Political campaign

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referenda are decided. Political campaigns also include organized efforts to alter policy within any institution.

Politics is as old as humankind and is not limited to democratic or governmental institutions. Some examples of political campaigns are: the effort to execute or banish Socrates from Athens in the 5th century BCE, the uprising of petty nobility against John of England in the 13th century, or the 2005 push to remove Michael Eisner from the helm of The Walt Disney Company.



Campaign elements

Any political campaign is made up of three elements. The modern mnemonic is message, money, and machine.


Message

The message is a concise statement saying why voters should pick a candidate. Simple examples might include:

• "John Doe is a business man, not a politician. His background in finance means he can bring fiscal discipline to state government."
  

• "As our society faces a rapid upswing in violent crime and an ever worsening education system, we need leaders who will keep our streets safe and restore accountability to our schools. John Doe is that leader."
  

• "Over the past four years, John Doe has missed over fifty City Council meetings. How can you lead if you don't show up? Jane Doe won't turn a blind eye to the government."

The message is one of the most important aspects of any political campaign. The habit of modern Western media outlets (especially radio and television) of taking short excerpts from speeches has resulted in the creation of the term "soundbite".

In a modern political campaign, the message must be carefully crafted before it is spread. Major campaigns will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on opinion polls and focus groups in order to figure out what message is needed to reach a majority on Election Day.


Money

Fundraising techniques include having the candidate call or meet with large donors, sending direct mail pleas to small donors, and courting interest groups who could end up spending millions on the race if it is significant to their interests.


Machine

Finally, 'machine' represents human capital, the foot soldiers loyal to the cause, the true believers who will carry the run by volunteer activists. Successful campaigns usually require a campaign manager and some staff members who make strategic and tactical decisions while volunteers and interns canvass door-to-door and make phone calls.

Large modern campaigns use all three of the above components to create a successful strategy for victory.



Techniques

A campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily-resourced group of professionals) must consider how to communicate the message of the campaign, recruit volunteers, and raise money. Campaign advertising draws on techniques from commercial advertising and propaganda. The avenues available to political campaigns when distributing their messages is limited by the law, available resources, and the imagination of the campaigns' participants. These avenues include:

The public media (in US parlance 'free media' or 'earned media') may run the story that someone is trying to get elected or to do something about such and such
The paid media which consists of paid advertisements on TV, the radio, in newspapers, on billboards and, increasingly, the Internet
Holding protests, rallies and other similar public events (if enough people can be persuaded to come)
Holding mass meetings with speakers
Writing directly to members of the public (either via a professional marketing firm or, particularly on a small scale, by volunteers)

• Canvassing face-to-face with members of the public, either at events, in the street ("mainstreeting"), or on the doorstep
  

• By cold-calling members of the public over the phone
  

• By distributing leaflets or selling newspapers
  

• Through websites, online communities, and solicited or unsolicited bulk email eg. [1]
  

• Through a new technique known as Microtargeting that helps identify and target small demographic slices of voters
  

• Through a whistlestop tour - a series of brief appearances in several small towns
  

• Hampering the ability of political competitors to campaign, by such techniques as counter-rallies, picketing of rival parties’ meetings, or overwhelming rival candidates’ offices with mischievous phone calls (most political parties in representative democracies publicly distance themselves from such disruptive and morale-affecting tactics, with the exception of those parties self-identifying as activist [2])
  

• Organizing political house parties
  

• Using endorsements of other celebrated party members to boost support (see coattail effect).

These methods are often combined into a formal strategy known as the campaign plan. The plan takes account of a campaign's goal, message, target audience, and resources in order to lay out a blueprint for victory.

The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters at the same time as getting its message across. These identified supporters are then sent additional information requesting their active support. They are asked to "join" the campaign by donating money, doing volunteer work, writing letters to the media, voting in a particular way, and generally assisting the cause.

Ongoing campaigns can become entrenched as institutions, charities, or political parties. Conversely, existing organizations may use campaigns to remain active, or to advance interests.


Modern election campaigns in the US

Types of elections

The United States is unusual in that there are dozens of different types of elections and political offices available, including everything from the sewer commission to the President of the United States.[citation needed] Elections happen every year on many different dates in many different areas of the country.

