Dupage Policy Journal

This year, the Glen Ellyn Public Library has celebrated "National Hispanic Heritage" and "Gay Pride" months and a Mexican Halloween-type remembrance named the "Day of the Dead."

But next Thurs. November 11, for the federal holiday Veterans Day, the Glen Ellyn Library has nothing commemorative planned. 

In fact, Veterans Day is no longer even acknowledged on the library's calendar.

A Hindu and Buddhist festival called "Diwali" is. Last Monday, the library invited Glen Ellyn students in grades 3-5 to come to the library to "use paper, conductive tape, battery, and a lightbulb to create a keepsake to celebrate" Diwali, according to an event announcement.

Early Literacy staff member Katy Almendinger wrote that the library is creating programming around obscure events like Diwali to prove its commitment to "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)," and so residents "see...diversity mirrored on our calendar."

This commitment has come at the expense of holidays actually celebrated by the overwhelming majority of Glen Ellyn taxpayers, who spent $5,006,907 on their library in 2020.

In January, it paid $15,000 to consultant Reesheda Graham-Washington to instruct its employees on how to make themselves-- and the library-- less racist. She led series of "talks" that concluded the library needed "programs, materials and services that relate to DEI and resonate with our community.” 

The result: the Glen Ellyn library has nothing scheduled for Christmas, according to its calendar. But it has six days of events planned for "Kwaanza," a "fake holiday" invented in 1966 by Marxist black separatist and convicted felon Ron Everett.

Communist cookie baking

This summer, the library offered no programming or events for Memorial Day or Independence Day. But it did suggest reading recommendations for Juneteenth (June 19), or the day black American slaves were emancipated by Republican President Abraham Lincoln. Books included How to be an Antiracist by author Henry Rogers (a.k.a. Ibram X. Kendi) and Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad.

This year, the library has invited Glen Ellyn children to participate in two separate events-- a cookie baking competition and a scavenger hunt-- in honor of Marxist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. A fervent Communist who hated the United States and white people, one of her most famous paintings was titled "Peace on Earth so the Marxist Science may Save the Sick and Those Oppressed by Criminal Yankee Capitalism."

Once relied upon for help finding books and periodicals, library staff have started also offering Glen Ellyn residents political guidance and tutelage.

In March, library staff took to issuing a public statement of "solidarity" with Asian-Americans after a Georgia man shot nine people working at Atlanta massage parlors.

"We continue to encourage and facilitate dialogue about the harmful stereotypes that have historically and disproportionally affected the AAPI community and all people of color, as well as how to eliminate those stereotypes," read a statement issued on the library's blog. It included tips on how to find "2021 COVID-19 Anti-Racist Resources."

Gay Pride Month was celebrated at the library every day in June, as part of "the ongoing fight for justice and equality for the LGBTQ+ community," the library staff explained on their blog. The topic remains a central focus.

In September, "pediatric neuropsychologist" Kymberly Larson hosted a talk at the library titled, "Talking to Kids about LGBTQ+," teaching Glen Ellyn children "proper terminology, including pronoun usage (and) how to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community."

Teens aged 14-21 were invited in September to meet "inter-racial, social activist team of husband and wife" Adrian and Nancy McKee for "Pizza and Social Justice." 

"Learn how to have mutually uplifting conversations about important topics like race and gender," the library said.

There were once topics other than "race and gender" that Glen Ellyn residents discussed at their library.

During the Great Depression in 1932, the Chicago Tribune reported that Glen Ellyn's librarian, Grace McMahon, said "the type of books most in demand trends toward the treatment of economic problems."

"Many books have been written giving theories as to the cause of the depression or pointing to a way out, and there has been... a desire to read what these economists have to say," the report said. 

McMahon said there were 11,346 books in the library in 1932 and 4,201 borrowers. Glen Ellyn's population then was 7,628. 

In the 1950's, the library offered first and through sixth year courses in the Great Books, classics of literature that created the foundation of Western culture.

When the current library building opened in January 1996, then library board President Susan Dahl filled a cornerstone time capsule with two histories of Glen Ellyn, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and an article, "The Wide World of Webs" about the then-nascent Internet.

The Glen Ellyn Public Library Board of Trustees currently has seven members-- Democrats Molly Knapke, Erin Micklo, Tim Brinker and Susan Stott and Republicans Karen Volk, Molly Hoerster and Maryanne Deaton.