Dennis Peterson has served as
Director of the David D. Palmer Health Sciences Library beginning July
1988. He was appointed an Instructor, and Public Services Librarian, to
the Palmer faculty in March 1978 with subsequent promotions in 1980 to
Assistant Professor; 1985 to Associate Professor and to the rank of
Professor in July 2001. Mr. Peterson was selected as Palmer College of
Chiropractic’s Outstanding Faculty of the Year for 1986.
A
native Iowan, Mr. Peterson earned an A.S. in Pre-Engineering Studies at
Iowa Western Community College in 1969; his BA in Philosophy from Iowa
State University of Science & Technology in 1974; and his MA in
Library & Information Science from the University of Iowa School of
Library and Information Science in 1976.
Mr.
Peterson has authored, edited book and book chapters including:
Chiropractic: An Illustrated History, published in 1994 by
Mosby-Yearbook publishers in collaboration with the 1995 Chiropractic
Centennial Celebration; Streams from the Fountainhead, an illustrated
history of Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Centennial Celebration
published in 1997; and publication of his research project Index to
Chiropractic Literature 1970-1979 printed in 1986.
Mr.
Peterson has authored/co-authored articles regarding library services
and chiropractic education in publications such as Bulletin of the
Medical Library Association, Iowa Library Quarterly, Journal of
Chiropractic Education, Research Forum, and Special Libraries. He has
also either presented or moderated at conferences including the
Association of Chiropractic Colleges Congress of Chiropractic Educators,
Medical Library Association, National Association of College &
Research Libraries conference and chiropractic conferences held at
Palmer College.
Currently, Mr.
Peterson is editor of the annual Chiropractic Colleges Required Textbook
List and PHSL’s monthly literature awareness letter The Nexus. He’s
also edited the Annual Statistics of Chiropractic College Libraries; and
worked with the National Library of Medicine as editor of the Recurring
Bibliography for Chiropractic.
As
Library Director and a faculty member, Mr. Peterson has served on
numerous Palmer College administrative, Faculty Senate, service,
planning and accreditation committees and task forces. He’s also served
with professional library associations and consortiums as either chair,
an executive committee officer or a committee or task force member. His
teaching and scholarships interests are best practices in library
management, Information Literacy Competencies and Bibliographic Database
Construction and Indexing.