Seymour Irving Taine

Seymour Irving Taine (1919-2010) was an American medical librarian.

Life

Seymour Irving Taine was born on December 6, 1919 in New York city. He studied music at the University of Michigan, 1936-1938. Then at New York University, 1939-1943, he earned a BA in chemistry (1940) followed by study of dentistry. He served in the US Army Medical Corps, 1943-1946, then earned an MS in Library Service at Columbia University, New York. He was librarian at the Biology Library at the University of California, Berkeley, 1947-1949.

In 1949 Taine became a cataloger at Army Medical Library in Washington, DC, which became the National Library of Medicine. He edited the the Current List of Medical Literature, 1950-1956; was chief of the indexing division, 1956-1960; chief of the bibliographical services division, 1960-1964; and acting associate director for intramural programs.

Taine was a consultant to the World Health Organisation in summer 1964, then program director for Federal Science Information at the National Science Foundation, 1964-1965; and chief of the technical services branch and technical information division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in 1965.

Taine served as Director of the NIH Library from 1968-1972. He returned to NLM briefly in 1972 before assuming the position of Chief Librarian at World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He died on February 21, 2010 in Sonoma, California'

Contributions

Taine was editor-in-chief for Index Medicus, 1960-64. He was interested in indexing and technical services. He played a significant role in mechanization projects at the National Library of Medicine.

Publications

• "Notes on the subject approach to Medical Periodical Literature." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 39, no. 2 (1951): 118-121.
• "The subject heading authority list of the current list of medical literature." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 41, no. 1 (1953): 41-43. [1]
• New program for indexing at the National Library of Medicine." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 47, no. 2 (1959): 117-123. [2]
• "The medical literature analysis and retrieval system." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 51, no. 2 (1963): 157-167. [3]
• "Searching the medical literature." With Scott Adams. Journal of the American Medical Association 188 (April 20, 1964): 107-110. Reprinted from Revue internationale de la documentation 31, no. 3 (1964).
• MLA Oral History Committee interview with Seymour Taine by Carol H. Fenichel. 1982. Library of the Health Sciences Chicago.
• Bibliographic data processing at the National Library of Medicine. In: Papers presented at the ... Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing. Illinois: University of Illinois. Graduate School of Library Science, 1963, pp 109-13. [4] Also available separately. [5]
• "Bibliographic aspects of MEDLARS." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 52, no. 1 (1964): 152-158. [6]

Offices

• National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Societies. Board of Directors, 1960-64.
• International Federation for Information. US National Committee, 1962-64.

Awards

• Medical Library Association. Eliot Prize for published work. First recipient, 1962.

Further reading

• Who’s who in library service. 4th ed. Ed. L. Ash. New York: Shoe String Pr., 1966, p 681.
• Key Pioneer in Automating NLM Bibliographic Data, Seymour Taine, Dies. Obituary. National Library of Medicine. [7]

Papers

• National Library of Medicine. History of Medicine Findings Aids. Lists collections relating to Taine. [8]