Katherine V. Chew — Research and Outreach Services, Liaison Librarian for Mortuary Science, Occupational Therapy, Medical Laboratory Sciences and the Center for Bioethics — has been chosen to receive the Michael E. DeBakey Librarian Outreach and Community Award for her extraordinary work as a librarian in the health sciences.

Chew will be honored at the Friends of the National Library of Medicine’s (FNLM) 2024 Awards Gala, which will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, DC. Registration is open to all.

“Librarian Katherine Chew richly deserves this recognition,” said the Friends of the NLM’s DeBakey Awards Chair, Tovah Reis. “She exemplifies exactly the vision had in mind when the award was created, and more.”

Chew’s supervisor, Lisa McGuire, the Associate Director for Education and Research Services in the Health Sciences Library, couldn’t agree more.

“Katherine is an outstanding librarian with deep expertise in working with health professionals on their research projects, educating public librarians about health information resources, and educating the general public about health misinformation,” McGuire said. “Katherine’s ability to convey complex ideas to varied audiences is what makes her so effective in outreach activities.”

Chew provides research support and consultation to University of Minnesota researchers in the Academic Health Sciences including support for NIH Public Access Policy Compliance. As Outreach Librarian, Chew provides education and training on consumer health and health information literacy issues to health professionals, public librarians, and the general public across the state, including exhibiting at health fairs and other health-oriented events on National Library of Medicine resources.

Before becoming the Research/Outreach Services Librarian, Chew was the Collections Librarian for the Health Sciences Libraries for over 10 years. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 2001, Chew was an Air Force Base Librarian in Montana, Colorado (Air Force Academy) and Germany (Sembach Air Base), before switching career paths into medical librarianship.

As a medical librarian she has worked in community, urban, and academic health sciences libraries and has presented at regional and national conferences on collections, scholarly communications, and metrics.

2024 FNLM Awards

The Friends of the NLM’s Annual Awards recognize scientific and medical leaders who have made significant contributions to health care, biomedical science, librarianship, and public health. These life changing awardees are our contemporaries and the Friends of the NLM has the honor of thanking them.

Past recipients include Nobel Laureates, leading scientists who opened new fields of breakthrough discoveries, and developers of innovative technologies. In addition, outstanding health science librarians, leaders of public office, and those who have demonstrated a deep commitment to advancing medical and health science communication are among past and this year’s recipients. For a full list of past and 2024 awardees, please click here.

Contact Jessica Nassif, FNLM Operations Manager at jnassif@fnlm.org with press inquiries.

About The Friends of the National Library of Medicine

The Friends of the National Library of Medicine supports and promotes the world’s largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a vital part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s premier medical research agency.