Schaumburg library to mark 25th year in current home by opening time capsule

"Titanic" was king of the box office and "Seinfeld" had just relinquished its rule of the TV airwaves when the Schaumburg Township District Library completed its new building in 1998 and sealed a time capsule outside the west entrance.

Now, plans are being made to open the contents of that 25-year-old time capsule and expose them to a world in which "Star Wars" is no longer just a movie trilogy and an entire generation has grown up with the internet instead of encyclopedias.

The opening event will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the central library, 130 S. Roselle Road in Schaumburg.

The capsule's contents include CD-ROM databases, photographs and newspaper clippings - all sealed in a container with the air replaced by inert gases in the interest of their preservation.

The capsule also contains letters to the future from 1998 Library Board President Deborah Miller and founding Executive Director Michael Madden, who was still serving at the time.

Among other things, those letters describe the library's evolving role in the community at the end of the 20th century.

At the time of the capsule's sealing, Miller expressed hope that the library board of 2023 would continue the tradition with a similar gesture for the residents and patrons of the middle of the 21st century.