Former WSU Librarian Vicki Croft Elected MLA Fellow

Vicki F. Croft, retired head of the WSU Animal Health Library, has been elected a Fellow of the Medical Library Association, a nonprofit, educational organization with more than 4,000 health sciences information professional members and partners worldwide.

MLA Fellows are members elected by a board of directors for sustained and outstanding contributions to health sciences librarianship and to the advancement of the association’s purposes. The fellowship is one of MLA’s highest honors.

According to Croft’s nominators, she is a well-respected leader in medical librarianship with great passion and commitment to MLA for more than 40 years at the national, section and chapter levels. Additionally, Croft is well known on the international stage for her activities in the MLA International Cooperation Section and International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists.

Croft has authored or coauthored numerous papers, conference papers, presentations and book chapters. Some of her most important contributions to MLA and veterinary medical librarianship have been in the preservation of its literature and the history of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section. These efforts have spanned digitization projects, publications, oral histories and presentations.

Other evidence of Croft’s professional reputation includes recognition by the MLA Collection Development Section with the Daniel T. Richards Prize for the best published article on health sciences collection development in 2011. The coauthored article, published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association,outlined the basic list of veterinary serials. Croft has demonstrated continuous scholarly activity over several decades and has helped to develop veterinary medical librarianship everywhere.

Croft retired from the WSU Animal Health Library in 2014 after 38 years of service. For a more detailed article on Croft’s career, see the following WSU News article.