Arlington Library

“
Hold it! This area is under the authority of the Brotherhood of Steel. Leave immediately.

”— Senior Scribe Yearling, *Fallout 3*
**Arlington Library** is a mostly-intact public library building located in the Capital Wasteland in 2277. It is mostly occupied by raiders, whose position is threatened by the Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel soldiers in the front lobby.

## Background

Previously a raider stronghold, Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel has very recently sent a detachment - with a scribe of the Order of the Quill - to secure the site and procure any and all knowledge from the library. Although they only lack access to the library's main computer, they can use other computer systems to record the books they collect before they ship them to the Citadel - under guard.

First securing the lobby as a base of operations, they had consolidated their position and secured access to the card catalog and other computer systems accessible from the lobby. Leaving the raiders trapped in their own home box canyon. When the Lone Wanderer enters the landmark, they are met by Scribe Yearling, whom immediately declares that this area is under the Brotherhood authority. However if the Lone Wanderer announces that they are their to search for knowledge, she will admit to similar goals and inquire if they want employment. To procure any and all legible pre-War books the Lone Wanderer could obtain. If pressed for information about where to acquire ink, she will explain that the library has a restoration laboratory on one of its upper floors. Warning the Lone Wanderer that they could be careful, as the place was probably infested. If the Lone Wanderer chose to do so they would find paladins engaging in the raiders, clearing them out by frontal assault. First in the main library, then up the stairs and through the second and third floor through the Media Archive and ending in the restoration laboratory. They will then return to the lobby, completely ignoring the Children's Wing.

## Layout

### Exterior

Arlington Library is easily found by following the Potomac River south past the Citadel, then turning west to follow the road just south. It is directly across from Alexandria Arms and about two miles west-southwest of the Jefferson Memorial.

There is a Talon Company outpost nearby, so be careful when approaching the library, as they are easily alerted to your presence. Next to Alexandria Arms, there is a building that a lone raider uses as his home and is covered with traps. In addition, an Enclave Vertibird may appear just outside of the raider's building and drop off troops.

### Interior

When you enter the library you will immediately initiate dialogue with Scribe Yearling, a Brotherhood of Steel scribe who is tasked with archiving all pre-War knowledge into the Brotherhood's central computers. She will give you access to the library's computer terminal at the front desk, where you will be able to download the card catalog to complete a primary objective in the The Wasteland Survival Guide quest. To complete the optional objective, you will have to explore further into the building until you find the library's mainframe computer buried deep within a raider den.

A couple of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers from Scribe Yearling's detachment, found on the first floor near the back, at the entrance to the first room with raiders, will help you clear out the building. Once you approach them, they will begin a scripted advance through the building, into the other wings, and will eventually finish up in a 'final' room with two turrets, where, just before entering, they will be joined by a third Brotherhood soldier. This advance will clear almost all the raiders in library (with the player's help, otherwise they will most likely die before reaching the final room). Unfortunately, their path does not lead them into the room where the player needs to go to achieve the optional objective of the Wasteland Survival Guide quest. Once they have cleared the room with the two turrets, they stand down and begin walking back to Scribe Yearling's position.

## Notable loot

### Outside

* Guns and Bullets - just to the north of the main door inside a Pulowski Preservation shelter

### Lobby

* 3 Pre-war books on the catwalk overlooking the main library hall:
	+ Two on shelves along the southern wall
	+ One on the table along the northern wall, next to the hallway door
* Big Book of Science - upstairs from the main entrance through the first door on the right, through the hallway, on a desk in an office with two sofas
* Stealth Boy - on a table in area overlooking the lobby

### Media Archives

* 2 Pre-war books:
	+ One beside the Public Terminal, in the southwest corner of the third floor
	+ One in the room with two turret guns in the northeast corner of the second floor. Also the ink container can be found here.
* 2 Skill books:
	+ Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor - near the northwest corner of the first floor, in the room with the pool table, under the square table in the corner
	+ Tumblers Today - in the room with the Public Terminal, on the desk against the north wall flanked by two sets of microfiche readers
* Ink container - in the 'Restoration Supplies' box on a desk near the middle of the northern wall of the room with two turret guns
* Nuka-Cola Quantum - on a table in the southwest corner of the room with the Public Terminal, hidden behind a crate and two skulls

### Childrens' Wing

* Sheet music book - There are two rooms sticking out on west side of the local map of the Children's Wing of the library; go to the room farthest north. (From the lobby, go past the firehose box, turn right and go past the Nuka-Cola vending machine. In the first room you see enter.) The sheet music is in the right cubicle by a music stand on the floor. In the first cubicle on the left is a trapped terminal. A pre-War book is in the back left cubicle, though if you don't see it there, keep looking around. This room also contains a trapped terminal.
* 5 Pre-war books:
	+ Three in the Children's Wing, third floor. (Access through Media Archives.)
	+ One in the break room, on a table next to the Eat'o'tronic 3000
	+ One in the same room as sheet music book in, on a desk (see above)
* 2 Skill books:
	+ Guns and Bullets - in the first room you enter coming from the Media Archive. You'll also find 3 of the above mentioned pre-War books here, along with a shotgun and some ammunition. This room is right before you drop through a hole in the floor to continue through the Children's Wing, so you can't access the book by proceeding from the Lobby Entrance.
	+ Lying, Congressional Style - in the break room, next to the coffee-makers

In total, there are 10 Pre-war books and 6 Skill books.

