Full Text of HR1049 94th General Assembly
HR1049 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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HR1049 |
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LRB094 19979 HSS 57393 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the | 3 |
| State of Illinois offer our sincere congratulations to the | 4 |
| Elmhurst Public Library on 90 years of service to the Elmhurst | 5 |
| community; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, The library opened on March 22, 1916, during a | 7 |
| heavy snowstorm and had over 100 residents show up to get | 8 |
| library cards; and | 9 |
| WHEREAS, In the beginning, the library had 830 books and | 10 |
| was only open 10 hours per week; and | 11 |
| WHEREAS, The Elmhurst Library was first located in a room | 12 |
| at the north end of the Glos building on York Street and Park | 13 |
| Avenue, which it rented for $150 per month; and | 14 |
| WHEREAS, Katharine Breitenbach, the first librarian, was | 15 |
| paid a salary of $15 per month, and $5 a month was paid for | 16 |
| janitor services; and | 17 |
| WHEREAS, Within one year, the library's collection had | 18 |
| grown to 1,507 volumes and 12 magazine subscriptions; there | 19 |
| were 643 registered borrowers and books had circulated 10,400 | 20 |
| times; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, During World War I, the library distributed food | 22 |
| pamphlets and government bulletins and collected, with the help | 23 |
| of school children, over 1,000 books for soldiers' camps; and | 24 |
| WHEREAS, In 1919, the Library Board appointed a committee | 25 |
| to look for land suitable for a public library building, and in | 26 |
| 1922, the library moved to the first floor of the former Wilder | 27 |
| home, which was purchased along with an acre of land from the | 28 |
| Park District for $14,000; and |
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HR1049 |
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LRB094 19979 HSS 57393 r |
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| WHEREAS, After moving to its new location, story hours were | 2 |
| given throughout the year, and according to a report in the | 3 |
| Elmhurst Press, during the 1923-24 school year over 1,200 | 4 |
| children from first to sixth grade attended story hours; and | 5 |
| WHEREAS, The second floor of the library was opened in 1923 | 6 |
| for community groups such as the Elmhurst Woman's Club and the | 7 |
| Girl Scouts to meet for a fee of $10 a month, and at that time | 8 |
| many of the library books were purchased from Marshall Field | 9 |
| and Company; and | 10 |
| WHEREAS, A new head librarian, Grace Murray, was hired in | 11 |
| 1926, and the library extended its hours to all day Monday | 12 |
| through Saturday, except at lunch and dinner time, and that | 13 |
| same year the library purchased a telephone, and residents were | 14 |
| encouraged to call "Elmhurst 1245" for information about books | 15 |
| and library services; and
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| WHEREAS, By 1927, over 2,100 people were registered | 17 |
| borrowers, and the library held 6,431 volumes; additional hours | 18 |
| caused the library's circulation to jump to 50,019 that year; | 19 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, After a fire in 1930, the building was rewired and | 21 |
| redecorated, and for the first time part of the second floor | 22 |
| was used for an adult fiction collection; and
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| WHEREAS, As part of Elmhurst's Centennial celebrations in | 24 |
| 1936, the cornerstone of a library addition was laid; the | 25 |
| remodeling project took eight months to complete, and a new | 26 |
| children's room was added increasing the size of the building | 27 |
| to 10,750 square feet at a cost of $36,000; and
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| WHEREAS, On February 1, 1937, when the library reopened for | 29 |
| regular business, 954 books were checked out that day alone; |
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| and
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| WHEREAS, During World War II, the Elmhurst Public Library | 3 |
| joined Elmhurst College and York High School libraries in the | 4 |
| nation-wide Victory Book Drive, and Elmhurst citizens | 5 |
| collected thousands of books for soldiers at USO centers, | 6 |
| military camps, and training stations; and | 7 |
| WHEREAS, In 1963, the citizens of Elmhurst voted to approve | 8 |
| a $500,000 bond issue to build an addition to the library, the | 9 |
| addition increased the size of the building to 42,750 square | 10 |
| feet and was dedicated on October 17, 1965; and | 11 |
| WHEREAS, Beginning in the late 1970s, cassettes, videos, | 12 |
| audiobooks, CDs, DVDs, computers and Internet access were | 13 |
| added; in 1994, the card catalog was replaced with computer | 14 |
| catalogs; and | 15 |
| WHEREAS, A new library was built and opened on October 4, | 16 |
| 2003; the new building offers more space for books, more public | 17 |
| computers, meeting rooms, quiet and group study rooms, a | 18 |
| computer training lab, and wireless Internet access; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, The Elmhurst Public Library has grown with the | 20 |
| Elmhurst community and worked over the years to provide | 21 |
| state-of-the-art facilities and materials; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 23 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 24 |
| we do hereby offer our congratulations to Elmhurst Public | 25 |
| Library on its 90th anniversary; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 27 |
| presented to the Elmhurst Public Library, the Elmhurst Public | 28 |
| Library Board of Trustees, Mayor Thomas Marcucci, City of | 29 |
| Elmhurst, and the Aldermen of Elmhurst.
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