The Gem of the Community

Orland Park Public Library serves the residents of the Village of Orland Park with about 22,500 active library cardholders, and about 1,500 reciprocal borrowers from neighboring communities. The library moved to its award-winning, 93,000 square foot building in 2004 and renovated in 2020. To obtain a library card, residents can bring a valid driver’s license to the library.

The library offers opportunities for high schoolers to earn service hours, meeting rooms for scouting troops and homeowner associations, preschool, tween, and teen areas, tools for updating a resume and job searching, a quiet place to study, high speed internet and Wi-Fi, a 3D printer and Cricut machine, yoga and other wellness programs, and a growing collection of “Things.” Items from the “Library of Things” collection include a tent, fishing poles, binoculars, a blood pressure monitor, a clothes steamer, cake pans, a camping stove, a coin counter, a CPR training kit, folding chairs, a guitar, a karaoke machine, a microscope, and more.

The library circulates about 481,000 materials annually with ebooks and digital collections growing in popularity. About 19,500 residents of Orland Park and neighboring communities attend book discussions, computer classes, crafts, concerts, language practice groups, support groups, storytimes, escape rooms, and more annually. The library answers over 50,000 reference questions annually. Like they say, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian will bring you back the right one.”

Library cardholders can visit the Computer Commons desk to check out Hot Spots, Roku streaming sticks, and VHS to DVD converters. Residents search the library catalog about 154,000 times per year, and visit orlandparklibrary.org 312,000 times per year. Residents connect to library Wi-Fi about 28,000 times per year, and residents use library computers about 10,700 times per year.

Residents are encouraged to visit the library to see newly renovated spaces, like the large meeting room that now seats 200, and the nature center, The Backyard.