## Related quests

* The Wasteland Survival Guide
* Agatha's Song
* Stealing Independence
* *Yearning for Learning*

## Notes

* If you kill Scribe Yearling along with her Brotherhood of Steel protectors the scribes will become hostile in the Citadel. (But only the scribes, everyone else will be non-hostile).
* If you offend Scribe Yearling, you will not be able to participate in her unmarked quest, in which you must sell her authentic pre-War books. She will ask about your search for books, but you will be unable to give her any.
* Scribe Jameson claims that Scribe Yearling is stationed at the Library of Congress. However, no other source refers to Arlington Library by this name and the building does not resemble any of the three buildings in use by the real Library of Congress.
* The red truck just outside seems to have a small cargo of three jukeboxes in its back, all of which are curiously working.
* Sometimes, the pre-War book next to the Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor (room with pool table, media archives) will not be there. Though, there is a good chance to find another one in one of the lockers (either on the ground floor in the front of Nuka-Cola vending machine or in one of the lockers in children's wing).
* In the Arlington Library Media Archive, the turret control system terminal contains an easter egg. (This easter egg is actually common to all raider-controlled turret terminals.) By viewing the system info after hacking it (50 science required), the user log shows the recent creation of a new admin, with the name *"FUCK YOU"*.
* While on the first floor of the children's wing in the room with the hole in the ceiling and the safe above, you can stand on the barrel with the fire going inside of it and position your crosshair at the safe. With your crosshair in position you can then jump and be able to interact with the safe and open it, provided you have the lock picking skill to do so. it will be marked on the map as a door that looks like it is in the wall, however it is the door on the next floor up.
	+ An even easier way to interact with the safe is to enter the Children's Wing via the Media Archive: you'll enter through the top floor, which features pre-War books, a skill book, and other items. You drop through a hole in the floor to the floor with the safe, then drop through another hole to the first floor of the Children's Wing. However, it may be dangerous to enter this way if you haven't previously eliminated the raiders in the Children's Wing, since several raiders regularly patrol this first-floor area.
* Consistent with its purpose as a library, there are over 750 destroyed/damaged books that might be useful as Rock-It Launcher ammunition.
* Scribe Yearling will not accept skill books or destroyed/damaged books. However, she will accept any pre-War books you find, whether or not they were in the library.
* After the quest "The Waters of Life", if you approach the area right across the road from the library, past the truck, a Vertibird will land and two Enclave will jump out and attack you. They are wearing Tesla armor which is the best power armor in the game except for that inside Fort Constantine, without an add-on.
* If you have finished the Wasteland Survival Guide quest by convincing Moira to abandon the book, Scribe Yearling will not give you access to her computer.

## Appearances

Arlington Library only appears in *Fallout 3*.

## Bugs

* PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Unable to load (freezing) when moving between various library sections (especially after completing optional part of Moira's "Retrieve complete library archive" quest), eventually begins to crash even when attempting to enter the library lobby from the outside.
* Xbox 360 If the 'Restoration Supplies' are taken after the Stealing Independence quest is completed it may result in not being able to load the Arlington Public Library Lobby.
* Xbox 360 Sometimes, when entering the library, Scribe Yearling will be frozen in place, and unable to interact with. Moving away from her, or bumping into her, or leaving and re-entering usually fixes this.
* PC PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Upstairs where the raider event occurs, the player can get stuck walking on tilted book shelves, and being unable to fast travel will require a reload.
* PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 The radroaches on the bottom floor near the store-room and refrigerator can sometimes get stuck in the rubble and cannot move.
* PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 When battling through the Children's Wing together with the two Brotherhood soldiers, they can randomly disappear when going into a corridor and respawn in the Media Archive entrance.
* PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Many of the books within the library appear to emit blood when punched with a power fist.
* PlayStation 3 Sometimes after the raiders event in the lobby, the Brotherhood of Steel non-player character's guns will continue to sound like they are firing even after the raiders have been eliminated.
* Scribe Yearling only accepts the pre-War books that are inside the library, meaning there are only 10 books available to sell.
* PlayStation 3 The Brotherhood of Steel non-player character's may randomly turn hostile towards the player if the player accidentally set off one of the traps near the Children's Wing, resulting in injuries to the Brotherhood of Steel non-player character's.
* PlayStation 3 The Brotherhood of Steel non-player character's may become hostile towards the player if the player attempts to loot one of their corpses upon death.

## Gallery

* The lobby
* Children's wing
* Media archive

## References

1. ↑ The Lone Wanderer: *"Can you help me access the library's archives?"*
Yearling: *"The front desk computer has access to the card catalogs, but it appears that it's lost the connection to the main archives. Here's the password. Now, you might be able to find the central computer further in there, but I'm afraid you'll have to do that without me. I'm a scholar, not a fighter."*
(Yearling's dialogue)
2. ↑ The Lone Wanderer: *"What do you do in this library?"*
Yearling: *"We have set up this area as a forward operations center for our project. The books we collect can be recorded with the computer systems here. We then ship them under escort back to the Citadel for transcribing into the archives there."*
(Yearling's dialogue)
3. ↑ Yearling: *"Hold it! This area is under the authority of the Brotherhood of Steel. Leave immediately."*
(Yearling's dialogue)
4. ↑ The Lone Wanderer: *"I'm searching for records from the library."*
Yearling: *"It seems that we have similar goals in mind. It's rare to meet someone who has proper priorities. I am Senior Scribe Yearling, Order of the Word. I have a proposal for you if you are interested."*
(Yearling's dialogue)
5. ↑ Yearling for Learning
6. ↑ The Lone Wanderer: *"I'm looking for some ink. I was told it might be here in the library."*
Yearling: *"Hmmm, surprised anyone would care about that old stuff. I think there may be some in the old restoration laboratory a few flights up. Just watch yourself up there, I think it may be infested with rats and roaches."*
(Yearling's dialogue)