OLLF Newsletter – Summer 2026
From the President:The fate of our library branch looks better but we will not know the fate of our branch until the unveiling of the city budget in August. Many council members support keeping all four branches open, but it is not certain yet.
New projects that the OLLF board are working on
#1 The OLLF board has approached Kroger about replacing the large river works in their landscaping with something smaller and less dangerous. Two windows in the library were broken with these rocks in March. The cost to replace was $15,000 out of taxpayers’ pockets. These rocks are unsightly, unsafe and now an expensive issue for the city to deal with. This was the 4th time in the past 2 years that windows have been broken at the library.
#2 We are currently meeting with Artitude to bring monthly art shows back to the Oak Lawn Library. We have a new board member who has connections with the art community. We hope to see new art shows by the fall. He also has connections with the Oak Lawn band which may bring music to our library branch.
#3 We are going to start participating in Wine Walk (first Thursday of the month) in partnership with the Cedar Springs Merchants Association to increase community awareness of what our library can offer the community and generate increased community support.
Library Giving Week 2026
The Oak Lawn Library Friends participated in Library Giving Week. We raised $600 for our group. Once the issue of our branch’s staying open is resolved, we will put the money to use in supporting our library.
Upcoming programs this May and June
OLLF Website
Our website currently has 5,543 author pages. It covers new and old authors with author biographies and books in order of publication. It is updated with new authors on a weekly basis. Many of the authors added this year are first time authors from around the globe.
Book Recommendations for Spring 2026
Fiction:
Horse by Geraldine Brooks. A novel set in several time periods 1850’s, 1950’s and 1990’s. The story of a horse and his trainer in the 1850’s, a painting in the 1950’s, a painting in the 1990’s and a horse’s skeleton in the 1990’s. From these various elements, Geraldine Brooks creates a novel that discusses horse racing, slavery, and racial attitudes in America. It is a very interesting mix of history and fiction that make this a book worth reading.
A Taste for Vengeance by Martin Walker. In this latest novel about Bruno, Chief of Police, Bruno has gotten a promotion to be responsible for managing policing for the entire valley. It is comprised of several small villages with a few thousand inhabitants. Just as he starts his new position, two dead bodies are discovered, and he has been called to investigate. One body is that of a 40+ year old woman lying in the bathroom and the other is a man hanging in an orchard from an apparent suicide, but the facts are not clear. Bruno must juggle this unusual murder scene, new job responsibilities, a possible IRA connection and the media. This is on top of his regular job, coaching a girls rugby team, an old flame and life. If you love a well written murder series set in the South of France this is a great series to check out.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This is a fictional account of the woman librarian who helped create the J. P. Morgan library in New York City. JP Morgan had been collecting books for years. His personal librarian helps him focus and grow the library. The librarian in question, Belle de Costa Greene is a black woman passing as white. Her real name is Belle Marion Greener. The J. P. Morgan library is open to the public today for $25 a person.
Non-Fiction:
Money Men by Dan McCrum. This book is the story of the rise and fall of Wirecard. The largest company failure in German history. The author was a reporter for the Financial Times who helped expose this fraud. He had help from insiders and others who knew something was wrong or suspected that this great German company was really a lot of hot air and not real. The company used private investigators to try and plug the leaks. They manipulated the German banking regulator to try and prevent short selling of their stock and outright lied to everyone about what they were doing. One of the major corporate officers turned out to have connections to the FSB (Russian secret police). This story is not yet complete several years after the company collapsed.
Midnight in Cairo by Raphael Cormack. This is a social history of Egypt’s female performers from the 1890’s to the 1950’s with a focus on the 1920’s & 1930’s. While Egypt was controlled by the English, Cairo was a cosmopolitan metropolis with a large foreign population and a thriving night life. This is the story of the women who worked in those establishments and how some of those women became quite successful entertainers and businesswomen.
Amber Room by Catherine Clark. This book is about the hunt for the fabled “Amber Room” that was in Catherine the Great’s Palace near St. Petersburg. The room was lined with pure amber panels. The panels and the contents of the room were seized by the Germans in 1942 when the Germans invaded Russia. These panels were last seen in a castle in Konigsberg in 1945 and then they vanished. This book chronicles the efforts of Germans and Russians to find these missing panels and return them to Russia.
For suggested books, you can use this link: https://oaklawnlibraryfriends.com/book-recommendations/
To check out upcoming events at our branch, you can View our online calendar at dallaslibrary.org/events
Shop Kroger & Benefit the Library
You must re-enroll starting August 1st each year. If you have a Kroger Care card, link your card to number # 41560 and you will benefit the Oak Lawn Library Friends every time you shop at Kroger.
Summer time gardeners
If you love to garden, spring is early this year. Stop by the Oak Lawn Library to check out some seeds for your home or patio garden to add some color to your life this spring and summer.
