Date: April 12, 2007
Contact: Lindsay Gladstone
Governors State University
Phone: (708) 534-7090
Fax: (708) 534-8399
Email: l-gladstone@govst.edu
For Immediate Release
University Park, IL, April 12, 2007 – On April 17, the dedicated and hardworking personnel who staff the many public, academic, school, governmental, and specialized libraries in our communities will have their own day to celebrate.
In a proclamation signed by Governor Rod Blagojevich and Secretary of State Jesse White, the State of Illinois has proclaimed April 17, 2007 as National Library Workers Day in Illinois. The proclamation recognizes and honors the workers who work in the thousands of libraries across the state.
Lydia Morrow Ruetten, professor and head of the Serials and Acquisitions Departments in the Governors State University Library, asked the Governor’s office to provide the proclamation. She recently received a copy of the official document and will display it in the library.
“It is great to have our staff and the staffs of other libraries recognized in this way,” said Morrow Ruetten.
The proclamation sites the excellent and invaluable services provided by library workers in helping people gain access to knowledge and information. It calls for additional workers and funding to continue the services offered by libraries.
“Library workers provide an important service to the community at the university level, in the local village libraries, and in the local elementary schools,” said Morrow Ruetten. “We open doors to information. Our work is much more complicated than just shelving books. We help people navigate the many different resources that are available to help them get the information they seek.”
With access to a wider range of sources, finding the information has become both easier and more complicated. According to Morrow Ruetten, it is often easier because so much information is now available, but finding where that information is accessible is often more complicated.
“We often have to help people with their searches because there are so many varied resources. It can often be very confusing.”
The Governors State University Library, for example, currently has more than 430,000 volumes, series back files, and documents, as well as over a million volumes on microforms and more than 26,000 volumes of audiovisual materials. The library also maintains 1,900 current serial subscriptions, 75 journal indices, full-text databases, web-sources, and technology services.
“In additions to all that, we are also a national depository of state and federal documents and are linked to libraries around the state,” added Morrow Ruetten. “Libraries are a wonderful community resource.”
For more information about National Library Workers Day or the GSU Library, call (708) 534 4116.
