Vinyl Day - Just for the Record, is a free family-friendly music event for all ages, dedicated to celebrating record and DJ culture in Montgomery County. Join us at Rockville Memorial Library, 10:00am - 3:00 pm on Saturday, August 15 for a Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, vinyl sale, music, art workshops, kids' activities, a teen silent disco, and more! Guest performers will be taking the mainstage in Rockville Town Center square during that entire time! Visit https://mcpl.link/vinyl-day for the schedule!

A-S-T-R-O-D-O-N J-O-H-N-S-T-O-N-I Can you name that dinosuar?

Are you a good speller? Do you like dinosaurs? Would you like to experience the library AFTER HOURS? Would you like to compete for a ROCK TUMBLING KIT? 🦖

Join us for an adults-only Dinosaur Spelling Bee! 🦕

Friday, August 7
7 - 8:30pm
Germantown Library

REGISTER today at: https://mcpl.events/spelling-bee

Not sure of your spelling skills? Sign up to be a spectator. 👀

Registration is required. Please indicate in your registration if you would like to be a speller. The speller spots are limited and first come, first served. Spellers will receive a confirmation email.

This event is adults only. Questions about this program? Contact the branch at

240-777-0110

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Hatchlings is back! Register for July & August Sessions

Marilyn J. Praisner Library
Thursday, July 16, 23 & 30
6 - 7:30 pm

Potomac Library
Thursday, August 6, 13 & 20
6 - 7 pm

Registration is required, and space is limited to expectant parents and families with babies 0-4 months old. Only one registration per family is necessary to reserve your spot, so register online just once for all three sessions at one of MCPL’s branches.

http://mcpl.events/hatchlings

MCPL invites all parents & guardians of newborns 0-4 months to join us for Hatchlings, a three-part series filled with music and activities to stimulate and support your baby’s development.

Session 1: Baby’s Brain
Session 2: Read, Talk and Sing with Baby
Session 3: Building a Routine

What is Hatchlings?

Hatchlings Parent Workshop is a three-part series designed for expectant parents and parents with babies 0-4 months. Parents will explore ways to support baby's development with playful early learning activities.

Each interactive session is designed to stimulate baby's learning process and builds on the previous one. Parents will learn about supporting baby's development with books, songs, rhymes, and fun activities that they can do, together with baby, from birth. Each family will receive a FREE tote bag with a book, toys, and song book!

A parent and an infant smiling at each other while attending a Hatchlings parent workshop at Montgomery County Public Libraries

Why Hatchlings?

· Research shows that most connections in the brain are formed during the first three years of life.

· Reading and singing help your baby's brain and language development.

· Reciting nursery rhymes and singing songs help your baby get ready to read.

· Developing the tools to sing, talk, play, and share books with baby, from birth, can help build healthy habits and increase brain development, preparing your child from birth to succeed in school.

Parents -- one holding a baby and the other one looking on and smiling -- at a Hatchlings workshop

Join MCPL & Montgomery County Health and Human Services - MD for the latest Wellness Café, this Saturday, 6/27, at Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library, from 1 - 2:30 pm! REGISTER today at mcpl.events/wellness-cafe

Part I: LGBTQIA Identity & Self-Acceptance; Part II: Men's Health

In celebration of Pride Month and Men's Health Month, Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services Behavioral Health & Crisis Services invites you to an engaging 90-minute Wellness Café featuring two powerful sessions. Division Chief Monica Martin leads an affirming exploration of LGBTQIA+ identity, belonging, and self-acceptance, followed by Matthew Turner, LCSW-C, who tackles the silence around men's mental health — offering tools and resources to support healing and well-being. Complimentary coffee generously provided by our friends at Kefa Cafe.

Questions about this program? Contact the branch at 240-773-9420.

On the off chance anyone is free tonight and wants to catch a very cool author talk, join us at the Gaithersburg Library for Devin Allen, as part of MCPL's Juneteenth Author Talk series. Devin is well known for being only the third amateur photog to have his work on the cover of Time, when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was featured on the cover in May 2015. He has a list of accolades too long to copy here, but you can find them at the link below.

Our friends at The Paper Heart Bookstore will be there selling books. The event starts at 6:30 - if you're feeling it, come through!

http://mcpl.events/devin-allen

Get ready to ROAR this weekend & next at our Unearth a Story: Summer Reading Challenge Kickoff Parties!

Saturday, June 13

11 am - 2 pm

Damascus Community Recreation Center

Sunday, June 14

10 am - 3 pm

Long Branch Library

Saturday, June 20

11 am - 2 pm

Davis Library

Enjoy games, crafts, dance parties, scavenger hunts, music & more!

Meet Washington Nationals and Washington Spirit mascots at Damascus!

Celebrate MCPL'S 75th anniversary at Long Branch with the music of Luis Garay: The Passion and Inspiration of the Drum and electric violinist Bliss Ananda

Dig for fossils with Science Connection at Davis!

And sign up to help us hit 100,000 hours of reading across Montgomery County this summer!

