University Libraries

Jacob Haish, a DeKalb barbed wire manufacturer, donated $10,000 to the newly created Northern Illinois State Normal School to establish a library in 1899.  Named for its benefactor, the Haish Library occupied the center area of the second floor of Altgeld Hall for the next fifty years.  Expansion during these years added stack storage and reading areas, but the post-World War II boom and the addition of graduate programs in 1951 necessitated the building of a new, larger library facility. On December 10, 1952, Northern students and faculty moved the 85,000 volume collection into the Swen Parson Library across from Altgeld Hall.  Named in honor of a Northern mathematics professor, the new library was built to accommodate an enrollment of 2,500.  It proved adequate for only a few years and the University doubled the building's size with major north and south wing additions between 1960 and 1965.  By 1965 the book collection had grown to 225,000 volumes, three times what it had been fifteen years earlier. Clyde C. Walton became Director of the University Libraries in 1967 when Bernadine Hanby (1942-1967) retired.  Shortly after his arrival, planning began for a new, much enlarged library building.  Further expansion of graduate programs, increased enrollments, and technological advance in the library field demanded a new physical plant, larger professional staff, and broader collection development.  Built at a cost of twelve million dollars, the new Founders Memorial Library was dedicated April 20, 1979.  It is named for the four DeKalb residents who brought the new Normal School to DeKalb in 1895: Jacob Haish, Joseph Farwell Glidden, Isaac Leonard Ellwood, and Clinton E. Rosette. Located in the middle of the campus, it serves as the heart of the University's teaching and research missions.  Shortly after opening for public use, the Founders Library collection reached one million volumes. In 2005 it reached the two million volume milestone. The Library had only two directors in a period of thirty-five years (1942-1977) but that changed dramatically when Clyde Walton left N.I.U. in 1977.  The next fifteen years brought eight different directors to the library.  Lester Smith served as Acting Director until Jean Major arrived in 1978.  After Major left in 1982 English Professor William Williams served as Acting Director for a year followed by Theodore F. Welch who resigned in 1988.  Provost Kendall Baker hired Steven Marquardt as Director in 1989, but he resigned after ten months and Dean Peggy Sullivan consented to fill in as Acting Director.  She served from 1990 until her retirement from NIU in 1992.  Anthropology Professor Ron Provencher then became Acting Director.  Arthur Young was selected to become permanent Director of the University Libraries in 1993.  On June 9, 1999 Art Young was named the first Dean of the University Libraries.  Following Young’s retirement on June 1, 2006, Mary Munroe, Associate Dean of the University Libraries served as Interim Dean through July 31, 2007.  She was followed as Interim Dean by Byron Anderson on August 1, 2007.  Patrick J. Dawson became Dean July 1, 2008.

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