Agatha Christie died, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company and Viking I and II both landed on Mars and sent back the first pictures of our nearest neighboring planet’s surface. Such were events in 1976, the year the Ronald Williams Library was first opened.
The building was constructed to move the books of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) into their own facility. The building was dedicated to Ronald Williams, the third president of NEIU, on May 8, 1987. He was President of NEIU from 1976 until his death on Dec. 11, 1985.
Ron Belda, a library employee for a decade, was kind enough to give the Independent some insights and tips regarding various aspects of the Ronald Williams Library. “When I was a student here [in the early seventies] the card catalog was right there,” said Belda as he indicates the space just inside the front of the library. “Now, we just had our thirtieth anniversary.”
“The reference books are mostly on the first floor toward the back of the building. Both the first and second floors have computers with internet access.” The computers in the library are dedicated for research on the Internet and not set up for word processing, though you can print out materials from online.
“The second floor has the copy machines,” said Belda. “The second floor is also for journals and periodicals and there’s a microfiche archive that go way back. The third floor does not have any computers but has the Multimedia Learning Resource Center (MLRC).”
According to the NEIU library website (http://www.neiu.edu/~neiulib/), the MLRC “is an expanded service which incorporates materials from the library’s audiovisual materials collection, the Curriculum Materials collection, University Media Services collection, the Music Listening Room collection and the library’s special collections in music.”
The fourth floor of the library has many tutorial services including the much-vaunted Math Lab. Students can get help in almost any area of study any day of the week, and into the evening.
The basement of the library houses the Government Information Center of Illinois. “If you’re doing research on your family, it has marriage certificates and death certificates, and it goes back to the late eighteen hundreds,” Belda said. “They’re separate from us because it is a state facility, but it is available to students.”
Some folks still around NEIU from late 2005 remember there was a fire in the library back then. Belda says, “That was a blessing in disguise. The building was getting kind of shabby after all of those years. So, even though we were closed down, after the fire we got all new computers, carpeting and stuff, so everything turned out okay.”
Regular library hours are Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Ronald Williams Library is open on Lincoln’s Birthday, Feb. 12, and will have regular hours over the spring break. They will also have extended hours for finals. For more information on the library, call 773-442-4400 or visit the library website at http://www.neiu.edu/~neiulib/.