Winifred Sewell

Winifred Sewell (1917-2002) was an American librarian.

Life

Winifred ("Win") Emma Sewell was born in 1917 in Newport, Washington. She earned a BS at Washington State University in 1938 and an MLS from Columbia University in 1940 and also studied science, especially chemistry. She worked as a librarian in the Modern languages Reading Room at Columbia until in 1942 she became the librarian for the Wellcome Research Laboratories.

In 1946, Win moved to the Squibb Institute for Medical Research. She joined the [National Library of Medicine]] (NLM) in 1961 as deputy chief and subject heading specialist in the Bibliographic Services Division. Her work was instrumental in the development of MEDLARS. From 1965 to 1970, she headed NLM's Drug Literature Program.

From 1970 to 1992 she worked at the University of Maryland where she taught pharmacy students and health sciences librarianship. She was an active consultant in the drug literature field until shortly before her death. She died on October 23, 2002 in Cabin John, Maryland.

Contributions

Sewell contributed to the coordination of chemical and biomedical terminology (especially online retrieval systems), medical information transfer, and the online searching behaviors of pharmacists.

Editor of the journal Unlisted Drugs (1949-1959 and 1962-1964).
Editor of the Gale Information Guides: Health Affairs series in 1972-1980.
Member of the editorial boards of Drug Information Journal, 1971- 1984, and Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1974-1977.

Publications

World list of pharmacy periodicals. With T. Andrews. Washington, DC: American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, 1963.
Sewell W. comp. Reader in medical librarianship. Washington, DC: NCR Microcard Editions, 1973.
Using MeSH for effective searching: a programmed guide. With Merle Harrison. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.
Micromanual for casual users of National Library of Medicine databases. With S. Teitelbaum. Bethesda, MD: Drug Intelligence Publications, 1984.
Guide to drug information. Hamilton, IL: Drug Intelligence Publications, 1976.
Medical Library Association Oral History Committee. Interview with: Winifred Sewell by Carol Hansen. Chicago, IL: The Association, 1984.
Oral history recording. National Library of Medicine. Collection of oral histories on the history of the National Library of Medicine. HMD MS ACC 732. [1]

Offices

Special Libraries Association. President, 1960-61.
Drug Information Association. President.

Awards

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. Honorary degree of doctor of science, 1979.
Medical Library Association. Fellow; Eliot Prize, 1977.
Special Libraries Association. Hall of Fame, 1998.
Special Libraries Association. Biomedical and Life Sciences Division named the Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in her honor.
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Honorary President, 1999-2000.

Papers

National Library of Medicine. Winifred Sewell papers. HMD MS ACC 2003-009. [4]