iSchool Mourns the Loss of Dr. Paul Wasserman (College Park, MD, 5/14/09)

The College of Information Studies, University of Maryland announces the death of Dr. Paul Wasserman, Professor Emeritus and the College’s founding Dean with sadness and sympathy for his family. Wasserman died Friday, May 8, 2009, following a period of ill health; he was 85 years old. Services will be held on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, with burial at 9:00 am at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA, followed by a memorial service at 11:30 am in Memorial Chapel, University of Maryland, College Park. Lunch after the memorial service will be at the clubhouse of the University of Maryland Golf Course.

Wasserman took up the post of Dean of the School of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland, in January 1965, shortly after the school was formally approved. He began work with a secretary but without faculty, curriculum, or students. However, the promise to open the school in fall 1965 had been made and was kept through Wasserman’s efforts. He built the new school to be interdisciplinary, recruiting an engineer, a physicist, and an industrial psychologist, among others, to be the first faculty. He had undertaken a post-doctoral fellowship in data processing and information technology and knew the importance of technology to information work. The technology required course in the MLS program was one of the first of its kind. Wasserman attained full accreditation of the program by the American Library Association before the first graduated in 1966. He led the design of the doctoral program, which admitted its first students in 1967. He left the deanship in 1970 and returned to a fulltime faculty position.

Wasserman was well known for his contributions to library administration. He lectured and consulted internationally, frequently working on programs to educate library administrators in developing countries. With his colleague Mary Lee Bundy he edited Reader in Library Administration (Microcard Editions, 1968). His interest in designing information products led to the publication of numerous reference books. One of the best known is Statistics Sources ,  first published by Gale Research Company in 1962; this massive compilation of sources of statistical information remains in publication. He taught his popular course on the design of information products and services until 2005.

Wasserman is, perhaps, best known for his commitment to international cooperation in information services. He lent his professional expertise to projects in more than two dozen countries and was admired and respected by library educators and practitioners throughout the world. He worked with many organizations including USAID, OAS, Department of State, FID, IFLA, UN organizations including UNESCO, and national and regional organizations including ALA, ASIS (now ASIST), and government agencies and professional organizations of many nations. He spoke at a conference in Hanoi in 1991 when the US did not have representation in Vietnam.

Prior to coming to Maryland, Wasserman was Librarian and Professor, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, Cornell University. He held many visiting professorships in the US and abroad. He earned a B.B.A. from the College of the City of New York, master’s degrees in library science and in economics from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Wasserman is survived by his wife Krystyna Wasserman, son Steven Wasserman, daughter Jacqueline Monroe, and grandchildren. Cards and notes may be sent to the Wasserman family c/o College of Information Studies, 4105 Hornbake Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. More information about memorial donations will be made available later on the College’s website (www.ischool.umd.edu).