Category: CALS in the Community

On Thursday, July 27, a group of patrons gathered in the community room at Dee Brown Library to celebrate. While most people spend their summers avoiding the heat and relaxing, this group was working on building their language skills. The language acquisition program at Dee Brown offered two options- English as a second language and Spanish as a second language.

The Witherspoon Arts & Cultural Gala and Award Ceremony is hosted by the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library. It recognizes artists and purveyors of the arts for their accomplishments and contributions to the arts, literary arts and cultural community. The award recognizes the achievements of high excellence and accomplishments.

Latina Sheard was awarded the The Witherspoon Librarian of the Year Award –

This blog was created on January 5, 2023, to document the renovations of the Main Library.

October 7, 2025 – Main Library Grand Reopening

What an incredible weekend at the Central Arkansas Library System! On Saturday, October 4, we officially and ceremoniously reopened the doors to our newly reimagined Main Library. It was a celebration unlike any we have had at CALS.

The Six Bridges Book Festival took place September 25 through October 1 and brought in about 50 authors from across the country. Monday through Wednesday, the festival began with a delicious appetizer – if you will – a series of virtual events, including Stephen Aryan, Ananta Ripa Ajmera, and Caroline Dodds Pennock among others. Then Thursday brought the beginning of the main course – all the in-person events!

Because the work of librarianship often extends beyond the stacks of books and the walls of the library building, outreach is an important part of what we do.

Happy National Library Workers Day! Today we honor and recognize the valuable contributions made by library workers of all kinds. You might think library workers just read all day. Most library workers do love to read, but there’s definitely more to the story!

The American freedom to read what we want is as basic as the freedom to speak and to worship how we want. In fact, those freedoms are all protected by the same amendment of the US Constitution.

April 22 is Earth day, but at CALS, we like to go all in and claim April as Earth Month. We’ve rounded up all the programs going on across the system and put them into one handy place. Celebrate with events all month long and find out how you can make an impact all year.