At the local level, some offices (e.g., school board, town council, etc.) may be officially non-partisan, with candidates of the same political party challenging each other and in many cases without any campaign references to political parties. Other offices (e.g., county treasurer, county district attorney, county sheriff) may be filled in partisan manners with parties endorsing like-minded candidates and then working on their behalf.
All state and national elections are partisan (except judicial elections in some states).


Process of campaigning

Major campaigns in the United States are often much longer than those in other democracies.

Campaigns start anywhere from several months to several years before election day. The first part of any campaign for a candidate is deciding to run. Prospective candidates will often speak with family, friends, professional associates, elected officials, community leaders, and the leaders of political parties before deciding to run. Candidates are often recruited by political parties and interest groups interested in electing like-minded politicians. During this period, people considering running for office will consider their ability to put together the money, organization, and public image needed to get elected. Many campaigns for major office do not progress past this point as people often do not feel confident in their ability to win.

Once a person decides to run, they will make a public announcement. This announcement could consist of anything from a simple press release to concerned media outlets to a major media event followed by a speaking tour. It is often well-known to many people that a candidate will run prior to an announcement being made. Campaigns will often be announced and then only officially "kicked off" months after active campaigning has begun. Being coy about whether a candidacy is planned is often a deliberate strategy by a prospective candidate, either to "test the waters" or to keep the media's attention.

One of the most important aspects of the major American political campaign is the ability to raise large sums of money, especially early on in the race. Political insiders and donors often judge candidates based on their ability to raise money. Not raising enough money early on can lead to problems later as donors are not willing to give funds to candidates they perceive to be losing, a perception based on their poor fundraising performance.

Also during this period, candidates travel around the area they are running in and meet with voters; speaking to them in large crowds, small groups, or even one-on-one. This allows voters to get a better picture of who a candidate is than that which they read about in the paper or see on television. Campaigns sometimes launch expensive media campaigns during this time to introduce the candidate to voters, although most wait until closer to election day.

Campaigns often dispatch volunteers into local communities to meet with voters and persuade people to support the candidate. The volunteers are also responsible for identifying supporters, recruiting them as volunteers or registering them to vote if they are not already registered. The identification of supporters will be useful later as campaigns remind voters to cast their votes.

Late in the campaign, campaigns will launch expensive television, radio, and direct mail campaigns aimed at persuading voters to support the candidate. Campaigns will also intensify their grassroots campaigns, coordinating their volunteers in a full court effort to win votes.

Voting in the United States often starts weeks before election day as mail-in ballots are a commonly used voting method. Campaigns will often run two persuasion programs, one aimed at mail-in voters and one aimed at the more traditional poll voters.

Campaigns for minor office may be relatively simple and inexpensive - talking to local newspapers, giving out campaign signs, and greeting people in the local square.


Political consultants

Political campaigns in the United States are not merely a civic ritual and occasion for political debate, but a multi-billion dollar industry, dominated by professional political consultants using sophisticated campaign management tools, to an extent far greater than elsewhere in the world. Though the quadrennial presidential election attracts the most attention, the United States has a huge number of elected offices and there is wide variation between different states, counties, and municipalities on which offices are elected and under what procedures. Moreover, unlike democratic politics in much of the rest of the world, the US has relatively weak parties. While parties play a significant role in fundraising and occasionally in drafting people to run, campaigns are ultimately controlled by the individual candidates themselves.


Other issues and criticisms

Cost of campaign advertising

American political campaigns have become heavily reliant on broadcast media and direct mail advertising (typically designed and purchased through specialized consultants). Though virtually all campaign media are sometimes used at all levels (even candidates for local office have been known to purchase cable TV ads), smaller, lower-budget campaigns are typically more focused on direct mail, low-cost advertising (such as lawn signs), and direct voter contact. This reliance on expensive advertising is a leading factor behind the rise in the cost of running for office in the United States. This rising cost is considered by some to discourage those without well-monied connections, or money themselves, from running for office.

Independent expenditures

Money is raised and spent not only by candidate's campaign, but also by party committees, political action committees, and other groups (in the 2004 election cycle, much controversy has focused on a new category of organization, 527 groups). This is sometimes done through independent expenditures made in support or opposition of specific candidates but without any candidate's cooperation or approval. The lack of an overt connection between a candidate and third party groups allows one side of a campaign to attack the other side while avoiding criticism for going negative. A memorable example are the Swift Boat Veterans who criticized John Kerry in the United States presidential election, 2004, and who were condemned by Republican Senator John McCain.[1]


Future developments

Many political players and commentators agree that American political campaigns are currently undergoing a period of change, due to changing campaign-finance laws, increased use of the internet (which has become a valuable fundraising tool), and the apparently declining effectiveness of television advertising.


