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.
To stay up to date on all things PGCMLS, be sure to follow us on social media (@PGCMLS) by clicking the icons at the bottom of this newsletter.
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.
Thank you to everyone supporting this program and helping ensure a positive experience for our youth participants.
“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, which for a smaller branch like Accokeek is a huge bonus.
Johanna is looking forward to working with SYEP students again in future summer seasons. 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 February, the Bladensburg Branch Library hosted its milestone tenth whole-grade field trip from Bladensburg Elementary School, following eight outings in the 2024-2025 school year, and a ninth in January.
“The visits pay off, because they do recognize us again when we’re over at the school,” says Bladensburg Branch Library Associate Traci Perkins, whose role during the field trips is to introduce students to the Library’s digital resources, starting with PebbleGo. “You walk down the halls and they’re like, hi, I was at XYZ field trip, it was great! I get so blown away by how smart they are — they’re just really bright, and so eager to talk and participate.”
Adds Bladensburg Branch Librarian Debra Capponi: “Their memory of the library is not something that we can create by telling them about the library [at a school outreach event]. They’ve experienced it themselves!”
Bladensburg branch staff also spent time this winter hosting sixteen local Brownies from Girl Scout Troop 22029 for an after-hours research workshop to learn how to use PGCMLS’ digital resources to search for the subjects of their “Women Change Agents” project.
Debra credits the success of these large-scale field trips to the creative participation not just of Bladensburg branch staff, but of volunteers from other nearby branches, who come out to Bladensburg specifically to assist in these events — underscoring the fact that PGCMLS isn’t just a collection of 19 individual branches, but instead a truly county-wide system.
“Extra hands help, and [it’s] an opportunity to create something with colleagues [you] don’t get to work with every day,” says Debra. “I know how fortunate I am to have colleagues that support these efforts!”
For the modern public library, makerspaces are a perennially popular offering. Large-scale creative technology like 3D printers and pens, Cricut die-cut machines, laser engravers, and professional audiovisual equipment and software are out of reach for the casual user. By making them freely accessible with the use of a library card, libraries like PGCMLS can open pathways of creativity and discovery to customers of all ages, backgrounds, skill levels, and economic means.
The makerspaces at two PGCMLS branch libraries have seen fun milestones this spring. At the Bowie Branch Library, grant funding allowed the library to hire Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) student Marcus Witherspoon as a temporary sound engineer for the Teen Zone’s in-progress recording studio.
“There are students who make music outside of here, so for them, being able to be clear on a more professional mic and try to get their vision through without having to pay for hours of professional studio time, it’s just so cool,” Marcus says. “That I’m able to help further their ideas is just amazing.”
In late March, the Fairmount Heights Branch Library hosted Delegate Derrick Coley, the newly appointed delegate for Maryland General Assembly District 24. A lifelong customer of PGCMLS, it was Delegate Coley himself who made the suggestion to hold his first meeting with PGCMLS staff at one of his district’s branches.
Familiar with makerspaces from his past work at Bowie State University, the Delegate was especially excited to tour the branch’s DREAM Lab. Fairmount Heights Branch Public Services Specialist JD Weber, who leads programming for the DREAM Lab, presented the Delegate with a 3D-printed state house business card holder.
Later that same day, the DREAM Lab also celebrated a major milestone, welcoming in its 500th visitor since the space was renovated. The customer, Jasir Bey, came to the makerspace to use Adobe Premier to add images to videos to a project he was working on to instruct students in learning Tamazight, an ancient Moroccan language.
Video of Bey talking about this project can be found here. To learn more about visiting the DREAM Lab, check out the PGCMLS website!
In early January, the Glenarden Branch Library opened its doors early to welcome nearly one hundred 5th-graders from Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary for a special school field trip.
They had been preparing for this visit for a couple of months, says Gidae Campbell (Public Services Specialist III, GL), ever since one of the school’s counselors, Kim Williams, reached out in August about the possibility of such an undertaking.
“It was a real chance for us to get creative,” says Gidae of the excitement the invitation provoked from the Glenarden branch staff. “This was the first time as a team that we got to work together on developing a program like this, separate from system-wide initiatives like Summer Prince George’s.”
