Aurora looks to future of libraries. (
Daily Herald, 12/19/2011)
Excerpt: Audience members who participated in the roundtables listed a number of things they would like to see in the new Aurora Public Library. Among them were:
• an imagination/creative lab;
• genius bar;
• programs that reach out to all age groups;
• interconnection with school and university libraries;
• movable walls;
• physical data storage;
• soundproof performance room;
• community garden;
• roaming librarians (in the library and throughout the community);
• and SMART Boards all over.
One group said its members’ goal for a future Aurora Public Library is that it be the “guardian of the community memory.”
Library no longer throws book at snoozers. (Chicago
Tribune, 12/2/2011)
Excerpt:
Fall asleep in the Chicago Public Library, someone will nudge you awake. Do it again, they'll show you the door. But drift off in Lombard's cozy library and you can slumber in peace.
"The library is a good place to at least catch up on the sleep you missed out on the night before," said Tammy Selio as she sat in the west suburban library on a recent Tuesday, a black suitcase filled with her belongings at her side.
Selio, 40, and other homeless patrons often gather there in the hours before a nearby shelter opens at 7 p.m. Sometimes their eyes grow heavy — especially as the days turn gloomy and colder and a comfortable library chair beckons.
Libraries tend to frown on behavior that disrupts other patrons, and that can include sleeping. But Lombard's Helen Plum Memorial Library is considering changing its rules to allow sleeping as long as it doesn't disturb others. Unofficially, it has already done so.
