CALS Blogs

On Tuesday, February 6, CALS held a “Wall Breaking” ceremony to kick off the interior demolition of the library. It included a huge turnout of patrons, CALS staff, and members from CDI Contractors as well as the architects from Polk Stanley Wilcox. After a bit of conversation, we discovered how ecstatic they were to be working on the 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.

CALS patrons now have digital access to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Historical Archive! Many of you know that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was split into two newspapers until they merged in 1991. This collection contains searchable, image edition issues of the Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas Democrat, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This collection is available remotely so patrons can access this outside our libraries;

It must be human nature to want to classify events as either before or after some watershed event. I’m not smart enough to know why we do it but I often hear and find myself saying something happened “pre-pandemic” or “post-pandemic.”

I’m reluctant to start another year talking about a pandemic that for many was a source of trauma but there is value in assessing how we approach issues in comparison to how we did things before March 2020.

CALS staff members, Guy Lancaster and Brian Robertson recently had articles published in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of the Arkansas Historical Association.

The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, established in 1942, is the scholarly journal of the Arkansas Historical Association. It publishes research on every aspect of Arkansas’s history, from earliest human habitation to the twenty-first century.

On November 2, CALS staff members from several branches along with other well-wishers gathered at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library & Learning Center to bid a fond farewell to retiring Deputy Director Lisa Donovan. If you know anything about Lisa, the location of the party was a given. Lisa began her career with CALS when the Main Library opened in its current location in the River Market in 1997.

Earlier this year, CALS announced that Main Library would be closing temporarily to undergo an extensive renovation. That change created a domino effect of moves and adjustments, including (but not limited to) the closing of the Galleries & Bookstore so that Main Library services could move into that space (read about the move here).

On Saturday, October 14, renowned children’s illustrator and author, Yuyi Morales, spent the day at the CALS Children’s Library where her exhibition, Soñadora, will be on view until November 15. Yuyi; Brad Mooy, Six Bridges Book Festival Coordinator; Carlos Ignacio Giralt Cabrales, Consul of Mexico in Little Rock; and a few children from the audience helped open the exhibition.