Patrons filled the Community Room of the main library of the Evanston Public Library at 1703 Orrington Ave. on Saturday, Oct. 14 for a Thank You Reception.
The 150th anniversary capstone event, the Thank You Reception, was part of a daylong 150th Anniversary Open House event at the Main Library in downtown Evanston and also at the Robert Crown Branch at 1801 Main Street.
“It’s really important to celebrate the longevity of this wonderful institution,” said Interim Library Director Heather Norborg. “We have one of the earliest bookmobiles in the country. It’s been very important to us to serve our community so long.”
Saturday was also the 30th anniversary of the downtown main library building opening on Oct. 14, 1993, Norborg said.
“We didn’t even know when we scheduled this,” Norborg said with a laugh.
Special cupcakes plus doughnuts were served as people gathered for fellowship before program remarks.
The library’s history as a true public service began on April 15, 1873 when Evanstonians unanimously voted to fund a free public library. The books came from the private library of one of Evanston’s first families, the Mulford’s, according to library officials. Before it’s current building was completed in 1993, one iteration of the library was built thanks to a $50,000 grant from entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie in 1907. The library was open at that point to all patrons regardless of race, gender or age, something fairly uncommon at the time. It was reconstructed again in 1961, according to library officials, where it became a more suburban, mid century modern building.
The library sifts through 400 new materials a week with some replacing worn out copies already in the catalog and others being all new material for readers to check out.
Library patron Gerri Sizemore of Evanston attended the Thank You Reception and was seen greeting neighbors.
“It is so important for me to be here because I believe in the mission and the Evanston Public Library plays a very important part in this community,” Sizemore said. “They have wonderful staff and I just had to be here.”
The Thank You Reception featured a program on the library’s collaboration with Shorefront Legacy Center of Evanston to digitize the Evanston Newsette and the Evanston Review and, “desegregate a portion of our city’s history,” according to a library description.
Morris “Dino” Robinson, Jr. of Evanston, is former executive director and now a board member of Shorefront Legacy Center.
“It’s always good to celebrate the longevity of a public library and a chance to announce new initiatives that the library’s working on, especially with the digitization of historic newspapers for public use,” Robinson said.
To all, Robinson said, “Treasure libraries, treasure public accessibility to books, read the banned books and enjoy.”
President of the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees Tracy Fulce of Evanston was thrilled to be part of the Thank You Reception.
“It is an extraordinary achievement for our library to celebrate 150 years,” Fulce said. “There are towns that aren’t 150 years old so for a library to have existed this long, and continue to serve with such excellence, is really extraordinary, I’m thrilled.”
The Library Board announced on Oct. 5 Yolande Wilburn is the library’s new executive director starting Nov. 13. Wilburn has been director of libraries for the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, overseeing the system’s 10 locations, a $19 million budget and full-time equivalent staff of 110.
It took 15 months to find the right person as time was spent utilizing surveys and community input, Fulce said.
“We wanted to do it right,” Fulce said of the hiring process.
Lisette Washington of Evanston, of the 2010 Class of Evanston Township High School, attended with son Lachlan Harris, 9 months. Washington, a lawyer, was here to learn more about the newspaper digitization project.
“This project in particular is interesting because I’m a fourth generation Evanstonian. And there are articles about our family that we have not yet been able to find,” Washington said. “This project is going to allow us to find articles that are 60 plus years old that our family has been looking for. So that’s why I’m really excited.”
Lachlan Harris, a fifth generation Evanstonian, got his library card last Saturday, his mother said.
Lisette Washington said she received a library card at maybe five years old.
Of Lachlan’s library card, “It was a moment, for all of us, because I got my first library card here too,” Washington said.
For Seth Himrod of Evanston, attending the Thank You Reception was a moment shared with parent Dave Himrod, also of Evanston.
“I’m the son of a librarian,” Seth Himrod said. “It’s very exciting.”
Both are library volunteers with the Robert Crown branch.
“This is obviously very exciting for us,” Seth Himrod said.
Dave Himrod talked about the accessibility of a library, welcoming to all.
“I expect that in Evanston that it’s open to everyone,” Dave Himrod said of a library.
What’s more, to Dave Himrod about reading, “That’s the only way we find out what is truth.”
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