Chicago’s new Back of the Yards Library, a public/school library hybrid.

Staffed with Chicago’s first teen librarians (two part-time staffers share the position), the public library will also have a children’s librarian, plus a branch librarian who is also a K–12 media specialist, who will serve that role at the library for students who come to the branch during class hours. The library shares a wall with the school, but students have to exit their building to enter the branch. Heralded by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the hybrid archetype is reportedly one he hopes to replicate going forward.

“They have the same mission: to educate our children,” says Emanuel, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “It shouldn’t be in separate buildings. It should be in a single building.”

Ruth Lednicer, Chicago Public Library’s director of marketing and communications, confirms that the city will eye opportunities like Back of the Yard where public libraries also serve as school library spaces, although she insists school libraries will not disappear.” “I don’t think it’s safe to say schools won’t have libraries,” says Lednicer. “We will take what we learn from this and adapt where we go forward, just as we won’t close public libraries and move them into schools. This was a perfect storm.”

Like many municipalities, Chicago is well familiar with shrinking budget lines. The city cut more than 3,000 positions, including teachers, while closing 47 elementary schools for the 2013–2014 school year.

At the same time, however, CPS built new library spaces inside four elementary schools at a cost of more than $2 million. The spaces have opened for the current school term, according to Dave Miranda, deputy press secretary for Chicago Public Schools

Unfortunately, CPS’s Department of Libraries and Information Services now has fewer staff members to support its teacher librarians going forward, according to Marie Szyman, vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association.

“They have an enormous task to keep us all organized and they do an amazing job,” she tells School Library Journal, although she notes that the department “has been reduced to just a few people left.”

The Back of the Yards Library, with separate entrance to  the high school at right (glass building).

Partnerships between public libraries and schools are certainly common. Many work in tandem to encourage students to get public library cards, attend events, and sign up for summer reading programs. Szyma, too, promotes her local branch as a teacher librarian at Nathanael Greene Elementary, where she makes sure her students get library cards.

But cities are beginning to blur the boundaries between schools and public libraries.

Miami-Dade, for example, recently announced it would open five of its school libraries located in educational technical centers to public patrons this fall, even as it looked to close at least some of its branch libraries to balance its 2014 budget.

The partnership between the Back of the Yards Library and Back of the Yards High School will be a unique one, however, as they were designed to be shared. The public library will be open six days a week, and is in an area that lost a branch. Lednicer sees the new space as helping the community and also its students—a mission she believes libraries are designed to address.

“They do serve the same purpose,” she says. “Libraries and schools are here to educate kids.”

But whether having a public library double as a school’s media center—even one that’s just steps away— will serve students as well as one located inside their own building is unclear. With school just starting, some are waiting to see how the new model works.

“Is it worth trying or better not to approach it that way?” asks Szyman. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this works.”

Photo courtesy Choose Chicago/© César Russ Photography.

By Leah L. White

Unique eateries, bars, and sights to see

There are two things I love very much in this world: Food and Chicago. Here are some of my favorite places to eat around the city, at varying price levels, locations, and ambiances. Also included are a few recommended bookstores, bars, landmarks, and concert venues. When you aren’t stuffing your librarian brain with knowledge at McCormick Place, see what this amazing city has to offer.

Price key: Approximate cost per person for a meal, not including drinks.
$=under $10; $$=$11-30; $$$=$31-60

Food

Wow Bao With several downtown locations, this fast-food Asian bun shop is a tasty option for lunch or a quick dinner. A combo meal comes with two bao buns, a salad, and a drink for under seven dollars. Most locations close early, but the Water Tower plaza restaurant stays open later. Vegetarian friendly. Try the whole wheat edamame bao and homemade ginger ale. $

Protein Bar This low-priced, healthy option has multiple downtown locations. Wraps, salads, and smoothies dominate the menu. A great option for vegans and vegetarians. $

The Doughnut Vault There’s almost always a line for these gourmet doughnuts. Line up and cross your fingers they don’t run out. Weekdays, they open in the morning and stay open as long as they have doughnuts. Follow on Twitter (@doughnutvault) for line length and availability. $

Café Iberico Always busy, this huge, family-style space is a good option for groups. Generous portions, and the tasty sangria comes in pitchers. Plenty of vegetarian choices. $

Hot Dogs and Italian Beef An official Chicago-style hot dog is an all-beef frank with lettuce, tomato, onion, a pickle spear, peppers, mustard, and emerald-green relish with celery salt on a poppy-seed bun. Our famous Italian Beef sandwiches consist of sliced roast beef on a French bread roll, covered in beef stock and topped with peppers. The sandwich should be a dripping mess. For both, try Portillo’s. $

