2004 Award Recipient Anita Loscalzo

The Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network (MAHSLIN) is pleased to announce that Anita B. Loscalzo, Research Librarian, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Boston University School of Medicine, has been elected to the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame in recognition of her professional achievements and contributions to MAHSLIN and to medical librarianship.

When Anita completed her second term of service as Chair of the By-Laws Committeee in the Spring of 2003, she also came to the end of a span of sixteen years during which, with one break, she served on the MAHSLIN Executive Board in several capacities. Her first office was the same as her last, Chair of the By-laws Committee from 1987-1991. Concurrently, Anita also served on the Ad Hoc Committee on Downsizing from 1989-1991 and from 1991-1992 she was Chair of the Resource Sharing Committee. Anita returned to the Executive Board as Editor of the MAHSLIN Network News from 1996-1998, and continued with a three year commitment as Vice-President, President, and Past President from 1998-2001. During her year as past President, she also chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Librarians in Massachusetts.

During her MAHSLIN Board years, Anita was also active in the Medical Library Association as a member of the Hospital Libraries Section Standards Committee and as a member of the 1998 and 2003 NAHSL Conference Committee and NAHSL Executive Board. She is a distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.

Members of MAHSLIN who purchased raffle tickets for one of the exquisite quilted hangings that Anita donated to the NAHSL Scholarship Table will be interested to know that since her retirement from the MAHSLIN Executive Board, Anita has been working for a Master of Arts degree in Textiles, Clothing and Design with an emphasis in Quilt Studies through the University of Nebraska Distance Learning Program. In affiliation with this program, Anita was curator of an exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell entitled "Free Motion Masterpieces: An Exhibition of Machine Quilted Quilts" which opened on March 25, 2004 and will be on view through May 30.

With her study of the history and art of quilting and course work in museum studies, Anita is resuming a commitment to her first academic field of study. She received her B.A. degree cum laude in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and then, as she explains it, being a very practical person, Anita entered the library school of Drexel University and earned her M.S. in Library Science in 1973. As an undergraduate, she worked as student assistant in the Rare Book Collection of the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania; she also volunteered as in the library of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, indexing the Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin. From 1977-1978, Anita served as Manuscript Librarian at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

Anita's first position in medical librarianship was as Reference Librarian/MEDLINE Analyst and then Head of Reference at the Hahnemann Medical College of Medicine Library. She credits the years she worked in this small academic medical library, where the professional staff worked in all areas of the library, with giving her the opportunity to develop the skills she would need throughout her career as a solo medical librarian. It was at Hahnemann that Anita acquired her expertise in searching the MEDLARS system and as a teacher of online searching skills. She later taught the basics of searching MEDLINE as a guest lecturer at the Simmons College course in Health Sciences Librarianship and an instructor at the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Following the Loscalzo family's move to the Boston area, Anita became Medical Librarian at Glover Memorial Hospital in Needham from 1982 - 1987. She recalls that she was mentored through this first job as a solo librarian by her CIR colleagues Sandy Clevesey, Nancy Callander, and Chris Bell, and was first recruited to the MAHSLIN Executive Board by Nancy Fazzone. After leaving Glover, Anita undertook several major library reorganization projects as a consultant for the Corporate Health Services Library at Digital Equipment Corporation, the Professional Library at Braintree Hospital, and the Corporate Industrial Hygiene & Toxicology Library also at Digital Equipment Corporation. Her career as a biomedical research specialist librarian began in 1990 at the Cardiology Research Department at Brigham & Women's Hospital. Anita became Research Librarian at the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of Boston University, a research laboratory with a staff of 100 which is directed by her husband, Dr. Joseph Loscalzo, in 1994 and continues in that position today. Anita provides expert searching, reference services, as well as training and support in information management and retrieval. She participates in journal club and research conferences, manages print collections, and provides editorial assistance to principal investigators.

Anita's career as a librarian has been distinguished by the values of community and collaboration - values which our profession holds in common with the quilt makers whose art form Anita now studies. Throughout the years that she has served MAHSLIN, the hospital library community, and the biomedical research community, Anita also served as a trustee of the Dover Town Library, chairing the Board of Trustees from 2000-2002 and as a library volunteer at the Dedham Country Day School. Other community organizations which benefited from Anita's participation include the Board of Directors, Friends of the Dedham Public Library, the Board of Directors, Friends of the Dover Town Library, the Dover Town Library Long-Range Planning Committee, and the Powisset Garden Club. In recognition of her contributions to librarianship and with gratitude for her service, MAHSLIN is now deeply pleased to honor our distinguished colleague, Anita Loscalzo, and admit her to the MAHSLIN Hall of Fame.

Return to the MASHLIN Home Page