Stephanie L. Normann, founding director of the University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health Library died in Houston, Texas, on July 10, 2011, after a brief illness. Stephanie had a distinguished career in medical library administration and health information sciences, supporting and enhancing public health research and practice. She served as the library's director from February 1970 through May 2001 and was the school's administrator for information resources from June 2001 until she retired in February 2002. As director, Stephanie had administrative responsibilities for planning, organizing, and directing the library, as well as preparing the library to use emerging and rapidly changing technologies. As administrator for information resources, she focused on developing public health informatics resources to support the school's faculty in their research and teaching missions.
Stephanie was born and reared in Philadelphia, and she earned her bachelor of arts degree in biology from Hood College in Maryland in 1956. Over the next several years, she worked at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado, and in the areas of cytology, genetics, and electron microscopy at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, and Wesleyan University's Department of Developmental Biology. She interlaced her work in scientific research labs with teaching general science to seventh and eighth graders in both Connecticut and Pennsylvania and took college-level coursework in topics as diverse as geomorphology, textile design, engineering, and meteorology. She also volunteered with the American Red Cross and became a Library of Congress–certified volunteer transcriber of Braille in 1963. In 1968, she received a US Public Health Service Traineeship Award from the National Library of Medicine that allowed her to earn her master's of science in library science from Case Western Reserve University, with a concentration in medical librarianship and health sciences information.
During her library career in Houston, she was a founding director of the Texas Health Sciences Library Consortium, a member of the University of Texas (UT) System Advisory Committee on Library Affairs, and a member of the Texas Council of State University Librarians. She also served on the UT Health Sciences Center–Houston's Committee on the Status of Women and served for ten years on the Texas Medical Center's (Information Technology) Network Technical Advisory Group. Stephanie was awarded six successive AIDS Community Outreach Project awards from the National Library of Medicine to create and sustain the Houston AIDS Information Link (HAIL) that brought Internet connectivity and HIV/AIDS online resources to Houston-based HIV/AIDS service agencies, clinics, and libraries. She also taught basic computer and Internet skills to participants in HAIL; outreach workers in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)–funded project, “Innovations in Syphilis Prevention”; and participants in the HIV advocacy training project, Project LEAP. As an early proponent of training health advocacy organizations in the use of Internet-based health information resources, Stephanie presented numerous papers in the United States and abroad on library outreach to community-based health organizations and their clients.
Stephanie was active in a number of professional societies and associations, having served as chair of the Texas Chapter, American Society for Information Sciences (ASIS), in 1976/77; chair of the ASIS mid-year meeting in Houston in 1978; chair of the ASIS Conference Committee in 1980/81; and member of the ASIS Board of Directors from 1982–1984. She also chaired the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) Public Health/Health Administration Libraries Section in 1978/79 and again in 1988/89. She served on MLA's Section Council from 1986–1988.
After retiring in 2002, Stephanie admitted that it took a little time to get rid of the guilty feelings of not working, but she also admitted that it was “really fun.” She enhanced her love of art by taking classes at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston's Glassell School of Art in painting, photography, and sculpture. She studied Chinese and Japanese watercolor painting and silk painting, and she traveled through Italy with her sculpture class. She especially enjoyed traveling, spending her days in museums and evenings at the symphony, opera, or ballet. Stephanie loved music deeply and was a solid supporter of the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Friends of Chamber Music, and Context, a Houston-based chamber-music ensemble. When possible, she combined her passions, as in her trip to Salzburg for Mozart's birthday celebrations, where she attended eleven concerts in eight days and still found time for a sleigh ride.
Stephanie enjoyed a wide and diverse circle of friends around the world whom she continually showered with kindnesses and encouragements. Ever the librarian, Stephanie regularly sent friends who were planning trips information about the best restaurants, the best hotels, the current must-see museum exhibits, and the musical or theatrical high spots along the route and at the final destination. She will be remembered by her many friends and colleagues for her delightfully throaty laugh, for her wit and her humor, for her style, and for her impeccable taste in food, wine, clothes, art, and music.
Stephanie is survived by her husband of fifty years, Dr. Nils Normann, of Houston, one sister, and nieces and nephews.
