Press Releases

Gainesville, Fla. – The Alachua County Library District is accepting submissions for the Teen Creative Writing Contest now through April 16. Teens in sixth through 12th grade can enter short stories and poems.

Gainesville, Fla. – The Alachua County Library District invites quilters to share their stitch works for the 2021 Virtual Quilt Show by Monday, March 22.

Gainesville, Fla. - The Alachua County Library District is one of six public libraries nationwide to win the 2021 Winter Reading Challenge. The Library District will receive a virtual author visit and a set of 50 books from publisher Simon & Schuster’s “Books Like Us” collection.From Jan. 1 through Feb. 14, Alachua County Library District participants logged 677,139 minutes of reading and earned 4,607 program badges. Nine participants won restaurant gift cards from the local prize sponsors.

Gainesville, Fla. – Parents and caregivers can sign up online for the new 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program starting March 1 to empower families to read to infants and toddlers, building skills for future success.

Gainesville, Fla. - The Alachua County Library District and George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida are Image

Media Advisory – Jan. 12, 2020Gainesville, Fla. - The Alachua County Library District will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 18. All branches will resume their current schedules on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The sale will run Jan. 14-Feb. 10.

Gainesville, Fla. - The Alachua County Library District Governing Board encourages all interested citizens to apply for two vacancies, effective April 1, 2021, on the Alachua County Library District Board of Trustees. Applications must be signed and mailed or delivered to Headquarters Library Administration by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021.

Gainesville, Fla. – David Baldacci’s thriller “Walk the Wire” and Ibram X. Kendi’s seminal “How to Be an Antiracist” topped the Alachua County Library District’s 2020 checkout lists.   In total, library patrons borrowed 800,000-plus items, including hundreds of thousands of picture books, novels, and DVDs using the Library District’s outside services. Patrons listened to more than 305,000 digital audiobooks and swiped through 823,000 eBooks. 

Gainesville, Fla. – The Alachua County Library District will be closed for the Christmas holiday all day Thursday, Dec. 24, and Friday, Dec. 25. All branches will resume their current schedules on Saturday, Dec. 26.The Library District will close at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve Thursday, Dec. 31, and remain closed all day on Friday, Jan. 1. All branches will resume their current schedules on Saturday, Jan. 2.