Rockford Public Library

Between 30 and 40 people attended the Rockford Public Library’s 5th Community Envisioning Session held Wednesday at Rockford police Station District #1 to give input on a new main library. The library is looking to move to the next phase of the multi-year project.

The Rockford arts community will celebrate musical icon Leonard Bernstein during the month of April.

The festival, "Leonard Bernstein at 100," is being led by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra. RSO Education and Community Engagement Director Margo Stedman said Bernstein’s many accomplishments as a composer, conductor and music educator are reason enough to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

A book from the Rockford Public Library recently made its way back from across the Atlantic Ocean – more than 120 years later.

Bridget Finn is director of marketing and communications at Rockford Public Library. She says the sender is from England and inherited the book from her aunt.

Finn says the book that belonged to the library in 1893 is a bound collection of magazines from Great Britain in the 19th century. She says it was a reference book and most likely wasn’t even checked out from the Rockford Public Library to begin with.

Utility rate payers, not taxpayers, will help cover the cost to build a new library in downtown Rockford.

A gas plant operated at the current site of Rockford’s main library in the 1800s. Due to a series of mergers over the years, it's now the responsibility of utility company ComEd to clean up contaminated soil underneath the building.

The Board of Trustees recently approved a three-year labor contract clearing up language that would open the door to Sunday hours. 

A previous contract required employees to be paid time-and-a-half on Sundays.  The board said this was a large financial burden that prevented branches from opening on that day.  This is despite several requests from the public.  

  The Rockford City Council approved a $325,000 plan to buy a temporary site for the city's  public library.  

The library’s current site at 215 N. Wyman Street sits on contaminated soil from a local coal-to-gas plant.  The necessary cleanup work by ComEd will require demolishing the building and constructing a new site.  

Library materials will move to 214 and 230 Church Street, formerly the site of the Winnebago County Resource Intervention Center, as well as the Comcast building.  

The Rockford Public Library’s governing board is weighing whether to accept a very large gift…a 30-thousand square foot gift. The board hosted a public open house Tuesday at the Sullivan Center in downtown Rockford.