The Evanston Public Library's Main Library building. Photo: Amerique / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Evanston Public Library once ran four buildings. Today it runs two, and the story of how it got from one number to the other says a good deal about how the system describes its own priorities.
The Main Library sits at 1703 Orrington Ave., downtown. The Robert Crown Branch is inside the Robert Crown Community Center at 1801 Main St. Those are the only two public locations. The North Branch and the branch at Chicago Avenue and Main Street, known as CAMS, closed for good at the end of 2020.
A library that has moved several times
The Evanston Library Association formed in 1870 and the library was established in 1873. Thomas J. Kellan became the first librarian in 1874. In 1893 the collection moved to the second floor of the new Village Hall, and in 1896 it was reorganized under the Dewey Decimal system. It arrived at its Orrington Avenue site in 1908, and the current building was finished in 1994. The library marked its 150th anniversary in 2023.
Neighborhood branches have come and gone along the way. The South Branch, at 900 Chicago Ave., opened in 1917. It closed in 2011, reopened in 2013 after public response, and closed again in late 2020. In the gap, a volunteer-run library called the Mighty Twig opened in the same building in March 2011, and in 2012 the library board voted to begin formalizing its relationship with the group. The North Branch, at 2026 Central St., operated from 1952 to 2020. A West Branch served the Fifth Ward from 1971 to 1981.
The 2020 closures
On Aug. 19, 2020, the library announced that its Board of Trustees had voted 9-0, twice, to close the CAMS and North branches permanently at year’s end. The release gave three reasons: equity, a reduced budget, and public safety during the pandemic. The library said it had begun reviewing all of its locations through an equity lens before the pandemic, and that the larger Main Library and Robert Crown spaces could open more safely.
The same release described Robert Crown as serving Latinx and Black residents who previously lacked a nearby library. It said the library would explore a greater presence in the Fifth Ward, including conversations with Family Focus about its facility, and would look at future locations based on equity and need. Robert Crown opened in 2020 as part of the equity plan and to cut costs by sharing city-owned space.
What a cardholder gets
The Downtown Evanston directory lists Main Library hours as 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Hours can change, so check with the library before a trip. The main number is 847-448-8600, and Robert Crown’s is 847-448-8101.
Cards are free to Evanston residents and businesses and give access to materials from the library and 22 partner libraries. The library says it hosts more than 1,000 free programs a year, including storytimes, tech help, author talks, financial workshops, DIY classes and bilingual events, and it keeps a growing Spanish-language collection. A digital library covers streaming, e-books, audiobooks and research tools.
The collection runs to more than a million volumes, with a small Library of Things and annual circulation of about 979,000.
The two-location system is smaller than it was a decade ago. For residents, the choice now is between the large downtown building and the branch inside the Main Street community center, with the library’s own 2020 notice pointing to need, not the old branch map, as the guide for anything that comes next.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
