There are a number of ways you can support University Libraries during Huskies United, including the following:
NIU Black Oral History Project
Challenge Gift—Friends of the NIU Libraries—$3,000
The historical record of DeKalb County and Northern Illinois University, like most others, contains relatively little information about the Black community. The DeKalb County/Northern Illinois University Black Oral History project provides NIU students with an opportunity to conduct interviews with members of the local and university Black community in which they describe their activities and observations in the period since approximately 1970. The University Libraries will present these interviews online in the NIU Digital Library for use by teachers, students, scholars, and other interested individuals.
Women in STEM Lecture Series
Challenge Gift—Warren Montgomery—$2,500
The Women in STEM Lecture series at NIU was initiated out of a desire to provide a forum for inspiration and collegiality in fields where women and other gender minorities are often underrepresented and not as visible. This lecture series seeks to invite leaders in STEM fields to address an audience of students, faculty, and other community members to engage with their discipline, but also with their experiences. It is a project that is being spearheaded by a partnership between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the University Libraries
Founders Snack Pantry
Challenge Gift—Fred Barnhart—$500
The NIU Libraries is committed to addressing the issue of food insecurity among our Huskies by establishing the Founders Snack Pantry, and you can play a crucial role in supporting this initiative through a donation. The snack pantry offers individually packaged food items in the Founders Learning Commons, ensuring easy and convenient access for all students in need of food to sustain them between meals as they study, collaborate, and create in the library. In addition, the snack pantry provides an opportunity to connect students with the Huskie Food Pantry and other crucial student resources and services in support of their success and well-being. Your donation will help ensure that every student has access to the resources they need to thrive.
TJ Lusher Memorial Fund
Challenge Grant—Fred Barnhart—$500
TJ Lusher was a beloved member of the NIU Library Faculty for many years and the Associate Dean for Facilities, Finance and Technology. She was committed to making sure that our students had all of the technology opportunities that would help them to stay ahead of the curve in work and life. The TJ Lusher Memorial Fund continues her legacy by supporting technology lectures and the purchase of new technologies to pilot for student use.
Digitizing Materials on the NIU Peace Corps Training for Thailand, 1965-1968
Total Cost: $5,000
Challenge Grant—John Hartmann—$2,500
Northern Illinois University was one of the earliest and largest training places for the Peace Corps when the program was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. From 1961 to 1968, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU trained Peace Corps members serving in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. NIU Libraries holds an extensive collection on this training program, including more than 35,000 pages of correspondence, proposals, orientation aids, financial records, and reports. These documents contain rich information about the training program at NIU, the Peace Corps, as well as the health status and politics in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand at the time. NIU Libraries plans to digitize 4,500 pages from this collection, focusing on the materials related to the training program for Thailand, which ran from 1965 to 1968 at NIU.
University Archives Homecoming Photos 1948-1974
Cost: $2,300
University Archives Quick Reference Photos are a key visual resource for those interested in NIU history, widely used by NIU staff, students, alumni, and other researchers who need visual information or documentation about campus over the course of its history. Digitization of the collection will make possible a wide range of research related to NIU as an institution, as well as research into the wider historical and cultural aspects of its people as portrayed in the collection. This pilot project will digitize all photographs of Homecoming from 1948-1974, showcasing floats, dorm decor, and Homecoming Royalty.