History

Political campaigns have existed as long as there have been informed citizens to campaign amongst. Often mass campaigns are started by the less privileged or anti-establishment viewpoints (as against more powerful interests whose first resort is lobbying). The phenomenon of political campaigns are tightly tied to special interest groups and political parties. The first 'modern' campaign is thought to be William Gladstone's Midlothian campaign in the 1880s, although there may be earlier recognisably modern examples from the 19th century.

Democratic societies have regular election campaigns, but political campaigning can occur on particular issues even in non-democracies so long as freedom of expression is allowed.

American election campaigns in the 19th century created the first mass-base political parties and invented many of the techniques of mass campaigning.[citation needed] In the 1790-1820s, the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party battled it out in the so-called "First Party System".


Alternatives to campaigning

Not all democratic elections involve political campaigning. Indeed, some democratic elections specifically rule out campaigning on the grounds that campaigning may compromise the democratic character of the elections (Abizadeh 2005), perhaps because of campaigns' susceptibility to the influence of money, or to the influence of special interest groups.


See also

Techniques and traditions

Canvassing

Election promise

Husting

Lawn sign

Microtargeting

Political campaign staff

Votebank

Election litter


General topics

Activism

Civics

Lobbying

Portal:Politics


Examples

American election campaigns in the 19th century



External links

United States Federal Election Commission

Campaign - Non Partisan Voter Education Site

The American Association of Political Consultants

CampaignGuide

PoliticsOnline

Clint Reilly on Political Campaigns

IRS: Taxes for Political Organizations

An in-depth look at the campaign of Lewis Lehrman for NY Governor in 1982

The National Institute on Money in State Politics

Center for American Women and Politics Ready to Run Campaign Training for Women

Australian Electoral Commission

AXJ-Grass Roots Independent Electoral Watchdog Commission

Political football

Political football

A political football is a political topic or issue that is continually debated but left unresolved. The term is used often during a political election campaign to highlight issues that have not been completely addressed, such as the natural environment and abortion.


There are many reasons that an issue may be left unresolved. Examples are:

• The issue may be highly controversial with the populace rather evenly split on both sides. In this case, a government has no clear positive action to take.
  

• A government may want the opposite of what the majority of the people want. By not making a decision, the government creates time to attempt to convert the public opinion.
  

• Government may be split on a decision and neither side is willing to give in to the other.
  

• A minority group in government may be opposed to a decision and will use a method to delay a decision, such as a filibuster.
  

• Politicians may be attempting to draw the issue into public debate in order to gain their own popularity at the polls.

With the use of the word football, many other football terms are in common use. Once a topic or issue has presented itself, the opposition will take the issue and "run with it" and "try to score points". There may be many parties in opposition to take up the topic, and sometimes run it into the ground, which at times can "backfire" and end up hurting the opposing faction. This can happen to the point of that party being seen as "fumbling" the issue. When a party or candidate ends up ignoring or putting off the issue, they are said to be "punting" it. In addition to the opponents of the politician or party using the subject as political fuel, the media may also "run with it". Sometimes these matters become larger, like during an election, than anyone would have thought possible during the event itself.

The phrase in modern usage is most likely derived from American football and not Association football ("football" to most of the world). However, the Oxford English Dictionary has examples of use as early as the 1600s (long before the creation of American Football). All early examples from the OED originated in the United States. It is possible that the term originated from one definition of football and evolved later to be strongly tied to the modern definition of American football.

The term is now being used around the world, including places where most people don't even know much about American football, or the relation to the term.

Political history of Chicago

Political history of Chicago

The Politics of Chicago have been dominated by controversy, corruption, turn-of-the-19th century businessmen, Irish Catholics, and Richard J. Daley and the Daley family.


