JMRL blog

Location: Central Library, 201 E. Market St, Charlottesville, VA The How-To Festival is FREE and open to everyone. Bring the family and tell your friends! There’s something for all ages—drop-in to workshops inside and outside the building on a range of topics from 18th Century textile spinning, navigating AI, cooking demos, book making, woodworking and […]

On March 6, Books on Tap discussed the 2025 Same Page Community Read title, Chesapeake Requiem: A Year With the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island by Earl Swift. Swift, a local author who lives in the Afton area, was a long-time reporter for the Virginian Pilot, has contributed features to Outside and other magazines, and […]

Millions of people across the country visit their libraries every week. What’s the draw? Everything. From young families stopping in for play and storytime, to students sketching out their next creative project in a makerspace, to seniors seeking tech help and everyone in between, libraries of all kinds help us connect the dots from one part […]

The Scottsville Library is excited to announce the installation of a Little Free Food Pantry, on site at the library.

On Dec. 19th 2024, the Central Library Brown Baggers had their annual holiday potluck and selection meeting.  The group was choosing titles to discuss for June 2025-May 2026. The group has been reading and discussing books since Sept. 2008 so it was important for all, especially newer members, to know the Brown Baggers archive: list […]

JMRL invites individuals, community organizations and businesses to participate in the 7th annual How-To Festival on Saturday, May 3rd from 10-1pm inside and outside Central Library. Share your knowledge/skills/services and promote your business, organization or cause. The How-To Festival is a drop-in library takeover event with short presentations and demos on a variety of topics. […]

They weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow.” When Books on Tap met to discuss the novel in verse, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, one word came up again and again to describe the book – powerful! Reynolds was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Oxen […]

Each year, kids across Virginia vote for their favorite nominee to win the Virginia Readers’ Choice (VRC) Award. There are three reading categories, Primary, Elementary, and Middle School, with ten nominated titles in each category. See the booklists in JMRL’s FindIt catalog here:  Primary Booklist Elementary Booklist Middle School Booklist Libby lists for all ages […]

JMRL and Virginia Humanities are pleased to announce that Earl Swift’s Chesapeake Requiem (2018), named a Best Book of the Year by Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Bloomberg, Science Friday, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, and Kirkus is the 2025 Same Page Community Read selection.  About Same Page Community Read: Each year, JMRL […]

On January 5 Books on Tap met to discuss Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer.  Born in 1954, Krakauer is an American author and mountaineer. He was hired by Outside magazine to climb Everest in May 1996 with respected high-altitude guide, John Hall. Krakauer chronicled that fateful […]

On Saturday, February 1, 2025, JMRL will celebrate Take Your Child to the Library Day. Now in its 14th year, this annual event is a wonderful opportunity for kids and their families to enjoy the library and learn about all of the free resources public libraries provide to the community. JMRL helps families build solid […]

African Americans and Labor Staff created book lists Other JMRL resources more on African Americans and Labor the roland e. beauford sr. african american collection JMRL’s Gordon Avenue Library houses the Roland E. Beauford Sr. African American Collection. The collection includes a selection of the best books and other materials, fiction and non-fiction, by or about African-Americans. Resources […]

On January 16th, Central Library Brown Baggers met to discuss Abraham Verghase’s “The Covenant of Water”. Coming in at over 700 pages, this multi-generational novel takes place in southwest India between 1900-1977 which includes India under British colonial rule, as well as during and after independence.  It tells the story of a family with an […]