Programs
Read, learn, discover!
The Chicago Public Library Foundation was established in 1986 as an independent, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to working with the City of Chicago in a true public/private partnership to enrich the collections and programs of the Chicago Public Library.
Through the generous support of many civic-minded corporations, foundations and individuals, The Foundation has provided start-up funding for new programs, such as technology and expanded Sunday and evening service hours, that are now included in the Library's city-funded budget.
The Foundation also provides on-going funding, through its endowments and annual fundraising for collections, book acquisition and a variety of community-based programs that contribute to the excellence of the Library. In 2005, these gifts provided more than $2.5 million to the Chicago Public Library in support of programs including:
Summer Reading Programs for Children, Adults, Teens and Families
The Chicago Public Library's 2009 Family Summer Reading Program celebrates Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. Children ages 3 and up will travel through history with Land of Lincoln Readers, the Library's 32nd Summer Reading Program for children. Adults and teens will join the journey with Summer Reads for Adults, exploring the life and legacy of our 16th president.
Teacher in the Library
The Teacher in the Library (TIL) program makes available after school homework help and guidance provided by caring, trained, accredited teachers who can address each child's individual needs. Serving children ages five and up, the Teacher in the Library program provides high quality, professional after-school homework help to Chicago's at-risk children and youth a half million times each school year. TILs explain homework assignments, suggest strategies for completing assignments, contact teachers, speak to parents and collaborate with Library staff. Funding is currently secured to offer the TIL program in 55 branch libraries throughout the City.
Cyber Navigators
CyberNavigators computer tutors help provide access to information resources for both adults and children at 42 branch libraries throughout Chicago. Through technology training and mentoring, the CyberNavigators program strengthens the Chicago Public Library's ability to connect Chicagoans to their world and fulfills the Library's mission to provide equal access to information for all Library patrons.
Teen Volume
More than 8 million adolescents between grades four and twelve are identified as "struggling readers," according to the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices. Many middle and high school students can read words, but don' t understand the ideas and concepts they're reading about. Education advocates say the problem is that educators lay a good foundation and then stop building the house instead of continuing literacy efforts into middle and high schools. To reverse this trend, Chicago Public Library's Teen Volume program stimulates teens' interest in reading, improves their comprehension, provides opportunities for self-expression and helps shape participating teens into life-long readers and thoughtful, literate adults.
Learn more at the Chicago Public Library.
YOUmedia at the Chicago Public Library – A Digital Library Space for Teens
Hang Out – Mess Around – Geek Out These are the three dynamic sections of YOUmedia, a truly innovative new space for teens at the Harold Washington Library Center. YOUmedia gives teens a place to hang out with friends, mess around with digital media and geek out in workshops where they learn to create digital artifacts. YOUmedia debuted in July 2009 and is open to all Chicago teens with a valid library card. YOUmedia connects teens, books, digital technology and Chicago’s educational and cultural communities. Mentored by Chicago Public Library librarians, Digital Youth Network and other community partners, teens learn to express themselves through new digital skills in photography, music, video and game design. YOUmedia is now the downtown home of the Teen Volume program, which brings teens from throughout Chicago together through literature and the arts to foster their literacy, creativity, self-expression and success in school and beyond. The Library’s extensive Teen Volume young adult book collection is now housed in YOUmedia, so in addition to state-of –the-art technology, YOUmedia gives teens easy access to thousands of books right in their own space.Great Kids Read
Funded since 2003 with generous grants to the Chicago Public Library Foundation from Kraft Foods, the Great Kids program has provided emergent literacy collections for parents, teachers and caregivers for all Chicago Public Library locations. Kraft's funding has also allowed the Library to collaborate with the Chicago Park District in sponsoring monthly reading activities in 15 Park District fieldhouse locations, as well as bringing the Summer Reading Program to Chicago's parks. Great Kids grants also fund the extremely popular Great Kids Museum Passports program.
Bookamania
Over 5,000 children and their families celebrated Bookania 2009, the Chicago Public Library's day-long free celebration of books and book-related crafts for children ages 3–10 years old, held each year at the Harold Washington Library Center. Bookamania was made possible by a generous grant from Target Corporation through the Chicago Public Library Foundation.
Presented by:
Adopt-a-Branch
The Adopt-a-Branch Program provides the opportunity to support individual branch libraries through the Chicago Public Library Foundation. The program currently funds the Teacher in the Library and CyberNavigators programs in branch libraries throughout the City.
One Book, One Chicago
At a press conference on March 11th, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that Chicago-born Sandra Cisneros' novel, The House on Mango Street, will be the 16th selection for Chicago's citywide book club, One Book, One Chicago.
"One Book, One Chicago has been a great success and has come to be viewed as the national model for creating similar programs. We look at it as a way to bring people together in all our neighborhoods and to foster the kind of communication that can only help make Chicago a better place to live, work and raise a family," Daley said in remarks at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State Street.
One Book, One Chicago began in the fall of 2001, to encourage all Chicagoans to read the same book at the same time, and discuss a great piece of literature with friends and neighbors. The Spring 2009 One Book, One Chicago is presented by the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Motorola Foundation and Northern Trust. Additional support is provided by the Chicago Tribune, National Museum of Mexican Art, DePaul University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Steppenwolf Theatre and the Park Hyatt Chicago.
Chicago Book Festival
Each October, the Chicago Public Library presents the Chicago Book Festival, a City-wide book festival that creates a culture of reading throughout Chicago by working with bookstores, cultural institutions and other City departments to organize and promote author events and book-related programs for children and adults. Highlights of the month include One Book, One Chicago and the Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, which honored Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2006 with the Library Champion award and has hononed literary stars such as author John Updike, playwright David Mamet and poet Nikki Giovanni. The Chicago Book Festival features a schedule of book/author events that offers something for every reader. The Chicago Book Festival is funded by the Chicago Public Library Foundation in partnership with the City of Chicago, the Chicago Public Library, the Mayor's Office of Special Events and the Chicago Tribune.
NatureConnections
Funded through the Herman Dunlap and Ellen Thorne Smith Fund of The Chicago Community Trust, the NatureConnections program has allowed the Library to purchase book collections and provide natural science programs for children in all Chicago Public Library locations for over 20 years.
Pick International Relations Collection and Author Series
The Pick International Relations grant from the Albert Pick Jr. Fund allows the Library to create collections and free public programs that foster dialogue and debate by presenting various viewpoints and a balanced exchange of ideas on complex global issues. Speakers have included Kevin Phillips, author of Bad Money and American Theocracy; James Carroll, author of House of War; Bernard Lewis, James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly; Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell; Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell, America in the Age of Genocide; Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban; and Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran.
The Humanities Collection
Each year the Chicago Public Library Foundation awards the Library a grant to purchase books in the fine arts, literature and other areas of the Humanities for all 79 Chicago Public Library locations.
Oprah Winfrey Fund
Funded by a gift from Oprah Winfrey to the Chicago Public Library Foundation, each year the Library purchases Newbery, Caldecott and King Award-winning children's books for all Library locations.
