Bernice Hetzner (1909-1998), director of the UNMC library for 26 years, was a nationally recognized medical librarian who inspired a generation of young professionals with her vision and dedication to library service.
Hetzner received her bachelors degree from Creighton University in 1933, majoring in social sciences and French. She went to the University of Denver, where she received a degree in library science (1934), followed by a master’s degree in education from Colorado State University (1935), where she held her first position as a professional librarian.
From 1935 to 1946, she held a series of library positions in Omaha, Los Angeles and Lincoln. Hetzner was appointed assistant librarian for cataloging at UNMC in 1947 and was named library director the following year, a position she held until her retirement in 1973.
Hetzner also held appointments as professor of library science, director of the Midcontinental Regional Medical Library and professor emeritus upon her retirement. Through the Medical Library Assistance Act, she secured the funds to construct a new medical library at UNMC, which opened in July 1970 and was designated the McGoogan Library of Medicine in 1978.
Hetzner received many honors and awards throughout her long and distinguished career. She served as a member and chair of numerous Medical Library Association (MLA) committees, on the MLA Board of Directors from 1959-1962, and as MLA president in 1971-1972. In 1971, she was appointed to the National Library of Medicine Board of Regents by President Richard M. Nixon, and she was the first librarian to serve in that role. In 1974, she was the first woman and one of the few non-physicians to receive UNMC’s Distinguished Service to Medicine Award. Cecil Wittson, M.D., former dean of the College of Medicine, credited Hetzner with giving Nebraska one of the outstanding medical libraries in the country, a fact he attributed to her dedication, scholarship, leadership and vision.
In 1990, the MLA named her a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals, its highest designation of competence. The Midcontinental Chapter of the MLA honored her in 1991 by creating the annual Hetzner Award to recognize an outstanding young medical librarian for leadership potential.
Hetzner was a prolific author, generating many articles, technical reports and consulting studies during her career. She is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s most accomplished and influential medical librarians.
Great Portrait!