Naperville Library Opens Business Center

Submitted by the Naperville Public Library

Business owners and entrepreneurs have a new place to set their suitcase as Naperville Public Library will celebrate the grand opening to its new business startup center NaperLaunch at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17.

Located on the upper level of Nichols Library, NaperLaunch helps professionals with mentorship opportunities, including one-on-one help from business librarians as well as business growth through the use of effective library resources, databases, classes and workshops. Businesses also can get assistance on the use of video equipment and design software to create logos, commercials and business cards.

Opening up the business startup center is another way the library is striving to meet the needs of the community.

“Naperville is a very business-oriented community. Many large corporations call Naperville home,” said the library’s Executive Director Julie Rothenfluh. “In addition, there are many entrepreneurs and business people working out of their homes who have always used library space and resources as a place away from home to do business.”

NaperLaunch’s new dedicated space full of greys, blues and pops of red took about four months to complete and can be configured for classroom-style seating or public use.

“The space has given us significant flexibility in our community services,” said Kent Palmer, business librarian. “Not only have we increased our available program meeting space, but we have developed a multi-purpose space that will accommodate the needs of NaperLaunch and business programming along with several other service interests.”

Along with meet-ups and small business workshops, NaperLaunch also acts as a central working hub for business owners, which may allow for an accountant to be working right next to a fashion blogger or even two independent computer consultants working side by side exchanging ideas.

“NaperLaunch coworking is what really excites me,” Palmer said of the new space. “There have already been instances of collaboration between the coworkers. When innovative people come together, they find ways to make more out of the resources available to them than they could do on their own. This means greater economic development in our community, which meets one of the major goals behind NaperLaunch.”

During the NaperLaunch Grand Opening, the community is invited to celebrate a ribbon cutting of the new space and check out some of the equipment and resources available to help businesses, including the library’s 3-D printer, the silhouette cutter and video editing software and technology.

“The hope and expectation for NaperLaunch is that it will make a difference in how the professional community of Naperville innovates and creates economic opportunities,” Palmer said. “We’re doing our best to keep in tune with what entrepreneurs need so that we, along with our partners, can deliver the best environment for that to happen.”