Posted October 13, 2006.

Chicago Public Library Honors Mamet, Raises Half a Million

The Chicago Public Library Foundation marked its 20th anniversary with an October 12 fundraiser honoring Chicago author and playwright David Mamet that garnered a record $525,000 in support for the library. Presented with the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, Mamet said, “My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library,” and he credited the library and the education he received in the reading room of the old central library (now the Chicago Cultural Center) for his accomplishments as a writer.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley received a Library Champion Award for “his strong personal commitment to and advocacy for Chicago’s libraries and reading,” and Chicagoan Blue Balliett, author of Chasing Vermeer and other books for young adults, received the foundation’s 21st Century Award.

CPL Commissioner Mary Dempsey said it was Mayor Daley’s leadership and vision that has enabled the Chicago system to build or totally renovate 53 facilities over the past 14 years, at a time when other large city systems have been cutting at every level. Daley said technology and social change have transformed the library into “a place where people want to be.” He quipped, “If we could be open 24 hours a day, I firmly believe people would be there.”

Some 500 supporters attended the bash in the Harold Washington Library Center’s Winter Garden atrium. The foundation funds the library’s summer reading program, the “One Book, One Chicago” community reading initiative, the Chicago Book Festival, the “Teachers in the Library” homework-help program, and “CyberNavigators and Equal Access to Technology,” an effort to close the digital divide for all Chicagoans. 

Posted October 13, 2006.