Announcing our newest pop-up library location: Styles 4 Kidz, 235 Harrison St., Oak Park, IL 60304. Pop-up libraries allow community members to use the library when they’re out and about, no library card or checkouts needed. Styles 4 Kidz is our third pop-up library location, adding to ones installed earlier this year at the Community … Read more
Every Wednesday after school, middle schoolers gather at the Main Library for tea and snacks with their friends and a couple of trusted adults. It’s called Tea Talk, and it’s a time for everyone to talk about mental health and emotions. This mentoring group, now in its second year, draws about 10-15 kids each week, … Read more
When our Library of Things collection made its debut last September, Nicole Brown and her family were ready for it. On previous visits to the Main Library, they’d seen staff assembling the wall in the lobby (pictured above) that showcases items in the collection. Things like an electric drill, a pair of tennis rackets, a … Read more
Nothing lasts forever, and that includes your old VHS tapes. Even if you still have a VCR to play them, the tape quality can degrade as the years go by. The solution? Digitize those tapes. And you can do it for free in the Main Library Creative Studio! That’s why library patron Alex Yu has … Read more
Pop-up libraries are collections you can access outside library buildings, in spaces where people already congregate. Our first one was installed this spring at the Park District of Oak Park’s Community Recreation Center, and we’re thrilled to add a second location! Kids and families can find it at Wonder Works Children’s Museum, 6445 West North … Read more
August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day, and we want to make our community aware that the Main Library offers life-saving resources just inside the front entrance. Since March 2023, overdose kits containing naloxone nasal spray (also known by the brand name Narcan) have been freely available to anyone in the Main Library vestibule, in … Read more
To meet our community’s growing needs, we partnered with Triton College this spring to offer an eight-week conversational Spanish course for 12 library staff members at the Main Library. The course was designed to help staff provide more responsive customer service and build relationships with Spanish-speaking community members who frequent the library. Rashmi Swain, Adult … Read more
American teens are in a mental health crisis, according to the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and it began even before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why, since 2019, assistant professor and researcher Ashley Knapp (pictured above, left), who studies teens, technology, and mental health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg … Read more
This latest issue of the library’s magazine (pdf) highlights summer reading programs for kids, teens, and adults, plus: We love to see how you use your public library If you have an idea or story to share with us for a future issue, please contact us at communications@oppl.org. You can also share stories, photos, and more through … Read more
In our continued quest to be a library for everyone, we strive to offer the widest possible access with the fewest barriers as possible. So we’re thrilled to offer a new way for community members to use the library and read library books when they’re out and about in the community: pop-up libraries! Pop-up libraries … Read more