The months between August and January were well used, with the whole team contributing to preparations for the students’ visit. It was organized around a station model that included a presentation about PGCMLS resources and Glenarden programs, a tour of the branch building, and a much-loved bookmark-making station.
“Overall the visit was a huge success,” says Gidae. “The kids were adamant about searching the shelves to find books they liked, and talking about the things they like to read. They had lots of great questions, and were able to answer the questions we asked them throughout the tour to make the visit more engaging.” Gidae also reports that while some of the students who came were recognizable as established “library kids,” many more ended the visit with shouts of “we’ll be back later today!”
“It was reassuring to know we made some real connections with them,” says Gidae. “I am highly proud of the Glenarden team for pulling this off.”
On May 13, Greenbelt Branch Librarian Chang-yu Hsiao hosted a special “Beginner Chinese Conversation” program geared toward teaching community members basic conversational phrases in Chinese Mandarin, in honor of both Asian Pacific American Heritage (APAH) Month and Older Americans Month.
“In a library setting, we can be more inclusive if we greet customers using their own language and offer programs with diverse cultural elements,” says Chang-yu. “Language is the key to understanding a country’s culture — and moreover, learning a new language can help prevent aging and memory loss.”
The afternoon program was open to adults of all ages, but seniors ages 65 and over were especially encouraged to come out, learn some language skills, and make new friends. And come out they did! The program ended up attracting so many new learners that Chang-yu had to bring extra chairs into the meeting room in between lessons on how to pronounce nǐ hǎo (hello) and xièxiè (thank you).
While most participants joined independently, a small cohort were delighted to share that they came at the encouragement of their tai-chi instructor at the Bowie Senior Center. Once in the room, they listened attentively as Chang-yu sounded out the syllables and inflections of the conversational vocabulary she had prepared on a worksheet for their reference, then broke into enthusiastic pairs to practice these new phrases for themselves.
“Reaching out to people using their native language is the best way to build friendly relationships, facilitate mutual understanding, and develop a harmonious living environment,” Chang-yu says. This lively, energizing program demonstrated just that!
For upcoming PGCMLS programs geared specifically for seniors, check out the calendar here.
PGCMLS is proud to partner with the Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights on a number of social justice-oriented initiatives, including a four-part “Youth Leadership Academy” that is designed to introduce teens and young adults to basic social justice concepts and give them the tools needed to identify things like misinformation and human trafficking in their everyday lives.
Co-developed and piloted by PGCMLS staff members from the Bladensburg and Glenarden branch libraries, the “Youth Leadership Academy” program made its way to the Hillcrest Heights Branch Library this spring, as part of that team’s 2026 goal to elevate their offerings for teens and “emerging adults” (up to age 22) in the Hillcrest Heights community.
The first week of the “Youth Leadership Academy” program focuses on introducing teens to social justice as a concept, challenging them to think through what they would want to see changed in their community. The Hillcrest Heights Branch Library’s inaugural offering of this session saw just two teens participate, but as session co-developer Gidae Campbell notes, a small cohort of engaged participants can be exactly right for this kind of program.
“Both of the teens who came to that first session were really interactive,” says Gidae, who came over from his regular post at the Glenarden Branch Library that day to lead the program’s opening session at Hillcrest Heights. Gidae reports that they were particularly engaged with thinking about the different places they wanted to see change in their community, like better, more affordable housing for their folks; better, healthier food options in the neighborhood; and combatting homophobia. “They had a lot of great questions regarding making a difference and being active,” says Gidae.
Hillcrest Heights branch staff are taking lessons from this first run of the “Youth Academy Program” to iterate and grow participation for a second round. Watch the PGCMLS calendar for updates about the next series!
At a February Teen Action Group (TAG) program at the Hyattsville Branch Library, teens crafted pink and red hearts with messages about why they love the library for branch staff to post for the public to enjoy.
These messages included:
“I love the library because it gives us many opportunities to earn our service learning hours while learning new things at the same time!”
