Medical Library Association | Fellows and Honorary Members : MLA Awards and Honors

MLA Fellow Brief Vitae

Winifred Emma Sewell, 1917–2002

Fellowship Conferred: 1978

MLA Elected Offices and Committee Chair Appointments

MLA

National Program Committee, Member, 1980
Recertification Committee, Member, 1979–1980
Public Health and Health Administration Libraries Section, Chair, 1979–1980
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, Editorial Board, Member, 1974–1977
Committee on Drug Information, Member, 1959
Bibliography Committee, Member, 1953–1955
Joint Committee on Standards for Pharmacy School Libraries (American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy), Member, 1954–1959

Other Accomplishments and Activities

Responsible for the conversion of subject structure employed by Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS)
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Committee on Basic Resources for Pharmaceutical Education, Co-Chair, 1996–2002
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Libraries, Educational Resources Section, Chair, 1979–1980
American Society for Information Science, Special Interest Group/Classification Research, Chair, 1974–1975
Drug Information Journal, Editorial Board, Member, 1971–1984
Drug Information Association, President, 1970–1971
State Department Exchange Team with USSR on Special Libraries, Member, 1966
National Academy of Sciences Committee on Modern Methods of Handling Chemical Information, Member, 1965–1967
Special Libraries Association, President, 1960–1961
International Federation of Pharmacy, Commission on Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Member, 1958–1960
Unlisted Drugs, Editor, 1949–1959, 1962–1964

Honors and Awards

MLA

Fellow, 1978
Ida and George Eliot Prize for Guide to Drug Information, 1977

Other Awards

Established the Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund to provide financial support to librarians and information providers attending meetings of the American Public Health Association and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995
Honorary President, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, 1999–2000
Special Libraries Association, Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in Biomedical and Life Sciences Librarianship, established by Biomedical and Life Sciences Division, 1999
Special Libraries Association, Hall of Fame, 1998
Special Libraries Association, Science-Technology Division, Publications Award, 1966

Publications (5 representative)

Articles published in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association or Journal of the Medical Library Association are available via PubMed Central.

Sewell W. Observations of end-user online searching behavior over 11 years. J Am Soc Inf Sci. 1986 Jul;37(4):234–45.
Sewell W. Guide to drug information. Hamilton, IL: Drug Intelligence Publications; 1976.
Sewell W, Bevan A. Nonmediated use of MEDLINE and TOXLINE by pathologists and pharmacists. Bull Med Lib Assoc. 1976 Oct; 64(4):382–91. [cited 30 May 2012].
Sewell W. Medical Subject Headings in MEDLARS. Bull Med Lib Assoc. 1964 Jan;52(1):164–70. [cited 30 May 2012].
Sewell W. The librarian’s use of Unlisted Drugs. Bull Med Lib Assoc. 1952 Oct;40(4):348–54. [cited 30 May 2012].

Positions

Consultant, 1970–2002

Textwise
United States Pharmacopeia
Welch Medical Library project on Online Mendelian Inheritance of Man
Southeastern/Atlantic Regional Medical Library Services project on Bibliometric Study of Molecular Biology
National Association of Hospital Development
Federal Library Committee
National Health Planning Information Center
Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospitals
Biospherics, and many industrial, academic, and government groups

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, 1970–1985
Adjunct Lecturer, Health Sciences Information Sources, College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland, 1969–1992
Editor, Gale Information Guides, Health Affairs, 1972–1980
Head, Drug Literature Program, National Library of Medicine, 1965–1970
Deputy Chief and Subject Heading Specialist, Bibliographic Services Division, National Library of Medicine, 1961–1965
Senior Librarian, Squibb Institute for Medical Research, 1946–1961
Instructor, Columbia University School of Library Science, summer session, 1959
Librarian, Wellcome Research Laboratories, 1942–1946
Department Librarian, Columbia University, 1938–1942

MLA published statements about the fellow

Bader SA, Pomerantz KL. Winifred (Win) Emma Sewell, 1917–2002 [obituary]. J Med Lib Assoc. 2003 Apr;91(2):270. [cited 30 May 2012].
McKenzie D, Pifalo V. The Oral History Program: III. personal views of health sciences librarianship and the Medical Library Association . Bull Med Lib Assoc. 1998 Oct;86(4):464–74. [cited 30 May 2012].
Fenichel D. Transcript of oral interview with Winifred Sewell: 1984. (Print copies of the oral history can be found through the Regional Medical Libraries. An oral history summary is available at http://www.mlanet.org/about/history/sewell_w.html. [cited 29 May 2012].)
Honors and awards. Proceedings, Seventy-eighth Annual Meeting Medical Library Association, Inc. Chicago, Illinois June 10–15, 1978. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1979 Jan 67(1):82–184. [cited 30 May 2012].
Emilio B. Special libraries. Bull Med Lib Assoc. 1958 Jan;46(1):154–5. [cited 30 May 2012].

Education

DSc, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, Philadelphia, PA, 1979
MS, Library Science, School of Library Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, 1940
BA, English, Washington State University, Pullman–WA, 1938

Contributed by Betsy Humphreys and Diane McKenzie; 2012