September 2, 2021
“I’m working to be the me I’m meant to be at this time in life”. That’s the retirement mantra Jevoid Simmons lives by as he fully devotes himself to making his art. Over the years Jevoid has exhibited his work locally at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center (April – October 2019), Evanston’s Noyes Cultural […]
May 26, 2020
When you live through a significant moment in world history, you may feel an overwhelming need to document it in some fashion. But how? Do you write your descendants letters about it (“Dear Great-Grandchild, We had very little toilet paper…”)? Do you write in a diary every single day that you’re sequestered inside (“Today my […]
April 10, 2020
In these anxious times of social distancing, we find new ways to come together. The creation of the Cozy Evanston Community Cookbook is underway. Evanston Public Library wants your recipes and has plans to collect them from as many Evanston residents as possible. When complete, the cookbook will be made freely available online with a […]
March 13, 2019
Great news for writers in town. For the second year in a row the Evanston Literary Festival (or ELF) will feature a book fair where local authors can present their titles. The 2019 ELF Book Fair will take place at the Evanston Public Library on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 2-5 pm and is intended […]
February 14, 2018
I get very attached to my adopted homes. Evanston is probably the smallest of the cities I’ve lived in for long periods of time and, for that reason, I find it the most fascinating. Sitting like a little hat on the top of Chicago, it seems to have this odd ability to pull in talent […]
October 26, 2017
I have many fun tools to play with at the library. Tools that tell me when items haven’t circulated in years and years. Tools that inform me how well I’m keeping up with popular materials. Tools that tell me when an item on the shelf is “grubby”. That last tool is an interesting one. Basically, […]
September 20, 2017
It’s been two years since I started as Evanston Public Library’s Collection Development Manager and I think I’m finally beginning to get a handle on what makes Evanston different from other communities around the country. Sometimes the things you learn about your new hometown are instantly obvious. Sometimes the quirks come up at the most […]
June 8, 2017
Libraries nationwide have been reassessing their collections through the lens of diversity and equity. As Julie Stivers and Sandra Hughes-Hassell wrote on the YALSA blog in 2015, ” focusing on diversity is not an extra facet of our job. It is central to what we do.” Evanston Public Library is no different but coming up […]
May 25, 2017
Once in a while we here at Evanston Public Library like to highlight the local authors and legends that make it onto our shelves. We particularly like it when we learn something new in the process. The other day I received a very interesting email from a Professor of History at Texas Southern University. She […]
April 5, 2017
Every year our library plays host to some of the fantastic authors participating in the Evanston Literary Festival. This year is no exception, and we got the inside scoop on some of the authors participating. With that in mind, I decided to whip up a list of the books by those authors currently available […]