“I love the library because libraries are places [where it is] safe but also a place [where] people gather to study or socialize.”
“I love the library because it is [a] safe and inclusive community that offer[s] books and provides free access to computer[s] for people [who] don’t [have] access to it.”
“I love the library because the library provides clubs [and] free activities for teens and kids.”
“I love the library because it’s fun! XOXO”
The Hyattsville Teen Action Group also helped PGCMLS Programming staff craft a fun rainbow balloon arch for a photo op corner at this year’s Geek Out Expo. Thank you to the Hyattsville Branch Library’s teen team for creating such a welcoming and warm environment!
One of the ways that PGCMLS facilitates the Prince George’s County community’s connection to the wider world is by providing residents with free passport application support.
After a brief downward trend in application activity across 2025, all six PGCMLS branches* that currently offer passport support have seen an uptick in application appointments since the start of 2026. At the Largo-Kettering Branch Library, which has been offering passport services the longest of any PGCMLS branch, this uptick can be credited in part to word-of-mouth testimonials within the local community.
“When people come and see how easy the process is, they tell somebody else — and then that person tells somebody else, and then we’ve got more people in the door,” says Largo-Kettering Branch Librarian Dwyn Griffin.
The fact that the Largo-Kettering service is also offered Monday-Friday, including through early evening hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, also helps. Dwyn notes that at the Largo-Kettering Branch Library, families will often come in together for an evening appointment, sometimes four or five people at once. “People appreciate not having to take their kids out of school during the day!”
As is always true for PGCMLS passport services, application assistance at the Largo-Kettering Branch Library is available by appointment only, and no photos will not be taken on site. Customers who make an appointment will need to follow the photo instructions on the Department of State website and bring their own photos with them.
*Accokeek, Greenbelt, Largo-Kettering, Laurel, New Carrollton, and Oxon Hill
One of this year’s Black History Month programs at the Laurel Branch Library explored the life and art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Staff read “Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat” by Javaka Steptoe and showed images of Basquiat and his works to the elementary-aged audience. The group talked about graffiti as an artform, then created their own masterpieces using rainbow scratchpaper.
Participants were free to create what they liked, but staff also had suggestions ready if requested. Words to describe themselves and portraits were popular with the group.
Branch staff plan to host the program again for teens with a focus on social justice and community concerns, encouraging participants to create art on current events and injustices. Watch the PGCMLS calendar for more information!
As one of PGCMLS’ smallest locations, the Mount Rainier Branch Library puts a special focus on building relationships and creating programs with organizations directly in the community. In April, this included hosting a seed- and garden-themed storytime and craft program as part of the Mount Rainier Nature Center’s annual Seed Swap Festival.
“As a small neighborhood library, building partnerships with organizations like the Mount Rainier Nature Center is a great way to increase our reach and take our library services outside of the building,” says Mount Rainier Branch Librarian Caitlin Clark, who has been representing the Library at the Seed Swap Festival for a number of years. “Every year, I meet new people and new families there that I can tell about our programs and encourage to come into PGCMLS branches to get connected to the library.”
Caitlin saw a full house for the storytime part of this year’s program, where she read “Are You a Cheeseburger?” by Monica Arnaldo, “Here are the Seeds” by JaNay Brown Wood, and “Up Down & Around” by Katherine Ayres. A number of families stayed after for the papercraft, while others moved outside to engage with local environmental organizations and take advantage of the native seed and plant seedling giveaway. As Caitlin reports, more than 2,000 baby plants found new homes!
“The Mount Rainier Nature Center is such a wonderful community partner for us,” Caitlins says. “They welcome our library programs whenever we need a space that is larger than our building will allow, and invite us to participate in programs and festivities year round to bring [PGCMLS] out into the community.”
The New Carrollton Branch Library boasts one of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System’s most robust needlework and fiber arts programs — and in a fiber-loving community like ours, that’s saying a lot!
