Scott Adams

Scott Adams (1909 - 1982) was an US medical librarian.

NLM Director Dr. Martin Cummings (rear left) attends a party honoring his colleague Scott Adams (front center). From NLM Digital Collections. http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101641739

Life

Scott Adams was born November 20, 1909. He graduated from Yale in 1930 and worked in wholesale book distribution, then completed a masters degree at the Columbia University School of Library Service in 1940. He worked at Columbia's Teachers College library, the the Providence, Rhode Island, Public Library. In 1945 the Army Medical Library hired him and he was Acting Librarian from 1946 until 1950, when he became Director of the national Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

In 1959 Adams became Director of the Foreign Service Information Program at the National Science Foundation, the in 1960, Deputy Director of the National Library of Medicine, where he was the principal architect of the NLM Five Year Plan, 1966. He retired in 1969 to work for the United Nations International Scientific Information System (UNISIST) Central Committee.After retirement, in the 1970s he advised the National Academy of Sciences. He died on October 3, 1982.

Contributions

• Began the translation program of Russian medical journals which evolved into the Federation Proceedings Translation Supplement and specialized abstracting tools.
• According to Frank Rogers, Adams "was probably the first to see and measure...the changing alignments of scientific fields...shifting to mission-oriented sectors."
• At the National Library of Medicine (NLM) he planned a program of extramural activities. He helped outline the dissemination and distribution objectives of the MEDLARS project and MEDLARS centers in foreign countries.
• He was instrumental in initiating PL-480 program of translations.

Publications

For bibliography see Rogers, Frank B. 1985. "Adams, Scott." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science 38, Suppl. 3. NY: Dekker, 1985, pp. 4-7.

• The O.P. market; a subject directory to the specialties of the out-of-print book trade, with 1944 supplement. New York, R.R. Bowker Co., 1944.
• Medical bibliography in an age of discontinuity. Chicago, IL: Medical Library Association, 1981.
• Information Policy for Development: National and International Responsibilities. Main Issues Discussed at the Unisist Meeting on the Planning and Implementing of National Information Activities in Science and Technology. ( 1St , Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, April 20-23, 1976). ED229008.
• [Interview concerning medical librarianship.] University of Illinois. Library of the Health Sciences, Chicago. MLA Oral history tape collection.

Offices

• District of Columbia Library Association. President, 1947-48.
• American Society for Information Science. President, 1954-55.
• Medical Library Association, President, 1967-68.

Further reading

• Rogers, Frank B. 1985. "Adams, Scott." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science 38, Suppl. 3. NY: Dekker, 1985, pp. 1-7.
• Brodman, Estelle. "Adams, Scott (1909-1982)." Dictionary of American library biography: Second supplement, Ed. by Wayne A. Wiegand, Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1990, pp 1-3.
• Garfield, Eugene. "Scott Adams and Medical bibliography in an age of discontinuity--A tribute to a visionary leader in the field of medical information." Current contents 26 (June 27, 1983): 5-11.
• Rogers, Frank B. "Adams, Scott." Encyclopedia of library and information science. Suppl. 3, vol 38. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1-7. Concise, detailed biography.

Papers

• National Library of Medicine. History of Medicine Division. Bethesda, MD. Scott Adams papers, CollectionIdentifier: HMD MS ACC 581 16 linear feet
• American Library Association Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Scott Adams Papers, 1920-1981. 15.5 cubic feet. [1]