Jerry Mastey
Editor
School of Dentistry
(734) 615-1971
jmastey@umich.edu
Doreen Bradley
Interim Head, Health Sciences Cluster
dbradley@umich.edu
Anderson 1st Recipient of Award from Medical Library Association
The Steuernagel Award recognizes a health sciences librarian who has joined the dental section within the last five years and who has contributed to the growth and development of the dental section through professional activities or service. The librarian’s service can be to the MLA, its dental section, the librarian’s home institution or library, dental education, or the dental profession.
School of Dentistry librarian Patricia Anderson (center) was the first recipient of the MLA's Harriet L. Steuernagel Award. Presenting the award were Dean Peter Polverini (second from left) and William Gosling, university librarian, University Library (second from right). Also pictured are (left) Dennis Lopatin, senior associate dean, and Brenda Johnson, associate university librarian for public services, University Library.
Anderson recently coauthored a three-volume publication, The Medical Library Association Encyclopedic Guide to Searching and Finding Health Information on the Web, which has been praised for its breadth and depth of information that can be used by health care professionals, librarians, and consumers. She also spearheaded the development of the online Dental Cosmos collection, served as the expert searcher for the NIH Consensus Development Conference on Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries, and was on the program planning committee for the first NIH-sponsored workshop on dental informatics.
Anderson, a 1987 alumna of the U-M School of Information, returned to Ann Arbor in 1998 to become dentistry librarian following several years in Chicago as the head of Northwestern University’s Barnes Learning Resource Center in the Galter Health Sciences Library. She is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet and Medicine on the Net.
“I’m more honored than I can say to be the first recipient of the Harriet Steuernagel Award,” Anderson said. “Being nominated by Mary Kreinbring, director of the American Dental Association Library means a lot to me. Mary is a true leader in the profession and knew me before I entered dentistry librarianship. The award is even more significant,” Anderson continued, “since it comes from my peers and other librarians who work in similar environments to accomplish similar tasks.”
The award is named for Harriet L. Steuernagel (1907-1998) who served as the dental librarian for the Washington University School of Dentistry for 50 years. During her career she received numerous awards from dental societies and library organizations.
The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral health care education, research, patient care, and community service. General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the School to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan. Classroom and clinic instruction prepare future dentists, dental specialists, and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia, and public agencies. Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide. For more information about the School of Dentistry, visit the Web at http://www.dent.umich.edu.