This spring, a brand new crochet-centric “Needlework Social” program joined the New Carrollton Branch Library’s fiber arts line-up, organized by PGCMLS Library Associate Claudia Parra-Acevedo. Claudia first picked up crochet a year ago from her colleagues who run New Carrollton’s beloved “Pins and Needles” program. After connecting with a few branch regulars who also happen to run crocheting social media accounts — including KasyKrochet and CrochetWithLinda — Claudia got the idea to start a new “Needlework Social” program to add a new patch to the branch’s bigger needlework program quilt.
After first connecting with Claudia when she brought her son Mateo — and her crochet work — to Claudia’s storytimes, Linda [of CrochetWithLinda] started joining the weekly “Pins and Needles” sessions, and posting regular “Crochet Club Diaries” to her social media followers. Eventually, Linda and another regular, Sari, offered to support a more casual social club program where they could teach beginner techniques and encourage newcomers to join, learn something, and make new friends.
“While the main focus of ‘Pins and Needles’ is making blankets for individuals fighting breast cancer, ‘Needlework Social’ is more a space for community engagement, to socialize and gather inspiration and feel supported by people who share a love of fiber arts and creativity,” says Claudia. “Now, it is evolving into [a] unique community program with its own goals and vision that is co-shaped by the participants who join — ultimately, it's a safe space for anyone who wants to learn a new skill, meet new people, get support on whatever fiber art journey they’re on — or [even] just be antisocial in a social setting!”
In addition to getting more young people involved in the branch’s needlework programs and opening up space for returning crocheters looking to re-learn, one particularly fun development that the “Needlework Social” program has seen in its first few months is the group’s embrace of a particular crocheted jester hat.
“I brought in a jester hat I saw on TikTok early on,” says Claudia. “When someone asked me where I was going to wear it, in the moment I said maybe to bed! But then I started wearing it to ‘Needlework Social Club,’ and soon people started making their own. I really like that people have taken a liking to it and put their twist on it — I hope to see what different hats people make [next]!”
In early March, the Oxon Hill Branch Library played host to a first-of-its-kind community-led event: an art supply swap! Organized by a dedicated community member named Shanna Price-Wright, this swap event encouraged community members to bring all of their new and gently used arts-and-crafts supplies to the branch’s art making space to facilitate a fun and free “shopping” experience for their neighbors.
Among the supplies donated to the event were yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, fabric (and a fabric steamer!), thread, beads, scrapbooking supplies, weighted pellets for amigurumi, and various mixed-media tools. Reusable “shopping bags” and some personal care items were also donated to the swap by local face painter Barbara H. of Fancy Faz’s Entertainment.
“I’m thrilled with the turnout and the overwhelming [spirit of giving],” said Price-Wright, who first brought this idea to Oxon Hill Branch Library Manager Meisywe Cavanaugh last fall. “Seeing these materials find new homes while reducing waste is exactly what I hoped to achieve.”
After weighing all donations, event organizers were able to determine that this program diverted more than 82 pounds of art material from the landfill, putting it all instead into the hands of local artists. Anything that wasn’t brought home by customers by the end of the day was donated to the library’s sewing and crochet clubs, or to the Oxon Hill Friends of the Library bookstore.
In early February, South Bowie Branch Library Associate Brandon Adams launched PGCMLS second active monthly “Homeschool Hangout” program.
Inspired by the Surratts-Clinton Branch Library’s beloved “Homeschool Hangout” program, Brandon developed his own version in response to the large homeschool population in the South Bowie community. At the program’s kick-off session, Brandon set up an interactive brainstorming station to invite families to help shape the program to meet their specific needs, taping giant sheets of paper to the meeting room window with “big picture” prompts on each, like “What do you need/want from the library?”
“There were so many ideas I’d never heard,” says Brandon. “One kid put ‘I want to be able to check out video games,’ some parents suggested virtual field trips or library tours, others wanted to bring in outside speakers — it was a very thinking-outside-the-box type of energy!”
To get the program into a rhythm, Brandon organized a specific theme to go with each subsequent month’s meet-up, designing activities that were focused on teamwork. This included a “Black women in STEM” program for Black History Month that focused on Raye Montague, the first person to design the first computer-generated model of a Navy ship, and invited kids to build bottle submarines of their own. In March, the theme was “Women’s History Jeopardy!”
