By Emily Wangen
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The University of Iowa School of Library and Information Sciences (SLIS) is celebrating half a century of preparing students for careers in the area of libraries and information centers.

To mark the event, the school will be holding two events in October one being the SLIS 50th Anniversary Celebration in conjunction with the Iowa Library Association meeting in Coralville.

This event will be the official kick off for the Carl Orgren Honorary Student Scholarship Fund, named after the SLIS’ director from 1981-1996.

Orgren said he feels good having a fund in his name, especially since the funds go to students.

Current director of the SLIS, David Eichmann said the school sees students with diverse backgrounds coming to study library and information sciences.

“[Incoming students] are predominantly coming in with some form of humanities degree,” Eichmann said. “We seem to always have at least a couple of students who already have doctorates but are looking to turn that doctorate into an alternative career path.”

SLIS student and President of the American Library Association’s (ALA) student chapter at the UI, LISSO, Amanda Jenkins will be graduating in the spring and said she has enjoyed her time at the UI, noting the school is a close-knit community where everyone knows her name.

“It’s very obvious that the professors care about our success as students,” Jenkins said.

Even though the school is small, Jenkins said she believes there are many opportunities for students to work in a library setting and join student organizations related to their studies.

Recent shifts in technology have resulted in a faculty with more diverse backgrounds, including Eichmann himself, who has a PhD in computer science and is also the director of information science subprogram within informatics program. Eichmann also noted the SLIS is highly involved in the public digital humanities initiative on campus.

“The technology is the channel, but the information and management and fostering access to that information is really not changing, it’s just the delivery mechanisms,” Eichmann said.

The school was approved by the State Board of Regents in 1965 under the name of School of Library Sciences and launched in 1967 with 52 students.

Orgren came to the UI shortly after the opening after holding jobs at other institutions.

Orgren was born in raised in Michigan and received his undergraduate degree in English at the University of Detroit in 1959. After graduation, he looked for a job or further education when he came across an advertisement for a pre-professional assistant position at the Detroit Public Library.

From there, Orgren returned to work at his alma mater and then went on to work at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. During this time before coming to Iowa, Orgren also received a federal fellowship under the administration of President Johnson to study at the University of Michigan to pursue further education for three years.

When he came to the Iowa, Orgren still needed to write his dissertation, so he spent his first year as a UI faculty member teaching courses while writing his dissertation.

Orgren described the year as busy.

It was during this time that the SLIS earned its accreditation from the ALA for the first time and has kept this accreditation up until this day with the most recent reaccreditation taking place in in the spring of 2016.

Orgren was appointed to the role of director in 1981, but noted he continued to teach courses at the school due to a small faculty.

The SLIS has seen changes in technology throughout its existence starting with the hiring of Orgren. He said his area of research regarded professors at the University of Michigan’s attempt to use computers for teaching purposes.

“I was hired partially because my dissertation had the word ‘computer’ in it,” Orgren said.

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Orgren said that other schools had computers before the SLIS and that it took time for administration to agree that the school needed the new technology. Eventually the SLIS received its first computer in 1973 and it was used for assistance in helping other libraries answer reference questions. Orgren also recalled the process to get WiFi in the school required a large amount of effort on his part.

Administration told Orgren the SLIS would be getting Wi-Fi when they got around to the Main Library, which Orgren noted did not have the advancements in technology it has today.

To make things happen faster, Orgren said he sought out someone to come in under the cover of darkness to install the network in the school. Orgren said that the process was going well until a thermostat was drilled into.

To fix the situation, Orgren called maintenance and asked them to cover for him.

“We were technically not under the library but we were in their building and if it were found out that we were getting stuff before they did, there would be hell to pay,” Orgren said.

The school met another challenge near the 25th anniversary of the school’s first class when the SLIS was facing the possibility of closure.

Orgren said the UI was going through a period of restructuring in 1991 and departments and programs within the UI were put under special consideration for potential closure.

At the same time, the school was under review by the dean. Orgren said he was assured by the dean he did not need to worry and the school would be okay.

However, Orgren said he received a letter from the dean’s office telling him the school was on the “hit list” for being closed.

It was at this time Orgren and the faculty took action, giving information to the alumni and meeting with the dean to have a discussion. Pressure was amplified in November when one of the supporters of keeping the SLIS open was killed in the Van Allen shooting.

Orgren said what really saved the school was 200 letters sent by alumni. Orgren emphasized that each of these letters were individual and were in response to the information given to them. Orgren noted that the dean was impressed by the support shown by the alumni.

“The method that I was using in managing this process was not to fight against the university,” Orgren said.

Orgren eventually stepped down from his position as director in 1996 to return to full-time teaching and retired in 1999.

Eichmann worked with Orgren for a few years before he retired after coming to Iowa in 1997. Eichmann received his undergraduate, Masters and PhD in computer science from the UI.

“Carl was very open to the direction the program was taking at the time,” Eichmann said, noting some senior faculty members are not always as open to change. “I felt like he saw me coming in as a useful interesting development for the school.”