History

In 1855, Chicago Mayor Levi Boone threw Chicago politics into the national spotlight with some interesting proposals that would lead to the Lager Beer Riot.
During much of the last half of the 19th Century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization dominated by ethnic ward-heelers. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago also had a powerful radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.[1]

The politics of Chicago came into play after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. For political reasons, a rumor was spread that a cow knocked over a lantern, thereby causing the fire. The election that year turned the fire into a "political football", with controversy erupting over who was culpable for the fire's rapid and insufficiently controlled spread. The winning party used allegations of mismanagement to spread fear, causing some voters to vote more than once. This would give rise to the famous saying "vote early and often."


20th century

The political environment in Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s let organized crime flourish to the point that many Chicago policemen earned more money from pay-offs than from the city. This same culture led directly to the Chicago Black Sox scandal of game fixing by the Chicago White Sox in 1919.

The modern era of politics is still dominated by machine politics in many ways, and the Chicago Democratic Machine became a style honed and perfected by Richard J. Daley after his election in 1955. Further evidence of this is the fact that his son, Richard M. Daley, is the current mayor.
Richard J. Daley's mastery of machine politics preserved the Chicago Democratic Machine long after the demise of similar machines in other large American cities.[2] During much of that time, the city administration found opposition mainly from a liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. The independents finally won control of city government in 1983 with the election of Harold Washington. Since Washington's death, Chicago has returned to the leadership of the Democratic organization led by Richard M. Daley, although it may differ from the previous ward-based organization, as it relies on other groups, such as the Hispanic Democratic Organization.[3]

A point of interest is the party leanings of the city. For much of the last century, Chicago has been considered one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the United States. For example, the citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson was voted into office. Today only one city council member is Republican.

The police corruption that came to the light from the Summerdale Scandal of 1960, where police officers kept stolen property or sold it and kept the cash, was another black eye on the local political scene of Chicago.

The Daley faction, with financial help from Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., helped elect John F. Kennedy to the office of President of the United States in the 1960 presidential election. The electoral votes from the state of Illinois, with nearly half its population located in Chicago-dominated Cook County, were a deciding factor in the win for Kennedy over Richard Nixon.

Chicago politics have also hosted some very publicized campaigns and conventions. The Democratic Party decided on Harry S. Truman as the vice-presidential candidate at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was the scene of mass political rallies and discontent, leading to the famous trial of the Chicago Seven.



External links

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/989.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/774.html

Graffiti Blasters

Graffiti Blasters


Graffiti Blasters is a program of the city government of Chicago, Illinois to eliminate graffiti and gang-related vandalism. It uses baking soda-based solvents and paints matching the city's official color scheme to erase all varieties of graffiti.

An initiative of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Graffiti Blasters costs about $4 million annually and promises free cleanup within 24 hours of a phone call to 3-1-1. Prior to the program's inception, the city considered itself responsible for removing graffiti if it was on city property, but private property owners had to shoulder the cleanup costs for graffiti on their own property. Perhaps as a result, Graffiti Blasters has won much praise from landowners, business owners, as well as Chicagoans in general. By contrast, it has won much disdain from taggers and other groups, and a tagging crew called "FMD Crew" was formed in direct response.

In 1992, an ordinance was passed in Chicago that bans the sale and possession of spray paint, and certain types of etching equipment and markers.[1] The law falls under Chapter 8-4: Public Peace & Welfare, Section 100: Vagrancy. The specific law (8-4-130) makes graffiti an offense that surpasses public drunkenness, peddling, or disruption of a religious service punitively with a fine of no less than $500 per incident.



See Also

Vandal


External links

Official Chicago webpage with program information

Richard M. Daley

Richard M. Daley

Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party and current mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. His 2007 re-election set him to become the longest running Mayor in Chicago (a record currently held by his father Richard J. Daley), should he remain in office past December 25, 2010.

Chosen by Time Magazine in its April 25, 2005 issue as the best out of five mayors of large cities in the United States,[1] he has presided over such successes as the resurgence in tourism, the modernization of the Chicago Transit Authority, the building of Millennium Park, increased environmental efforts and the rapid development of the city's North Side, as well as the near South and West sides. He remains widely popular with city residents, taking over 70% of the mayoral vote in 1999, 2003, and 2007. Recently, he has been in the public eye for playing a large role in making Chicago the U.S. bid city for the 2016 Summer Olympics.


