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photography by peter hoffman READING CHICAGO Check out library commissioner Brian Bannon's favorite things. ROLE MODEL: "My grandfather. He was a painter and always used to say, 'If you do what you love, you'll never age.'" INSPIRED CITY: "I'm in awe of Chicago's architecture. I love that I can run and bike through different neighborhoods and be immersed in the unique character of each of them." GOOD READS "I loved reading The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, which is our current One Book, One Chicago pick, and I'm currently reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I adore Mark Twain, and I actually love all of Walter Isaacson's biographies." SWEET TOOTH "There's a private chef here in Chicago named Lorin Adolph, and he makes the most delicious 'Mrs. A' cookies." 22 to honor biographer and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, screenwriter and novelist Larry McMurtry, Divergent author Veronica Roth, and singer Mavis Staples. Then he'll get back to busi- ness innovating and improving our city's libraries. Ironically, Bannon was dyslexic as a child. "I come from a family of readers, and I was the only one in my family who struggled with reading—so I actually didn't come to librarianship through books," he says. Born in the Yosemite Valley region of Northern California, Bannon grew up in coastal Washington and earned a swimming scholarship to a small Lutheran college, where he designed his own degree in gay and lesbian studies. It was there that he discovered the transforma- tive power of public libraries. "I learned that librarians in particular have been on the forefront of social justice movements… [promoting the notion] that everyone should have access to the leading ideas of the day to improve their lives," he says. "I was interested in how I might leverage that to change the world." A master's degree in information library science at University of Washington, Seattle, earned Bannon an internship connecting rural libraries to the Internet. "That's really when I got excited about public libraries and could see the transformative role that these small local spaces, which are focused on learning, can have in their communities," he says. Following leadership roles at both Seattle's and San Francisco's library sys- tems, Bannon arrived in Chicago in 2012. Under his watch, library hours have been restored, a program connecting teens to technology has been expanded, a new branch has opened in the Back of the Yards neigh- borhood, and the website has been revamped. Where Bannon truly sees the library making its greatest impact, though, is in the realm of technology. In addition to the 12 million volumes that pass through the hands of library users annually, Bannon sees CPL as a place where people can learn new tech- nologies. The Maker Lab, for example, opened in the summer of 2013 as a place where clients could learn 3-D printing as well as laser and vinyl cutting. It was meant to be a temporary program, but after 30,000 people walked through the doors within the first six months, Bannon made the lab permanent through a partnership with the Motorola Foundation. Another area of innovation is the Finch Robot Program: a literal robot (donated by Google) that can teach a child how to program a computer. "This is part of our experiment in utilizing the system we have," says Bannon. "Why not lend something that can teach you computer programming more effectively than a book?" Meanwhile, as the largest provider of free Internet in the city, Bannon and his team recently won a $400,000 grant called the Knight News Challenge to create lending hot spots, or "Internet to Go," which library patrons can use remotely for a limited time. "Libraries in Chicago are ultimately there to make us smarter, and our city stronger and more competi- tive," says Bannon. "We're connecting people to the leading ideas of the day, and I think we're doing it in an innovative way." Benjamin Franklin himself would be proud. MA clockwise from top left: Toys on Brian Bannon's desk reflect his passion for science; at the Chicago Public Library's Maker Lab, students can learn 3-D printing and other cutting- edge technologies. 62 michiganavemag.com PEOPLE View from the Top