMA) cohort for a fun and engaging “Ready 2 Read STEM” program designed around the PBS program, “Lyla in the Loop.”
Preschoolers and their caregivers learned collaboration and perspective-taking while also discovering various ways to engage with their children through play, outside of screentime. Future ELMA programs will be held this year at the Largo-Kettering, Hyattsville, and Oxon Hill branch libraries.
In June, early learners got another opportunity to learn and play while celebrating Summer Prince George’s 2026, exploring dinosaurs, and playing games at a special “Playday: Diggy Dino” program. Using colored construction paper, kids crafted unique, moveable dinosaur eggs to take home!
On July 22, the Maryland State Library Agency’s 2026 Summer Reading Road Trip made a trip to the Hyattsville Branch Library for a fun “Kids Create: Prehistoric Paintings” program in the art room. Kids from preschool to late high school had a great time learning about the history of prehistoric human creativity, including the kinds of arts and crafts tools used to make art before the invention of crayons!
After the presentation, attendees used chalk, pencils, and watercolor to make fun geometric cave designs of their own. PGCMLS was pleased to host the MSLA for a stop on their Summer Reading Road Trip — MSLA video available here
Each summer, the Largo-Kettering Branch Library flips into “Playday” mode, inviting its storytime community to come together to socialize and play outside while learning new things. As part of the branch’s “Unearth a Story” Summer Prince George’s celebration, one of this year’s playday themes was “Dinosaur Scavenger Hunt,” where families were invited to race around the closed parking lot to find hidden images, play field games, and unearth treasures from a tray of sand like an archaeologist!
Between its prehistoric mascot aquarium and dinosaur-themed children’s area, the Laurel Branch Library celebrates dinos year-round — so it’s perhaps no surprise that when this year’s “Unearth a Story” Summer Prince George’s theme launched, the whole branch was ready to level up!
In June, kids were invited to contribute to
During the Summers we put out the Stick TOgether poster that has 1mil little squares, squares have letters that correspond to color of sticker
Later in the summer, Laurel Branch Library Associate Alexis Cole put her 3D-printing skills to work — first by printing a dinosaur lightbox to send over to colleagues at the Beltsville Branch Library, then by creating dinosaur-themed fidgets and keychains as prizes for one of the branch’s always-popular all-ages scavenger hunts.
“We’ve been doing these regularly since maybe 2023, and it’s just become really popular,” Alexis says. “Families are always coming around to the info desk to look for the latest scavenger hunt to play, especially when we have 3D-printed prizes available.” For the summer hunt, Laurel branch staff also buried some dinosaur plates in sand in a kiddie pool for kids to dig around for. They had a great time!
In late August, the Library2Go team took the Career Connector vehicle all the way to the DC News Now studio in Georgetown to film a promotional “Living Local DMV” interview with Charis Gomez. Library2Go Program Coordinator Amanda Ashley spoke to Charis both in the “Living Local DMV” studio and out “on location” inside the Library2Go vehicle, itself.
Both parts of the “Living Local DMV” interview can be streamed on-demand from the DC News Now website and YouTube channel. To see where the Librar2Go: Career Connector team is headed next, check out their calendar on the PGCMLS website.
Local wildlife education organization Echoes of Nature returned to the Mount Rainier community this summer for another exciting day of learning about the natural world — this time, featuring bugs!
One of the biggest bugs the kids got to interact with was the giant African millipede, an arthropod whose ancestors shared hunting ground with dinosaurs.
“The Echoes of Nature facilitator did an excellent job ensuring that interested audience members got a chance to look at or touch the different creatures!” says Mount Rainier Branch Librarian Caitlin Clark. “As she walked around the room with the millipede in her hand, it stayed very still and kids approached it with excitement and sometimes a bit of joyful hesitation.”
Caitlin shares that most attendees — kids and adults alike — chose to closely examine and touch the creatures when given the opportunity.
“Between the millipede and the hissing cockroach that audience members were invited to meet, I think everyone felt a bit braver around bugs after the presentation!”
A bustling neighborhood hub, the New Carrollton Branch Library spent its summer inviting community members of all ages and interests to participate in a variety of engaging and educational programming.
On one particularly hot afternoon in July, the branch saw the whole range of experiences side by side. In one activity room, kids crafted cardboard cars to sit in while watching a “Drive-In” screening of Disney’s “Toy Story.” Next door, at the weekly “Needlework Social” program, a local family had joined branch staff and program regulars for their second ever crochet lesson from New Carrollton Branch Library Associate Claudia Parra.
“This is such a bright spot in my week,” one “Needlework Social” regular said, sharing how appreciative she is of the relationships she has been able to build with community members of all ages through the Library, based on a shared love of crochet.
“We were so excited to learn that there was a free program like this,” added the family there for their second session, who also appreciated that they could participate bilingually, in both English and Spanish.
This variety of programming, all available on a single summer evening, is part of what makes the New Carrollton Branch Library such a valued resource in the community!
This spring and summer was a celebration of community and art at the Oxon Hill Branch Library.
In June, two of the branch’s most active weekly crafting groups came together for a celebration of the Foundry, a specialized programming space that reopened to the public following renovation in December 2024.
