Library History

The Library was founded on December 6, 1930, when the Glenview Public Library Board of Directors held its first meeting. There were six Board Members: Helen Maynard, Henry Maynard, Mrs. Charles Bartling, Mrs. Ralph Hoffman, Gert Gould, and Robert L. Wyatt (who became the first President, while Helen Maynard was the first Secretary).

The Library opened its doors to the public on March 2, 1931, in borrowed space in the Glenview Village Hall (now the headquarters of the Glenview Park District). The Board appointed the first Librarian, Ruth Hubble of Arlington Heights, and obtained the first 1,000 volumes through a contract with the Evanston Public Library. Circulation during the Library's first year of operation was 12,443.

When financial problems arose in 1939, Mrs. Max Zabel, a library trustee, met with 25 of her neighbors and founded the Glenview Library Association on June 16, 1939. The purpose of the Association was to raise supplementary financial support for the library, and the group continues to do so to this day. The Glenview Library Association has raised more than $400,000 since its inception and holds two major fund raising events each year, a direct mail campaign launched during National Library Week in the spring and a Library Ball and silent auction in the fall. The Association has made many innovative programs and collections possible.

After a library survey in 1951, voters approved a $200,000 bond issue in 1953 to build a new library building. On December 4, 1955, the community dedicated the new library building at 1930 Glenview Road, a block south of the Village Hall. Girl Scout, Brownie, and Boy Scout groups helped to move the books from the old location to the new building.

In 1958, Peter Bury became Library Director. He was to serve in that capacity for the next 30 years, presiding over two major expansions of the building and the introduction of automation to library operations. He was one of the founders of the North Suburban Library System, and he served as President of the Illinois Library Association. In 1989, a year after his retirement, the Library named the Business Reference Room in his honor.

Rapid community growth and resulting increased usage of the library soon convinced library trustees that a larger building was needed. After a space study, Coder Taylor Associates was hired as architects and designed an addition to the library. Voters approved another bond issue for $500,000 in November of 1965, and federal grants were obtained to complete the funding. The new addition opened to the public in 1968.

Automation came to the library 1976, when Glenview became one of the first libraries to computerize circulation operations with the CLSI system.

The Village continued to grow in population and activity, and expansion again became an issue in the early 1980's. A referendum in 1983 approved a $3,000,000 bond issue for an expansion that would increase the library's space to 47,500 square feet by adding a mezzanine, a large main reading room with a skylight, an expanded magazine and audiovisual area, and a new technical services room. The addition was completed in 1986.

In the ten years since the opening of the new addition, usage of the library has grown sharply. Circulation has doubled, now approaching 800,000 per year. The automation system was upgraded in 1986, again in 1990, again in 1995, and one more time in 1999. The Library first connected to the Internet since 1992 through a cooperative arrangement with several school districts using an instutional CATV network. Since 1998, the Library has accessed the Internet through a dedicated T1 line.

Source: Library records and Glenview at 75, Glenview Area Historical Society, Melrose Park, IL: Union Press, Inc., 1974.