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'''Seymour Irving Taine''' (1919-2010) was an American medical librarian.


== Life ==
'''Seymour Irving Taine''' was born on December 6, 1919 in New York city. He studied music at the University of Michigan, 1936-1938. Then at New York University, 1939-1943, he earned a BA in chemistry (1940) followed by study of dentistry. He served in the US Army Medical Corps, 1943-1946, then earned an MS in Library Service at Columbia University, New York. He was librarian at the Biology Library at the University of California, Berkeley, 1947-1949.

In 1949 Taine became a cataloger at Army Medical Library in Washington, DC, which became the [[National Library of Medicine]]. He edited the the ''Current List of Medical Literature'', 1950-1956; was chief of the indexing division, 1956-1960; chief of the bibliographical services division, 1960-1964; and acting associate director for intramural programs.

Taine was a consultant to the World Health Organisation in summer 1964, then program director for Federal Science Information at the National Science Foundation, 1964-1965; and chief of the technical services branch and technical information division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in 1965.

Taine served as Director of the NIH Library from 1968-1972. He returned to NLM briefly in 1972 before assuming the position of Chief Librarian at World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.  
He died on February 21, 2010 in Sonoma, California'

== Contributions ==
Taine was editor-in-chief for ''Index Medicus'', 1960-64. He was interested in indexing and technical services. He played a significant role in mechanization projects at the National Library of Medicine. 

== Publications ==
*"Notes on the subject approach to Medical Periodical Literature." ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association'' 39, no. 2 (1951): 118-121.
*"The subject heading authority list of the current list of medical literature." Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 41, no. 1 (1953): 41-43. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC199597/pdf/mlab00227-0058.pdf]
*New program for indexing at the National Library of Medicine." ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association'' 47, no. 2 (1959): 117-123. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC200353/]
*"The medical literature analysis and retrieval system." ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association'' 51, no. 2 (1963): 157-167. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC197967/]
*"Searching the medical literature." With Scott Adams. ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' 188 (April 20, 1964): 107-110. Reprinted from ''Revue internationale de la documentation'' 31, no. 3 (1964).
*MLA Oral History Committee interview with Seymour Taine by Carol H. Fenichel. 1982. Library of the Health Sciences Chicago. 
*''Bibliographic data processing at the National Library of Medicine''. In: ''Papers presented at the ... Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing''. Illinois: University of Illinois. Graduate School of Library Science, 1963, pp 109-13. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000532723] Also available separately. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/103039712]
*"Bibliographic aspects of MEDLARS." ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association'' 52, no. 1 (1964): 152-158. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC198086/pdf/mlab00182-0165.pdf]

== Offices ==
*[[National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Societies]]. Board of Directors, 1960-64.
*International Federation for Information. US National Committee, 1962-64.

== Awards ==
*Medical Library Association. Eliot Prize for published work. First recipient, 1962.

== Further reading ==
*''Who’s who in library service''. 4th ed. Ed. L. Ash. New York: Shoe String Pr., 1966, p 681.
*''Key Pioneer in Automating NLM Bibliographic Data, Seymour Taine, Dies''. Obituary. National Library of Medicine. [https://wayback.archive-it.org/5418/20180911192423/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/seymour_taine_dies.html]

== Papers ==
*National Library of Medicine. History of Medicine Findings Aids. Lists collections relating to Taine. [https://findingaids.nlm.nih.gov/]