News & Announcements

Little Rock, AR – The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) has announced the dates for the spring and summer Friends of CALS Used Book Sales. The Used Book Sale will take place March 9-11; with the summer Used Book Sale at Main Library scheduled for July 13-15 before it closes for renovations. Subsequent sales are anticipated to take place at the Port Industrial Hub at currently unconfirmed dates during the renovations.

Nate Coulter, the Executive Director of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), has appointed a committee of local historians and CALS staff members to accept RFQs (Requests for Qualifications) from qualified artists who are interested in designing, creating, and installing A MEMORIAL TO AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS WHO SERVED WITH THE UNION ARMY IN ARKANSAS. CALS will select the site and provide landscaping and lighting as necessary.

I’ve never been one to declare my new year’s resolutions.  As one year gives way to another, I try to make some personal assessments:  What am I doing that I might need to alter, or what am I not doing that I might need to begin?  I prefer to think of these as new directions or new intentions. 

Confused by your computer? Need assistance with an app? Smartphone outsmarting you? Our new Digital Literacy Guides, funded by a generous grant from the Windgate Foundation, can help! Digital Literacy Guides offer friendly, free, one-on-one assistance with any tech troubles that are getting you down.

I have decided that November is my favorite month. It begins with the leaves starting to drop along with the temperatures (even if they bounce back up), and concludes with the best holiday, Thanksgiving. With Halloween, Dia de Muertos, and Six Bridges Book Festival in our rear view, it will be no time before we’re eating turkey,

The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas, and Central Arkansas Library System, as part of the Kettering Foundation’s Partnership for Democratic Practices in Arkansas, will host a series of public dialogues on topics including election security, food scarcity, free speech on college campuses, and preventing mass shootings.

Did you know that many of the programs created at CALS are recorded and stored on the CALS YouTube channel? Everything is there, from previous Six Bridges Book Festival presentations (going back to 2012!) to cooking shows and crafts. There are also pages dedicated to CALS Kids and CALS Teens.

Recently I dropped in on an event where CALS Library staff handed out new backpacks and school supplies to young students who were anticipating their new school year. Back to school is really where the Library shines; in the classrooms, sharp pencils and fresh notebooks meet to record nuggets of knowledge. And here in our branches,