'A good age for anyone': Glenview library is 90
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted celebrations planned for the 90th anniversary of the Glenview Public Library, which only means the 100th will be all the more special, officials said.
"It was disappointing," said Hilary Gabel, the library's director of communications. "There's been a lot of planning up until this whole thing happened. We had talked about a community celebration and programs all year long to celebrate."
The library has canceled all in-person programs and events through Aug. 31 and it's unclear when things might resume, Gabel said. The unveiling of the library's new innovation center, part of a $1.5 million renovation project that might be done in early to mid-July, would have coincided perfectly with the celebratory events, she said.
"You can always argue that the 100 will be much more spectacular," she said.
Beverly Dawson, president of the Glenview History Center, agreed.
"I think 90 is a good age for anyone - or any institution," she said. "It's just 10 years away from their centennial, which is really quite remarkable. Our town was founded in 1899 so the library came on relatively soon."
The founding of the library 90 years ago was the work of resident Helen Maynard, who got help from her brother Henry and a group of others, Dawson said.
"It was her vision and her energy that got this going," she said.
The library board has its first meeting Dec. 6, 1930 and the library opened March 2, 1931 in the Glenview Civic Center - now home to the Glenview Park District - with a collection of 398 books and an agreement to borrow up to 1,000 books each year from the Evanston Public Library. An article in a women's magazine mentioned how unique the arrangement was, said Kimberly Schlarman, reference librarian and genealogy specialist who serves on the board of the Glenview History Center.
"The library was founded during the (Great) Depression, so they were really struggling just to get it founded," she said. "People in Glenview donated a lot of their own materials and they were also very resourceful with borrowing from Evanston."
The library's first director, Ruth Hubbell, was chosen because of the background, but it also helped that she had a car, which she used to collect and return books to Evanston, according to historical information on the library's website.
The Glenview Library Association was founded in 1939 and took on the task of fundraising; it later changing its name to Friends of the Glenview Public Library, Schlarman said.
After building bonds were approved in 1953, the library moved in 1955 to its current location at 1930 Glenview Road, Dawson said. The building went through renovations in the 1960s and 1980s, and was razed to make way for the current 85,000-square-building built in 2010.
Dawson has written books on the history of Glenview and the former Glenview Naval Air Station, and has done programs at the library.
"One of the really wonderful things about Glenview's library is that it does have all kinds of research material. You have access on microfiche to old newspaper documents and what have your, and that's a wonderful resource."
More than 940,000 print, non-print and digital materials circulated in 2019 at the library, which had 20,020 cardholders. Located "right in the heart of the action of the village," the library offers the joy and pleasure of books, but also up-to-date technology for youth and adults alike, Dawson said.
"That's something that those of us of a certain age have to get used to," she said. "The kids grow up with that and that's the way they learn. And to have that available, I think that's priceless."