HomeMy WebLinkAbout1985 - Written Library History Oak Brook Library
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
invasion, butcher a hog, conn a 'ship, design a building, write a
sonnet, balance accounts , build a wall, set a bone, comfort the
dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve
equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cock a tasty meal, fight efficiently. die
gallantly...writes Robert Heinlein in explaining the philosophy
behind a public library's system of- collection. (Give 'Em
What They Want! Managing the Public Library p.98)
Was that what was in the mind of Bob Dills, V. P. of the Oak
Brook Civic Association, when he proposad a library for Oak Brook
at a meeting at the home of Wils Connell on the third Sunday of
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August,1960? Perhaps he was envisioning the versatile population
that Oak Brook would attrectin the future. Other members of the
Oak Brook Civic Association present were Roy Rossman, Erwin
Bahsen and Dick Larsen. At any rate, the idea of a library was
presented to the first regular Fall meeting of the AsSociation in
September 1960.
In April 1961, Oak Brook voters in a Blue Ballot
referendum,approved the founding of. a library. Members of the
founding committee for the library included Sam Dean, Erwin
Efahnsen, Georganne and Jim Verner, Mary McGregor, Barbara Walker,
Harry Owen, Midge Larson, Jean Dills and Wils Connell. The
committee determined to incorporate as a Library Association
under the terms of the Illinois Library Act. In 1962, at a
January meeting at the Larson home, Mr.Dean presented Articles of
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Incorporation prepared by his attorneys. These called for a nine
member Board of Trustees. There were ten people present. 11r. Dean
said he would not accept membership since he thought he had
completed him share of the "founding".The remaining nine became
the first board of the Oak Brook Library Association. Mr. Batb.en
was promptly elected President and Midge Larson, Treasurer.
Mr. Batiken asked the Village Board for space in the Village Hall.
The building formerly housed the Butler School but in 1.9/,2 was
being used as the Village Hall.
From 1962 to 1965 there were fund raisers and book drives.
Shelving was purctrased and installed by Erwin Bahsen, Joe Rush
and Wile Connell: Women volunteers, led by Marion Connell (our
own Marion the Librarian), included Bonnie Carl, 'Lydia Padley,
Anne Waite, Doris Dupont, Agnes Forest and Ella Vlk. They learned
basic library science with initial coaching by Father Kingery,
librarian at St. Paschal's Academy and Miss Harriet Goodall,
previously with the Hinsdale Public Library.
The library, all five hundred square feet of it, was finally
opened to the public at a reception held in May, 1965.
To augment the work of the volunteers, .high school girls
were employed for Saturdays and vacation time.
In 1962 Georgianna Iozro suggested that an "honor system"
be tried, allowing members to borrow and return books at certain
times when no librarian was present. A cash box for fines was on
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the librarian'si‘whern the library was open but not staffed. Agnes
Forest, one of the original volunteers, remembers en incident of
pilfering. The library was on the second floor of the Village
Hall. Below the library was the police station which Agnes found
rather amusing. The cash was so miniscule it was hardly worth
mentioning.After that, the locked cash box was fstened to the
librarian's desk with screws. Fines could be inserted through a
slit in the top of the box but not removed until the box was
unlocked.
In 1970 an appeal was made to the Village for transfer of
the assets of the library to the Village, which would in turn
provide a staff for full time operation as a "Free Public
Library".
In 1971 Joanne Fritter was retained as Village Librarian. A
Village Ordinance created Oak Brook's Free Public Library
effective May 1, 1973, The Library was admitted to memhership in
the DuPage Library System in 1'973.
In 1975 the Library moved into teMporary quarters in the new
Village Hall and work was started on the ,alterations to the
Butler School Building. The entire building would become the Oak
Brook Public Library.
August 21, 1976 was a red letter day. Volunteers and their
families, librarians and their families , the Boy Scouts, Audrey
huschler and her family helped move the contents of the Library
in a morning.
Joanne remembers that when she first started at the,Library
she was working part time as she was still working toward her
Library Science degree. Shortly after she began her career , the
Library still being in a corner of the Village Hall, a resident
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of Oak Brook came to visit- She surveyed the collection, then •
remarked to the very new librarian, "I have more books in my home
than you do in the library. That's a remark a librarian would
remember. She also remembers that lollipops were always at hand
for children and, in the fall a basket of apples on the
librarian's desk was available to any visitor.
In 1981, a midnight call from the fire department alerted
Joanne that a burst pipe had flooded both floors of the library.
She arrived to find firemen sweeping water out the front door.
But the collection survived unscathed. It even survived a second
flood a year or so later.
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In 1985, the library's collection had bean placed on
computers. Joanne and her staff closed the building after
Saturday hours satisfied that the new computer system was in good
working order. When the library opened on Monday, they were
-dismayed to discover that a power outage over the week end had
destroyed the records of their daily transactions. The library
was quieter than ever that day. The automated circulationsystem
eventually came on line again. Since the Library joined the
DuPage Library System Automation Cluster the same year, patrons
can access any library in the system as well as major university
libraries in the area.
One of the pieces of information that I have gathered in my
visits to the library is the astonishing number of schools that
children living in Oak Brook .attend from kindergarten through
high school, in ml I--forty different schools. Children's programs
sponsored by the library necessarily reach only a fraction of
that school population.
C Ott
Mary El len Mason
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