Marta Dosa

Marta Dosa (May 20, 1923 – January 8, 2015) was a Hungarian-American information scientist, professor, poet and author of short stories, and international liaison. Known for her contributions to organizational research and development on an international level, Dosa traveled to many different countries to facilitate good relations and advancements within developing countries and establish connections in methodology for the information sciences. She taught the first course on Environmental Information and was one of the first to examine the role of information management related to gerontology.

Photo Available @ page 3: https://surface.syr.edu/ischool_newsletter/19/

Life

Marta Leszeli Dosa was born in Szekszard, Hungary on May 20, 1923. She earned bachelor's and master’s degrees from Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest in 1943 and 1944. She was an award-winning poet and published three books in Hungarian. During World War II, Dosa left her home country to escape the Russian occupation of Hungary. After living in several places in Europe, including West Germany, Dosa, her husband, and their young son immigrated to the United States through an international refugee program in 1951.

Dosa received her M.L.S. from Syracuse University in 1957. After her degree, Dosa served as government documents librarian at Syracuse until 1960, when she became the librarian for mathematics and metallurgy.[1] Dosa began teaching at the School of Library Science in 1961 and officially joined the faculty one year later. Dosa became an Assistant Professor in 1966, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1971, and Professor in 1976. She also received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1971. Later she published a book based on her dissertation, which focused on the German librarian Georg Leyh.

She was married to Joseph Dosa (1913 - 1965), an attorney who graduated from Syracuse University Law School and was a librarian at Syracuse University from 1958 to 1965, when he died.[2] Upon Joseph's passing, a memorial scholarship fund for Syracuse library science students was established in his honor by Beta Phi Mu. When Marta retired, the Joseph and Marta Dosa Scholarship Fund was renamed to include her as well. The couple had one son, Joseph D. Dosa (1949 - 2012), and three granddaughters: Nadine, Jolene, and Martine.

Dr. Dosa retired in 1996. She died at age 91 on January 8, 2015 in Syracuse, NY.

Contributions

Dosa taught the first graduate class on Environmental Information. Her other courses taught at Syracuse included international information policy, gerontological information, development of library resources, and government information, and she also served as an adjunct faculty member at SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry (Syracuse, NY). She earned the moniker “international pied piper” by her colleagues[3] for her extensive consultancies, travels, and studies conducted with such organizations as the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club’s International Division, and the Center for Environmental Information. She traveled to Central and South America, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Africa for student recruitment.[4]

Principal Investigator, Health Information Sharing Project (HISP) (1970s: 6 years)

She served as Education and Training Committee Chair of the International Federation for Documentation, which facilitated international relations and bolstered information standards and policies. She helped establish the SLA Environmental Information Division.[5]

Publications

Dosa, Marta. (1997). Across all borders: International information flows and applications: Collected papers. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN-10: ‎0810831988, ISBN-13: ‎978-0810831988.
Dosa, M. (1993). Recruitment of international students: Suggestions from Syracuse. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 34 (2): 99–112. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41308810
Dosa, Marta. (1990). Learning To Live with Complexity. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED324018
Dosa, M. (1988). Has international education been politicized? JASIS 39 (5): 351-354. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(198809)39:5<351::AID-ASI14>3.0.CO;2-O
Dosa, M.L. (1985). Information transfer as technical assistance for development. JASIS 36 (3): 146-152. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630360304
Dosa, M. L. (1985). Education for new professional roles in the information society. Education for Information 3 (3): 203-217. https://doi.org/10.3233/EFI-1985-3302
Dosa ML. (1983). The consultant as information intermediary. Information Services and Use 3 (6): 301-318. https://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-1983-3601
Dosa, Marta L. (1982). Information Transfer in Gerontology and Health: A Centralized and a Decentralized Model. In Prisca von Dorotka Bagnell (Ed.), Gerontology and Geriatrics Collections. New York: Routledge.
Dosa, Marta L. (1980). Conceptual Issues in Environmental Information. Copenhagen: International Federation for Documentation.
Marta L. Dosa. (1974). Libraries in the Political Scene. Praeger. ISBN-13: 978-0837164434, ISBN-10: 0837164435.
Dosa, Marta L. (1973). A View of the International Environmental Information Problem. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED157496
Dosa, M. (1972). Guide to U.S. Government Serials & Periodicals (Book Review). College & Research Libraries 33 (4): 333-334. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_33_04_333

Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Michigan, 1990
University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award (Information Studies), United Methodist Church, 1988
ASIS Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, 1986
Fellow of the International Federation for Documentation (FID)
Post-Standard Woman of Achievement Award (Literature), 1955
International P.E.N. Club Intellectual Award, 1947

Papers

The "Marta L. Dosa Papers" are housed at the Syracuse University Archives: https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides_sua/html/sua_dosa_m.htm

Life

Contributions

Publications

Awards

Papers

Further Reading