Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA)

09/03/2026

The cards are here! 🎉

Our three limited-edition, community-designed library cards are now available at all Washington County Library branches!

Stop by your library to sign up for a library card and choose your favorite design to celebrate Washington County Library’s 60th anniversary and Library Card Sign-Up Month. ❤️

Which design will you choose?

09/02/2026

📣 Calling All Writers —submit your book this month! Don't miss your chance to become a Featured Author for 2027!
Selected authors will be highlighted in the local community over the next year. Connect with readers — this is where starts.

📝 Apply online by September 30, 2026: https://tinyurl.com/aclAuthorsApply

✨Featured Authors will be part of the annual LOCAL AUTHOR FAIR —the highlight of the Winter Reads program. The fair will held on Saturday, February 27 at Bunker Hills Activity Center with keynote by best-selling author Jess Lourey!

📚 Submission Guidelines:
Submit a copy of your book for review. If selected, it will be added to the library collection and additional copies may be purchased.
🔎Submissions must be published within the last 5 years (fiction) or 2 years (nonfiction).
eBooks and manuscripts are not eligible.
Current employees of Anoka County, members of the Anoka County Board, and the Anoka County Library Advisory Board, are not eligible.

09/01/2026

Coming up on Saturday at Washington County Library!

❗️THIS SATURDAY❗️

💥F1RST Wrestling: LIVE!💥
Washington County Library: Oakdale
Oakdale, MN | 1pm to 3pm
All Ages | Family Friendly

We return to the Oakdale Library…
Who says Professional Wrestling isn’t educational? 📚🤓🤼

🎟️ THIS IS A FREE EVENT 🎟️

08/28/2026

08/27/2026

Dolly Parton understood something libraries have always known: a book can open an entire world.

Through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, she turned that belief into action by putting millions of books into the hands of children and helping them discover worlds beyond their own.

For those of us who believe deeply in the power of libraries, literacy, and stories, her legacy feels especially meaningful. Thank you, Dolly, for giving families moments together and so many young imaginations room to grow. 🦋

Library staff put together a list of books, cds, and dvds to help you remember Dolly, and learn more about the women who never saw a door she couldn't open. rclreads.org/explore/?tag=in-memoriam

08/26/2026

ALA is heartbroken at the passing of country music legend, cultural icon, and champion of literacy Dolly Parton.

Dolly’s award-winning Imagination Library initiative, inspired by her father’s inability to read or write, has put hundreds of millions of free books into the hands of children across America and was considered by her to be one of her greatest achievements.

“We’re giving books to kids who wouldn’t have a chance to get them otherwise,” she told American Libraries in a 2018 interview. “A lot of people think this is just for poor children—it’s for all children. It’s important to get books into the hands of any child that we can.”

ALA was proud to confer Dolly with an honorary lifetime membership, the Association’s highest honor, in 2023 for her lasting impact on librarianship, libraries, and the communities they serve.

Dolly was also part of ALA’s Celebrity READ campaign, in which she holds a copy of 'The Little Engine That Could.'

“I’ve always related to that book because I’m the little engine that did!” she said.

Thank you, Dolly. ❤️

08/25/2026