Winnetka-Northfield library district will celebrate half a century on Saturday before turning the page

To say that a lot can happen in half a century is close to a truism. The change any institution — say, a public library district — experiences over 50 years can be astonishing, not to mention fascinating to patrons and other members of the community. 

That’s one of the biggest reasons behind a special photo exhibit opening Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Winnetka Public Library, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District. To make the occasion extra special, celebrants can enjoy some birthday cake as they peer into the district’s past.

Monica Dombrowski, the district’s executive director, said that she and her staff have been working on the exhibit project since this spring. She got the initial idea even earlier — in December of 2023. 

Its catalyst was two-fold, she said. First, a number of photos from the library district’s past found their way to her desk. And second, when she became intrigued by the photos, she was able to research much of the district’s history thanks to the recent digitization of decades of the Winnetka Talk weekly community newspaper, a joint project of the library and the Winnetka Historical Society. 

“(The photos) really intrigued me about how the library became a district,” Dombrowski said. “So I used the newly accessible digital archive to do some research on that. And those two things met in my mind.” 

She decided a photo exhibit could intrigue Winnetka and Northfield residents just as she had been. And knowing the district’s 50th anniversary — it was founded in December 1974 — would take place in December increased her enthusiasm. 

“I thought, ‘Everyone loves a party. We should have some birthday cake, since it will be our birthday.’ Then I thought we could do the exhibit launch and invite people to help say ‘Happy Birthday’ to us,” she said.

People who visit the exhibit will learn that supporters of the Winnetka library (itself created in 1884, 140 years ago) wanted to expand its offerings, Dombrowski said: “Those residents said ‘We need more resources to do that. Northfield is next door and it’s trying to start a library, so if we become a library district, then both Northfielders and Winnetkans can pay taxes into the district, we can have a location in each community, and we can do more with less’.”

Creating the exhibit had its challenges. One big one was that many of the district’s records are kept in a crawl space in the Winnetka library building. 

“I had to keep going to the crawl space and pulling out totes of things and looking through every single thing we had, trying to find relevant images,” she said. 

The second challenge she and her team faced was the paucity of photos from various points in the district’s history; they might find dozens of pictures from a single event, but no photos from other periods they wanted to illustrate. Still, they made some wonderful finds. 

“One of my biggest finds, because I love music, is a photo of when we used to circulate records here, on vinyl, and one of the vinyl bins. … That was really neat,” she said.

Other photos showed how much creative programming took place in the Northfield library, including shots of a man and his son making use of newfound computer technology there. Other photos show how library shelving at Northfield was pushed to the walls to make room for residents listening to lectures. 

Northfield resident Sarah Munoz, a member of the library district’s board, said last week that while many library patrons know of both locations, she looks forward to more residents learning of the district’s history and perhaps getting to meet Dombrowski as well. 

Winnetka resident Travis Gosselin, another of the district’s board members, said last week he hopes the celebration can show attendees what a dynamic community resource it is: “I’m hoping it reminds people of how the library has enriched this community.” 

He and Library Board President Melissa Mitchell, of Winnetka, agreed that, although what the district’s two libraries offer has evolved over 50 years, the offerings remain relevant. 

“We know our services are valued. It’s going to be really great to look back in history and it’s a fun way to revisit where we’ve been,” Mitchell said. 

Dombrowski said she knows how important libraries in the district are to both communities. One 96-year-old patron told her he has made use of the Winnetka library his entire life. She hopes that other dedicated patrons can share their stories as they take in the photo exhibit.

“My hope is that every resident who has used the library over the last 50 years will stop in to see the exhibit and take a moment to just remember the times they spent here, and the impact the library had on their life,” she said.

And she hopes that in another 50 years her eventual successor will have plenty of photographs and other artifacts on which to build a centennial exhibit, something which will probably be easier, thanks to digital technology.

“Perhaps the director then will want to do a retrospective, and I’d like to give them a lot more material than I had to work with,” Dombrowski said.

The Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District 50-year anniversary celebration is set to take place 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Winnetka Public Library, 768 Oak St. The exhibit of seven standalone two-sided panels of photographs will be later divided for display and circulation there and at the Northfield Library, 1785 Orchard Lane, Northfield. It will run until Feb. 8.

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