Sewell, Winifred (DSc)*

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. [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

(Birth 1917; Death 2002)

Contributed by Betsy Humphreys and Diane McKenzie