Arthur Young has been a captain in the U.S. Air Force, but he finds just as much excitement helping someone find a book.

Young has dealt with such occurrences for the past 10 years as NIU’s dean of University Libraries.

“I still get a real kick out of getting up every morning and coming to work,” he said. “It’s fun because I get to go back and forth between computer issues and rare books, and just a whole host of things. My day is never dull. It’s not like working on a factory production line. It’s frankly a lot of fun. Keeping track of a $9 million budget keeps one active as you could imagine.”

It was an early access to books and a stint as a book reviewer for a local newspaper after his Air Force career that led Young to consider being a librarian.

“I wasn’t born with it on my radar screen,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to grow up in a household with a dad as a dentist and a mother who was a nurse – a family of professionals, if you will. There were about 4,000 books in that house on every imaginable subject. I almost didn’t have to use a library until later in high school because our collection was so good.”

Stephen Wright, associate dean for public services for University Libraries, said Young’s consistency and forward thinking make him the ideal head librarian.

“He is a very calm, consistent person with a great sense of humor, and is very easy to work with,” Wright said.

Young takes a lot of pride in the increasing amount of services and resources that the University Libraries offer.

“We feel a real strong responsibility to get the things that we may not have here locally,” he said. “We have regular inter-library loan, and that takes between seven and 20 days, depending on where the stuff is. People often need things faster. If you come up to a reference desk and say, ‘I got to have it in three days, or the sun won’t rise,’ we will go out after it for you worldwide. We will pay for it for you, and I am immensely proud that service is available from the newest freshman to the university president.”

Mary Munroe, associate dean for collections and technical services for University Libraries, said Young is really considerate.

“He truly cares about users and getting the information they want rapidly and making sure it is quality,” she said. When Young isn’t working, he enjoys traveling with Patricia, his wife of 37 years, and photography.