Marcia C. Noyes Award Presented at Annual MLA Conference in Chicago

The Marcia C. Noyes Award is the highest honor given to a professional medical librarian, and it was awarded at the Medical Library Association’s annual conference in Chicago on May 19, 2014. The recipient was Joanne Joanne Gard Marshall, AHIP, FMLA, from the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.Dr. Marshall is a worthy recipient of this award with a list of accomplishments, including twice serving on the MLA Board of Directors, including as president in 2004/05. She is a currently an MLA Fellow and a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals. Dr. Marshall has been honored with a multitude of the most prestigious professional awards including the 2013 Janet Doe Lectureship, Special Libraries Association Fellowship in 2001, the 2010 Donald A. B. Lindberg Research Fellowship, and Honorary Life Membership in the Canadian Health Libraries Association/ Association des Bibliotheques de la Sante du Canada in 2000, just to name a few.

Dr. Marshall’s name is synonymous with the groundbreaking 1992 Rochester Study and its successor, the recently completed Value Study. While the idea that medical librarians support patient care is not a new one, the study provided much-needed evidence of this fact on a large scale, updated for the current times. The study will doubtlessly be cited for years to come. As a highly skilled researcher, Dr. Marshall has led the way in conducting research that has an impact on the profession and on the health sciences as a whole. She has used her leadership ability to serve professional organizations by developing policies and chairing committees.

Like Marcia Noyes, Joanne Gard Marshall is a noted example of excellence in the medical library field. She joins a list of recipients who have advanced the profession and carried on Marcia’s legacy in the field. All of us at MedChi send along our congratulations to Dr. Marshall, and to complete the circle, a bouquet of spring flowers was presented to Dr. Marshall on MedChi’s behalf at the awards luncheon, as Dr. William Osler presented bouquets of flowers to Marcia on special occasions.

In a note from Dr. Marshall, she said:

Thank you for the lovely bouquet that you sent to Chicago for the Noyes Award. It was the most beautiful bouquet I have ever seen and it made the presentation so special. I had not known a lot about Marcia Noyes and her extraordinary contribution to the field, but I am much more aware of that now. I hope I can visit the library at your historic site sometime when I am in the Baltimore area.

Thanks to the staff, especially Maria Lopez, at the MLA for helping us facilitate the presentation of the bouquet.