Dale Burdette Baker

Dale Baker

Dale Burdette Baker (1920-2005) was interested in chemical literature, documentation, communication, research development, and planning.

Life

Baker earned a B.Ch.E. in 1942 and an M.Sc. in chemistry in 1948 from Ohio State University. While a student, Baker began working for the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society as an office boy. working with explosives at DuPont, 1942-1945, then returned to the Chemical Abstracts Service as Associate editor 1946-57; Associate director 1958; Director 1958-86. He also served as Acting Manager of the American Chemical Society Columbus, OH, office in 1972.

Contributions

Chemical literature, documentation, communication, research development and planning.

Baker was instrumental in developing an on-line system for Chemical Abstracts Service in the early 1980s.

Awards

1970 College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award (Ohio State Univ.); 1979 Patterson-Crane Award for meritorious contributions to the field of chemical literature, especially the documentation of chemistry (ACS); 1986 Skolnik Award for leading Chemical Abstracts Service from conventional indexing of the 1950's to an information and retrieval system that provides direction for the entire information industry (ACS); Ohio Science and Technology Hall of Fame (2003)

Offices

• ASIS. President, 1975; Counselor 1970-72; Executive committee 1971-72, 1973-76.
• NFAIS. President, 1962-63; Treasurer 1970-72.
• International Council of Scientific Unions Abstracting Board; UNESCO committees

Further reading

• "Dale Baker Obituary." The Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 14, 2005. [1]
• Oral history interview. Science History Institute. [2]