Photos from OLLF funded events this Spring
April 11th Pet Market at Union Coffee – OLLF gave away animal treats and bandanas sewn at sewing classes at the library. Here are some photos from the event. Your pet can become a member of the Oak Lawn Library Friends.
Pet bandanas and books Oak Lawn Library table with animal treats for pets
Far and Away Shrek Event at the Oak Lawn Library. OLLF funded the decorations for this event.
The walls of the library auditorium were decorated. There was also a Q & A about various elements of Shrek.
Adults and library staff dressed up for this event.
Oak Lawn Library to Receive Community-Funded Mural
Posted on May 15, 2026 by Lee Daugherty
In the wake of TxDOT’s directive to remove decorative crosswalks, the City of Dallas has channeled community feedback into a series of public art projects, one of which is now taking shape at the Oak Lawn Branch Library. According to a May 15, 2026, memorandum from the City Manager’s office, a mural project is moving forward on the library’s exterior, funded by a private donation and designed by two prominent local muralists.
The initiative, documented in the memo, comes after the Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) conducted community engagement sessions in April 2026 that revealed residents’ strong desire for public art that reflects the “identity, resilience, and inclusiveness” of Dallas’s richly diverse communities. The Oak Lawn neighborhood, specifically mentioned alongside Cedar Springs and South Dallas as one of the areas impacted by the crosswalk removal, will see the first concrete result of this engagement with the library mural projects.
The project is being funded through a designated special library fund: the Benjamin and Selma Parrill Trust Fund. While the full extent of the trust’s history is still being studied by city archivists, its specific designation for the benefit of the Oak Lawn Branch Library has unlocked a unique opportunity for the neighborhood.
An artist selection panel–composed of staff from the Dallas Public Library, the OAC, and a District 14 Municipal Board Member–concluded its process in 2025, ultimately recommending a collaborative team: Will Heron and Sam Lao.
Both artists are well-established figures in the Dallas public art scene. Heron, who works under the moniker “Whereon,” is known for his high-contrast, illustrative style and his role as the founder of the Wild West Mural Fest. He most recently served as the artist liaison for Meow Wolf’s permanent exhibit in Grapevine, Texas. Lao is a multidisciplinary artist whose tactile fiber art and tufting work explore color, texture, and pattern. The two have previously collaborated on large-scale public projects, including the 180-foot-long murals installed under I-35 at the Hi Line Connector, a project that also involved other prominent Dallas muralists.
The official scope of the Oak Lawn Library project calls for the installation of a mural on the four exterior columns facing the library’s parking lot. The City memo also notes a groundswell of additional ideas from the community: residents have suggested painting the front entrance steps of the library, which face the road, to further enhance the building’s visibility and welcome. City staff have indicated they will work to ensure any such concepts align with the main column mural as plans continue to advance.
This project at the library is one piece of a larger neighborhood strategy that emerged from community feedback. Survey results compiled by the OAC showed that across Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs, murals were the preferred “identity marker” in roughly 67% of responses, along with street banners and gateway signage. Participants consistently described their neighborhood as a “uniquely vibrant, diverse, and accepting” area, home to one of the nation’s few remaining LGBTQ+ districts and historic landmarks.
The City Council has been invited to provide continued feedback on these concepts. For more information, residents can contact Office of Arts and Culture Director Martine Phillippe at martine.phillipe@dallas.gov by May 29, 2026.
Oak Lawn Library Friends Membership Form
| Name(s) | ||||
| Address | ||||
| City, Zip | Home Phone | |||
| Email Address | ||||
| Membership Status (please check one) | ||||
| Student/Senior $6 | You can pay with cash, check or PayPal. The PayPal option is on the Oak Lawn Library Friends website. | |||
| Sustaining $20 | ||||
| Pet Membership – $10 | ||||
| Household $25 | ||||
| Non-profit $50 | ||||
| Close Friend $75 | ||||
| Corporate $250 | ||||
| Other | ||||
| MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: Oak Lawn Library Friends 4100 Cedar Springs Dallas, Texas 75219 | ||||
We have added a new pet membership. The cost is $10 a year and all funds raised from these memberships will be used to support pet programming and fund the purchase of books about pets. Our sewing classes have made some pet bandanas. When your pet joins, you get a free bandana for your pet.
You can join online for yourself or your pet. If you want, you can send a photo of your pet, and we will put them on our Instagram feed and on a dedicated page for pet members.
Dog modeling his bandana from the Oak Lawn Library Friends.
The link to our membership page is: https://oaklawnlibraryfriends.com/membership-page/ Finally, I encourage you to join OLLF as a member or consider serving on the OLLF board. The board meets several times a year with staff. We discuss which programs and books the staff and the community want. We also explore ways to raise money or provide volunteers to meet those needs.
Oak Lawn Library Friends 