Hillside Public Library

🏢 SWAN Libraries · Hillside, Illinois

Hillside Public Library

Hillside Public Library has served the 8,300 residents of this west-suburban Cook County village since 1957, when local residents and a Chamber of Commerce group opened the first modest reading room on Hillside Avenue. The current building at 405 Hillside Avenue — completed in 1976 — holds roughly 50,000 titles in multiple formats and offers a free Notary Public, a Museum Adventure program, and mobile hotspot lending for a community that values connection and lifelong learning.

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📖 About Hillside Public Library

Hillside is a Cook County village in Proviso Township, named for the slope that westbound trains had to climb at its Illinois Central Railroad station when the community was first settled by German Lutheran immigrants in the 1840s. The library's roots trace to 1955, when a Chamber of Commerce group received a charter and began organizing a public reading room; the Illinois Library Association donated 1,000 books, supplemented by resident gifts. The library opened in May 1957 in a small, stove-heated frame building on Hillside Avenue, moved to a Butterfield Road storefront in 1962 (where it issued 240 new cards within two days of reopening), and eventually moved to Village Hall's second floor before voters approved a dedicated building in 1963. The current building at 405 Hillside Avenue was completed in 1976 and today holds roughly 50,000 books, films, audiobooks, graphic novels and digital resources. As a SWAN Libraries member since the consortium's founding in the 1970s, a Hillside card opens the doors to more than 100 Chicagoland libraries. The library offers a free Notary Public service and a Museum Adventure pass program for cultural institution visits, along with license plate renewal assistance — services that reflect its role as a genuine community hub.

⭐ What makes this library special

• Founded in 1957 after community volunteers and the Chamber of Commerce organized a reading room with 1,000 donated books — Hillside's first public library
• Current building at 405 Hillside Avenue completed in 1976, holding roughly 50,000 titles in books, media, graphic novels and digital formats
• Free Notary Public service available to all visitors at no charge
• Museum Adventure pass program — borrow passes for free or reduced admission to area cultural institutions
• Mobile hotspot lending — take the internet home with a Hillside library card

📱 Digital Resources — Free with Your Library Card

Hillside Library cardholders can stream, download and research for free through digital platforms and Illinois statewide collections:

📍 Nearby Libraries in West Suburban Cook County

Distances are approximate straight-line miles from this library.

All libraries in Hillside  ·  Browse all Illinois libraries →

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📋 This library offers notary services. See what a library notary can do — what to bring, fees and appointments — and find other libraries with a notary notary services by state.

🖨 This library offers printing, copying & fax. See how library printing, copying, scanning and fax services work — costs and mobile printing — and find other libraries that offer them printing & fax by state.

📅 This library has meeting & community rooms. See how library meeting rooms work — booking, policies and fees — and find other libraries with meeting or community rooms meeting rooms by state.

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✓ Hours & details last verified from official sources in September 2026.