MLA Oral Histories
The MLA Oral History Project conducts and preserves interviews that help illuminate the history of health sciences librarianship and of MLA.
MLA Oral History Project Manual, 8th Revised Edition
The MLA Oral History Project conducts and preserves interviews that help illuminate the history of health sciences librarianship and of MLA. The members of the MLA History Committee have worked to update the Oral History Project Manual, 8th Revised Edition, as well as create an Oral History Member Toolkit to aid members in future interviews and histories. Join us in preserving our history.
Original recorded interviews and transcripts are kept in the MLA archives. Edited transcripts are available on MLANET or through interlibrary loan from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM). These volumes also include biographies, and in many cases photographs and CVs, of the interviewees.
To access a complete oral history published since 2016, click on the Published Oral History link at the bottom of the interview summary (coming soon). Forty-three histories completed prior to 1998 can be found published in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, volume 86, numbers 2-4, 1998. To borrow print copies of earlier histories, contact your regional medical library through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM), or contact MLA HQ at info@mlahq.org.
Section and Chapter Oral Histories
- FAQs for MLA Chapters Starting Oral History Programs (coming soon)
- Chapter/Section Oral Histories
- Southern Chapter Oral History Project
- Cancer Librarians Section Oral History and 1997 Update (for Cancer Librarian Section Members Only)
- Veterinary Medical Libraries Section, Notable Veterinary Medical Librarians
List of Interviewees
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Bethesda 11
Posted on: January 6, 2024 Edited by: Interview by: on Number of pages: On January 30–31, 1978, hospital librarians from around the United States were invited to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for the “Hospital Librarians Conference” to discuss the needs of hospital libraries and the relationship between them and NLM. As representatives were…
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Bloomquist, Harold J. (AHIP, FMLA)*
Posted on: January 11, 2024 Edited by: Interview by: on Number of pages: Harold Bloomquist was a librarian at Harvard from 1958-1975 during the creation of the Francis Countway Library of Medicine and the head Librarian from 1968 through 1975. He published many articles on librarianship and is known for his report on the state…
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Boorkman, Jo Anne (AHIP, FMLA)
Posted on: January 12, 2024 Edited by: Interview by: on Number of pages: Jo Anne Boorkman published oral history Jo Anne Boorkman, AHIP, FMLA, grew up in Long Beach, California, and graduated from Scripps College with a major in biology. She earned her master’s degree in library science in 1971 from the University of Illinois,…
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Boyd, Trenton C. (AHIP, FMLA) (Veterinary Medical Libraries Section Oral History)
Posted on: January 13, 2024 Edited by: Interview by: on Number of pages: Veterinary Medical Libraries Section Oral History After majoring in wildlife biology, Trenton Boyd received his M.A. in library science from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1968. His first professional position was as a science reference librarian at Wichita State University…
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Brandon, Alfred N. (AHIP, FMLA)*
Posted on: August 18, 2026 Edited by: Interview by: on Number of pages: Al Brandon is best known for his acquisitions lists for the small medical library, nursing, and allied health. “It was a result of my work with the hospital librarians in Baltimore that I decided it was about time to have a reference…