Check each individual event listing at https://mcpl.events/SRC-kickoff for specific schedules for each kickoff.

Etch your own drinking glasses and sample some local drinks at the White Oak Town Center Oak Barrel, and Vine store.

REGISTER: https://mcpl.events/glass-etching

Create your own unique glasses using etching cream and stencils and sample some local wines. This event is taking place at the White Oak Town Center Oak, Barrel, and Vine store.

This program is for adults 21 years and older. Please bring your ID with you to your event.

Registration is required for this event.

Sign up for Adult Summer Reading! Adults can participate by signing up online at mcpl.link/summer-reading, reading books, and attending Adult Summer Reading events throughout the summer. Win Nationals tickets, a free Bruster's Ice Cream coupon and a voucher for a free book from a Friends of the Library Montgomery County bookstore by completing your reading hours, plus enter a raffle for Washington Spirit tickets. Participants can earn a raffle ticket for the chance at winning a prize.

Questions about this program? Contact the branch 240-773-9460.

Looking for more information on MCPL's Summer Reading Programs? Visit the MCPL Summer Reading Challenge website.

Join us for a book signing and author talk with local luminary Jason Green, at the Pleasant View Historical Association (11810 Darnestown Road, North Potomac, MD).

REGISTER HERE: https://mcpl.events/jason-green

Jason G. Green is the author of the memoir Too Precious to Lose, blending personal, family, and community history with reflections on social and cultural resilience. He will be signing copies of his book, and it will be available for purchase on site.

Green is a Maryland-born community organizer, attorney, entrepreneur, and storyteller whose work spans public service, economic opportunity, and community trust-building. He served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Associate White House Counsel, advising on domestic and economic policy during the recovery from the Great Recession. His professional experience deeply informs his writing, particularly his focus on community, history, and social justice.

Please note: This program is an OFFSITE PROGRAM located at the Pleasant View Historical Association, at 11810 Darnestown Road, North Potomac, MD. 

Questions about this program? Contact Emily at 240-960-6782.

There's so much you can do with a library card? Don't have a card right now? No worries! Find out how to Get a Library Card.

REGISTER: https://mcpl.events/devin-allen

Join us for an author talk and book signing with local author and photographer Devin Allen at the Gaithersburg Library.

Baltimore native Devin Allen is a self-taught artist who achieved national recognition when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was featured on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, rendering him only the third amateur photographer to have his work published by the magazine. Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest appeared on the cover of Time in June 2020.

Allen became the inaugural fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation in 2017 and continues to serve as a dedicated ambassador. He is also a 2024-2025 Baldwin For The Arts Fellow.

His photographs have appeared in publications such as New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, i-D magazine, and Aperture, and have been exhibited at the Jack Shainman Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and The Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. They are also part of the permanent collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; the Reginald F. Lewis Museum; the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University; and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

An accomplished author, Allen released his first book, A Beautiful Ghetto (Haymarket Books, 2017), which garnered an NAACP Image Award nomination. He later published No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter (Hachette Book Group, 2022), winning a Nautilus Book Award.

Allen is a recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize, culminating in the publication of Devin Allen: Baltimore (Steidl, 2025), which features previously unpublished work accompanied by texts from notable writers.

In 2021, he launched From Baltimore. For Baltimore, an apparel and footwear line in partnership with Under Armour, which sold out within hours. The collaborative team, Under Armour x DVNLLN, reunited in 2025 to introduce their Rose Collection. He curated the Scout Art Fair, a juried exhibition in its second year as part of Artscape, the largest free arts festival in the United States.

Allen founded Through Their Eyes, a youth photography education program, and the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture’s award for dynamic leadership in Arts and Activism.

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Questions about this program? Contact Emily at 240-960-6782.

REGISTER: https://mcpl.events/wellness-cafe

Join Montgomery County Health and Human Services & Montgomery County Libraries at Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library in Silver Spring for a community training on overdose prevention and response. Topics include how to administer Naloxone (Narcan), what to do in an overdose emergency, protections under the Good Samaritan Law, and local substance use trends such as polysubstance use. Presented by Zachary Stansbury, Program Manager II, Prevention & Harm Reduction Services, Behavioral Health and Crisis Services, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services.

30 Narcan kits free to attendees, one each, first come, first serve.

Questions about this program? Contact the branch at 240-773-9420

Don’t be late for this very important date! Join us as we celebrate MCPL’S 75th Anniversary.  Enjoy food, family entertainment, giveaways, and whimsical activities inspired by Alice in Wonderland.  Step into a world of wonder.
Program to include the following. More details to come!
Magician - Abracadabra Alex
Build a Fairy Garden (registration required)
"Follow in Alice's Footsteps" Game!
Master Gardener Plant Clinic: Bring a plant photo and clipping in a plastic bag
Information Table on Montgomery County's Compost Program - take a GEOBIN home
Fun & Games
Scavenger Hunt
Cake and Light Refreshment
Everyone gets to participate. This event is FREE!
Sponsored by Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, MD, Inc.