Biography

Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. Daley and Eleanor Daley, former mayor and first lady of Chicago, respectively. Originally from Bridgeport, a traditionally (and partially) Irish-American neighborhood located southwest of the Chicago Loop, Daley graduated from De La Salle Institute and obtained his bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor from DePaul University. Prior to earning his law degree, Daley served in the Marine Reserves.[2]

Mayor Daley is married to Margaret Daley, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and is still undergoing treatment.[3] They have four children: Nora, Patrick, Elizabeth and Kevin. Daley's second son, Kevin, was thirty-three months old when he died of complications of spina bifida in 1981. Kevin's death still weighs heavily upon Daley; he typically refers to Kevin in the present tense, as if he were still alive.

Mayor Daley is brother to William M. Daley, former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners on which he serves as the finance chairman.

Daley grew up as, and is to this day, a fan of the Chicago White Sox over the crosstown Chicago Cubs.


Political beginnings

Daley was elected to his first public office as delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention. On the strength of his father's political machine, Daley next ran for and won a seat in the Illinois Senate, serving from 1972 to 1980. He left Springfield to become Cook County State's Attorney, serving from 1980 to 1989. Daley's tenure as county prosecutor was interrupted in 1983 with his first mayoral campaign, losing in the three-way primary to Congressman Harold Washington. Incumbent Jane Byrne, a former protege of Daley's father, was also defeated.

Four years later, on November 25, 1987, Washington died in office of a heart attack. The Chicago City Council elected an interim mayor, David Orr, who served from the day of Washington's death to December 2, 1987. As Orr stepped down, Eugene Sawyer won a special election. However, a second election was held in 1989 to fill the remaining two years of what would have been Washington's second term.

As a result, Sawyer faced voters for the first time, and Daley challenged him in the primary. After defeating Sawyer handily, Daley moved on to the April 4, 1989 general election against Aldermen Timothy C. Evans and Edward Vrdolyak, a former Democrat who had antagonized Washington on the city council while Washington served as mayor. After winning the general election, Daley took office as Mayor of Chicago on April 24, 1989.


Political positions

Despite Daley's opposition to the War in Iraq, his only surviving son Patrick enlisted in the U.S. Army and announced the decision publicly on November 30, 2004.

Daley has been a supporter of gun control, with a de facto ban on handguns in Chicago.[4] He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[5] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

Daley is also a supporter of LGBT rights and Chicago's gay community. Chicago hosted the Gay Games VII, with Mayor Daley officially opening the games at opening ceremonies.
Daley is helping create initiatives to increase green roof usage within the city. Chicago City Hall's own rooftop, completed in 2001, is a pilot of that program. His advocacy of cycling has led to proliferation of city bike lanes, bicycle racks and bike safety programs[3][4][5]. Another of his pet projects, and a quite successful one, was bringing the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum to a permanent home in Chicago.

Daley took over the Chicago school system in 1995,and has brought graduation rates up from 51% to 54%. Daley emphasizes that in order to keep the middle class from fleeing to the suburbs, a city needs a strong and effective school system, and he believes that such a school system is the first step to fighting urban crime and poverty.[6]
He appointed Lori Healey to direct the Department of Planning and Development in 2005, to encourage the revitalization of emerging neighborhoods.

Daley has also been an advocate for Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, which was selected as the United States Olympic Committee's applicant bid on April 14, 2007


Criticisms

Meigs Field

One of Daley's first major acts upon re-election on February 25, 2003 was the demolition of Meigs Field on March 30, 2003. A small lakefront airport adjacent to Soldier Field, it was used by general aviation aircraft and helicopters. Its single runway was demolished overnight, with work starting just as local news was going off the air, and with high powered lights being shone towards Lake Shore Drive to prevent photography of the destruction. A unilateral decision by the mayor without approval from the Chicago City Council or Federal Aviation Administration, the act resulted in public uproar. Aviation interest groups unsuccessfully attempted to sue the city into reopening the airport, claiming Daley had been trying to close Meigs Field with non-safety-related reasons since 1995 to create a park. However, the only citation handed over to the city concerned a failure to notify the federal agency of the plans within a thirty day time period as required by law. The city was fined $33,000, the maximum then allowed by law.