The Gage With an impeccable beer list and excellent upscale bar food, this gastropub is located in the heart of the Loop, across from Millenium Park. Highlights: The Gage’s famous Scotch Egg and Guinness-battered fish and chips. Lunch is served every day, and brunch on weekends, with vegetarian options always on offer. Vegans may want to avoid. Reservations suggested on weekends. $$

The Purple Pig The motto here is cheese, wine, and swine. Once you’ve waited for your table (no reservations), you choose from a variety of meats, smears, paninis, cheeses, and more. Local favorite: pigs’ tails—that’s right, pigs’ tails. Not for vegetarians, vegans, or people in a hurry. $$

Fox & Obel Technically, this is a boutique grocery, but in the back, you’ll find two amazing dining spots: The cafe, a great option for breakfast or lunch, and the more upscale Bistro, which takes reservations. Both delicious menus appeal to vegetarians and omnivores alike. Try the tuna melt or the grilled cheese. $$

Park Grill Slightly touristy, but the location makes it worthwhile. Perched in Millennium Park, all seating here is outdoors. Take in city views while sipping Three Floyds beer or noshing a burger. Park Grill can get busy, but there’s usually room at the bar or a seat after a short wait. $$

Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

Pizza Let me tell you about Chicago pizza. It’s huge, cheese-filled, sauce- topped goodness. I recommend Lou Malnati’s, though Gino’s East and Giordano’s get more attention. The pizza takes 30 minutes. $$

The Publican  When The Publican hit the scene in the late aughts, it changed Chicago’s food scene. Now there are little Publican-ish places throughout the city, trying their best to serve gourmet pork rinds and charcuterie. Skip those and head to the Fulton Market area to check out the OG in smoked meats. Chic and laid back, with stripped-down, Mission-style decor and community-style seating. Make reservations or head over early and plan to sit at the bar. $$$

Girl & the Goat Chicago is the lucky home of Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard. The menu is separated into three sections—vegetables, fish, and meats—and there’s something for most eaters. Servers ask about food restrictions. Reserve now and consider setting up a Rezhound (www.rezhound.com) to get a table. $$$

Frontera Grill It’s easy to love Rick Bayless’s upscale Mexican cuisine, and his Frontera Grill won the 2007 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. Try the ceviche trio and the Topolo Margarita. Vegetarian friendly. Reservations required. $$$

Perennial Virant  Paul Virant can pickle that—It’s his specialty. He even wrote the book on the process, The Preservation Kitchen. With a focus on seasonal Midwestern foods and preservation, this menu is diverse, delicious, and pescatarian-friendly. The menu also evolves frequently and is on the small side, making each dish a real winner. Another highlight: gracious service and a welcoming atmosphere. $$$

The Aviary Since you won’t get into Grant Achatz’s restaurants Next or Alinea, come here. There are food “bites” on the menu, but it’s really all about the cocktail. To reserve, send an email and follow instructions. The Aviary “randomly selects” reservations. Drinks, $15-$30, live up to the hype. $$$

Bars

Clark Street Ale House A little dive with a great beer menu and an outdoor beer garden. No kitchen, but patrons can order pizza or bring food in. Look for the big neon sign: “STOP & DRINK.” $

Buddy Guy’s Legends  A great place for Chicago blues, Buddy Guy’s Legends, in the South Loop, is casual, fun, and loud, with a nightly band. An alternative to the overrated House of Blues. $$

Blue Frog This unassuming dive bar has some of the best karaoke in the city. Most nights are karaoke night, with board games and great drink specials also happening. Of the two locations, the one on LaSalle is the place to be. The sign is tricky to locate, so look for the white building in a parking lot at the corner of LaSalle and Huron. $

Rooftop bars

Plymouth is easy to get into, with decent bar food. The view of the Harold Washington Library Center of the Chicago Public Library will make any librarian drool. $$

The Signature Room  This bar sits atop the very famous—and very tall—Hancock Building. Touristy? Yes. Worth it for the view? Absolutely. Skip dinner and order a cocktail while enjoying Chicago’s famous skyline from the 95th floor. Those who fear heights should take a pass. $$$

Worth the Cab Fare/Train Ride

Ask any local what makes Chicago so great and you will hear, “the neighborhoods!” Here are a few excursion options.

