2000 Winifred Sewell Prize
Joanne Gard Marshall
Joanne Gard Marshall is an acknowledged leader, educator and researcher. Her expertise, publications and innovative research are rooted in 20 years of biomedical reference services and clinical librarianship. In her more recent role as a full-time educator, she has sustained her interest in fostering and adapting emerging technologies to improve access to information in the biomedical and life sciences.
As clinical librarian in the early 1970s at McMaster University, Dr. Marshall expanded her practice to active membership within health care teams. She trained fellow team-members to efficiently use electronic information resources. She evaluated the training and published on the evolution and dynamics of this environment. This participation pioneered end-user training at McMaster and catalyzed others in the field to initiate similar programs. Dr. Marshall remains at the vanguard, applying technologies to end-user training and developing methods for testing and measuring the efficacy of training services. She is highly consulted not only on clinical decision-making as it relates to patient care but also on integrating clinical librarianship with research. She has attracted more than $3,000,000 in research funding.
Dr. Marshall is the consummate author in her field, well established in the literature of biomedical librarianship and information science. She is editor of 14 books and chapters. Titles range from her landmark monograph Evaluation instruments for health sciences libraries (Chicago: Medical Library Association, 1990, 282 p.) to chapters such as New technological environments for professional practice (1993) and Database search services: a quality assurance approach (1990). She has published more than 50 articles and technical reports.
Dr. Marshall is universally venerated as a scholarly speaker, lecturing at a lengthy list of prestigious organizations and institutions including but not limited to: the Digital Knowledge II Conference (Toronto), Oxford University (England) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Annual Meeting (Quebec City).
The Medical Library Association awarded Dr. Marshall, twice (1982, 1993), the prestigious Eliot Prize for work published in the previous year judged most effective in furthering medical librarianship. The Toronto Chapter/SLA honored her with their Member of the Year Award for her monograph: The impact of the special library on corporate decision-making (Washington, D.C.: Special Libraries Association, 1993, 121 p.). She received the H. W. Wilson Award for her publication in Special Libraries: Building a model business case: current awareness service in a special library (1996). In addition, Dr. Marshall is conferee of the Special Libraries Association Certificate of Achievement (1995) and the John Cotton Dana Award (1998). The Academy of Health Information Professionals has renewed her "Distinguished Member" status since she first received that honor in 1991.
Dr. Marshall is active professionally. She has seen her work in perspective through participation in non-library organizations as a member of the Health Committee, Consumer Association of Canada (Ontario) 1986-1990 and working with the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, 1987-1990. She is a member of the American Library Association and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Kellogg ALISE Library and Information Project for Educational Reform. She chaired the Special Interest group on Medical Information Systems for the American Society of Information Science. Holding membership in the Medical Library Association since 1971, Dr. Marshall was member and chair of MLA's Library Research Committee, member of the President's Task Force, member of the Think Tank of MLA's Research Agenda and member of the Board of Directors. She chaired the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section. Dr. Marshall is current co-chair of the MLA Annual Meeting, 2000, Vancouver, BC Canada. A member of the Special Libraries Association since 1988, Dr. Marshall served on numerous committees at the chapter and association level. For eight years, she was advisor to the University of Toronto SLA Student Group.
While holding full tenured professorship in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, Dr. Marshall maintained adjunct appointments in the Department of Health Administration, Centre for Health Promotion, and the Institute for Human Development, Life-Course and Aging. Dr. Marshall currently is Dean and tenured full professor at the School of Information and Library Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Joanne Gard Marshall has been a leader for three decades in developing, applying and evaluating end-user training applications and technologies. She has focused on educating others and promoting medical information research technologies to librarians, prospective librarians, biomedical researchers, clinicians and patients. She is very deserving of the Winifred Sewell Prize for Innovation in Information Technologies in Biomedical and Life Sciences Librarianship.
Rev. November 22, 2002