Cook Under Construction

Cook Parking Lot

2010-08-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Progress on the parking lot for the Cook Park Library.

Updated construction photo of Aspen Drive

2009-07-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to pass along the most recent pic that I received. This shows the interior concrete slab being prepped for the concrete pour which should happen this week. Very exciting!

Photos From Cook Park Groundbreaking

2009-06-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who helped make today fantastic! Enjoy the pictures!

Phones, Computers, & Emails

2009-06-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

(From Katie's Everyone/Everywhere emails)

There are a few simple things you can do to ensure a smooth transition for you during the move.

Computer

Your computer may not be the computer at your desk at the warehouse. Taking the steps below will help make sure you have what you need no matter which computer you are using.

If you have any files saved on the C:\ drive of your computer, move them to your T:\ drive or department's G:\ drive. Wondering if you have any files? We've made it difficult for you to save things to the C:\ drive by accident, so you would probably be aware of saving something here. Anything saved in My Documents is saved in your T:\ drive in a file called [username]'s files (e.g. kolsen's Documents), so they are safe. I will be happy to help you with this.

Remove any personal items, such as stickers, post-its, personal cables, or labels from your monitors, keyboards, and computer.

Remove any CDs, CD-ROMs, usb drives, or floppy disks from your computer. Pack them with your desk items.

Chris will be moving the computer tower, the monitor, power supplies, scanners, keyboards, receipt printer, and mouse. To ensure things arrive at the correct location, pack your own personal computer-related items, such as mouse pad, monitor stands, gel wrist rests, headphones, usb drives, footrests, external hard-drives, speakers etc. I will be happy to help you disconnect any items from your computer.

Rethink speakers at your desk. The warehouse work spaces are open and dense. You might consider bringing your own headphones to plug into your computer instead of using speakers at your desk. If you are bringing library speakers, please pack any them with your desk items. I will be happy to help you disconnect them.

Clear the space around your computer by Thursday, June 18 so Chris can begin disconnecting and removing your computer, monitor, and scanner.

Identify other items that will need to be moved by Chris, such as document scanners. Email this information to #DPT Tech Computer Support.

Determine who in your department will do the things above for common computers, such as computers at the reference desks.

Your Holds
If you'll be picking up holds at the Warehouse, change the pickup location of your holds to OFFICE USE ONLY. You can do the frozen holds now, all others should wait until much closer to the move. Don't do this until June 24! Here's one way it can be done quickly and easily:

Visit the My Account section of the catalog at https://catalog.cooklib.org/patroninfo

View your list of holds by clicking on the # Requests (holds) link.

For each hold you want to pick up at the warehouse, change the Pickup Location drop-down field for each hold to Office Use Only.

Click the Save Changes button at the top or bottom of the list.

Your Email
If you will be working at the TLC, learn how to check your email remotely. To conserve bandwidth, staff working at TLC will never log onto a computer with their personal login. Instead, you will usegeneric logins, which you will receive soon. Staff at the warehouse will be able to use their own personal logins to log onto a computer.

Your Voice Mail
In the library:

Dial the Merlin Mail system extension, 770

Dial your extension number.

Dial your password.

Press 2 to get messages.

Press 0 to play the message.

Follow the prompts and make the appropriate choice.

Hang up when you are done.

If you are outside the library, check it this way:

Dial the library using a “back door” number: 847-362-2348 847-362-2352847-362-2359

Press *73. Follow the prompts.

Press *D to delete the message and listen to the next message header. Press # to save the message and skip to the next message header. Press 20 to rewind and play the current message. Press *# to quit and return to Voice Mail Activity Menu.

Cook At Night

2009-06-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

A view of the completed Cook Park Library at night. It looks so peaceful.

Nice Shirt!

2009-06-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

We love that everyone has been wearing the SRC t-shirt to work! They look great!

Be sure to wear your t-shirt to work on Friday, June 19 for the groundbreaking and last day celebration!

