Annan, Gertrude L. (Gertrude Louise), 1904-1993

Gertrude Annan, a distinguished rare book authority and winner of the Marcia Noyes Award in 1967, came to librarianship fortuitously and never felt the lack of formal training. She enjoyed a forty-two year career with the New York Academy of Medicine, first as the developer of its rare book room, then as a reluctant administrator, and finally as Janet Doe's successor in 1956. She never lost her passion for the history of medicine and was a most fitting first Janet Doe Lecturer in 1967.

Reflecting on medical librarianship in her era, she commented on its being the heyday of the Society libraries and recalled them as being "community libraries" with broad-based responsibilities. These libraries served practicing physicians without regard for institutional affiliation, extended consumer services to the public, and assisted hospital libraries in various ways. She also recounted the development of the Medical Library Center in 1959 as a cooperative response to the proliferation of literature that followed the war. The Medical Library Center addressed collection development constraints of the participating institutions, alleviated space shortages, and featured an exemplary document delivery system with a union list and daily deliveries.

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