“For these homeschooled students, we want to emphasize the importance of building the skills of working with others,” says Brandon. “I already feel like this program is challenging me to be innovative and iterative — the energy is so good!”
In late January, in collaboration with the Eckerd Connects Youth Career Center, the Spauldings Branch Library hosted a bustling “Career Commanders Young Adult Job and Resource Fair” that expanded on the first such fair the branch hosted last summer.
With 16 vendors and local businesses participating and more than 200 attendees cycling in and out throughout the event, the Spauldings activity room felt like the hottest place to be on a bright and chilly January afternoon. Young people attending to do some networking made solid connections, while others who came in search of a new gig found tangible leads. One attendee, Chaela, even landed a job before she left — the exact job, in fact, that she had come out that afternoon hoping to secure.
“I have an Associate Degree in communications and am getting a BA in property management,” she shared. The job she got at the fair is related to providing assistance in accessing insurance to seniors. “I want to open doors for older and homeless people,” Chaela shared. “That is the most vulnerable population after kids, and I want to help.”
The Library’s own Library2Go team also did outreach at the fair, making connections with more than 30 young community members on the day. Members of the public who had come to the branch for normal business were also intrigued by the activity and popped their heads in, with one older woman noting how much she would love to see a similar event scheduled for more customers in the future.
“This is something I saw a need for in the community,” says Spauldings Branch Librarian Precious Abujana, who led organizing efforts for the event. “It gave me such great pleasure to see everyone who came out!”
Over the last few months, the Surratts-Clinton Branch Library has worked closely with a couple of local community partners to really embody the spirit of good-neighborliness.
In March, the branch coordinated with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) to host “What's Happening In Clinton,” a special community listening session to learn about and discuss the upcoming closure of Brandywine Road due to necessary water main and infrastructure projects. Community members were invited to learn more details about WSSC’s plans, and ask questions about potential impacts to the community. Prince George’s County Councilmember Sydney Harrison attended and gave opening remarks to a crowd of more than 60 residents — a huge number for a Wednesday night library program!
For families, the branch also hosted the Prince George’s County Fire Department for a special “Read with PGFD” storytime program. After families listened to a county firefighter read aloud from “Firefighter Flo!” by Andrea Zimmerman, they got a quick lesson on fire safety. Children in attendance also got to see a PGFD fire truck up close and take some cameo pictures with Sparky, the fire dog!
This spring, the Prince George’s County writing community got to benefit from the same thoughtful writing guidance that members of the virtual “Write Time” writers group get to experience on a regular biweekly basis, with Upper Marlboro Branch Library Associate Dréa Bell stepping in to represent PGCMLS at multiple county events in celebration of National Poetry Month.
First, Dréa joined the jury for the third annual Prince George’s County Poet Laureate competition — a role that was mirrored on the Youth Poet Laureate side of the coin by Hillcrest Heights Branch Public Services Specialist Kaneisha Matthews. As judges, Dréa and Kaneisha were responsible not just for reading through the candidates’ poetry portfolios, but also evaluating their CVs for broad community engagement.
The winner of this year’s Prince George’s County Poet Laureate contest, Tatiana Figueroa Ramírez, is a perfect fit for this work, Dréa says, coming as she does from a day job with DC SCORES, where she helps guide the next generation of “poet-atheletes.”
“The office of the Poet Laureate is about more than just creating,” Dréa notes. “It’s about getting out into the community to advocate for poetry and literacy across Prince George’s County.”
Following the “Voices of the County” celebration where both new Laureates were announced, Dréa hosted a special creative writing workshop at the Upper Marlboro Branch Library as part of the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council’s 2026 Literary Arts Festival. Called “The Write Moment,” this workshop invited writers of all ages to celebrate National Poetry Month in unexpected ways. And Dréa’s wins were just as unexpected!
“I helped a firefighter out of his writer's block!” Dréa shares, describing how she was able to share listing and free association tools to help open this firefighter-writer’s mind expand past its stuckness. “He ended up being able to see how those multiple different ways of generating content could free him from working just one way. Go county workers!”
