The Lawrence Jacobsen Library
From the Library Director

Library Renamed in Honor of Lawrence Jacobsen

The Wisconsin National Primate Research Center has renamed its library in honor of Larry Jacobsen. The library will now be known as "The Lawrence Jacobsen Library."

Lawrence (Larry) Jacobsen was the long-time director of the library at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center from the library's inception in 1973 until his retirement in 2003. Mr. Jacobsen earned his Masters Degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970 and began working at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center in 1973. During his career, he was responsible for introducing innovative services such as the first document delivery service on campus and the publication of the first International Directory of Primatology.

Early on, Jacobsen recognized the importance of Internet resources in the field which led to the creation of the website Primate Info Net, and its many subsets including Primate-Jobs, the AskPrimate electronic reference service and the Primate-Science discussion forum.

Jacobsen's contributions were acknowledged with the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Primatologists in 1997 and the Library of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Library Association in 1995. In 2000 he was awarded an NIH/NCRR P40 grant for 2.3 million dollars. This grant titled, Coordinated Information Services for Primate Research, through a variety of services and resources supports the information needs of all eight National Primate Research Centers, the biomedical research community and the public at-large. In 2002, the International Primatological Society renamed their Education Development Award in his honor.

Most recently, in 2005, Mr. Jacobsen established the Lawrence Jacobsen Innovations in Library Science Award, a scholarship to support second-year students in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.

Cynthia K. Robinson
Director, Lawrence Jacobsen Library

(Photos of Chancellor John Wiley and Larry Jacobsen by E. Chan.)