The Chicago Public Library is celebrating National Poetry Month with their annual Poetry Fest, featuring some of Chicago's best poets. Saturday, April 28 will be filled with workshops, performances, an open mic, and a special reading by renowned poet and writer Jimmy Santiago Baca. All of the events occur under the roof of the Harold Washington Library from 10 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. There are events for children, poets of all levels, those interested in publication, or the humble poetry enthusiast. more ›

The film adaptation of The Hunger Games is hitting theaters March 23, and Chicago Public Library is celebrating by hosting live-action survival competitions. more ›

Chicago Public Library branches reopen Monday afternoons starting tomorrow, the man pulled from the Lake today has died, and other news. more ›

Mayor Emanuel may have backtracked a bit when he announced yesterday that library service would be restored on Monday afternoons starting Feb. 6. But for the coalition known as Keep Chicago Working, it isn't enough. more ›

Mayor Emanuel announced plans today to re-open the branch libraries on Monday afternoons. more ›

Seeing that Rahm Emanuel is promising that private donations will cover the security costs for the May NATO and G8 summits, AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said yesterday a similar proposal could be used to restore library services on Mondays. more ›

Aldermen Edward Burke and Brendan Reilly wrote a letter to AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer that suggested the labor union forgo a proposed 3.5 percent pay raise this year. They said doing so could restore most of the jobs lost by library employees and reopen libraries on Mondays. more ›

The Chicago Public Library, citing budget cuts, will be closed on Mondays for the time being. more ›

The Chicago Public Library is asking Chicagoans to answer a few questions about their reading habits so the library can better develop their programming to better match what patrons want. more ›

The future is now. more ›

Celebrated Chef Ferran Adrià will visit the Harold Washington Library Center on Wednesday, September 28, the library announced in an email newsletter sent yesterday. He'll be in town to discuss and sign copies of his forthcoming cookbook, The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià. The event begins at 6 p.m., with general seating beginning at 5. One month and one day ago, Adrià's world-famous, three-Michelin-star-rated restaurant in rural Catalonia, elBulli, closed its doors forever to make way for the chef's next endeavor, a nonprofit culinary think tank and foundation slated to open in 2014. more ›

The tenth anniversary of the One Book, One Chicago program rings in with a Saul Bellow classic. more ›

This year's annual poster challenge from the Chicago Public Library celebrates the tenth anniversary of the "One Book, One Chicago" program. more ›

In this roundup, a local writer wins a prestigious award. Poetry Foundation's new apps. StoryStudio Chicago readies some writing classes and more. more ›

The One Book One Chicago program is turning 10 this year, and to generate some buzz and intrigue about the next selection, Chicago Public Library is running a “Who Am I?” campaign. They’ve placed clues all around town. These posters and buttons have this dude on him. They’re asking people to report back where they’ve seen him by posting on Flickr. And they’re asking for your guesses as to who he might be. You can tweet your guess with the hashtag #1b1c and follow @1book1chicago to see what other people might be guessing. more ›

To encourage more young people to utilize the Chicago Public Library, CPL a series of meetups at bars across the city to engage in what they can offer. Bars, booze and books? Yes, please. more ›

As Daley’s on his way out, there’s a lot being said about what he did (or didn’t do) for our city. While most of the hot topics include Chicago Public Schools, privatization fiascoes and police commissioners, not much is being said about his contribution to Chicago’s literacy culture, claims James Warren from the Chicago News Cooperative. more ›

Amazon just announced its launch of Kindle Library Lending, which is big news for public libraries nationwide. Most public libraries, including Chicago Public Library, work with OverDrive to distribute ebooks. But, until now, OverDrive could not support Kindle — it could support pretty much any ebook reader except Kindle. This was entirely due to the Kindle technology and compatibility. In other words, it was up to Amazon to change the Kindle formatting to make it possible to lend books across libraries. more ›

If you’re feeling glum, alone and, well, um, old, this Valentine’s Day, you probably have only yourself and your own pickiness to blame says Lori Gottlieb, author of Marry Him: The Case of Settling for Mr. Good Enough. Before we ruin all the book’s secrets by giving away her words of wisdom, we’ll start by explaining where the title came from, which Gottlieb admits to not even liking because of the confusion it causes. She surveyed both men and women and asked if they would be satisfied with a partner who had 80 percent of the qualities of their ideal guy or gal. The majority of single women who responded said getting 80 percent of what they wanted in a partner would be "settling." The majority of single men said finding a woman with 80 percent of what they wanted would be "a catch." “People hear about settling and they think about lowering their standards,” said Gottlieb when we spoke with her last week. “But it’s really about raising your standards.” more ›

Chicago’s literary scene saw a few turns, upsets and successes this year. Here are handful of them. more ›

Catch up with the places to read and be seen on the literary scene with our rundown of local events centered around all things written. more ›

