ARLINGTON — The Sno-Isle Libraries are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and as part of the celebration, the Arlington Library is collecting stories and other items for a time capsule that will be sealed at its open house event in October.
“The year was 1962,” said Kathy Bullene, managing librarian of the Arlington Library. “John F. Kennedy was president, a gallon of gas cost 31 cents and the country’s best-selling novel was ‘Ship of Fools’ by Katherine Anne Porter. The Arlington Library had opened just the year before, in 1961, and joined together with 11 other libraries to form the Snohomish County Rural Library District. In its first year, people borrowed more than 900,000 books, records and films from the new library system. Fifty years later, the Sno-Isle Libraries have grown to 21 branches, providing programs and services, and lending 9.5 million books, CDs, DVDs and eBooks to customers of all ages in the Snohomish and Island counties.”
Bullene explained that community members could win a $50 cash prize from the Friends of the Arlington Library for submitting their favorite stories or memories of the library, or their predictions for what the library might look like in the future.
“In Arlington, community has always been at the center of the library’s history, and library staff would like to invite local residents to be a part of its future,” said Bullene, who noted that all submissions will automatically be entered into a drawing for the $50 cash prize. She added that entry forms are available at the Arlington Library, located at 135 N. Washington Ave., and on the Friends of the Arlington Library website at www.sno-isle.org/?ID=1275.
The submissions will be eligible to be incorporated into a time capsule scheduled to be sealed during the Arlington Library’s 50th anniversary open house on Saturday, Oct. 13, at 2 p.m. The time capsule will be reopened in 2022 in recognition of Sno-Isle’s 60th anniversary. For more information, please contact Bullene by phone at 360-435-3033 or via email at kbullene@sno-isle.org.
