Pilot Project: New Chicago High School Will House Public Library
When the Wall-to-Wall International Baccalaureate School opens in 2013, it will house a full-service library that’ll be open to both students and members of the Back of the Yards community.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the new facility will become an anchor in a neighborhood that has been without a library for a year.
The library is a pilot project between Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Public Library. It will be open six days a week, feature early childhood reading programs and have both school librarians and public librarians.
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See Also: Library in new Back of the Yards H.S. to be open to public (via Chicago Sun-Times)
The community library will have its own entrance, teen-only space and public reading garden. It will be open six days a week and staffed during school hours by city librarians working alongside a full-time, CPS teacher librarian responsible for ensuring that the library collection meets the needs of the IB curriculum.
By pooling diminishing resources, CPS and City Hall will be able to offer “teen-focused collections and digital learning amenities,” officials said, and still operate a public library for all Back of the Yards residents, who lost their storefront library to flooding last year.
See Also: Full Text of Official News Release (w/ Comments by Mayor Rahm Emanuel)
Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.