Carol Janoff grew up in the small town of Elmwood, Nebraska. Her family was not wealthy, but books were deemed a necessity.
"Even though we didn't have a lot of spare money, my folks always let me order from the Scholastic Book Club," she said. "I would cut little library cards and put them in my books and arrange them and play library."
Carol always assumed she would become a librarian one day. In high school, she volunteered at the school library. After graduation, Carol's parents took out a loan so that she could attend Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. She had a scholarship and worked in the college library to support her studies. Unfortunately, there were no funds leftover for her to attend graduate school.
"I applied to three schools anyway, including applications for financial aid," Carol said. "I particularly hoped to be accepted to the University of Illinois because of its wonderful reputation and one-year [MSLIS] program. And I was thrilled to not only receive admission but also a full fellowship that included room and board—essentially a free education."
Her experience as a student with limited financial resources is one of the reasons why Carol (MSLIS '73) and her husband, Norm (MS Electrical Engineering '73) Janoff, decided to make a charitable bequest of $300,000 in support of the iSchool at Illinois.
Carol met Norm at the University of Illinois when they were living in Daniels Hall, a graduate student dorm. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Norm had earned his BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and was working on a master's degree in the same subject at Illinois.
"I was there because it was the cheaper grad dorm (no A/C) and Norm [was there] because it was closer to the engineering buildings," said Carol. "There were many older adults seriously pursuing additional degrees living in that dorm, but about a dozen of us new graduates banded together. Out of that group came four marriages!"
After graduation, Carol accepted a job as the first children's librarian in Morris, Illinois. She stayed for a year before getting married and moving closer to Norm's job in the telecommunications industry. Her next position was as a children's librarian in La Grange, Illinois. While working in the Chicago area, Norm went back to school and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago, focusing on finance. When his company moved its software development to Phoenix, Arizona, the couple followed.
"Over thirty years at the same company that went through many name changes, I was responsible for the operating system of our telephone switch, and in staff positions, I was in charge of our software productivity initiatives and our software estimate algorithms," Norm said.
When their son, Philip, turned four, Carol was ready to return to work. She found a job as a temporary, part-time librarian in the children's department at the Mesquite Branch of the Phoenix Public Library, filling in while one of the librarians went on maternity leave.
"Luckily for me, she loved motherhood and opted not to return to the library. So, I kept that job—for twenty-five years! It was unusual for a librarian to be at the same branch for more than five years, but only the larger branches afforded part-time degreed librarians, so I got to stay," she said.
There, she started storytime programming for children aged two to six, selected books for the children's section, helped with summer reading programs, and worked at the reference desks in both adult and children's sections. Since she was working part-time, she was able to volunteer at her son's schools, helping in his classroom during his elementary school years and volunteering in the school library through junior high. She also helped create a library for her synagogue. When part-time positions were eliminated in 2009, Carol decided to retire. After her retirement, she worked with BookPALS, a volunteer literacy program of Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) Foundation.
"The program was originally designed for professional actors to read to students in their classrooms but was enlarged to include former teachers and librarians," she said. "For ten years I was a Book Pal reader in a title one school in Phoenix. I did half-hour storytimes for two or three kindergarten (and sometimes first grade) classes once a week. It was a lot of fun, very rewarding, and the teachers loved it too."
Norm took an early retirement from his company in 2003. He is in his twenty-second year of volunteering as a tax counselor with AARP Tax-Aide. A long-distance runner for over forty years, Norm is the chief operating officer of the Arizona Road Racers, a running club of five hundred members in the greater Phoenix area. In addition to the club, he leads an interval training session each week at a local high school.
The couple recently celebrated their 50th anniversary.
"Norm and I have been very fortunate in many ways and now have funds to help others receive further education, so I decided to make a meaningful gift to the school that helped me so much," Carol said.