The School of Information Studies officially received a $1 million donation Monday for a computer lab and classroom from a former librarian who spent her career without such technology.

Class of 1938 alumnus Estelle Wilhelm said she has fond memories of life at Syracuse University during a ceremony for the presentation of the donation to the school.

‘I really liked Syracuse when I was here,’ she said, laughing. ‘I was happy I picked it.’

According to Paul Brenner, executive director of Development at IST, Wilhelm’s mother always stressed the importance of education and she took that to heart.

Wilhelm said she is the youngest of six children and always wanted to find a way to honor her mother. Her donation will allow her to do just that, since the classroom and computer lab will be named The Katherine Katchmar Learning Center, after her mother.

During the ceremony held at Hinds Hall at 2 p.m., Wilhelm also accepted a plaque from Chancellor Nancy Cantor in recognition of her donation.

Raymond von Dran, dean of IST, was the event’s main speaker. He talked about the need for an information studies learning center based not only on technology, but also interaction.

The lab will be used for a variety of interactive purposes, including Internet conferencing between countries and case work in teams of students, von Dran said.

Despite the increasing use of technology in information studies, he said people are still the most important part of the field. The problem lies in the fact that so much of the information available through technology, including the Internet, is factually unsound.

‘The biggest difficulty with information today is not that there’s a scarcity, there’s just an unbelievable abundance of it, and you don’t have time to look at everything,’ he said. ‘So how do you screen out things?’

Joseph Ryan, a second-year information technologies graduate student, said he thinks the new learning center will help to educate students on how to utilize technology to sift through all that information.

Von Dran said he will be relinquishing his position at the end of the school year, but has faith that the school will continue to grow.

During his tenure, he said the school has gone from 17 faculty members to more than 50, from less than $1 million of sponsored research to more than $5 million and from being housed in 7,000 square feet of space to a whole building.

Von Dran is thankful for Wilhelm’s gift and what it will mean to the future of the school.

‘I see her gift as a vote of confidence in our school,’ he said.

Published on October 31, 2006 at 12:00 pm