Potomac Chapter
Potomac Library
10101 Glenolden Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
Chapter President: Edie Wingate
Contact: potomac@folmc.org
Donations at this Branch remain suspended. To support Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, donations can be dropped off at Rockville Bookstore (4886 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville). Learn more at: https://www.folmc.org/bookstores/
Welcome to the Friends of the Library, Potomac Chapter!
Established in 1991, ours was the first chapter of the county-wide parent organization, Friends of the Library Montgomery County, MD (FOLMC).
We are one of 17 volunteer-run chapters at library branches throughout Montgomery County. One way to look at the relationship: Montgomery County Public Libraries provides a nice cake; the chapters provide the icing. When a branch does not have a chapter, then FOLMC provides the icing. As are all chapters, the Potomac chapter is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All our member dues and donations provide support and extra programs and materials for the Potomac Library.
You can learn all about our upcoming activities in a number of ways:
- Check out our bulletin board in the main lobby; it’s to the left as you enter from the parking lot.
- Bookmark this page and refer to it often.
- Look for our quarterly newsletter on this page or pick up a printed one on the shelf below the bulletin board. Members of the Potomac Chapter receive their own advance copies of this newsletter as a benefit of membership. Have you joined or renewed? (See the form in the latest newsletter or online at www.folmc.org/join.)
The Potomac Library is more than just a building full of books! It is surrounded by delightful gardens. The library is very fortunate that we have been able to partner with the Potomac Village Garden Club. With financial assistance from us, the garden club maintains all the plantings at the library. In addition, they have established and maintain the Falls Road Understory Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the Peter Rabbit Herb Garden, and the Falls Road Native Garden. The Native Garden was established in 2021 thanks to Glenstone Museum which supplied the design, plants, and most of the labor. Additionally, a Library Plant Identification Booklet, compiled by a garden club member, is available near the parking lot entrance in a case built by one of their volunteers.
Join us to help support the Potomac Library – you’ll be adding to the “icing on the cake!”
Potomac Day October 23
Denice Shaw: Bringing Our Characters to Life!
For the past year and a half, most of us have hidden our identities—perhaps unwittingly and unwillingly—behind masks. But for one day each year FOL Board member Denice Shaw has quite willingly concealed her own identity and assumed another—that of a storybook character who joins the Friends for the annual Potomac Day parades.
Read more in our Fall 2021 newsletter.
Illustrations by Kevin Henkes
Library Garden Expansion Featured in Potomac Almanac
“Ever since the Potomac Library opened its building on Glenolden Drive and Falls Road in 1986, the Potomac Village Garden Club has worked to add plantings and specialty gardens to the library grounds.
“Last week they got a big assist from members of the Glenstone Museum grounds crew in finishing a Maryland natives garden along Falls Road.
“Early on Tuesday morning, April 13, Glenstone grounds staff arrived at the library with two trucks loaded with a tiller, mulch, new shrubs and flats and flats of ground cover, all Maryland natives and ready to be planted.” Continue Reading…
Recent Virtual Author Talks
All of the authors FOL-Potomac recently sponsored have informative websites with blogs, newsletters and other information supplementing their talks—see links below:
TIMOTHY BOYCE www.timboyce.com
From Day to Day: One Man’s Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps
RALPH BUGLASS www.peerlessrockville.org
Images of America: Rockville
MICHAEL DOBBS www.michaeldobbsbooks.com
The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between
JENNIFER RYAN www.jenniferryanauthor.com
The Spies of Shilling Lane
DOUGLAS TALLAMY www.homegrownnationalpark.com
Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
YouTube link:
Douglas Tallamy Nature’s Best Hope
Local resources:
(Following Tallamy’s talk viewers were able to ask questions and make comments. Danielle Deaver, Librarian II, Adult Services, Potomac Library and host of our Zoom talks, reviewed the responses and very kindly compiled this list.)
- Doug Tallamy’s book, Nature’s Hope, is in the Montgomery County Public Libraries system!
- Another recommended book: Chesapeake Gardening & Landscaping, The Essential Green Guide by Barbara Ellis, is in the library system as well.
- The Native Plant Finder that Doug mentioned is provided by the National Wildlife Federation
- Maryland Native Plant Society
- Resources for native plants that lists species by their gardening requirements: U.S. Fish & Wildlife
- The RainScapes program
- Rainscapes.org has resources and plant lists
- This guide will help you choose native plants for your landscape
- Wild Ones Chesapeake. This is a group for trading native plants.
- Locust Grove Nature Center in Potomac has Plant Sales and activities
Newsletter
Read our latest Winter 2021 Newsletter.
Check out our past newsletters here.
Check out our ongoing programs here.
Virtual Events
The Friends of the Library-Potomac Chapter encourages you to check out the wealth of virtual events being presented — easy to access; easy to attend.
Go to: https://mcpl.libnet.info/events
You can then filter by age (#1 below; e.g. adult) and by a range of dates (#2; e.g., the rest of the month, June 8 – June 30)
For a complete list of activities, please check out the MCPL calendar of events here.
Honored (and Humbled) to be Potomac Citizen of the Year
“The Friends of the Library – Potomac Chapter serves the community in so many invaluable ways… For anyone who loves to read and share reading, this organization is a conduit to books, discussions of books, authors and activities as well as programs to help children learn to love and cherish books.”
The Potomac Chamber of Commerce selected FOL-Potomac as its Citizen of the Year, based on a nomination by resident Ginny Barnes (excerpted above) citing the ways we strive to support and enhance our local branch library.
Primarily through the book sales and memberships, FOL-Potomac is able to sponsor and/or underwrite a wide variety of adult and children’s programs, bringing in guest authors and other speakers, performers and even plants and animals! (A live wallaby was a big hit this past summer; the fish tank in the children’s area is made possible by a long-time anonymous donor; and we support the Potomac Village Garden Club in their work keeping the library grounds attractive.)
You too can be Citizen of the Year!
Consider becoming a member of the friends—no time obligation involved, just membership dues ($25; only $15 for seniors, students and teachers) to help in bolstering your library. You’ll also receive this quarterly newsletter listing upcoming events and activities, well in advance of it being available at the library. To join, use the form in the latest newsletter, or apply online at www.folmc.org/join.
Comments or Questions?
Contact us at staff@folmc.org
This site made possible by a generous grant from
© 2003-2021 Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, Maryland Inc.
Friends of the Library, Montgomery County is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. All contributions, less benefits of certain value, are fully tax-deductible in accordance with the law (Tax ID #52-1283371).
