Arlington Library

Arlington Library is a mostly-intact Public Library building in Fallout 3. It is mostly occupied by raiders that are boxed in and hunted by Brotherhood of Steel soldiers holding position in the front lobby.

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 camp nearby, so be careful when approaching the library. Next to Alexandria Arms, there is a building that a lone raider uses as his home. It's covered with traps (see trap house below, in notable locations). 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 of course, otherwise they will almost assuredly die before they're even halfway through). 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, so if the player wants help, they will need to lure the remaining raiders out.


 * Note: An alternate, preferable strategy to begin the advance of the Brotherhood soldiers is to first go upstairs to the second floor, and enter the first raider room from there. The first benefit is that you will be on the same level as the raiders, thus negating their high-ground advantage (the partial cover they receive from anyone downstairs in the center of the room). The second benefit is that it should be easier to sneak attack the raiders, as their focus will be on the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, leaving you on their flank. The third benefit is that, due to your position on their flank, you will not be downstairs in the center of the room where all the raider gunfire will be concentrated, thus avoiding stray bullets aimed at the soldiers.

Sunken River Boat
Near the library is a partially sunken boat with some loot on board. Head east to the river round the southern side of the Arlington library. You will pass the Talon Company outpost entrance to your right. Keep east passing the unmarked entrance to Arlington Sewer (which can be seen on your local map) and go to a small beach on the river.

Look into the river. Northeast there is a large boat half submerged, but there is nothing on board. Almost directly to the southeast you can just see the roof of a small boat, swim to this to find:


 * Hunting rifle
 * 2 locked ammunition boxes
 * First aid box.

Trap house
This building can be found just to the west of Arlington Public Library, when viewing the local map it is the small building directly to the west of the Arlington Public Library Lobby entrance. This building contains several traps inside as well as several frag mines scattered around the entrance. Traps include:
 * I-beam swing trap.
 * Bear traps.
 * Shotgun trap.
 * Grenade bouquet.
 * Pitching machine.

There are multiple instances of some of the traps, as well as a Mark IV Turret on the third floor. There is also some decent loot on the third floor, including 4 locked safes of varying difficulty (one of which forms the left side support for the table with the chemistry set), an ammunition box, footlocker, and 2 first-aid boxes in the rooms adjacent to the one with the pitching machine and workbench. There will also be a dead raider up there, sometimes alive, easily snipe-able from the ground outside as he stays in a vulnerable corner of the building and will attack you if he sees you.

Riverboat Landing
Near the library is the Riverboat Landing for the add-on Point Lookout. Head east to the river round the southern side of the Arlington Library. You will pass the Talon Company outpost entrance to your right. Keep east passing the unmarked entrance to Arlington Sewer (which can be seen on your local map) and go to a small beach on the river.

Look into the river. Northeast there is a large boat half submerged. In front of this on the shore there is now a newly constructed pier for the riverboat that takes you to Point Lookout. The riverboat "The Duchess Gambit" is docked here. More information here.

Nearby Enclave Vertibird Landing
After you complete the main quest The Waters of Life, Enclave Vertibirds will start landing in various areas around the Wasteland. One landing zone for the Vertibirds are right across the street in the parking lot of the trap house. 3 Enclave soldiers with Tesla armor will come out of the Vertibird and engage either the raider in the trap house or the player depending on the distance the player is to the landing zone. Once the player activates this encounter Vertibirds with 3 Tesla soldiers will keep respawning every time the player gets near it.

Notable loot

 * 10 Pre-War books:
 * 3x - On the catwalk overlooking the main library hall - Two on shelves on the southern wall, and one on the table on the northern wall, next to the hallway door.
 * 1x - Beside the public terminal in the Media Archives.
 * 1x - In the Media Archives area, in the room with two turret guns, northeast corner. Also the ink container can be found here.
 * 3x - In the Children's Wing, third floor. (Access through Media Archives.)
 * 1x - Children's Wing, in the break room, on a table next to the Eat'o'tronic 3000.
 * 1x - Children's Wing, in the same room you'll find the sheet music book in, on a desk.
 * Ink container in the 'Restoration Supplies' box in the media section. It is a quest item and therefore cannot be removed after picking it up until you get the corresponding (sub-quest) from Button Gwinnett (item has no weight). If these '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 version)
 * 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 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.
 * 6 skill books:
 * Big Books of Science - Upstairs from the lobby to the right, through the hallway, on a desk in an office with two sofas. First door on the right.
 * Guns and Bullets - In the Children's Wing, 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 ammo. 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 - Children's Wing, in the break room, next to the coffee-makers.
 * Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor - Second floor of the media archive, in the room with the pool table, on the square table in the corner. (Northwest part of map.)
 * Tumblers Today - In the room where you download the archives, on the desk against the north wall flanked by two sets of microfiche readers.
 * Just to the north of the main door there is a Pulowski preservation shelter (outside of the building) that contains a Guns and Bullets.
 * Nuka-Cola Quantum - 1 on a table in the SW corner of the Arlington Library Media Archive, where you download the archives; it's hidden in the corner behind a crate and two skulls - and as always, check the vending machines.
 * 1 Stealth Boy on a table in area overlooking the lobby
 * There is a safe (average, requires 50 lockpick) in a doorless room which can only be entered by dropping through a hole in the floor in the Children's Wing on the top floor (which is only one room). The safe contains random items. You then must drop though a hole in that room's floor to get out. (There may be a stealth boy in place of the scotch on the 360 or PS3 version.)
 * 1 fresh apple in the ladies restroom located down the hallway from which the 2 Brotherhood Knights emerge during their sweep of the building. This is a very out of place fresh apple behind the trashcan (killing these Brotherhood of Steel soldiers for their loot doesn't affect how the Scribe or her guards interact with you.)
 * There's 2 uniquely sized pieces of scrap metal on a conveyor belt where the restoration supplies are.

Related qests

 * The Wasteland Survival Guide
 * There is also one of six sheet music book inside that can be returned to Agatha as part of the Agatha's Song quest. (any of the six music paper books can be returned to Agatha, however it can only be done once thus rendering the other five music books useless unless you sell them for 100 caps each).
 * Stealing Independence
 * Yearning for Learning

Appearances
Arlington Library only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Upstairs where the raider event occurs, the PC can get stuck walking on tilted book shelves, and being unable to fast travel will require a reload.
 * The radroaches on the bottom floor near the store-room and refrigerator can sometimes get stuck in the rubble and cannot move.
 * 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.
 * Many of the books within the library appear to emit blood when punched with a power fist.
 * Sometimes after the raiders event in the lobby, the Brotherhood of Steel NPC's guns will continue to sound like they are firing even after the raiders have been eliminated.

Арлингтонская библиотека