Longman & Eagle  Located in Logan Square, this inn provides both shelter and a wide variety of whiskeys. Winner of a Michelin star rating two years in a row and counting, it’s also one of the hippest and most delicious places to eat in the Chicago area. For omnivores, but there’s always one vegetarian item. $$

Hot Doug’s  Situated in the Avondale neighborhood, this tiny hot dog shop is one of Chicagoans’ favorite places to wait in line. Why? Duck fat fries, along with homemade sausages and franks with tasty toppings. Cash only. $

Hopleaf Bar This Belgian beer bar in Andersonville is considered one of America’s best by Food & Wine magazine. The beer menu is epic and the food delicious. No reservations. Consider heading to the “new bar” area in lieu of waiting for a table.$$

Pequod’s Three words: caramelized cheese crust. Add that to a Chicago-style pizza and you have a match made in heaven. In the heart of Lincoln Park, Pequod’s isn’t too far from the downtown hotels. Get there via public transit by taking the Brown line to the Armitage stop, or else take a quick cab ride. $$

Bridgeport This little south-side neighborhood is on its way up with cool coffee shops, galleries, and bars. It’s worth the cab fare to check out the hip bar Maria’s Packaged Goods ($$) and the neighboring Pleasant House Bakery ($$), which specializes in savory pies. Grab a kale and mushroom pie then head into Maria’s for some of the best beers on tap in the city and a great outdoor seating area.

Entertainment

Check out some of my favorite spots to hang out, catch a show, or buy a book.

The Chicago Cultural Center This free—yes, free—institution is one of my favorites. It generally has great art shows on view and is home to the largest stained-glass Tiffany domes in the world. A visit to this downtown establishment is fun way to spend some free time, even if your time is limited.

Harold Washington Library  The main branch of the Chicago Public Library is stunning. Make sure to ride the elevator up to the Winter Garden Room to take in one of the best views of the Chicago skyline.

Buckingham Fountain Yes, it is the one at the beginning of the Married with Children credits. Though a bit touristy, it’s worth seeing. The location is excellent, and a nearby crosswalk over Lake Shore Drive lets you view the lake and explore the Museum Campus, where the aquarium, planetarium, and Field Museum are located.

Photo courtesy of Unabridged Bookstore.

Bookstores Chicago has a few wonderful independent bookstores. For new books, check out Unabridged Bookstore in the East Lakeview neighborhood. This bookstore is in a fun location, has a great staff, a wonderful array of children’s books, discount books, and a strong LGBTQ section.

Concerts Get your hands on a copy of the Chicago Reader for a breakdown of what’s on. A favorite is the Metro, north of Wrigley Field. Just the right size, and even when the show is sold out, you can hear and see what’s happening onstage.

Also worth checking out is the smaller but delightful Schubas Tavern. If you are headed there, go early and eat first. Their food is impressive for a venue.

Millennium Park The crown jewel of downtown Chicago. Take your mandatory Cloud Gate picture and play in the Crown Fountain. If you’re lucky, there’ll be a concert and you can listen while wandering the Lurie Garden.

It would be easy for me to say Chicago has it all. But doesn’t it? Conferences can be intense. Take time to enjoy the city, too.

See also: Choices, Choices…For the Tech-Minded, ISTE May Be More Useful Than ALA

Leah L. White (@leahlibrarian) is reader services librarian at
Northbrook Public Library.

As Chicago prepares to permanently shutter 49 K–12 schools and one 9–11 school program for the coming school year, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is planning to open four new stand-alone school libraries for the 2013–2014 school year—and spend more than $2 million for the facilities.

“I am thrilled that each welcoming school will receive the necessary investment of a central library in their school this fall,” Lisa E. Perez, network library coordinator for CPS Department of Libraries, tells School Library Journal. “By consolidating underutilized schools, we are able to provide students with access to a quality, 21st Century education, including the opportunity to learn the value of libraries.”

Perkins Bass Elementary School, John Harvard Elementary School of Excellence, Leland Elementary Schoo,l and John T. McCutcheon Elementary will together receive $2 million just to build new library spaces in their schools, according to Molly Poppe, deputy press secretary for CPS. Additional monies will go into capital funding for new air conditioning, windows, paint, and new cabinetry, among other needs. The remaining so-called welcoming schools already have school libraries, according to Poppe.

How these libraries will be run, however, is unknown. Teachers and school librarians currently on staff at the closing schools will be eligible to follow their students to each new school. But Poppe says it won’t have final staffing numbers until budgets are finalized in the fall.

“We don’t know what [staffing] will look like because we don’t know how many students will be going to welcoming schools,” says Poppe. “We will look at that over the summer, on how we’ll allocate resources.”

Chicago’s plan to shutter the 50 schools for 2013–2014 follows a trend happening in major cities across the United States from Philadelphia to New York City—with municipalities shuttering schools for what they say is lack of enrollment, and, as a result, lack of funds. The decision has been met with anger from families and educators alike, with parents attacking CPS for selecting schools that seem to target minorities, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Chicago parents last month filed two lawsuits, arguing both that the proposed closings are discriminatory, because the overwhelming majority of the students are those districts are African-American, and that they would be hurtful to special-needs students.