Moving pictures...

2009-06-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, can you believe Cook will be closing in ten days?

In preparation for the big move, we've printed over 16,000 bookmarks, signs, and banners and sent emails to over 6,000 library patrons.

Our team of movers is busy at work, removing materials, taking a part shelves, and moving gondolas to our two new facilities. (pictured: Rob, Stephan, and Gino) As the materials go out the door, we have something we never had before....space!And, not surprisingly, the crew is finding some interesting stuff under the shelves... ...pens, pencils, paper, even a book!

As you pack up your desk, what have you unearthed??

(Almost) Time to Go!

2009-06-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Big changes are underway at the Cook Memorial Public Library District. Construction of the Aspen Drive Library in Vernon Hills is in progress, and construction of the Cook Park Library in Libertyville is set to start later this month.

Here's a closer look at how the move will affect library service in the Cook Memorial Public Library District:

Library Closings:
The Cook Park Library will close its doors at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 19 and will remain closed during construction. All of the Cook Memorial Public Library District facilities will be closed Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21. At noon on Monday, June 22, library services will resume at the Evergreen Interim Library, on the Bookmobile, and at the new Temporary Library Center (TLC), 114 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville.

Holds:
While we are in the process of moving, you will be unable to place holds, Interlibrary loans (ILLs) or LINKin requests from June 15 through June 28.

Returning Items:
Drop boxes will be locked June 19 (at closing), June 20 and June 21. Library materials will not be due and fines will not be assessed June 20, 21 and 22. All of our drop boxes will be open at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 22. The Cook Park drop boxes will be unavailable until the Summer of 2010.

Expanded Hours at Evergreen:
Beginning June 23, the Evergreen Interim Library will be open an additional thirteen hours each week. Evergreen and TLC will be open the same hours:
Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Sundays (September - May), 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Continued Service During Construction:
Evergreen Interim Library will continue to offer service until the Aspen Drive Library opens in Spring, 2010. TLC will be open to the public until the Cook Park Library re-opens in Summer, 2010.

We appreciate your patience in the midst of all our changes!

Free T-shirts!

2009-05-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading Club T-shirts are here!

The summer reading club starts on Monday, June 1 and we’d really like everyone wear the SRC shirt that day!

To advertise the program, I’ve purchased t-shirts for staff. Each staff member may have one t-shirt (additional shirts are $4). The shirts are in the meeting room and sorted by size. If you would like to take a t-shirt, please write your name, department, and the size you took on the clipboard (located next to the t-shirts at Cook). If you work at Evergreen, please email me your size and I will send them on the van.

You may wear the t-shirt during the SRC (June 1-July 31) with jeans.

Carnival Games!

2009-05-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

The festivities will kick-off at 10 a.m. with George Boehm, a board member in 1968 when the building opened. A backhoe (or digger) will be outside for kids to climb on, and inside, will be 9-holes of mini-golf, carnival games, Wii sports, and refreshments.

The carnival games will be sponsored by Record-A-Hit, so we no longer need to "borrow" golf clubs, cones, and noodles to set-up the games.

The day is going to be really fun, so invite your friends and family to join us!

Where's My Desk?

2009-05-27T12:39:00.001-07:00

The picture above is the floor plan of the warehouse on Technology Way. Most of the space is just that--warehouse space. But the space in the lower right corner is genuine, carpeted, air-conditioned office space.

The space is divided into two sections, with offices and a breakroom in between. Here are the floor plans, subject to revision, for each space:

Admin
Circulation
General Office (off-desk reference staff)
HR
Outreach
Senior managers
TS

Tours of the warehouse will be starting soon. Look for an updated schedule for the move by the end of this week!

New Renderings of the Aspen Drive Library

2009-05-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a new look at the outdoor Butterfly Garden planned for the Aspen Drive Library.

Above: southeast view of the garden. Below: view from the east.

