Each autumn, the Library of Virginia hosts the Annual Virginia Literary Awards Celebration. This gala event, sponsored by Dominion, attracts authors, publishers, and those who enjoy the written word. It's a wonderful opportunity to meet and engage promising new authors, as well as literary legends. Seven different awards are presented at the celebration.

The Library of Virginia's African American Trailblazers in Virginia History program highlights the lives of eight honorees who have made significant contributions to Virginia and the nation. This program is a partnership between the Library and Capital One, a merger of the Library's "Notable African Americans in Virginia History" program with the 2007 African American Trailblazers program produced by Richmond Region 2007 for the 400th Jamestown Anniversary Observance.

Archives Month celebrates those institutions and individuals that help preserve and make accessible the important records of our actions as citizens, businesses, religious groups, government and society. The work of these institutions and individuals gives us a sense of being part of a larger picture and helps us begin to see ourselves connected to others: family, community, nation, or a group defined by ethnicity, religion, work or play.

Since 2002, the Library of Virginia, in conjunction with the Virginia Caucus of the Mid–Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) and the Library of Virginia Foundation, has produced a poster commemorating the commonwealth's archival and special collections repositories and the rich, cultural record they protect. Cultural heritage repositories from across the state have contributed to the Archives Month celebration by hosting events and sharing images for inclusion on the poster and related Web site.

The Library of Virginia hosts an ongoing Book Talk Series, sponsored by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, featuring authors of works on Virginia subjects and Virginia authors (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) discussing their research and writing. These near-weekly offerings cover topics ranging from Virginia’s role in the founding of the United States to the legacy of the Civil War to the many facets of the civil rights struggle in Virginia and nearly everything in between. The series allows the audience the opportunity to listen to and interact with a variety of scholars and literary artists, as well as to purchase their latest publications and have them autographed by the authors. As an added bonus, one attendee at each of our book events wins a free copy of the featured book.

Recent featured authors include 2008 National Book Award winner Annette Gordon-Reed and 2007 National Book Award finalist Woody Holton, New York Times best-selling authors David Baldacci and Adriana Trigiani, former CBS news anchor Roger Mudd and former Virginia governor Linwood Holton, Pulitzer Prize–winners Tony Horwitz and Geraldine Brooks, and award-winning poet and current poet laureate of Virginia Claudia Emerson.

Mining the Treasure House Lecture Series

The Library’s Virginia Heritage Resource Center offers this series of lectures by researchers and subject specialists showcasing the contents of the Library’s many collections, projects, and materials and their potential for research. Since 1997 speakers have included some fifty Library staff members; academic lecturers such as Peter Onuf, Warren Billings, Philip Schwarz, and J. Jefferson Looney; and many independent researchers including archaeologist Lyle Browning, genealogist Virginia Lee Hutcheson Davis, and map specialist Richard Stephenson.

We invite you to attend upcoming book talks scheduled at the Library and enjoy audio and video recordings of previous book talks.

Our quarterly magazine describes and illustrates the holdings and happenings at the Library of Virginia. Discover fascinating items from the collections as well as events, exhibitions, educational programs, and opportunities to become more involved. Sign up to receive Broadside and browse past issues.

Virginia Memory is your portal to the Library's rich and varied digital collections. We have been providing digital access to select collections since the mid-1990's. Many researchers, including genealogists, legal experts, title researchers, historians and students have benefited greatly from online access to collections such as Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants, photograph collections, military service records, and chancery court records.

While continuing to offer these traditional digital collections, Virginia Memory also offers a whole host of new, ever-evolving digital resources, including articles written by staff, lesson plans, a chronology of Virginia history, and This Day in Virginia History, all using the Library's collections of photographs, archival and manuscript items, and print materials. Online versions of our exhibitions are also available here. You can also sign up for RSS feeds so you'll know when we add new collections and features.

The Library of Virginia recognizes and celebrates women’s accomplishments in all walks of life during March, which Congress has designated as National Women’s History Month, through our Virginia Women in History Program. The Library sponsors statewide activities that include a traveling exhibition, a poster for public display, and related learning activities tied to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs). You can also request your own copy of the 2009 Virginia Women in History poster.

The Library of Virginia offers exhibitions that explore a wide variety of the commonwealth’s political, social, and cultural history. The exhibition program promotes interest in and use of the collections and services of the Library of Virginia. In addition to using materials from the Library's collections, the exhibitions also incorporate materials from the larger library and museum community. Children’s activity booklets provide age-appropriate interpretation of each exhibition for our youngest visitors. For information on our current exhibtions, please see our News & Events calendar.

Online versions available on Virginia Memory include key themes and artifacts from the current, as well as past exhibitions.