• Tonight, Award-winning journalist, Daniel P. Smith, discusses On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department at the Lincoln Belmont CPL Branch. Writing from personal experience, (six of his family members were Chicago police officers) Smith shares the honest and thought provoking stories of those who carry the Chicago Police star. Get more info here. He'll also be participating in the Newberry Library Seminar Series on Saturday titled Compelling Stories, Verifiable Facts: Getting the Best of Both Worlds." Purchase tickets here.
• Elizabeth Rosner will be reading from her novel Blue Nude at Open Books on Wednesday. The story examines the relationship between an "emotionally and creatively starved artist and his muse," both of whom are tormented by the Holocaust and its aftermath. Get more info here.
• Remember the Book Bike? Every weekend, Gabriel Levinson and his custom-built Book Bike venture into city parks to give away new and used novels to locals. Earlier this year, Levinson got in a permit tiff with the Chicago Park District, but when the Chicago Public Library offered their blessing, Levinson was able to continue operating without paying for the expensive permit. On Thursday, Heavemedia.com is partnering with Levinson to raise money for the Book Bike. Chicago musicians Sad Brad, Adam Fitz, and Stephen Paul Smoker will be playing the event at the Empty Bottle. Buy tickets here.
• This month’s Encyclopedia Show theme is Civil Wars. Hosts Robbie Q. Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney will bring together an eclectic mix of music, poetry, visual art and spoken words all about Civil Wars. Check out the long list of talent bringing their bodies, minds, songs, etc. to this month’s show and get more info here.
• Are you a fan of Awkward Family Photos? Ever come across your middle school diary? Is your adolescent past as laugh-worthy as it is cringe-worthy? Go to Mortified Thursday. Witness adults telling stories about their lives by sharing their own adolescent journals, letters, poems, lyrics, plays, home movies, and art. Get more info here.
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If we know Chicago as well as we think we do, chilly weather will sweep the city shortly. For a lot of us, that means more time spend indoors. And for some of us, that means books + blankets + glasses of Bordeaux. Here’s a list of what’s on our list to read this fall. more ›

Since 2003, Chicago-based country rock musician Alice Peacock and her non-profit, Rock for Reading, have been using music to raise awareness and money for literacy. It all started with one of Peacock's songs, "I'll Start With Me," a song about individuals making a decision to take action to make a difference. In conjunction with Camping and Education Foundation president Hugh Haller and rock photographer Paul Natkin, Peacock started the foundation to motivate and empower people to enrich their lives through reading. more ›

Aside serving as cornerstone of the Chicago Public Library system, Harold Washington Library Center is also home to CPL's Special Collections and Preservation Division. Since 1975, the Division has collected, preserved and offered access to the library’s rare and unique materials. Within the Division’s four categories - Special Collections, Archives, Exhibits and Preservation - Harold Washington houses an interesting selection of historic materials. There’s stuff relating to the Civil War, Chicago theatre history, Chicago’s world’s fairs, neighborhood history, and rare books and manuscripts from Chicago authors and publishers and relics from Chicago’s past. The Division also houses the Harold Washington Archives & Collections, which document the Harold Washington’s political career with artifacts, published material and manuscripts, and more than 10,000 photographs, audio and video cassettes. more ›

If you Google “starting a business,” the results are all over the place. You might be prompted to take a free online course, or to subscribe to newsletter on business success, or to follow the advice of Walt Disney who suggests that “the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” If you start your search at the library, things could go in a completely different direction. “The breadcrumb trail is very different in print than online,” said Chris Force, founder and editor-in-chief of ALARM Magazine, a Chicago-based art and music publication. Force went to the Chicago Public Library looking for a book about starting a new business. The librarians helped him streamline his search by suggesting books about magazines, where he learned that branding was an important step of the process. So he got some books about that, too. more ›

After all the drama last week over the fate of Gabriel Levinson's Book Bike, cooler heads have prevailed and we now have a happy ending. The Chicago Public Library, who's been fighting a battle of their own lately, reached out to Gabriel and the two parties have now become partners which will allow Gabriel to continue doing what he's been doing without having to pay the steep fees. In an email to Chicagoist, Gabriel said: more ›

When Fox Chicago ran a story questioning the necessity of Chicago Public Libraries, CPL Commissioner Mary Dempsey came back with a heated retort. In her letter to reporter Anna Davlantes, Dempsey pointed out that the Chicago Public Library system serves 12 million visitors per year, checked out nearly 10 million items last year and provided 3.8 million free one-hour Internet sessions. We asked CPL to share some more fun facts, most of which come from the 2009 annual report, which is available on the CPL website. All of these numbers reflect CPL activity as of December 31, 2009. more ›

This week's post on Fox Chicago's story on libraries certainly got folks talking. Among them were the city's librarians who have now fired back at the suggestion that libraries are, perhaps not needed. Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey wrote a letter to Fox reporter Anna Davlantes, who anchored the story, in which she lays down the statistical thunder regarding library usage in the city. more ›

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