January 18, 2001

Lake Michigan College Renames Library In Honor of First Dean and Director

The Lake Michigan College Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the College's library as the William Hessel Library, in honor of its first dean and director who passed away on October 23, 2000. Hessel came to the LMC library in 1957 and became its dean until he retired in 1986.

"Bill Hessel exemplified a love of learning and dedication to making knowledge available to students," said Steven Silcox, chairman of the LMC Board of Trustees. "We feel that naming this great resource in his honor is the right thing to do."

Hessel created a library of distinction among community college academic libraries in the state of Michigan. When he started at the former Benton Harbor Community College and Technical Institute, the predecessor of Lake Michigan College, in July 1957, the library consisted of two classrooms in the old Benton Harbor High School on Pipestone Street. There were about 3,000 books, no card catalog, no periodicals, and his only helpers were a few students.

He helped design the current library on the Napier Avenue campus in 1969. When he retired in 1986, the library contained over 60,000 books, plus various other reference materials and a full-time staff of six, as well as several part-time employees.

"Hessel took many great strides to help improve Lake Michigan College and to build a library that supports learning and excellence," says Dr. Richard J. Pappas, LMC President. "He left an important legacy for today's students."

Hessel was well known, loved, and respected at the College and in the local community. A strong supporter of the arts, he served on the boards of the St. Joseph Art Association, now the Twin Cities Arts Council, the St. Joseph Symphony, the Krasl Art Center, and the Cinema Arts Society. He was president of the Berrien Library Consortium, an organization he helped start, for 29 years. He was also a well-known authority in children's literature, which he taught for many years at LMC.

Born in the Netherlands in 1922, Hessel lived in Europe until 1947. He was fluent in French and German, and taught German at LMC when he began there in 1957. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Western Michigan University, and before coming to LMC, served on the staff of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY, and Monklands High School in Montreal, Canada. He earned a master's degree in library science from the University of Washington in Seattle in the early 1960's.

After his retirement in 1986, Hessel moved to Chicago, where he spent his time as a tour guide in the Harold Washington Library. In 1997, he returned briefly to the community he loved - to serve as interim director of the St. Joseph Public Library.

"Hessel is remembered for his boundless energy, warm heart, and caring ways," says Peter Nachreiner, the current Library director who worked with Hessel for several years. "He is greatly missed by his friends, colleagues and former students."

SIDEBAR

With the rise of technology and the help of many dedicated individuals, the Lake Michigan College library has been transformed into a print and electronic resource center that is available to students, as well as anyone in the community to access information.

According to Peter Nachreiner, director of the LMC library, "There has been a shift in recent years from libraries that only provided print services, to a combination of print and electronic services."

The LMC library has especially witnessed this shift, as well as many other changes. What was once a 3,000-book library in 1957 is now a 70,000-volume library with electronic resources that enable students to access information on almost anything.

To look up listings electronically, students can use the Online Catalog that lists all of the library's holdings of books and audio-visual materials. Students can also search articles from over 6,000 periodicals through EBSCOhost and other full-text periodical databases. To find information about colleges and universities, students can use the College Source database, which contains over 15,000 college catalogs. Also, the LEXIS-NEXIS database provides a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information for students to access.

Another helpful service is FirstSearch. This service, which was funded through a grant from the State of Michigan Library, provides access to 60 separate databases, including Medline, PsychLit, ERIC and others.

The LMC library even offers remote access to databases so students can access these databases from off campus. By logging onto the library's web site at http://www.lmc.cc.mi.us/lib, students have full access to the Online Catalog, and with a password, may also search EBSCOhost and FirstSearch. Links to additional Internet sites are also provided through the library's home page.

"The electronic library has given the College many more resources in which to access information," says Nachreiner. "Compared to other libraries, we are doing very well."

The LMC library even allows community members to check books out of the library through the MichiCard program, which the LMC library, in 1994, became one of the first academic institutions in the state to participate. Owning a MichiCard allows an individual to check out books from over 290 participating libraries all over the state. Books can then be dropped off at any library and will be shipped back to their original home.