Peter Gilbert, associate professor and reference and instructional technology librarian, is no stranger to information technology and its uses on a college campus. A self-admitted "geek" when it comes to the World Wide Web, he has been instrumental in building and sustaining Lawrence's Web presence, first as the creator of the early Campus Wide Information System site and, more recently, as part-time Webmaster and active member of the presidentially appointed World Wide Web Steering Committee.
A reference librarian by training, with a master's degree in library and information studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined the library faculty in 1990. In January 1999, he was appointed director of instructional technology, in which capacity he assisted in faculty development and the application of the Web and other electronic resources to teaching and other educational purposes, returning to the Mudd Library at the end of the 2001-02 academic year.
He has provided leadership in the growing use of electronic reference systems at the college, creating online, Web-based offerings that expand the reach of library resources both on and off campus as well as Web tutorials for orienting students on the use of the online library catalog and the increasing number of electronic databases and search engines available to students and faculty.
This past summer, Gilbert helped plan and was a presenter for an Associated Colleges of the Midwest workshop on "Information Literacy in the Social Sciences," held at Lawrence in August. Currently vice president and president-elect of the Wisconsin Library Association, he will take over the presidency of the 2,000-member organization of public, school, academic, and special library professionals in January 2003 and is entering his third year as a member of the board of trustees of OWLS, the Outagamie Waupaca Library System.