Dennis Peterson, M.A.
Professor
563-884-5442 office
563-370-2170 cell
dennis.peterson@palmer.edu

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 Assocation, 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.