Illinois: Waukegan’s Shuttered Carnegie Library May Reopen as Ray Bradbury Museum

From the Chicago Tribune:

It’s been nearly 50 years since Carnegie Library on Sheridan Road ceased to function for its intended purpose, and nearly twice that span of time has passed since a young Ray Bradbury roamed through its halls, “smelling the books like imported spices, drunk on them even before I read them.”
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Unlike previous attempts to save the building, this one is saying, ‘Why save the building? Because this is where Ray Bradbury grew up, and this is where he first went into a library.’ It’s a real sense of purpose,” said Michael Edgar, president of the Greater Waukegan Development Coalition, a business-incubating firm that is among the backers of a $10 million proposal to reopen the structure as The Bradbury Carnegie Center.
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According to [Sandra] Petroshius, [board president for the Bradbury Carnegie organization], the group has already approached both the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indiana and the Waukegan Public Library — both of which received items from Bradbury’s estate — about acquiring memorabilia for display, either on a permanent or traveling basis.

Read the Complete Article (970 Words)
See Also: Ray Bradbury’s Personal Book Collection Heading to His Hometown Library in Waukegan, IL (June 21, 2013)

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries