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Ruenger-Hanson, Kresse named Librarians of the Year
By Michael Worringer
Library Communications
Posted 5/3/2006
MADISON, Wis. -- The UW-Madison Librarians' Assembly has named Jean Ruenger-Hanson and Kerry Kresse as the 2006 Librarians of the Year. Ruenger-Hanson and Kresse received their honors at the Assembly's annual High Tea Thursday, April 27.
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| Jean Ruenger-Hanson (left) and Kerry Kresse |
Two Librarian of the Year awards have been given to unclassified staff members each spring since 1989 to recognize their exceptional contributions to the General Library System. One award recognizes a staff member who has worked in GLS fewer than 10 years, while the other recognizes a staff member who has worked in GLS more than 10 years.
Ruenger-Hanson, who is the Librarian of the Year with fewer than 10 years of service, is a senior academic librarian at Steenbock Library. As co-chair of the Library Course Page Implementation Committee and through her work with the campus Reserves Coordinators, Ruenger-Hanson has overseen the development of the model for how the libraries quickly and easily deliver electronic reserves and instructional material to students. As of fall 2005, more than 1,000 courses at UW-Madison now link to the library course pages developed under the guidance of Ruenger-Hanson.
Ruenger-Hanson is now extending her skills statewide as co-chair of a UW-System committee exploring how other UW campuses can use the course page system, and she has worked with other librarians, public services staff, reserves staff, programmers and campus administrators throughout the UW System on course page development.
One nominator wrote of Ruenger-Hanson's leadership abilities, "Some people are visionary thinkers. Others are detail oriented. Still others are administratively competent. Jean is all three. But more than this, she is also a kind and graceful person."
Kresse, who is the Librarian of the Year with more than 10 years of service, is the Physics Librarian and is responsible for nearly everything in the branch library. In 2005 Kresse assumed the supervision of the Woodman Astronomical Library's staff and budget as it became a GLS member library for the first time.
Kresse has been the driving force behind the development of a huge circulation manual, which has become an invaluable tool for staff, students and librarians across campus. Her award presenter, 2005 Librarian of the Year Yvonne Schofer, noted Kresse's leadership qualities both in discussions of access to materials in storage and their retrieval and in her role as a contact person for MadCat, the libraries online catalog.
"Kerry has made important contributions to the campus library community through a combination of intellectual and practical expertise and hard work, in conditions often less than ideal, against the constant backdrop of budget constraints," Schofer said.