1999 Winifred Sewell Prize

Naomi C. Broering

Since the early 1980s Naomi C. Broering has been an active leader in developing and implementing automated information systems in libraries. As director of the Georgetown University Medical Center Library, Naomi spearheaded the development of one of the first and most successful integrated library systems. She was also at the forefront in implementing an Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAMS) at Georgetown and documented the procedures in Strategic Planning: Integrated Academic Information and Management Systems (IAIMS) at Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington: Georgetown University Medical Center, 1986), a manual that has been used widely in other libraries.

An accomplished writer and speaker, Naomi has a long list of articles and presentations that document her sustained involvement in applying her vast experience in information technology and automation. A true visionary, she authored leading edge papers on automating library processes, the emerging electronic library, IAIMS, use of microcomputers in the library environment, developing educational software for users, and BioSYNTHESIS, a prototypical intelligent retrieval system during the 1980s. In the 1900s, Naomi moved into high performance medical libraries, using full text digitization, and was instrumental in the creation of an electronic textbook in human physiology, Lawrence S. Lilienfield's Electronic textbook in human physiology: computer file, published by the Dahlgren Medical Library, Georgetown University in 1990.

As current Executive Director of Houston Academy of Medicine - Texas Medical Center Library, Naomi has established goals for that institution's Library of the Future that include developing an information technology infrastructure, establishing a state-of-the-art Knowledge Network and Management Center, creating a Health Informatics Education Center for improved education and training, and developing a Consumer Health Information Network to improve community outreach.

Naomi has been active in several professional organizations, including the American Medical Informatics Association, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors, and the Medical Library Association, for which she served as President in 1996/1997. She has received SLA's Professional Award for "expertise in library automation and her contributions to special librarians and medical libraries." She is a Fellow of the Medical Library Association and Distinguished Member of the MLA Academic Health Information Professionals, as well as a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

Naomi has been a leader for two decades in innovation in developing and applying new technologies, educating others, and promoting emerging technologies within libraries and to patrons in biomedical information centers. It is with great pleasure that the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division recognizes her achievements by presenting Naomi C. Broering with the first Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in Biomedical and Life Sciences Librarianship.

Rev. November 22, 2002