www.mppl.org

By Anne Shaughnessy

The dream to have a public library in Mount Prospect became a reality in 1943 when tax support was obtained.  The movement toward a publicly supported library began through the efforts of the Woman’s Club, with the help of the Men’s Club.

 The need for a library was evident when the Woman’s Club created a small circulating collection in 1943 which was housed in the one-room school house.  This collection, consisting of 300 second-hand books on a single tier of shelves, was wheeled out every Thursday from its storage place in a cloak room.  Within a year, it was reported that there was an enrollment of 300 individuals.  The women worked tirelessly to secure funds to support the collection by soliciting door to door as well as “begged and borrowed...scraped and saved, painted and patched.”  In addition, many other groups such as the VFW and Guild, Lions Club and Guild, Episcopal Guild, Catholic Woman’s Club, American Legion, South Church Guild and Ladies Aid of St. Paul Church donated funds.

 The Men’s Club and Woman’s Club led the way along with support from other organizations to succeed in having the question of tax support on the ballot during the spring election of 1943.  The library became tax supported with a vote of 489 in favor to 212 against.  The first citizens to serve as board members were: Dorothy Kester, Martin Green, Meta Bittner, Ruth Carlson, Edmund Cleven and Mildred Gallagher.  Irma Schlemmer was appointed the first librarian.

 Board members met at each other’s homes to conduct the business of the Library until it had a permanent building.  A budget was submitted to the Village in June and in July each member loaned a dollar to defray the expenses of the board until working funds were available.  One of the first major actions of the board was to find new quarters for the Library.  After checking into various possibilities, an agreement was made with Mr. Busse in 1944 to rent a building at 115 S. Main Street for $60 per month.  The new Library hours were 3 - 5:30 and 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays – nine hours per week.  The librarian was paid 75 cents an hour.

 Not only “business affairs” were handled by the early board members.  With limited funds available for paid staff time to run the Library, they also assisted in providing services.  Mrs. Bittner promoted summer reading programs for children and held a reading club party every fall for the participants.  She also made the book purchases.  Mrs. Carlson wrote articles for the Library’s column, “Lines from the Library,” in the Herald newspaper.  Mr. Green dealt with the building and grounds concerns.  All board members took turns making window displays.

In 1945, Mount Prospect Public Library ranked eighth in the number of books circulated per person, yet it was open fewer hours than any of the village libraries ranked above it.  The first board was dedicated to providing the best possible service to the residents of Mount Prospect.

“Lines from the Library” cites an article in a Chicago paper entitled “Libraries Go Modern.”  This article described “the kind of library of which the members of library boards dream.  With rooms for neighborhood meetings for the discussion of community affairs, a music room and record rental service, a browsing nook with easy chairs and lamps, to say nothing of the service some libraries render by the delivery of books to hospital patients, home invalids, prison inmates and other unfortunates.”

In response to the heavy demand by the Mount Prospect public for library services and the dedication of the early trustees, the Mount Prospect Public Library began its path to becoming the modern busy medium-sized library of the Northwest Suburbs it is today.  During its sixty years of providing tax support, Mount Prospect has seen great growth and development in library services.

By 1950, through land purchased with funds donated by organizations and individuals and a building referendum, a library was built at 14 E. Busse.  The growth continued and in 1962, an addition was built to enlarge the facility.  Later additions included a second-hand trailer which served as a workroom for processing.  Finally this building could no longer be expanded or remodeled to meet the needs of the community.  A new building was built on the site of the former Central School in 1976 – the present Library building.

Mrs. Mary Jo Hutchings became the director of the library in 1966.  Libraries had become the “Information Place!”  Books and recordings were no longer the only materials available at the library.  The ‘70s brought a growth in audiovisual formats and the beginning of computerization.  When the library moved into its new building in 1976, circulation services were first automated.

When Mrs. Hutchings retired in 1981, Mrs. Patricia Kelly was hired as head librarian.  Technology  exploded on the scene in the eighties as well as continued growth in demand for audiovisual formats.  Public computers were now commonplace.  Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, the book collection continued to grow and remain critical to library service.  The information explosion had not subsided.  To satisfy public demand, the hours of the library were expanded to 78 hours a week.

Mrs. Kelly retired in 1992 and Marilyn Genther was appointed executive director.  The ‘90s demonstrated a continually increasing use of all kinds of technology and a wide variety of resources for information retrieval.. A computer network with CD-ROMS was installed in 1992.  The Library celebrated its past at special events commemorating its 50^th Anniversary in September 1994 while it also planned for the future.  MPPL entered the Information Superhighway in May 1995 with a text-based homepage and began offering Internet access to patrons.  In 1996 a graphical interface was implemented when the World Wide Web emerged on the scene.  By the end of the decade there were 8 public computers in adult services with online access to the Internet and numerous online subscriptions.  Other computers offered access to word processing software.  Email was the communication method of choice for staff and library functions such as acquisitions and interlibrary loan were also automated.  Technology  had become a pervasive force in the library as in many other areas of society.