Wanserski’s ideas leave his mark
John Wanserski, deputy director of Wendt Library, will be retiring from his post this summer. He has spent the last 15 years at Wendt, and has helped Wendt and the rest of the UW-Madison Libraries take advantage of new technology.
As head of collection development and as coordinator of reference services for Wendt, his work has allowed him to explore technological innovations.
"Over time, I've found this sort of niche for myself in the organization where I would discover new technologies and see if they had any application to the library. And I came up with a number of things," Wanserski says.
Wanserski has been instrumental in developing ideas into realistic uses for the libraries. He can be credited as a driving force behind Live Help, which provides online reference assistance for library users. He also helped bring RefWorks, a Web-based bibliographic software program, to the libraries last year.
He is also proud he helped transition the library from print to electronic materials. As he explains, "Everything that the library gets in now, has an electronic component to it. Half of our budget goes to electronic publications. But even the stuff that comes in print, we give some electronic access to it." Wanserski emphasized that electronic access is very important for the sciences, when the latest research is often the most desired or important.
Former Wendt Director Tom Murray says, "The great thing about John is that he carried a lot of ongoing, demanding duties, but he always took on something innovative besides."
Wanserski has worked on developing other ideas and projects, but they have not found the support that Live Help and RefWorks had. "I've done some other things too, and I really think that their time has come, but nobody is moving on it," he says.
He has developed an intelligent conversational agent that literally speaks to users and answers questions about the libraries. He has also put together a graphical browser that simulates browsing electronic materials in the way people could visually browse shelves, finding disciplines and narrowing it down to specific items. The browser has not caught steam on campus but, OCLC has adopted the interface and is currently testing a pilot.
One of his latest ideas involves a multi-faceted Web conferencing software which would allow people all over the world to communicate via video and text. He is even considering working on it commercially after he retires.
The ideas do not stop with technology for Wanserski. His retirement plans include building an innovative tower on some land in northern Wisconsin. "I've always had this dream of building this tower using stack log construction," he says. He explained that stack log construction involves stacking logs so that the width of the wall is the length of the log, making thick walls but allowing for curves and flowing movement in the walls.
Kayaking, canoeing and backpacking will also take up much of his time after he leaves the library. He plans to visit the Pacific Northwest and Havasu Falls, since they are hot spots for these activities. "I'm really an outdoors person," he promises as he glances up at the florescent lights in Wendt Library.
While he will continue to find and develop new ideas and projects after he retires, Wanserski will miss some of the organizational aspects of his position. As a reference coordinator, he created programs for staff which involved bringing speakers in for lectures. Author Ed Hopkins spoke to staff about his book Wisconsin's Weather and Climate. Hopkins also presented Wanserski with a report from a weather station, which was done by Wanserski's father. "It was a last report, and it was my dad's. And he had written a note on it that said 'this will be my last report since I'm retiring'."
While Wanserski's last day reporting to Wendt Library will be July 1, technically he will retire on July 4. "Independence day," he says with a slight grin.