Friday, November 18, 2011
The volunteer-run library needs $25,000 by Dec. 15 to keep the center open.
The Mighty Twig is calling on supporters to help it remain open past Dec. 15, and has submitted an application for a Pepsi Refresh grant to get adequate funding for that goal. (See earlier: The Mighty Twig Video Tour) The Mighty Twig, a local volunteer-run library that was started by the Evanston Public Library Friends in response to library cutbacks, is located at Chicago Avenue and Main Street in a brightly painted, vibrant space. It opened shortly after the south branch Evanston Public Library, located a few blocks north on Chicago Avenue, closed. A proposed interim south branch was also voted down by the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees. The focus of the Pepsi grant application is “Right Books! Right Place! Right Person!” The…
Friday, October 28, 2011
Evanston's south-side storefront library, The Mighty Twig, reported a handful of statistics to tell the their "story of success."
The Evanston Public Library Friend’s experimental storefront library dubbed The Mighty Twig, 900 Chicago Ave., opened just over seven months ago, on March 26. In the Friend’s October newsletter, the group listed statistics that they say “tell The Mighty Twig’s story of success.” According to the Friend’s, through six months the Twig has had 18,017 visitors, 3,481 computer users, 2,591 toddlers at story time, 241 Summer Reading Game players, 509 children check out 6,062 books and a total of 15,297 free books distributed across Evanston. The storefront library was created to fill the void left when the Evanston Public Library’s South Branch closed last February, and is located less than a block south of the previous branch location. Though …
42.03394
-87.679379
The Mighty Twig
900 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/mighty-twig-library-reports-18-000-visitors-in-six-months
1989097
/locations/5687669
Friday, March 25, 2011
Can't wait until Saturday to see The Mighty Twig library outpost for yourself? Check out Evanston Patch's exclusive video tour of the space.
The Evanston Public Library Friends’ experimental storefront outpost The Mighty Twig will open its doors to the public this Saturday. But Thursday afternoon, the organizers gave Evanston Patch a sneak preview of the space. Located at 900 Chicago Avenue, The Mighty Twig aims to fill the void created after the South Branch Library closed last month.
42.03394
-87.679379
900 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/sneak-preview-the-mighty-twig-library-outpost
/locations/3797193
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Mighty Twig is located at 900 Chicago Avenue, Suite 102, near the old south branch library.
It's not a new library branch -- it's a twig. The Mighty Twig, a new experimental library outpost sponsored by the Evanston Public Library Friends, will open its doors Saturday at 10 a.m. The spot is opening in response to the loss of the south branch Evanston Public Library, which recently closed after its budget was cut. Prior to the closing of the south branch, the EPL board voted down a new interim south branch outpost which would have been supported by the EPL Friends group. The measure failed when the board discussed allocating the $60,679 necessary to staff and rewire the proposed interim branch. The Mighty Twig will be run and managed entirely by volunteers and book lending will be based on the honor system. Its hours are Tuesday …
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Evanston Library Board spent Wednesday night's meeting discussing ways to improve Evanston's library system.
It was back to business as usual at the Evanston Library Board of Trustee’s first meeting of the new fiscal year, Wednesday evening. For the past four months, debates over the fate of Evanston’s South Branch Library charged the dialogue at the monthly gatherings. But with the issue resolved and the branch closed, board members turned their eyes towards the extended future. When a motion to fund the staffing and rewiring of a potential South Branch location failed at last month’s Feb. 23 meeting, the board’s logic was that it must refuse any one-time funding sources to better and more responsibly create a long-term blueprint for the future of Evanston’s library system. Wednesday night’s meeting was designated chiefly to laying down the …
42.048325
-87.680766
Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/first-step-towards-the-future-for-the-evanston-public-library
261757
/locations/3716309
Thursday, February 24, 2011
There will be no interim South Branch library in 2011, after the Evanston Library Board of Trustees voted down a motion to approve funding for that location by a 2-4 vote.
Any remaining chance for an interim South Branch library died Wednesday evening, when the Evanston Library Board of Trustees voted down a motion to approve funding for that location by a 2-4 vote. The sole agenda of the night’s “special meeting” was to consider allocations for neighborhood services in the 2011 fiscal year (March 1-Dec. 31), but when it came time to appropriate the $60,679 necessary to staff and rewire the proposed interim South Branch outpost, the proposition failed. Board President Christopher Stewart said that the money simply isn’t there to justify maintaining a South Branch location, especially during a year in which the library will transition to a new funding model. “We are now going to be responsible for setting […
42.048325
-87.680766
Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/library-board-votes-down-interim-south-branch
261757
/locations/3493826
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The South Branch outpost at 900 Chicago Ave. will be completed in two weeks, but budget constraints may prevent it from opening right away.
The interim South Branch library will be ready to open in two weeks, but the public may have to wait a bit longer to use it. Though a space has been chosen, a lease drafted and an interior designed, the Evanston Library Board of Trustees voiced caution at Wednesday night’s meeting that voting to open without first properly planning and budgeting would be irresponsible. Instead, the board unanimously passed a motion to meet again next Wednesday, vowing to spend the coming week crunching numbers, deducing how to staff a South Branch outpost that was unaccounted for in an already underfunded 2011 budget. At last month’s meeting the board voted to accept an undisclosed amount of funding donated by the Evanston Public Library Friends to prevent…
42.048325
-87.680766
Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/south-branch-ready-to-open-soon-library-board-cautious
261757
/locations/3431487
Monday, February 7, 2011
The group is hoping to continue library services to southern Evanston after the branch closes on March 1.
The Evanston Public Library Friends has announced that they have identified a space for the temporary new outpost for the south branch library, which will close on March 1. The new location will be at 900 Chicago Avenue, near Chicago and Main. The group said the landlord has issued a letter of intent, though the deal is subject to approval by the library board. “We’re excited about the possibilities, and eager to get started with what we like to call ‘Extreme Library Makeover’,” said EPLF Board Member and former South Branch assistant, Marcia Mahoney, who heads the Neighborhood Outreach Committee for EPL Friends, in a press statement. “It’s important to think of this as an ‘outpost,’ and therefore something different than the current …
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The south branch library, which has been in its current Chicago Ave. location since 1934, will close at the end of next month.
The City of Evanston announced Thursday that the south branch library will close on Feb. 26. The exterior book drop will close on the same day, and residents who have checked out materials will be able to return them to the north or main branch after that date. "This closure is a result of reduced funding as part of the City of Evanston budget process that provided the Evanston Public Library Board with $3.7 million to allocate for library services," the city said in a statement about the closure. Anticipating the closure of the south branch, a local advocacy group for the libraries, the EPL Friends, recently gave the library board a donation to fund an interim location or storefront. The group hopes that option will allow residents to …
Mary Rosinski
11:29 am on Monday, November 21, 2011
Today we moved up to #21- Please everyone text EVERYDAY to 73774 subject 109325- help get 10k for books for Evanston - do it every day we have 9 more days to get into the top 15. more ›