Other citations were not handed; the courts noted it was well within Daley's executive powers and jurisdiction to make the decision he made. The city has since agreed to a settlement with the FAA, the terms of which include both the $33,000 fine and the repayment of $1 million from taxes to federal airport development grants. The city admits no wrongdoing under this settlement.[7]

Daley and his supporters argued that the airport was a threat to Chicago's high-rise cityscape and its high profile skyscrapers, Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. Daley defended his decision with the now-infamous quote "Mickey Mouse has a no-fly zone", referring to the restrictions in place over Orlando and Washington, D.C. and his longstanding conviction that Chicago should have similar restrictions. In reality, closing the airport made the airspace less restrictive. When the airport was open, downtown chicago was within Meigs Field's Class D airspace, requiring two-way radio communication with the tower[8]. The buildings in downtown

Chicago are now in Class E/G airspace, which allows any airplane to legally fly as close as 1000 feet from these buildings with no radio communication at all[9]

He also argued that the lakefront needs to be opened to all residents of Chicago, not just the relatively small portion of the population who have the necessary resources to operate an aircraft. This led to the development of current Northerly Island park venues, including a concert staging area.


Children's Museum

On September 28, 2007, Mayor Richard Daley's proposal—a new $100 million Chicago Children's Museum near the Grant Park playground—had been protested by Alderman Brendan Reilly, Figiel, Cate Plys and local residents.[14]




See also

Graffiti Blasters


External links

Article on Daley's Corruption

City of Chicago official site

Mayor Richard Daley 2007 official campaign site

CityMayors profile

Mayors Against Illegal Guns homepage

Chicago Public Library

Chicago Public Library

The Chicago Public Library consists of 79 branches throughout the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA.


History

In the aftermath of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, Londoner A.H. Burgess, with the aid of Thomas Hughes drew up what would be called the "English Book Donation," which proposed that England should provide a free library to the burnt-out city. After circulating requests for donations throughout English society, the project donated 8,000 books. Private donors included Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold.

In Chicago, city leaders petitioned Mayor Joseph Medill to hold a meeting and establish the library. The meeting led to the Illinois Library Act of 1872, which allowed Illinois cities to establish tax-supported libraries. In April 1872, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance establishing the Chicago Public Library, and on January 1, 1873, the Chicago Public Library officially opened its doors in an abandoned iron water tank at LaSalle and Adams Streets. The collection included 3,157 volumes. The water tank was 58 feet in diameter, 21 feet high and with a 30 foot foundation. A two story office building was soon built around it to hold city offices, and a third floor reading room was built for the library.

On October 24, 1873, William Frederick Poole was elected the first head librarian by the library's Board of Directors. Poole was mainly concerned during his tenure on building the circulation. In 1874, circulation services began with 13,000 out of 17,533 available for lending.

The library moved from place to place during its first 24 years. Eleven years it spent on the fourth floor of city hall. In 1887, Poole resigned to organize the Newberry Library of Chicago.

On October 15, 1887, Frederick H. Hild was elected the second Librarian of the Chicago Public Library, and securing a permanent home was his primary drive. Ten years later, the Central Library was opened. Designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in Richardsonian Romanesque, it was located on Michigan Avenue between Washington Street and Randolph Street on land donated by the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Veterans group led by John A. Logan, a Civil War General and U.S. Senator from Illinois. In return for the land the Library was to maintain a Civil War collection and exhibit in a G.A.R. room until the last northern Civil War veteran died. The library would remain on this site for the next 96 years. It is now the Chicago Cultural Center.

Henry E. Legler assumed the leadership of the Chicago Public Library on October 11, 1909. Previously a Wisconsin Progressive, he was well-known as an aggressive advocate of the expansion of library service. In 1916, Legler presented his "Library Plan for the Whole City," the first comprehensive branch library system in the nation. A landmark in library history, the plan called for an extensive network of neighborhood library locations throughout Chicago. The goal of the plan was to bring "library service within the walking distance of home for every person in Chicago who can read or wants to use books." Legler was succeeded by his assistant Carl B. Roden in 1918. Roden served as Chief Librarian until 1950.

Roden was succeeded in 1951 by Chief Librarian Gertrude E. Gscheidle, During her tenure the Library expanded its service to Chicago's neighborhoods by modernizing its bookmobile services. In the 1960s several new neighborhood branch libraries were constructed or were established in leased storefronts or reading rooms.

The two-story, 62,000-square-foot Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, named after the "Father of Modern Black Historiography," opened its doors in December of 1975. The library features the Vivian Harsh Research Collection, one of the largest repositories of African-American archival information in the Midwest. A decade later, Chicago Public Library replaced its northwest side regional library when the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library opened to the public in late 1985.

