A new stage of life
by Anna Jackson
The Memorial Library Reference Department's German guru has left the library. After nearly 
30 years working for the UW-Madison Libraries, Willa Schmidt retired on May 31.
She began her library career in March 1973 as a student worker in Steenbock Library. A positive work experience there and her desire to stay in Madison encouraged Schmidt to pursue a master's in library science after completing her doctorate in German literature.
"It was great working there; the people were wonderful, like a big family," Schmidt says of her time at Steenbock.
In 1975 she began working at the Memorial Library Information Desk part-time as a library trainee. A year later she took an LTE position in Reference and in January 1977 she started working as a reference librarian.
From her vantage in Memorial Library she has watched the campus transform. Schmidt cites computerization of resources and research methods as the biggest change during her tenure on campus. She witnessed firsthand the transformation of research databases from a pay-per-minute librarian search into online resources available for patron use. Although she acknowledges the advances, she is weary of where such technology could lead.
"The form in which we receive knowledge has now gained the upper hand over that knowledge itself, resulting in a dumbing down of society in general and to a certain degree of academic life. I hope the pendulum swings back soon in favor of substance."
She will take fond memories into retirement of coffee breaks with colleagues and her years of helping students and scholars with research projects. She will miss "working with a number of smart, conscientious people who put the needs of library users before their own, who were in library work not for power, glamour, or ego but for pure love of the work."
But Schmidt is not saying goodbye just yet. She plans to return to the library and take the time to enjoy Madison.
"Madison is my home and the library has always seemed to me like a giant womb I keep crawling back into," she says.
Schmidt says she enjoyed the variety of work in the Reference Department, especially public contact at the Reference Desk, finding answers and research problems in the extensive collection of the library, teaching courses on library resources, and writing book reviews of new reference tools.
As the Reference Department's German expert, Schmidt was able to make use of the library's German resources and assist scholars in their endeavors. She also worked with the Wisconsin Library Association on the Literary Awards Committee and the Readers Section to promote books and reading.
Now she will be able to devote her time to some of her other interests, including fiction writing. Schmidt says she will pursue various writing projects in fiction and memoir, some of which she has already begun, others yet to be conceived. She cites a Thomas Mann novel that describes how people get stuck in a stage of life that appeals to and suits them.
"I seem to have gotten stuck in the student stage," Schmidt says. "An apartment full of books and a few comfortable chairs in which to read them, places to go to meet with other like-minded souls, access to cultural resources such as libraries, lectures, concerts, which Madison offers in abundance, occasional travel opportunities--these form the basis of a satisfying life for me."