Duane Fenstermann

Duane Fenstermann, retired librarian and faculty member, earned a Master’s of Divinity degree from Duke University and a Master’s of Science in Library Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. During his professional career at Luther College, he held several different positions but in Luther’s history was the first Acquisitions Librarian, the first Head of Technical Services Librarian, the first Archivist, and the first web master for the library’s web pages ending his career as a Reference Librarian. Several of his accomplishments during the 35 years at Luther College were: assisted head librarian Oivind Hovde to design the Technical Services room of Preus Library and to plan the move from Koren Library to the Preus Library building; directed a union list of serials project with a consortium of Luther College and five other northeast Iowa private colleges for 19 years; supervised the adoption of the OCLC cataloging system; introduced the first micro-computers to the Luther library; chaired the faculty computer committee in the 1970s when the first mini-computer (HP 3000) was purchased for Luther’s Computer Center; implemented the first cataloging, photographic documentation and preservation facility for Luther College’s Fine Arts Collection; taught the archives and paper preservation section of the summer Congregation Heritage Workshop for 16 years; inventoried Luther College’s holdings at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum prior to their transfer of title to the Museum; served as Secretary to the Faculty for 18 years; and was the leading founder of the Iowa Library Association Foundation. Fenstermann received the Iowa Library Association Member of the Year award in 1991. His professional interests focused on the history and development of machine-readable catalog records (MARC); paper preservation principles and methods; archival and rare books management; collection development, and library systems design. Fenstermann worked as library liaison to various faculty departments for collection development, served as guest lecturer in some of their classes, was a resource for technical matters about the physical operation and structure of the Preus Library building, and enjoyed research projects in the library teamwork environment and working with student assistants.