Downers Grove Library Bids Farewell

First impressions are important to me, and I liked Christopher Bowen from the very start. I met him several years ago in a yoga class at Yoga Among Friends taught by his lovely wife Janet Bowen.  You’ve gotta love a man that can take instruction from his wife in a room full of people while doing downward facing dog. I have since had the opportunity to interview him several times for various articles relating to the Downers Grove Public Library and it’s confirmed my first impression. Bowen is a smart, articulate, personable man who has served the Downers Grove community well and with great commitment. For the past 27 years, he has been with the Downers Grove Public Library, serving as its director for the past 22. Later this month, Bowen will be retiring at the age of 63, in his words, “young enough and healthy enough to have some fun.”  

Bowen started working in public libraries more than 40 years ago while he was a student at the University of Akron. He went on to get his Masters in Library Science at Case Western Reserve University and continued working with the Akron-Summit County Public Library for a total of 14 years. 

“I was in a large library system with 28 branches.  When I started thinking about changing to be a library administrator, I didn’t want to be in a place that big where it takes so long to make anything happen. One of the staff members knew about the Downers Grove Library and that it had a good reputation,” he said.

Bowen came to Downers Grove as the assistant director in 1984 and became the director in 1989. Bowen said that the field is evolving quickly, and that Downers Grove has done an admirable job in keeping up with the changes; many of which are the result of technology. Circulation, which includes anything that is checked out from the library, continues to increase each year. 

“We broke one million, two years ago,” he said. While at one time circulation was predominantly comprised of print books, this has changed to include DVD’s, CD’s, audio recordings and electronic books.  “We’re always looking at how to stay relevant in the future,” Bowen said.

Despite, or perhaps because of technology, Bowen said that the role of reference librarians has remained important. Prior to the last five-10 years he said people needing to do any type of research would need reference librarians to help navigate the thousands of print books. Now he said people have to navigate millions of sources of information on the Internet.

“So they still need help. More and more of our reference questions are helping people use computers or do computer-based searches.  And people are still coming in, just starting to use computers and so personal instruction is still important.  We used to teach how to use libraries. Now we’re teaching how to use digital libraries,” he said.

The library itself has been, and remains a destination place, he said. This is particularly true during difficult economic times.

“People use our free Wi-Fi as well as our computers, sometimes to look for jobs,” he said adding that during tough times, people tend to borrow library books rather than buy them. “If you’re a heavy library user it’s because you’re a reader.  And not many of us can afford all of the books we’d like to buy” he said.

Bowen said that there have been plenty of challenges during his tenure. “The budget and finances have been a huge issue. Ninety percent of our revenue is from property taxes, so we’re always working hard to control library expenditures,” he said. As is true with most public service providers, staffing is amongst the biggest expenses. “We’ve been looking very hard at staffing."

The pop icon Madonna was largely responsible for one of Bowen’s most stressful experiences at the library. In 1992, the singer released her book Sex. “It was on the best-sellers list. We buy everything on the best-sellers lists and so we bought it. And we had hundreds of reserves on it. It was a very popular book,” he said. However a small group of residents were adverse to the book being carried at the library, and went so far as to call him at home and threaten Bowen and his family. “It was very mean and very ugly. It’s sometimes tough being a public servant, because it makes you a target. But it’s part of the job to wear a bull’s eye.”

The most “fun” he had on the job was with the major construction project which resulted in the library’s current building in 1999. 

“It was a great experience and extremely successful.  It was a huge challenge but we finished on time, with a couple of hundred thousand dollars left in our construction fund,” he said.  “And from the day we opened the doors, people have loved the building. The response has been enormously popular. This was the most gratifying experience of my career, having had it turned out as well.”

Bowen said that Downers Grove has been a great place to spend his career.  He said Downers Grove residents don’t hesitate to give their opinions, either positive or negative.

Bowen said that when he retires, he looks forward to relaxing. “It will take awhile to wrap my mind around the notion that I’m not responsible for this building and the 100 employees anymore... that no one will call me in the middle of the night to tell me the alarm is going off.”

IN all, Bowen said he loved his job in Downers Grove.

“There have been very few days when I’ve actually felt that I’m going to work."

Congratulations to Bowen on his impending retirement, and a sincere thank-you for the great work he has done for the community!