“That was the time we rolled back two popular programs, Sewing Club and Crochet Club, which were shut down due to COVID,” shares Oxon Hill Branch Library Manager Michelle Cavanaugh. “A year and a half later, we have now offered hundreds of programs in the Foundry — our community just loves this beautiful and innovative space!”
To celebrate one and a half years of community building and craft making since the Foundry reopened, the two programs held a joint exhibit and reception where members of both clubs were invited to share their art, make new connections, and encourage and inspire each other through their love of both crafting and the Oxon Hill Branch Library.
A piece of the special joint exhibit that stood out for Michelle was a pair of projects from two Crochet Club regulars — a neat drawstring bag by Eliza, an adult with developmental disabilities, and a sweet strawberry pie pillow by Eliza’s caregiver, Colleen. “Eliza loves to sew, and is at the branch nearly every week!” shares Michelle.
Meanwhile, starting in April, the Oxon Hill Branch Library’s gallery space in the south foyer started showcasing artwork by branch security guard Nick Liggins. A longtime lover of both art and music who splits his free time between making paintings, creating metal sculptures, and playing in a rock band, Liggins has a deep portfolio that he has been so excited to share with the Library community.
“As you can see, I don’t paint every day, I hate art, and I hate Jimi Hendrix!” Liggins said during a tour of his first exhibit, while showing photos of the step-by-step process behind the creation of one of his many Jimi Hendrix paintings. Liggins, who does in fact work on his art every single day before coming into the Library for his afternoon security shift, finds inspiration in all corners — Hendrix makes a frequent appearance on his canvas as a subject, but you are just as likely to see a landscape, an animal portrait, an abstract collage, or even an ode to 20th-century masters like Picasso, Pollock, or Basquiat sharing wall space at his library exhibitions.
“I wanted to have a little bit of each genre,” he said about his curation strategy behind his exhibit. This variety has proven to be a magic formula for both Liggins and the Oxon Hill Branch Library, who have continued to collaborate throughout the summer on a series of exhibits that consistently engage and wow the community. It even landed Liggins in the pages of The Banner for a special profile piece reported by Hau Chu in September!
June is Black Music Month, and at the South Bowie Branch Library this summer, both preschoolers and middle schoolers got a chance to boogie down and learn about great music by Black artists.
Particular favorites at the “Black Music Month Dance Party” program were “Ease on Down the Road,” the “Cha Cha Slide” — which even got the adults out on the dance floor! — and the “Go-Go Hokey Pokey,” which South Bowie Branch Library Associate Brandon Adams notes is pretty much a storytime mainstay for the branch. To turn the party vibe up even higher, the kids got to enjoy juice boxes while dancing, then went home with inflatable microphones!
Tweens in the branch’s monthly “Homeschool Hangout” group, meanwhile, got to close out their academic year with a low-key “Black Music Month Paint & Sip” program where they made art while listening to a carefully curated playlist of songs from a variety of Black-pioneered genres, including jazz, country, rock, amapiano, reggae, funk, disco, and (of course) go-go.
“Some of the parents told me to turn it up when we got to go-go — I even saw some grandparents dancing!” Brandon says.
In late July, local wildlife education organization Eco Adventures brought snakes, lizards, and tortoises to the Spauldings Branch Library in celebration of this year’s “Unearth a Story” Summer Prince George’s theme, where kids were delighted and adult caregivers were horrified but brave!
In late June, one of the Library’s most beloved early childhood learning experts, Marsha Quarles, hosted her very last storytime before retirement. And befitting the joy and energy she brought to all her storytime programs throughout her tenure across PGCMLS libraries, the theme of the day was “Baby Rave.” And yes, in case you’re wondering — it did include a version of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with a bass drop!
In addition to nursery song favorites like “Hickory Dickory Dock” and “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” accompanied by sparkling pom-poms, neon glow wands, inflatable rock band instruments, and (naturally) a bubble machine, Marsha’s send-off rave featured storytime families and friends from across the library system. Some families even drove down to the Surratts-Clinton branch library from all the way up in Bowie!
“Marsha wanted to have a big bash,” says Surratts-Clinton Branch Librarian Shannon Young. “All of the families we talked to ahead of time were like, ohhh, you’re retiring!! Then they came and danced and had a great time.”
“It was truly a privilege and an honor to share in the celebration of Marsha’s final storytime; capturing her incredible talent and broad community impact was such a wonderful experience,” says Hillcrest Heights Branch Library lead Daniel Hampton. “Marsha has meant so much to me personally as a friend and mentor in my career, but more broadly, she has meant so much to our patrons, staff, and the whole Library community throughout the years. You could really feel the public’s love and appreciation for Marsha’s investment in and service to the community, and this is something that I — and hopefully others — strive to achieve.”
In early summer, the Upper Marlboro Branch Library hosted an exciting STEM program for middle schoolers that used a modular marble run kit to help them learn about engineering concepts and practice teamwork.
The kids started off in small groups, but once library staff saw how excited everyone was about working together, they pushed together all the tables and invited the teams to build one giant run. After constructing their creation, the student engineers held a marble speed race, then tested race conditions using different drop points.
“It was a great way to start off the summer, and everyone learned a lot and had a great time!” said Upper Marlboro Branch Library Associate Jordan Clay.
