WHAT'S NEW

New Lenox (IL) Public Library District moved into its beautiful new building in December of 2001, but around town we still refer to it as the new library. The referendum to build it was a squeaker; it passed by less than 100 votes, 51% to 49% of the voters approving the plan.

The design was conceived by and awarded to Burnidge Cassell Associates, an architecture firm from Elgin, Illinois. Construction of the prairie-style edifice was begun in July of 2000 and completed a little over a year later.

The New Lenox Library was started as a volunteer project by the New Lenox Women's Club in 1936. The collection began with the 385 donated books in a rented room of a couple hundred square feet. The library gained official status by referendum ten years later, and moved several times to successively larger quarters.

Today the library boasts a collection of more than 114,000 volumes with space to accomodate almost a quarter million. And at 56,000 square feet of space, the new library gives us about five times more room than the old building.

Located about forty miles southwest of Chicago, this little farm town was considered rural, not suburban. But in 2006, seventy years after the founding of the library, New Lenox, Illinois is one of the fastest growing towns in one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S. Projections indicate that the New Lenox Public Library District will serve more than 100,000 people within ten years. And now there is a fine, new library and a staff that are up to that challenge.