NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 26 number 3 - Spring 2006

An Eclectic Group of Friends

By Anna Dahlstein, External Relations

Who Are the Friends of the Library?

They are individuals who have developed meaningful ties with the NCSU Libraries as students, faculty, staff, or enlightened citizens from the community. A variety of relationships brought these devoted library advocates and benefactors into the circle of Friends. In the first of a two-part series of profiles, the Libraries will introduce readers to two individuals who returned to that circle in recent years to support the NCSU Libraries. Next fall, the series will continue with an overview of the many ways NCSU faculty members and librarians have provided invaluable contributions to library collections, technologies, and facilities.

Community Involvement

During a recent visit to NC State, long-time Raleigh resident Georgie B. Tilley, pointing out landmarks, shared vivid recollections of each location before concluding with a tour of the D. H. Hill Library. "I was never really an NC State 'insider,'" she said, "but it was always a special part of our lives."

Although Tilley graduated from Meredith College, a Baptist women's college, she took two summer school classes "down the road" at a time when very few women were enrolled at NC State.  She recounted that Meredith students enjoyed walking down to the Wilmont stores about halfway between the two schools, because they did not have to wear gloves and hose. If they ventured any farther toward the predominantly male NC State campus, they were expected to dress more formally.

Later on, she and her husband lived near the Raleigh Little Theater and Rose Garden, only a few blocks from the D. H. Hill Library.  They often took walks in the Brickyard and attended concerts and dinners held in the student union, now the West Wing of the expanded library.

The epitome of a good neighbor, Tilley has decided to make a generous deferred gift to create the Georgie B. Tilley Library Endowment.  She emphasizes that she is choosing to provide unrestricted support, hoping that she can have a greater impact that way. Her instincts are right on the mark--unrestricted funds provide invaluable, strategic resources that allow the library to seize on opportunities as they arise and to provide the innovative services so popular with its many users. Although she declined any formal recognition, the Libraries secured Tilley's permission to acknowledge her extraordinary commitment to the greater NC State community, all the members of which benefit from having access to a world-class research library.

Student Leadership

Nobody has ever "graduated from the library," but certain alumni who give back to their alma mater feel strongly about making provisions for this university-wide resource.  For some, the library was the only place where they could study late at night. For others, the library offered a goldmine of resources for research projects or even the setting in which they met their future spouses.

For John T. Stephenson, Class of 1992, the NCSU Libraries provided a rallying point. Now an assistant state auditor, Stephenson gained an early experience in government as the student body comptroller in his senior year. In that role, he became aware of the Student Library Endowment Fund, which had been initiated by editors of the student newspaper, the Technician. Many undergraduates at the time were deeply concerned about budget reductions that had forced the Libraries to cut back on hours, journal subscriptions, and other resources.

Student leaders raised more than $20,000 through a series of creative fund-raisers, including a "Jail-a-thon" that took place on February 18, 1992.  Prominent campus figures such as Chancellor Larry K. Monteith, library director Susan K. Nutter, several deans, fraternity and sorority presidents, and the Wolfpack mascots agreed to be "arrested" and escorted to a makeshift jail on the Brickyard. Nutter recalled with a chuckle, "All of us remained locked up until we could post bail. To make it easier for us to raise bail money from friends and co-workers, students lent us a rare piece of technology--a cellular phone!"

Although Stephenson attended college before cell phones and searchable databases were prevalent at NC State, he is unusually young to have planned a major gift for NC State.  He has designated the Department of Accounting and the NCSU Libraries as beneficiaries of a life insurance policy. The proceeds from it will fund the creation of the John H. and Sandra C. Stephenson Libraries Endowment.

The endowment will provide unrestricted support, but Stephenson has singled out as priorities the collections, technological improvements, and stipends for student library workers. Stephenson says,

"The available technologies have obviously changed dramatically since I was in college. We don't even know what they will be in the future, but we need to look forward and make sure that we'll be able to take full advantage of the innovations. And a great way for students to develop their familiarity with all of the available resources is to use the library or even work there."