Stittsville is celebrating 50 years of library service at the branch this year. Fun fact: one staff member at the branch has been working there and serving the community for 25 years!  

The staff at the Stittsville branch fondly refer to their branch as the “community living room.” People are welcome to sit by the fireplace, knit a few rows on the community scarf project, play a board game, work on a puzzle, study, or just chat with fellow Stittsville residents. In fact, one of the branch’s book clubs has been gathering in the Grace Thompson meeting room to talk about books since 2017, growing from two to twenty members.  

Have you ever seen the Grow Tower at the Stittsville branch? The branch staff tends to this hydroponic tower year-round, growing greens like lettuce, basil, kale, spinach, and more. It has allowed the branch to engage clients in innovative learning opportunities, especially for homeschooling families in Stittsville. Children have incorporated the Grow Tower Project into their curriculum topics of: science, food literacy, digital literacy, business literacy, math, art, and social justice. In total, the Grow Tower Project has produced 23.44 kilograms of fresh produce, all donated to the Stittsville Food Bank. 

The long-standing Stittsville Creative Writing Group has been meeting weekly at the library for over a decade. This group has inspired the formation of writing groups from Carp to Barrhaven to Orleans. They have helped guide local Stittsville organizations on creative writing engagement, are into their third year of leading the Youth Writing Program, and have begun hosting a series of adult education classes on literary topics. The SCWG produces an annual anthology and has, collectively, authored more than 100 books over the last 14 years.  

You will sometimes see staff members from the Stittsville branch out and about in your local schools! The very popular children’s programmers at Stittsville love to host school visits, but they also visit several classrooms throughout the school year, and especially at the end of the school year to invite students to read all summer with the Summer Reading Club. The children’s team has gone to over 40 class visits in Stittsville since the beginning of 2024. 

As a community hub, the Stittsville branch has been serving the community both inside the busy branch and out in the schools, retirement residences, local groups, and community events.