Know someone without a card? Help us spread the word! Learn more about getting and using your card » #1: You get to say yes more! No late fines and automatic renewals? Go ahead, get all the books, music, and movies you can carry—and then some. With each library card, you can check out up to 200 … Read more
Early childhood literacy includes preparing our community’s babies, toddlers, and preschoolers to arrive “ready to learn” come kindergarten. As part of her intentional work to ensure diversity, inclusion, and equity in all storytimes, Early Literacy Librarian Shelley Harris recently shared a resource she’s found impactful in her everyday storytime work and when auditing Oak Park’s early childhood … Read more
As a primary school educator in India and a Hindi instructor for graduate students from Western countries, Oak Park Adult Education and Career Services Librarian Rashmi Swain has long practiced her passion for sharing the empowerment that learning can provide. So when then Housing Forward employee Suzanne Till approached Swain for support in teaching Housing Forward … Read more
In 2017, your public library: Re-engaged more than 1,700 Oak Park Public Library cardholders since eliminating fines for overdue materials. Actively listened and learned from hundreds of patrons, peers, and partners about shared aspirations and emerging concerns. Welcomed more than 100 new community organizations after opening up the library’s meeting space policy. Read more in … Read more
Last year, Trina Wade, a mother of four, was working part-time at a major financial institution, studying full-time toward a business degree, and hunting for a job in a new industry. She was busy, working hard, and getting frustrated. “My goal was to have a new career before I graduated,” Wade said. “Being on the … Read more
Hundreds of items from the Oak Park Public Library and community partner The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park are now live at the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) as part of the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub. The DPLA serves as a portal for students, teachers, scholars, and the public to search through millions … Read more
A tour group with the Elmhurst History Museum dropped by the library’s Special Collections last week to get a closer look at original architectural drawings from Frank Lloyd Wright’s first published work, the 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio. Oak Park’s Unity Temple, the Robie House in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and the Winslow House in River Forest are just three of the National Historic … Read more
Genealogists and local history buffs, take note: more photographic treasures telling Oak Park’s local story from the Civil War and beyond will soon be available online, thanks to a grant the library received in October. On the heels of successfully completing its Hacking Hemingway: Cracking the Code to the Vault digital imaging grant, the library … Read more
Last week, we welcomed home two of the oldest items in the library: a pair of Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) volumes containing around 100 photographs and a wealth of information about local veterans who fought in the Civil War. “They’re a great time capsule of veterans from this time period,” said Leigh Tarullo, Curator … Read more
It would have been Ernest Hemingway’s 117th birthday this July. The anniversary did not go unmarked here in Hemingway’s hometown. To skim the surface: In July, the library’s Special Collections team participated in a conference of international Hemingway Society scholars who came to Oak Park. A gala was held at the Main Library to support the home, now a museum, where Hemingway … Read more
Check out students’ six-word stories in the catalog and by see more work by searching Twitter with #HackingHemingway Tweens and teens are digital learners, creators Inspired by old Hemingway family photos digitized earlier this year through a state grant to the library, Oak Park tweens and teens showed “a burst of creativity” in their classrooms and at the library this spring, … Read more
Humanizing history in 140 characters Since February’s release of the first 84 digitized artifacts from the library’s Special Collections and The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park on the Illinois Digital Archives, there’s another place online you may have seen young Ernest, his sister Marcelline, and his mother Grace. Your Twitter feed. As the library … Read more
‘Stunning images, handwritten commentary’ Unprecedented, online access is now available to rare Ernest Hemingway family artifacts from the late 1800s and early 1900s through the Illinois Digital Archives (IDA). Thanks to an $86,900 grant from the Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White, the first 84 digitized artifacts from the Oak Park Public Library’s … Read more
Now online are the first 84 of at least 300 digitized artifacts from the library, The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park (EHFOP), and the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. All artifacts will be uploaded into the Illinois Digital Archives (IDA) in time for the Hemingway Society’s 17th biennial international conference. in Oak Park … Read more