“I’m representing parents whose neighborhood schools have meant a lot to their kids and to them, and the lawsuit is really a cry from them to be treated fairly and to ultimately get the attention of the school board to the problems they face,” Tom Geoghegan, the lead attorney for the lawsuits, tells SLJ. “There aren’t enough resources in any of these Chicago schools, including textbooks. But the claim that these closings come because the schools are underutilized and under-sourced is a hollow one. The answer to under-sourcing is not to jam kinds into larger classes.”

Calls to Chicago’s Office of the Mayor were not returned.

National organizations, including Save Our Schools, have rallied against the U.S. Department of Education to push for changes to policies that include continuing to close public schools in favor of charter schools. School libraries have also been affected, with school librarian positions being cut across the nation, including most recently in Elyria, OH.

“In some ways it always seems to me it’s like a parent saying, ‘No I’m not going to buy you any new books until you improve your reading,’” says Gail Dickinson, president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), who is nonetheless optimistic about the fate of school librarians and libraries in the country. “Nothing this important can be endangered.”

But while Marie Szyman, a teacher-librarian at Nathaniel Greene School in Chicago and vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association, is not in danger of losing her job for the coming fall, she’s seen many benefits—from matching grants to professional development days for its school librarians—slowing disappear in the Windy City. And she’s watched as her students’ own library books slowly fall apart, not to be replaced. To her, the potential loss of some of her colleagues is a casualty—even as she knows her own position is secure.

“I feel we’re all affected,” says Szyman “What happens to one school happens to all of us.”

Additional reporting by Sarah Bayliss.

The Back of the Yards branch of the Chicago Public Library plans to open its doors in the fall of 2013, serving both the new Back of the Yards High School and the local community. The 8,000 square foot building, which will sit next to the high school and have a separate entrance for the public, is taking its cue from the success of YOUmedia, an innovative 21st century teen learning space housed in the Chicago Public Library that focuses on promoting digital media skills, says Ruth Lednicer, the library’s director of marketing.

The system has turned school classrooms into public library space in the past, as was done at South Side’s Carver Elementary, However, this will be the first “purpose-built public library” that will exist as part of the structure of a school, explains Lednicer.

The pilot project between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Public Library is expected to save the city about $15 million, or the cost of building a new public library, says Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office.

“The Back of the Yards high school will become a community anchor for both students and residents in the community, who have been without a library for a year,” said Emanuel when he announced the partnership earlier this week. “This innovative approach will provide residents and students with the library they deserve.”

Given its name because of its proximity to the former Union Stock Yards, Back of the Yards is an economically-disadvantaged neighborhood populated mainly by Hispanic families. The community hasn’t had a library for a year, since constant flooding forced the closing of a store front library located in a strip mall across the street from where the new high school and library is currently under construction. Currently, the neighborhood’s closest public library is McKinley Park Branch, about two miles away.

“Co-locating the public library with the new school will increase the resources available to students, but also provide residents with a new full-service library, open six days a week, that will offer the full complement of early-childhood reading programs that are instrumental to student success,” says Brian Bannon, the new commissioner of the Chicago Public Library. “Students will have the benefit of teacher librarians and public librarians to support academic and personal interests, and the opportunity to mentor younger children and gain community service hours within their school building.”

Although many details such as collection size, hours of operation, and specific programs still need hammering out, the library will have a media specialist (Chicago mandates high school librarians), a children’s librarian, an adult librarian, and Chicago’s first teen branch librarian. Previously, the central library had the city’s only young adult librarian, explains Lednicer.

“It’ll be a teen-focused collection with digital resources that will use the best practices of YOUmedia,” she says, adding that the library will have a strong early literacy program for toddlers.

Although Back of the Yards has K-8 schools (Chicago doesn’t have middle schools), the neighborhood is without a high school, forcing area teens to travel to 20 different magnet and charter schools throughout the city, Lednicer says. Back of the Yards high school, located on the grounds of a former auto salvage and metal fabricating business, will serve 1,200 students—and the library will be stocked with a brand new opening day collection.

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, Back of the Yards will have a more challenging curriculum-and the library’s collection will cater to those needs. A full-time media specialist, who will be involved in resource selection and ensure the library collection meets the needs of an IB curriculum, will work alongside public librarians during school hours. Students also will have access to the public library’s system-wide collections. Chicago Public Library will operate the library as one of its 79 branches.

“We are delighted that more students will have the opportunity to explore the vast resources available through the Chicago Public Library, turning this neighborhood school into a year-round learning center,” said Chicago Public School’s CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.

The nearly $64 million school will have a public reading garden and a Silver rating under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Schools Rating System.