‘There’s More to the Story’ highlights library week
HUNTLEY — The Huntley Area Public Library is preparing for the national celebration of libraries, National Library Week, set for April 23-29. This year’s theme is “There’s More to the Story.”
“Our focus is on all of the new things to explore at the library and from home,” HAPL Director of Marketing Doug Cataldo said. “We have recorded several of our patrons and partners telling us their stories about the library and we’ll be sharing them that week.”
HAPL patrons have been enjoying the library’s expansion now a year old at its Ruth Road location.
“We’ve added fully modern program rooms, conference and collaborative rooms, study rooms, a gaming room, a tech lab, a creative studio-maker space, a quiet room and due to popular demand, a local history area. That’s just the in-person, physical part of the library,” Cataldo said.
One of the new services is Kanopy, a streaming movie and television show service for cardholders. It can be used on a tablet, smartphone, computer or smart TV. There is a special section for children.
With the library card you can watch up to five films per month, one series from the Great Courses and unlimited plays in Kanopy Kids.
“There is an enhanced Digital Library of Illinois e-books collection with thousands of magazines due to a merger with RBDigital/Zinio, four branches of the Scholastic online tools and several new genealogy databases,” Cataldo said.
HAPL serves 43,839 residents and employs 40 staff members, led by Director Frank Novak. Its circulation is nearly 600,000 items per year (out of a collection of almost 120,000 items) and more than 15,000 residents have library cards. District voters approved the $12.9 million renovation referendum in April, 2019.
There are also DVD, BluRay, streaming services and one can checkout chromebooks and hot spots, convert audio, video, photos and documents to digital or 3D print your own creations.
Pamela Kampwerth, the library’s Head of Programming, discussed how the expansion has added resources.
“With the library’s expansion, we have been able to offer our community a variety of rooms and seating areas in the library in quiet surroundings with free Wifi,” Kampwerth said. “We see patrons using these spaces for many activities – studying, work and for fun.”
“Our programming numbers have also been positively affected,” she added. “Before the addition the library had only one program room that held 30 people. With the new program rooms, we are able to host up to three programs and 150 people at the same time. This has allowed the library to expand programming for all ages and allowed us to house larger programs. We have updated video and sound in each of the rooms making it easy to see and hear programs.”
Cataldo commented on the many areas of community support the library regularly receives.
“The library’s Friends Foundation is one of our most valuable resources and the very best partners we could ask for,” Cataldo said. “These tireless volunteers provide their creativity and time to assist the library in so many ways. From book sales to fundraising, their efforts support programming and most recently, they funded our amazing Tumblebook Library online resource. Tumblebooks are digital animated stories aimed toward children. They are a great early literacy tool for families to introduce their children to reading.”
The HAPL is part of a group of community services such as Huntley Police Department, Huntley Fire Protection District, Huntley Park District, Village of Huntley and Huntley School District 158. The group helps coordinate events such as Enjoy Huntley each summer. The library is a member of Huntley Area Chamber of Commerce.
Recent library milestones
The library opened in 1990 in what is now known as the Simpson Eye Associates building located at 11620 W. Algonquin Road, Huntley. In November of 1996, the Library Board purchased seven acres on Ruth Road from the Ackman Family. The Ruth Road building opened in 1999.
Due to the growth of the area and library crowding, a temporary mobile annex (made up of three trailers) was installed on the building’s east side in January 2010. This space provided the library with a Children’s Area and a small program room for onsite events and activities.
In April 2019, the community passed a referendum for $12.9 million to renovate and expand the library and was approved as 67% voted yes. February, 2022 the renovated and expanded library opened to the public.
Story has been updated with correction.
