News from RAILS & Libraries

The Founders’ Memorial Library at Northern Illinois University has been exceedingly fortunate to employ a highly competent and skilled support staff dedicated to serving its students and faculty. They play a major role in everyone’s success by supporting their studies, teaching, and research with...

2022 marks the first year that Juneteenth will be recognized as a federal holiday. As an academic health science library, I wondered how we could provide an appropriate context for our diverse university community. The inspiration came from an unexpected as well as controversial source: J. Marion...

My Library Is... Advisory Team member Gwen Gregory interviews her colleague Kimberly Shotick about a new book that she co-authored, Practical Marketing for the Academic Library. Gwen and Kimberly discuss the challenges and opportunities for reaching new audiences in an academic library setting. For...

A story of how our library went from a list of resources and literature on our website, to host a 2-week humanitarian drive, a cultural program with 140 attendees, a display, and more. All for Ukraine. Libraries are about community and when it comes to helping others, they stand out even more...

Collection development is a craft, a skill that requires expertise, hard work, and insight about your collections and community. We seek out data about our community through information collected through the census, local government, schools, and community organizations. We build connections with...

Voices of Belonging is an interactive exhibit, created as a collaboration between several entities at Northern Illinois University: Northern Public Radio, the Divisions of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development and Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as various campus and...

The My Library Is… campaign is all about helping libraries do marketing and advocacy in new ways. And libraries aren't shy about discovering these new ways! Libraries are curious, creative places. Even though they might not have huge budgets to hire expensive graphic designers, videographers, etc...

Northern Illinois University is a Carnegie 2 research institution tucked away in DeKalb. It has the distinction of being home to Illinois' only Center for Southeast Asia Studies. The Founders Memorial Library holds a distinctive collection of materials to support the work of the Center. In addition...

Study Week and Finals Week can be a hectic time for everyone on college and university campuses. At Illinois Institute of Technology’s Paul V. Galvin Library we remain open 24 hours a day for 12 days straight during this period. It’s become a rite of passage for some of our students, individually or...

Booth Library on the campus of Eastern Illinois University sponsored its 12th annual Edible Book Festival on April 4. It’s been a tradition to kick off National Library Week with this activity. The edible creations were put on display throughout the day in the library’s foyer, and the public was...

RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom talks with Andrea Perrin, Janine Asmus, Gail Meyer, & Robyn Whitlock about their letter published in the Chicago Tribune. These four Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) members discuss why school libraries are so important and what...

The Lisle Library District has a long history of offering a variety of book groups, including the Science Fiction & Fantasy book group which has been meeting monthly for over 30 years and still has a few founding members, while the Food for Thought culinary book group is new as of this January. Our...

“Learning is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere.” — Chinese Proverb A library card opens the door to so many amazing items and opportunities that it can be easy to let a few go unnoticed. Back in “normal times,” our library staff members were always eager to share news and offerings with...

Debbie Baaske, acting Member Engagement Manager speaks with Laura Turner, Librarian at the Technical Information Center at Caterpillar Inc. located outside of Peoria, IL. Laura talks about this highly specialized engineering library that serves all worldwide employees of Caterpillar. They also act...

RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom speaks with Estevan Montaño, University Librarian at the Rebecca Crown Library at Dominican University. This year, the Crown Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Estevan talks about the celebration and all of the events planned. To learn more...