Founders Memorial Library is an integral part of the learning experience at NIU, said NIU Libraries Director.

Peggy Sullivan said that the activities used in gathering resources represent the contributions of academic libraries to the Learning Society as advocated in “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform” (1983).

“It’s great to be associated with a university library system where so many aspects of service are excellent models and where our program of bibliographic instruction, service to researchers, faculty and students, as well as the disabled, and our collections can be cited as exceptionally strong,” said Sullivan in a prepared statement.

She recently attended the Illinois White House Conference on Libraries in Chicago. Attending the conference reinforced her belief about the importance of libraries to colleges.

“Libraries provide information-rich learning environments to more than 12 million students and 700,000 faculty as well as to the general citizenry, including business, industry and government professionals in school and public libraries,” she said, referring to a statement prepared by the association of College and Research Libraries.

Steven Cohen, an NIU senior in community health administration, was one of the youngest delegates to attend the conference. He believes the library serves an invaluable service in dispensing information. Communication is the foundation of an organization, he said.

The Chicago conference was one of nine held in Illinois in October and precedes a national conference scheduled for July in Washington, D.C.