But not all suburban libraries have equal amounts of revenue coming in. WBEZ visited two suburban libraries serving roughly the same amount of people, but with vastly different resources.
The first is Arlington Heights Memorial Library. When you walk inside the newly remodeled library the first thing you notice is the light…streaming through large windows and skylights above.
The space looks less like a library and more like a sleek new Apple store, which is appropriate since patrons can check out iPads from the front desk.
Jason Kuhl, the library’s executive director, gave me a personal tour shortly before the library completed its remodeling last winter.
“Everyone at Arlington Heights really does love the library,” Kuhl said. “We had 900 thousand visitors last year and I would like to say that’s more than the Blackhawks had, that’s more than the Bears drew and that’s more than the Bulls drew.”