Winifred Sewell

1917-2002

Image of Winifred Sewell

Life

Sewell was born in Newport, Washington; received her BA from Washington State University; MLS from Columbia University.  She was Senior Librarian at Squibb Institute of Medical Research from 1946 to 1961.  She worked as Medical Subject Headings Specialist at the National Library of Medicine, and was instrumental in the early work with MEDLARS; later, she was head of the Drug Literature Program at NLM, where she worked until 1970. From 1970 to 1992 she worked at the Univ. of Maryland. She was an active consultant in the drug literature field until shortly before her death.  She was interested in coordination of chemical and biomedical terminology (especially online retrieval systems), medical information transfer, online searching behaviors of pharmacists. Editor Unlisted Drugs; She noted that "the better our own relationship with all non-librarians and specialized fields of knowledge, the greater can be our own progress" (Current Biography ); Also interested in bibliometrics of molecular biology.

For more biographical details see: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=153177

Employment

• Squibb Institue for Medical Research
• Columbia University
• NLM

Awards

• Fellow, Medical Library Association
• Medical Library Association's Eliot Prize
• SLA Hall of Fame (1998)
• Honorary President of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (1999-2000)
• the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Div., named the Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in her honor

Offices

• SLA Pres. 1960-61
• DIA (Drug Information Association) 1970-71

Further reading

• Shelley A Bader & Karyn L Pomerantz/ "Winifred (Win) Emma Sewell, 1917–2002." Journal of the Medical Library Association 91, no 2 (April 2003): 270. [1]

Papers

LOCATION #1: National Library of Medicine

• Papers dates: 1930-2001
• Size: 21.46 cu. ft.
• Includes: Finding aid not available and collection not yet processed as of 11/21/2013
• Finding aid:
• Source: National Library of Medicine online catalog

LOCATION #2: Medical Library Association, 919 North Michigan Ave., Suite 3208, Chicago, IL 60611; also at National Library of Medicine.

• Papers dates: April 1984
• Size:
• Includes: Oral history interview with Winifred Sewell by Carol Fenichel, 1984; details at: http://www.mlanet.org/about/history/sewell_w.html
• Finding aid:
• Source: Dale, D.C. (com.), A Directory of Oral History Tapes of Librarians in the United States and Canada. American Library Association: Chicago, 1986, p. 96.