Melvin Sherman Day

Melvin Sherman Day (1923-2013)

Life

He joined the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) technical information program in Oak Ridge, TN in 1946 while serving in the US Army.  He held several positions between 1946-1955 including chief of technical information services for the AEC at Oak Ridge in 1956. In 1958, he became Director, Technical Information Division, AEC headquarters, Washington, DC.. He joined NASA in 1960 as Deputy Director, Office of Technical Information and Education, and became Director, Technical Information Division in 1962; he was promoted to Deputy Assistant Administrator for Technology Utilization at NASA in 1967.  He became Head of the Office of Science Information Service, National Science Foundation in 1970; in 1972 he transferred to the National Library of Medicine,  where he became Deputy Director.  He became Director of National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in 1972. He retired from federal service in 1982. He also served as vice-president for information clearinghouses at the Information Technology Group, vice-president for business development at Research Publications, Inc., chairman of the ASIS International Relations Committee 1972-?, chairman of the White House Committee on Scientific and Technical Information (COSATI) 1971-1972, and chairman of the Federal Library Committee's Executive Committee.

Contributions

In an interview with ISU, Day explained that in 1947, "I was involved in reviewing Manhattan Project documents so that they could be declassified. Within a short period of time, it became obvious to the Atomic Energy Commission that since they had all this material, it had to be organized so it could be made available. That was how the AEC information program got started." AEC was located in Oak Ridge, TN; they used IBM punch cards for indexing; records were stored on microcards. When he joined NASA in 1960, they adopted microfiche and tapes; "In 1964 NASA contracted with Lockheed to produce a software package called NASA/RECON which tied together NASA centers in an online information retrieval environment in 1965" (Day, 1983).

Day solidified the notion of an integrated information clearinghouse. In 1972, Day became the Deputy Director of the National Library of Medicine [NLM] where he helped build the Lister Hill Center and develop MEDLARS and MEDLINE as online systems (see History of Medline), specifically:

"In the late 1960’s, the NLM also began the distribution of Index Medicus citation data through the production of computer data tapes. These tapes were distributed to libraries and organizations which provided localized computer access to the citation data. In 1971, NLM began providing access to Index Medicus content via the MEDLARS onLINE (MEDLINE) system, which utilized specialized telecommunications systems. This system provided access to medical journal citations, published from 1966 and forward, that were included in Index Medicus. Accessing MEDLINE required training in the command line syntax used to search the database" (Oral History, 1997).

Day also was responsible for making the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) database available for online searching. His oral history interview includes "a discussion of his communications venture, influential teachers during his career, and the future of information science."

Awards

1971 NASA Exceptional Service Award (NASA)

1975 Director Award (NLM)

Public Health Service Superior Service Award in 1976 for his work with the NLM, "For administrative and technical leadership skills and dedication to excellence in applying technologica advances to improved communications directed toward transmitting scientific knowledge to public health and medical care."

Offices

NATO Technical Information Panel 1960-70, 1979-82; Chemical Abstracts Advisory Board 1964-68; ASIS Pres. 1975; International Council of Scientific Unions Abstracting Board 1977-?; UNESCO various advisory boards 1977-83; Board of Visitors, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Science 1977-83.

Selected Publications

Day, M. S. (1960). Technical information for nuclear plant activities. US Papers: Held June 20-26, 1960, 13.

Lebow, I., & Day, M. S. (1960). New indexing pattern for nuclear science abstracts. American Documentation, 11(2), 120-127.

Day, M.S. (1963), "Local Access to the Aerospace Technical Literature", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 211-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049935

Day, M. S. (1967). Factors in building an operational information program. Journal of Chemical Documentation, 7(2), 107-109.

Day, M. S. (1983). ISU Interviews II. Information Services & Use, 3, 325-331.

Day, M. S. (1989). National information policy: The broader context. Government Information Quarterly, 6(2), 159-163.

Papers

1. Most of the papers from the government agencies were retained by those agencies. A phone conversation with Melvin Day, 6/96 indicated that no decision has been made on the disposition.
2. Chemical Heritage Foundation (online)
3. Oral history interview conducted by Robert V. Williams, 15 July 1997: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/r207tq10k