Mary Munroe, associate dean for collections and technical service at NIU’s Founders Memorial Library, describes librarianship as “the most fun job in the world.”

“You get to help people, which is the core of why most librarians like to be librarians. It’s just something different every day. It’s never a boring job. There’s always a challenge,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes they’re good challenges and sometimes they’re not.”

Munroe, who has been at NIU for six years, was awarded the Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award for 2003.

As associate dean for collections and technical service, she buys and catalogs the books and makes decisions about the library’s electronic resources.

“The big project that probably led to this award was the statewide assessment project,” Munroe said.

The four-year project studied 86 academic libraries and was designed to study the dates of the books, whether the books were unique, any overlap in the collection and subject coverage. Munroe was principal investigator of the large committee, which was made up of librarians from around the state and examined 25 million records electronically. The finished project has been online since summer 2003.

Besides working at NIU’s library, Munroe is chair of the Illinois cooperative, which works to increase the statewide book collection. She has also served on committees for the American Library Association and is involved in several statewide boards, including a team of libraries that work together to save money and better their book collections.

Before coming to NIU, Munroe, who is originally from Atlanta, Ga., worked as the head of collection development at Georgia State University for 10 years. She has also been a high school teacher, a college-level English teacher and a magazine writer and editor.

Although Munroe finds it difficult to find time outside of work to contribute to other activities, she has volunteered for NIRUS, a program on campus through Northern Public Radio that serves the blind. For about two years, she read the Rockford Register Star on the radio. She also teaches an online graduate course in collection development at the University of Illinois.

Munroe spends her free time with her husband, two daughters and granddaughter. She also often visits her family in Atlanta.

“That’s my free time, that’s my granddaughter,” she says as she points at a photo of her granddaughter and smiles.

Education and libraries are very important, Munroe said.

“I think of a library as a core of what a university is all about because what it does is bring together all segments of a university. And what we do and what we’re able to provide has a tremendous effect on what students do and how good their education is.”

Munroe received her masters in medieval literature from the University of South Carolina and her masters of library science from Emory University in Atlanta. She also holds her bachelor’s of English from Furman University in Greenville, S.C.