Arlington Heights is truly a community of good neighbors. Thanks to your generosity, the Library's first food drive collected more than 1,100 pounds of food for the CEDA and Wheeling Township food pantries. In addition, we collected more than 400 pounds of pet food and items for the Buddy Foundation. This was our 12th year of collecting new children's books for Wheeling Township's Adopt-a-Family holiday basket program. And once again our community of readers responded generously, donating 600 books and bringing our total to 10,293. We would like to thank everyone who participated - the many individuals and families who visited the Library; local book groups; staff at Toshiba Business Solutions, Rosseland Construction

For the second year in a row, Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service gave Arlington Heights Memorial Library a Five-Star rating – making it one of America’s top-rated libraries. Only 1% of public libraries across the nation are awarded this distinction.

Three watercolor paintings of Chicago scenes, donated to the Library in memory of former volunteer and Friends of the Library president George Krueger, were dedicated at a recent event. The paintings by artist Sally Perfect Wallman were selected by the Friends of the Library Art Committee and are hanging above the foreign film DVDs on the first floor. Pictured are Krueger’s daughter, Christine; his wife, Irene and Friends’ president Allison Anderson. More event photos.

The Library's new bookmobile made a grand entrance in the July 4 parade. It It rolled down the parade route accompanied by Library trustees, staff members and Junior Library Volunteers who spread the word, "Get the scoop at the Library," and passed out bottles of bubbles shaped like ice cream cones. The giveaways, which were a big hit with young parade goers, were generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Junior Library Volunteer Andrew Napora wears the first-place medal he won at the 2009 Suburban Cook Regional Spelling Bee. Andrew will be in Washington D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee beginning May 26. He is pictured with his dad, Mike, who works at the Library's Answer Center. Andrew is one of 293 spellers from all over the country who will be competing in the preliminary rounds which will be broadcast on ESPN360.com on Wednesday, May 27. The top 50 go into the semifinals on Thursday, May 28. You can find out more about Andrew by viewing his profile

This year is the 30^th anniversary of the Library’s volunteer program. At our annual recognition luncheon, generously funded by the Friends of the Library, we celebrated this milestone and honored all our dedicated volunteers who contributed 26,606 hours of service in 2008. Click here to see photos of volunteers who received special recognition.