Lake County Gazette

The Gurnee Village Board of Trustees heard  a presentation from a municipal partner, part of the village's effort to strengthen ties to other local municipalities.

The board welcomed Ryan Livergood, director of the Warren-Newport Public Library, to its meeting on Feb. 6, who shared some of the news and upcoming events at the library during his presentation. He also spoke of the different spaces available to patrons at the library.

"That's the next thing I wanted to touch on, because space is so important for so many different reasons, and we offer a lot of different spaces in the library for different reasons," he told the board. "Whether it's our quiet reading room, which we're getting ready to renovate here early this year, which is the Fortress of Solitude. It's very quiet. If you need a quiet place in the community to study or do some work, you can come in the quiet reading room, but please be quiet because they'll tell you that you're not being quiet or shush (you)."

The library also has a space called "the Flex." Livergood said this "used to be just a dedicated computer lab that we decided to turn into this flexible space, which later this year we hope to open to the public so the public can book it for their meetings, events, that type of thing, and also study rooms as well, which we'll be certain to update those with an annual appeal last year, raising money to update our study rooms." 

Livergood raised the question of why such spaces are important, then went on to explain a 2010 study that provided an answer.

The study "did a meta-analysis of over 153 studies, and the question was, 'What factors will prevent you from dying?" Livergood said. "So basically it's the longevity question, and you might think, okay, maybe it's to stop smoking or to stop drinking or to not be overweight or a factor like that."

According to the study, however, "No. 1, it's personal connections, those close personal connections in your life," Livergood said. "So think a spouse. Think of your children. Think about that friend that if you had to go to the airport right now, you could call them up and they give you a ride to the airport. So that's tied with social integration. Being social with one another. And that's what happens at the public library."

The Warren-Newport Public Library serves multiple communities, he added -- such as Gurnee, Park City, Wadsworth, Greenwood Park, Wildwood, unincorporated parts of Grays Lake, Waukegan and Libertyville -- covering an area of about 55 square miles.

It also offers a bookmobile that travels to meet residents, and the library recently hosted a craft show sharing event, which brought in generations of crafters to the library. The main request the library gets, Livergood added, is for more digital services, and staff members offer help with LinkedIn, tutoring services, basic tutorials for computers and Internet, and self-service pickup and drop-off for residents with busy schedules.

While the library already celebrated its 50th anniversary on Jan. 10, it has planned events and celebrations throughout 2023, Livergood explained, including a local Black History Month celebration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25. The library will also host its 30th annual writing contest, with two categories of poetry and short stories from several age groups. The submission deadline for the contest is March 5, according to the library's website.