Champaign Public Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Champaign, Illinois
United States
| Champaign Public Library | |
|---|---|
 View of Champaign Public Library from Randolph Street Entrance | |
 | |
| 40°06′40″N 88°14′46″W / 40.111°N 88.246°W | |
| Location | 200 West Green Street Champaign, Illinois United States |
| Type | Public library |
| Established | 1876 |
| Branches | 2 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 403,000 volumes (2022)[1] |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 1.5 million |
| Population served | 88,000 |
| Members | 26,000 |
| Other information | |
| Budget | $8.2 million |
| Director | Brittany Millington |
| Website | www |
The Champaign Public 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.[2]
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 1894, Champaign banker and philanthropist A.C. Burnham announced a substantial gift of $50,000 for a new library as a memorial to his wife, Julia Finley Burnham, a former member of the library board. Of the total, $40,000 was for the site and building and $10,000 was for a book endowment. The Burnham Athenaeum at 306 W. Church Street opened on December 17, 1896, with two librarians and 5,593 books. When it closed, the same building was bursting at the seams with forty employees and over 100,000 items.
An approximately 40,000-square-foot Main Library at 505 S. Randolph Street was dedicated in November 1977. Designed by Hammond Beeby and Associates of Chicago, the building was funded largely by a $2.3 million referendum.
In 2008, the library expanded to a new location and replaced the 31-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.
