Alumni Network
Chemistry Librarian Wiggins Is Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient
by Michael Crowther
IU CHEMISTRY LIBRARIAN GARY WIGGINS DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS "A BORROWER OF GOOD IDEAS," BUT HIS MODESTY BELIES HIS ABILITY TO SPOT FUTURE TRENDS AND TURN THEM INTO TOP-NOTCH PROGRAMS.
Wiggins' skills and dedication earned him the 2001 SLIS Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes "an alumnus who is making, or has made, an outstanding contribution to the Library Science/Information Science profession." Wiggins received the award, given by the SLIS alumni board, in October.
"I am an adopter of things that I can see on the technology side are going to really work, so I was one of the early promoters of the web for chemistry," says Wiggins, BA'66, MA'68, MLS'71, PhD'85.
Ten years ago Wiggins established the Chemical Information Sources Discussion List, which has become the main listserv for both the Special Libraries Association's Chemical Division and the American Chemical Society's Division of Chemical Information.
Wiggins began working with Indiana University libraries in 1963 as an undergraduate. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and Russian, a master's in Slavic languages and literature, and an MLS and Ph.D. from SLIS. In 1976, after five years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he returned to IU to head the Chemistry Library and direct the Chemical Informatics Center -- positions he still holds today. He coordinates the IUB Science Libraries and is a liaison to SLIS's Chemical Information Specialization.
In 2000 he also became the director of programs in bioinformatics and chemical informatics for IU's School of Informatics. In this role he plans to strengthen Indiana ties with major chemical informatics groups worldwide.
Outside of his professional career, Wiggins is an amateur trombone player. One of his proudest achievements was his revival of an abandoned community band in 1978; it is still going strong today.
Wiggins continues to look for strong trends and technologies that show promise for the future.
"I think the Web is the single most important development in librarianship in the last century," he says. "With the development of metadata approaches in all areas, with the movement of the Web from HTML to the XML environment, we'll see even more potential for librarians to get involved in cataloging the Web, putting information in a form that really is retrievable and not overwhelming."
Wiggins says the alumni award is "an honor that I will cherish throughout the rest of my life."
"I have, obviously, a great affection for Indiana University, having gotten four degrees here," he says. "It's my home state. I've lived here since I was 5 years old. And I really believe that it has a tremendous amount to offer in all areas, but this program has really grown to a stature that makes getting the Distinguished Alumni Award particularly important for me."
For more information see:
o Chemical Informatics Center
Posted December 13, 2001