About the big read

The Columbia College Chicago Library is recipient of funding from The BIG READ, an initiative of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.  The BIG READ presents a unique opportunity for Columbia College Chicago and its Library to play a part in promoting literacy efforts in the state, particularly in the greater Chicagoland area. 

Communities participating in our BIG READ efforts include: Berwyn, Calumet City, Chicago, Chicago Heights, Cicero, East Chicago (Indiana), North Riverside and Waukegan.  We join over 200 community partnerships across the country creating programming and distributing books of classic works, all towards the common goal of getting people to read

Fahrenheit 451, the seminal classic work by Illinois native Ray Bradbury, has been chosen to celebrate our first The BIG READ effort.  The themes of book burning, censorship and the threat to critical thought and inquiry are issues which resonate more than 50 years after its original publication.  We honor Ray Bradbury for his contribution to literature and his unwavering support of reading and libraries all over the country.

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts released a report entitled, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading, and its findings revealed that during the period 1982-2002, reading has declined at a high rate among all ages, but particularly in the younger age groups.  As a result, the National Endowment for the Arts developed the BIG READ initiative in 2006 to address this problem, with the fundamental goal of restoring reading to the center of American culture. 

The mission of the Columbia College Chicago Library is to support the College and its academic programs by providing access to information resources and teaching students to evaluate and use them. Our Library has a teaching mission, and is committed to preparing our users to be lifelong learners in an information rich society. It is a gathering place for intellectual and artistic freedom and expression, where we consistently surprise and delight our community with a fierce dedication to coloring outside of the lines in support of lifelong learning.  The BIG READ project we have undertaken will expand our educational efforts and further align our mission with our institution’s commitment to civic engagement.

The NEA presents The BIG READ in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Additional support has been received from the Illinois Arts Council.