Northeastern Illinois University’s Ronald Williams Library has united two favorite pastimes—sipping tasty beverages and reading—with its updated Café Collection of books.
The collection started in 2014 when Café Decartes opened a second Main Campus location on the first floor of the library. Besides beverages and pastries, the space also offered comfortable seating and a selection of academic books and magazines pulled from the library stacks.
“We soon realized that having a dedicated collection of visually interesting, popular books would make the cafe space even more inviting,” Information Services Librarian Alyssa Vincent said. “Ultimately, that's our goal with the Café Collection—we want to connect library users with books that everyone's talking about!”
Those books are titles that wouldn’t ordinarily be included in an academic library collection: cookbooks, celebrity memoirs and popular fiction, among other genres.
“We'll refresh the collection with new titles several times a year, so it'll last long after this summer,” Vincent said. “And we welcome book recommendations from library users to purchase for the collection.”
