The ChampaignPublic Library is a library system in Champaign, Illinois. It has two branches: the main library in downtown Champaign and its Douglass branch. With its new location opening on January 6, 2008, the Champaign Public Library almost tripled its square-footage and opened with a collection of almost 285,000 volumes.
History
The Champaign Public Library traces its roots as a private, member sustained group of readers in 1868. The small group of about forty members all paid dues to sustain their private collection of more than 300 volumes in a cozy reading room in downtown Champaign on Main Street. Ten years later in 1876, the group voted to dissolve itself in favor of enabling public access to their collection. The public library was officially created by the City Council on July 21, 1876 and budgeted $1,000 for the library. When the library opened it had almost 750 volumes in its collection. In 2008, the library expanded to a new location and replaced the 40-year-old building that the community had outgrown. The new building, designed by Ross Barney Architects of Chicago, Illinois contains 121,000 square feet of new and improved space
Main Library
Construction for the new library building began in 2005 and it opened for public use in 2008.
Library awards
In 2013 the library received the following awards from the Library Leadership and Management Association which is a division of the American Library Association
American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois Special Achievement Award, and American Institute of Architects Central Illinois Honor Award for Architecture, for engineering design of the library, awarded to Henneman Engineering
American Institute of Architects, Chicago Chapter, Design Excellence Awards, Honor Award for Interior Architecture, awarded to Ross Barney Architects
Brick Industry Association Brick in Architecture Awards, Silver Award
American Institute of Architects, Illinois State Component, Frank Lloyd Wright Honor Award. This award recognizes an individual building that enhances the natural and built environment of a community.
Originally organized as a joint project between Champaign and neighboring Urbana in 1970, the Douglass branch was located within a single room at the Douglass Community Center on North Sixth Street in Champaign. By 1972, the branch was absorbed by the Champaign Public Library and was relocated to a small building on Bradley Avenue until June 1997 where the branch currently operates on East Grove Street in Champaign by neighboring Douglass Park. Both the library and the park are named after abolitionist and journalistFredrick Douglass. After escaping slavery in Maryland, Douglass became a noted advocate for equality among all people and lectured in Champaign at least once while traveling north.