In 1974, the Board of Directors authorized an $11 million renovation of the Central Library. While the restoration of the original central library proved a great success, the collections remained warehoused outside the old library while the City debated the status of the future of the central library. One plan was to move the library to the former Rothchild/Goldblatts Department Store which stood empty on Chicago's State Street and had reverted to City ownership.

The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board and Cindy Pritzker, then President of the Library Board, launched a grassroots campaign to build a new state-of-the-art library. On July 29, 1987, Mayor Harold Washington and the Chicago City Council authorized a design and construction competition for a new, one-and-a-half block $144 million library at 400 South State Street.


Current Services

In 1991, the Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago's new central library, named for the late mayor, opened to the public. It was the world's largest municipal public library at the time of its opening. It is accessible from the Brown, Orange, Purple Line, and new Pink Line trains at the "Library" stop, as well as from the Blue Line "LaSalle" and "Jackson" stops, and from the Red Line "Jackson" stop.

Since 1994 the Chicago Public Library has been led by Commissioner Mary A. Dempsey who was appointed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Dempsey launched an aggressive rebuilding project, replacing or rehabilitating the majority of Chicago's neighborhood library branches. Many of the new branches are library-owned full service facilities which replaced older branch libraries or rented storefronts. Others have been constructed in neighborhoods that were not previously served by a branch library. It has been the largest and most successful urban library expansion in recent history.

Some of the free innovative programming the Chicago Public Library offers to its patrons includes: The One Book One Chicago program, The Summer Reading Program, The Adult Summer Reading Program, Bookamania (held every November), Great Kids Museum Passport Program (allows patrons free admission to a variety of Chicago's world-class institutions), Words & Music Program (which provides patrons with free lawn tickets to selected Ravinia concerts), etc.

The Chicago Public Library offers free lecture series covering a variety of topics including: Law at the Library (a free monthly lecture series that offers participants the opportunity to speak with a legal professional about a variety of legal topics), Money Smart (a series of financial literacy programs), Author Series, etc.

The Chicago Public Library provides access to a large selection of databases, most of which are also available for use at home or other remote location, with a Chicago Public Library card.
The Chicago Public Library has 79 local branches. It is one of the largest urban library systems in the world.


Branches

Central Library

Harold Washington Library Center


Regional Libraries


North

Sulzer Regional Library


South

Woodson Regional Library




North District

Albany Park Branch
Austin-Irving Branch
Bezazian Branch
Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch
Budlong Woods Branch
Damen Avenue Branch
Edgebrook Branch
Edgewater Branch
Galewood-Mont Clare Branch
Humboldt Branch
Independence Branch
Jefferson Park Branch
Lincoln-Belmont Branch
Lincoln Park Branch
Logan Square Branch
Mayfair Branch
John Merlo Branch
North Austin Branch
North Pulaski Branch
Northtown Branch
Oriole Park Branch
Portage-Cragin Branch
Roden Branch
Rogers Park Branch
Uptown Branch
West Addison Branch
West Belmont Branch


Central District

Archer Heights Branch
Austin Branch
Back of the Yards Branch
Blackstone Branch
Brighton Park Branch
Canaryville Branch
Chicago Bee Branch
Chinatown Branch
Richard J. Daley Branch
Douglass Branch
Eckhart Park Branch
Gage Park Branch
Garfield Ridge Branch
Hall Branch
Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch
Legler Branch
Rudy Lozano Branch
Mabel Manning Branch
Marshall Square Branch
McKinley Park Branch
Midwest Branch
Near North Branch
Roosevelt Branch
Sherman Park Branch
Toman Branch
West Chicago Avenue


South District


Altgeld Branch
Avalon Branch
Beverly Branch
Brainerd Branch
Chicago Lawn Branch
Clearing Branch
Bessie Coleman Branch
Hegewisch Branch
Jeffery Manor Branch
Kelly Branch
Thurgood Marshall Branch
Mount Greenwood Branch
Pullman Branch
Scottsdale Branch
South Chicago Branch
South Shore Branch
Tuley Park Branch
Vodak East Side Branch
Walker Branch
West Englewood Branch
West Lawn Branch
West Pullman Branch
Wrightwood-Ashburn Branch
Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch




External links

Chicago Public Library website

Books catalog

Map of branch locations