McLean Library Closes Today

Reminder to the neighbors: McLean's library closes at 5 p.m. today for a month. The box drop also closes.

The staff needs to pack up and start moving to their totally remodelled library across town. They can't wait.

They left a cozy simple, outdated library and will return to library now double in size, totally updated with new furniture, drapes and floor to ceiling windows. And the staff gets their own bathroom.

May 19. McLean's small temporary library will close Saturday afternoon for a month so the staff can prepare to reopen in the stunning new $8 million library in a month.

The temporary library, which opened in the Balduci’s shopping center in June 2010, will close at 5 p.m. Saturday. The book drop also will close. The library staff will move the collection to their newly renovated building and begin preparing for when it will open to the public at 10 a.m. July 9.

The 44-year-old Dolley Madison library has been by an $8 million renovation ($4 million for construction, $4 million for furnishings) that nearly doubled its size, gutted its insides, includes a “green” roof that will become a garden spouting plants and features an all-glass back wall overlooking McLean Central Park.

“We will miss our great neighbors at McLean Square, but the staff is excited about returning to Oak Ridge Avenue and welcoming the community to our beautiful, renovated library,” said Starr Smith, branch manager.

McLean students can compete to have their art or written work included in a time capsule that will be sealed into the front wall of the library's cornerstone this fall.

A total of eight students will be selected to have their work stored for 50 years. The winning students will be special guests at the sealing of the capsule Oct. 15. Officials hope they will attend the capsule's reopening in 2061. Click here for contest details.

"This is exciting," said Susan Baumert, of Falls Church, as she and her son Jonah, 2, left the library. "As a stay at home mom, I'm always looking for adventures for my son and the library is a good resource," she said. A larger library means more book choices, she said.

Charles Mascialino, of McLean, is another frequent library user. "I'm retired so I try to spend an hour a day reading three newspapers – The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal – and I do that at the library," he said.

"The new library will be well-attended. It will be larger and have more selections of books," he said.

Eighty percent of the library's collection has been in storage.

During the closing:

•  Holds can be suspended or changed to a different branch.
•  The book drop at Dolley Madison Library will not be available between May 22 and July 9.
•  Due dates for Dolley Madison customers will be adjusted to address the closing.
• While the McLean library is closed, McLean customers can use the Tysons-Pimmit Hills Regional Library on Route 7 across from George Marshall High School and the Great Falls Library on Georgetown Pike in the center of Great Falls.