Mildred McMillan Jordan (died October 7, 1965) was an American medical librarian. She was the second director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library of

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

, at the time known as the A.W. Calhoun Medical Library. She developed the second ever academic course in medical librarianship and was Professor of Medical Bibliography in the

Emory University School of Medicine The Emory University School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of Emory University and a component of Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Emory University School of Medicine traces its origins back to 1915 when the Atl ...

. Her involvement in the

Medical Library Association The Medical Library Association (MLA) is a nonprofit educational organization with more than 3,400 health-sciences information professional members. History Founded on May 2, 1898, the Association of Medical Librarians, as it was known unti ...

pushed the field of medical librarianship to become professionalized and credentialed.

Early life and education

Jordan was born in

Hartsville, South Carolina Hartsville is the largest city in Darlington County, South Carolina, United States. It was chartered on December 11, 1891. The population was 7,764 at the 2010 census. Hartsville was chosen as an All-America City in 1996 and again in 2016. Harts ...

. She graduated from

Winthrop College Winthrop University is a public university in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was founded in 1886 by David Bancroft Johnson, who served as the superintendent of Columbia, South Carolina schools. He received a grant from Robert Charles Winthrop, ...

with a degree in library science and attained a master's degree in history from Emory University.

Career

Jordan joined the

in 1932 when she was assistant librarian at Emory's medical library. In 1933 she took over from Mary Myrtle Tye as head of the A.W. Calhoun Medical Library. During World War II, Jordan served as the regional director of the

Army Medical Library The Library of the Surgeon General's Office, later called the Army Medical Library, was the institutional medical literature repository of the U.S. Army Surgeon General from 1836 to 1956 when it was transformed into the National Library of Medic ...

of the United States, bringing these materials and services to the city of Atlanta. Following the war, she also held the title of Professor of Medical Bibliography and taught a special course in medical librarianship, a field she helped develop.

Service to the library community

In 1948, Jordan proposed to the Medical Library Association a process of professionalization and certification for medical librarianship, and she was involved in establishing the professional credentialing program that is now called the Academy of Health Information Professionals or AHIP. She served as president of the Medical Library Association in 1960.

Legacy

In 1965, Jordan won the Marcia C. Noyes Award, the highest professional distinction awarded by the Medical Library Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Mildred M. Year of birth missing 1965 deaths 20th-century American librarians 20th-century American women librarians Academic librarians People from Hartsville, South Carolina Emory University School of Medicine faculty Emory University faculty Winthrop University alumni Emory University alumni Medical librarians