Start of Construction Also Start of New Materials At Cook

2009-05-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

Plans are underway to launch a new collection: video games!

The Daily Herald article examines the pros/cons of video games in the library:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=295857

(Please note: information for this article was gathered in March. Our video game collection will not be available until after we move.)

Food, drink and even vandalism welcome at library

2009-05-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Russell Lissau Daily Herald Staff

Everyone knows food, drink and boisterous behavior generally are frowned upon at public libraries.

For two special events in June, however, Cook Memorial Public Library officials will toss their traditional conduct rules into the trash to help celebrate an upcoming expansion project at the Libertyville facility.

During a family reading night, kids and parents will be encouraged to scribble on the library's walls and write down their memories of the popular library.

The building also is set to host games and other activities later in the month on what will be its last day of service for more than a year.

More: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=295368&src=63#comment

Memorial Day Weekend At Aspen!

2009-05-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Before the holiday weekend, the crew from EVS was hard at work. Below, the crew is pouring the west wall of the building, which is north of the main entry.

After pouring the concrete, the crew installed wall forms on the south end of the building.

Once completed, the walls look like this:

Have a great weekend!

The End of The Exploding Book!

2009-05-20T09:33:00.001-07:00

At last night's board meeting, Andy and I presented a new logo to the Board of Trustees. The new logo, pictured above, was created to reflect the new future of the Cook Memorial Public Library District. Our objective was to create a logo that represents the new facilities, but avoided the square shape and dated look of the current logo.

Before recommending this new logo to the Board, we spent a year playing with ideas, colors, shapes and fonts. Over thirty logos were created and rejected.

We believe this logo captures the architecture of the floating planes and glass faces present in entrances of the new Cook Park and Aspen Drive buildings. The diagonal lines give the design a sense of shading and shape, but also suggest beams of light shining through the glass face. The wavy white line was added near the bottom to add a sense of serenity and calm, as well as to match a similar motif already established in current publicity materials. The tree was added to proximate the look of aspen trees planted around both buildings. Notice that the color and font is the same, but the styling of the wordmark emphasizes each word. The words that state who and what we are, “Cook” and “Library”, are made the biggest. “Memorial” and “Public” stand out by virtue that they are smaller than the rest, but stand apart from each other by being on different planes. “District”stands out by being centered at the bottom. And, the overall design creates a subliminal upward arrow, symbolizing upward progression.

Needless to say, we are very proud of the new logo...and delighted that the Board of Trustees loved it as much as we do!

Our goal is to introduce the new logo with the opening of the Aspen Drive Library next spring (2010). With all the location changes taking place now, we need to keep our logo/brand consistent until we move to our permanent locations. Right now, we ask you to consider the new logo guidelines when creating or ordering materials that will be used after April, 2010.

What did you think the old logo looked like? Exploding book, burning materials, a digital masterpiece? Leave your comments below!

Pictures of the Support Center

2009-05-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures above are from a recent field trip to the new Support Center!

If you are having trouble viewing my photos, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cookmemoriallibrary/SupportCenter?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-2i7yNr_fWAQ&feat=directlink

More Aspen Drive Progress!

2009-05-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

These are photo's from today and show the 1st concrete footings being poured along the West wall, from South to North.

Aspen Footings!

2009-05-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Excavation has begun for the footings for the new Aspen Drive Library. Structural steel is already being fabricated and will arrive on site by the end of May. Sometime in June, we should see the structural steel for the new library rising up above the ground.

Guilty Pleasures

2009-05-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Free Ravinia Tickets for Staff

2009-05-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Want free Ravinia tickets? The next four people to comment on any of entries on this blog will have first dibs on four free Ravinia tickets. Dates available are June 17, July 8, July 12, July 19, July 23, July 24, August 1, August 2, August 5, August 9, August 19, and August 24. Concert details are available at www.ravinia.org.

This is your chance to get tickets before they are available to patrons!

Great New Stuff!

