Saturday, May 26, 2007

Space exhibit lands in Elgin

Summer reading program will be tied in with show

By Lenore T. Adkins
ladkins@dailyherald.com
Posted Monday, May 21, 2007

A space shuttle has finally landed in Elgin — at the Gail Borden Public Library.

Sunday was move-in day for the “Space: Dare to Dream” exhibition, previously viewed in Seattle, St. Louis, Detroit and Tampa, Fla.

In conjunction with NASA and beginning in June, the library will present four months of displays and events, including a simulator of the Saturn V rocket and “Forest of Dreams,” a multimedia presentation of a night sky.

There will be a priceless moon rock that Denise Raleigh, the library’s director of communications, guarded with her life while she drove it and other materials to Elgin from the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

“I’ve got the moon rock at my feet!” Raleigh said via cell phone.

Astronaut Janice Voss also is expected to talk about her experiences. And Paul Tombaugh, whose cousin Clyde discovered Pluto, is expected to bring handmade telescopes and letters that belonged to his famous cousin. As a recently retired teacher from Elgin Area School District U-46, Paul Tombaugh brings a local angle to the exhibit, officials said.

Moreover, the space theme will carry over into the library’s summer reading program, “Mission: Read,” and a fundraiser called “Launch the Branch,” said Miriam Lytle, the library’s assistant director of communications and program coordinator.

From now through the end of the month, workers from Evergreen Exhibitions, the Texas-based company that owns the exhibit, will put it together for its Elgin debut.

The out-of-this-world exhibit is a follow-up to the library’s wildly successful dinosaur exhibit, which attracted numerous volunteers, international guests and many awards.

The hit dinosaur exhibit, which closed in 2005, drew 320,000 visitors to the library, cementing it as a local destination, officials said.

Karen Maki, the library’s assistant director, said the exhibit brought renewed interest in the library. Last year, 750,000 people entered the sprawling facility to see what else it had to offer, she said.

Officials hope the space exhibit, larger in scale than the one on dinosaurs, takes off with the same vigor and enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, as with any move-in day, there was one minor snafu.

One portion of the exhibit, “Ancient Cosmology,” that features six 10-foot walls of a replica interpretation of the stars ala Stonehenge, couldn’t go upstairs as planned because the ceilings were an inch too low, said Dave Thompson, lead technician for Evergreen Exhibitions.

He said the walls will likely be displayed in the lobby.

“We’re hoping they can stay right there, but we’ll see,” he said.

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