Mount Prospect library celebrates 75 years on Sunday
The Mount Prospect Public Library has come a long way since voters approved the foundation of a tax-supported village library 75 years ago.
That journey will be celebrated from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, when the library hosts an open house culminating a yearlong celebration of the district's founding in 1943.
The celebration will start with a keynote speech by Gerould Kern, former editor of the Chicago Tribune, followed by a speech by Dawn Fletcher Collins, executive director of the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce. Collins will talk about how the library has been a vital part of the village.
A short video, "Touching Lives, Enriching Our Community," will highlight library patron memories and favorites.
At 2 p.m., guests are invited to enjoy musical performances, a demonstration of library services, a scavenger hunt and a one-of-a-kind sweet treat.
"Actually, the library itself was here … before we became a tax-supported library," said Joanne Greenwald, the library's communications specialist. "And it was really put in place and managed by some of the local community groups here in Mount Prospect. They would go around town looking for donations and looking for contributions to our collection."
In fact, the story goes, members of the Mount Prospect Woman's Club would make the rounds with a little red wagon and collect books.
Volunteers from the club staffed the first library, located in a one-room schoolhouse at Main Street and Central Road. It moved to the old Mount Prospect State Bank building on the northeast corner of Busse and Main streets in 1932 and then to a paint store at 115 S. Main St. in 1944. By that time, the Chicago Public Library was bolstering the collection, giving an initial donation of 1,000 books in 1943 for $200, a sum it then returned to the Mount Prospect library to enable the purchase of children's books. That arrangement lasted for 20 years.
The first library building was built on the current site of village hall. After the approval of a $20.5 million bond issue in a referendum in 2002, the library's present location opened in 2004.
In 2009, annual circulation reached 1 million for the first time. That year, the library branched out with its first permanent off-site location at the Community Connections Center at 1711 W. Algonquin Road, to serve the residents on the south part of town, which has a high concentration of low- and moderate-income residents.
Today's library reflects changes not only in the community, but in the library world as well. It contains meeting and study rooms, a teen space, and internet stations, and it offers audio e-books and access to 3-D printers.
"We have tried to keep up with the needs of the community, in our collection and our space as well. Our library isn't the library that you grew up with," Greenwald said. "It's definitely more of a collaborative environment."