EPL awarded nearly $40,000 from Illinois Secretary of State to support STEM equity in Evanston

September 5, 2023

EVANSTON, IL. – The Evanston Public Library is pleased to announce it has been awarded a grant from the office of Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to support its equity work in science, technology, engineering and math programming.  On August 25, Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias announced that he has […]



‘1619: The Journey of a People, The Musical,’ coming to Evanston

May 17, 2023

EVANSTON, ILL. — 1619: The Journey of a People, The Musical, written by Ted Williams III, comes to Evanston this spring for two performances, a special presentation for Evanston Township High School faculty and students this Friday, May 19, and a public performance at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 17, as a part of the City of Evanston’s Juneteenth […]


EPL names Listen to the Language of the Trees winner of the 2022 Blueberry Award

March 24, 2023

The Evanston Public Library has named Listen to the Language of the Trees:  A Story of How Trees Communicate Underground by Tera Kelley and illustrated by Marie Hermansson the winner of the second annual Blueberry Award.  The Blueberry Awards honor children’s literature that strengthens kids’ connections with nature and fosters action for the planet. The […]


Summer Learning, Reading, and Engagement

March 1, 2023

Our goals with a community-based summer outreach program are to:  Help children, teens and adults build a habit of reading; Increase outreach to systematically racially impacted neighborhoods, including the 5th, 8th, and 9th Wards; Connect Evanstonians with access to and awareness of  library services in places where they gather, not just at our library buildings. […]


Digitally Desegregating Evanston: Rediscovering and Reclaiming a Shared Past

March 1, 2023

In 2022, EPL began a project called Digitally Desegregating Evanston: Rediscovering and Reclaiming a Shared Past. EPL began the process of digitizing its collection of the entire Evanston Review from 1872 through today, and the Newsette, the most important Black weekly paper in Evanston, which began in 1941 and was released periodically through the 1980’s. […]


Community Service and Connectivity

March 1, 2023

Being connected to the broader community is key to feeling a part of your world, to feeling valued and respected. EPL is committed to creating authentic, deep relationships within the entire community. One way we have been doing this is through developing a dynamic and diverse staff that reflects the community around us and focuses […]


Curating a Diverse Collection

March 1, 2023

EPL’s collection of materials, both physical and digital, is the heart of our work. Our collection spans more than 331,000 books and countless digital media, from children’s to adult, biographies to science fiction, and hard cover to e-magazines. It also spans two locations, the Main Library branch on Church Street, and the Robert Crown Library […]


 Black Cultural Arts and Storytelling Initiative

March 1, 2023

This summer, in support of increasing Black cultural arts and storytelling at EPL, we are co-hosting a performance of 1619: The Journey of a People – A Musical by Ted Williams III. As stated on their website, “The multi-disciplinary theater experience of 1619: The Journey of a People is expressed through three modern characters in […]


EPL’s Elacsha Madison wins ALA’s I Love My Librarian Award

February 28, 2023

EVANSTON, ILL. – The Evanston Public Library is proud to announce that its own Elacsha Madison has won the American Library Association’s coveted I Love My Librarian Award. The I Love My Librarian Award honors exceptional librarians from academic, public and school libraries who were nominated by patrons nationwide for their expertise, dedication and profound […]


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