2009-05-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Did you notice our new construction blog on the library's website? Construction news, photos, videos, and information are now posted on the library's newest blog, Building a Better Future. The blog is designed to be an information site for patrons and offer patrons a place to comment on stories. Photos, videos, and press releases will be posted on the site. Like this blog, you can subscribe to email or RSS updates.
Help us branch out. We're planning to launch a donation campaign later this summer, but we have had some inquiries from people who want to give to the new library. The website's Get Involved page links to three new donor opportunities. The Building a Better Future brochure details many special items not included in the expansion budget, ranging from engraved bricks and handprint tiles to naming rights to the Aspen Drive Library. Copies of this brochure are also available in the brochure rack. Patrons can also choose to Help Us Branch Out by donating a new tree to the Cook Park or Aspen Drive Library. Trees are $500, and patrons can select on the map the type of tree and where it will be planted on the brochure's map. Plans for the donor campaign will be included in the fall Ins & Outs, but patrons that are interested are encouraged to visit the Reception Desk or the Administration office.
Cook Groundbreaking & Last Day Festivities. Plans are underway for a 'sweet' good-bye to the Cook Park facilities, along with a traditional groundbreaking ceremony. The festivities will kick off at 10 a.m. on June 19 (before Libertyville Days begins) and should be a fun way to get people excited about the library's future. Let me know if you would like to help plan the event by leaving a comment below!

Moving FAQs

2009-05-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

WHAT TYPE OF BUILDING IS THE NEW SUPPORT CENTER? The new Support Center at 801 Technology Way is a modern office and warehouse building. There is approximately 4,000 square feet of office space and approximately 21,000 square feet of warehouse space. It’s all on a single level. There is a loading dock and a separate garage door that will allow the bookmobile to be parked in the warehouse. The office space does include a staff lounge that will be equipped very similar to what we have now. We will also be bringing the picnic tables so that staff can take their breaks outside on nice days.

IS THE BUILDING AIR CONDITIONED? The office is air-conditioned. The warehouse is not but we were told that it remains fairly cool in the summer. The collection will be housed in the warehouse. Most staff members will be working in the office space.

ARE THERE INDIVIDUAL OFFICES WITHIN THE SPACE? There are 3 individual offices within the office portion of the building, one of which will be the server/conference room. The other 2 offices will be shared. It will be a fairly tight fit so we will have to maximize our use of the space. My office will be in the warehouse.

WHO GOES WHERE? We are currently working on a preliminary layout of this space and will make this available to staff when it is ready. Remember that this is a preliminary layout. We will more than likely make adjustments before and after we move into the space.

WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE FOR THE MOVE? Attached is the current schedule but keep in mind that everything is subject to change.

WILL WE GET TO SEE THE SUPPORT CENTER BEFORE WE ACTUALLY MOVE? Yes. We will provide tours after May 15 so that you can see the space and get a feel for what to expect. We are currently working on a schedule for the tours and will let you know.

From the HR Department...

2009-04-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

We’re getting closer to moving day! If you haven’t already begun, it’s about time to start cleaning out your desks and work areas and disposing of things you no longer need. When it’s time to pack up, Gary will supply you with the boxes and/or crates you will need to empty your desks in preparation for the move.

And good news! Dan has approved wearing casual dress (including jeans) for all those working at the Support Center on Technology Way. (Of course, this sort of casual dress will not be appropriate for anyone working with the public – for all or any part of their scheduled hours – at the Temporary Library Center on Milwaukee Avenue or at Evergreen.)

Meantime, if you have any questions about the upcoming move, suggestions for improved efficiency during our temporary relocation, or even any interesting ideas to make our work environment more pleasant during the relocation period – please drop them in the Suggestion Box located on the counter in the Staff Room.

Summer Newsletter Deadline Friday

2009-04-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Material for the Summer Ins & Outs newsletter is due Friday!

This issue will be mailed to patrons the first week of June. The fall issue will be sent to patrons at the beginning of September.