A passion for the profession: a festschrift honoring Erich Meyerhoff.

An introduction to a series of essays honoring Erich Meyerhoff (1919-2015), AHIP, FMLA, who was active in and contributed to the Medical Library Association for generations.

Erich Meyerhoff: a man for all medical librarians.

Erich Meyerhoff-recipient of the Marcia C. Noyes Award, Janet Doe Lecturer, and Fellow-was one of the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) most illustrious members who contributed to the welfare of MLA and its members throughout his long life. The authors review his life and significant contributions to the health sciences library profession. Erich was a friend and mentor to countless medical librarians and was truly a man for all medical librarians.

The tenth Janet Doe Lecture, a forty-year perspective: still relevant after all these years.

Erich Meyerhoff was an academic health sciences librarian and a distinguished member of the Medical Library Association when he was invited to present the Janet Doe Lecture in 1977. His lecture on the state of the association is considered one of the finest Doe lectures and is still relevant more than forty years later, not only from an historical perspective, but also for his projections for the future and his prescient comments about the future of hospital librarianship and the important role of women in the association. Key 1977 Doe lecture topics are reviewed and updated in the context of the current health sciences library environment.

Julia M. Esparza, AHIP, Medical Library Association President, 2019-2020.

In this profile of Julia M. Esparza, AHIP, Medical Library Association President, 2019-2020, she is described as a pleasure to work with, practical, and intelligent, and she adds a spark of humor to any activity. Esparza has spent the last twelve years of her career in the Health Sciences Library and Department of Medical Library Science at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport. She is an excellent role model for medical librarians who want to engage in scholarly activities and is active in supporting the educational needs of health care providers, students, library personnel, and the community through her instructional efforts.

Beverly Murphy, AHIP, FMLA, Medical Library Association President, 2018-2019.

When I think of Beverly Murphy, AHIP, FMLA, three words come to mind: Bold, Brave, Brilliant. In every action that Beverly has undertaken as a health sciences librarian, she has demonstrated an innate ability to just "Be." Being bold, brave, and brilliant is just what she will need to be as the Medical Library Association's first African-American president since the association's founding in 1898.

In their own words: oral histories of Medical Library Association past presidents.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this lecture was to review the development of the Medical Library Association (MLA) oral history program and to highlight the oral histories of thirty-seven past MLA presidents to identify themes of common interest and relevance to current MLA members. METHODS: The lecture focused on three main topics discussed in many of the interviews: the presidents' backgrounds and how they came to be medical librarians, how MLA developed as an organization as a reflection of the growth of medical libraries, and the presidents' predictions and advice about the future. RESULTS: MLA presidents came from varied backgrounds and locales. As MLA grew from a small, intimate group into a multifaceted organization with a professional management staff, the workload of the presidents changed in scope. One recurring theme in the presidential oral histories was the power differential between men and women in the organization and the profession. MLA presidents reminisced about notable annual meetings and praised the positive impact of the organization on members' professional and personal lives. CONCLUSIONS: The lecture concludes with recommendations to the organization to increase the availability of the oral histories by providing online access for future interviews and to pay careful attention to their long-term preservation.

[An approach to the history of scientific documentation in Catalonia. The activity of María Serrallach Juliá (1905-1992) in the Seminary of Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (1937-1984)]. / Un acercamiento a la historia de la documentación científica en Cataluña. La labor de María Serrallach Juliá (1905-1992) en el Seminario de Química de la Universidad de Barcelona (1937-1984).

This article contributes a study of Maria Serrallach Juliá (1905-1992), one of the first specialised librarians in Spain. Between 1937 and 1975, she directed the Seminary of Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (initials in Spanish, SQUB), the name given to the space that resulted from the merger of the libraries of the Faculties of Pharmacy and Chemistry of the University. Serrallach turned the SQUB into a modern scientific documentation centre offering services that were practically non-existent in the rest of Spain. The publications and educational activity of Serrallach are also analysed. The history of the SQUB is studied until 1984, when SQUB was transformed into the Library of the Faculties of Physics and Chemistry of the University of Barcelona.

Eyes on the prize: reflections on the impact of the evolving digital ecology on the librarian as expert intermediary and knowledge coach, 1969-2009.

OBJECTIVE: The 2009 Janet Doe Lecture reflects on the continuing value and increasing return on investment of librarian-mediated services in the constantly evolving digital ecology and complex knowledge environment of the health sciences. SETTING: The interrelationship of knowledge, decision making based on knowledge, technology used to access and retrieve knowledge, and the important linkage roles of expert librarian intermediaries is examined. METHODOLOGY: Professional experiences from 1969 to 2009, occurring during a time of unprecedented changes in the digital ecology of librarianship, are the base on which the evolving role and value of librarians as knowledge coaches and expert intermediaries are examined. CONCLUSION: Librarian-mediated services linking knowledge and critical decision making in health care have become more valuable than ever as technology continues to reshape an increasingly complex knowledge environment.

The Maclagan family: six generations of service.

The Maclagans were a Scots family from humble origins who produced famous physicians and surgeons (two of them presidents of Royal Colleges), ministers of religion (including one archbishop and several missionaries), a director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, a famous anthropologist, many army officers, a leading Oxford historian, several town mayors and politicians. Their lasting legacies include many books, papers and reports, new university departments and degrees, a new and much-needed focus on public health and hygiene, the care of the mentally ill and the development of military medicine, as well as a heightened reputation for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Victoria & Albert Museum, all seemingly achieved without thought for personal aggrandisement. People who knew the Maclagans well characterised them by their energy, vision, graciousness, humour and commitment to serving others and their Christian faith.

Leibniz's women.

Enlightenment natural philosophers were linked to one another in an extended correspondence network, but the female participants in this international Republic of Letters are rarely mentioned. Gottfried Leibniz relied on several such women not only for financial patronage, but also for intellectual stimulation. Although this hardworking and underpaid librarian at the Hanoverian Court is now one of the world's most famous mathematical philosophers, the women on whom he depended for ideas as well as support have been largely forgotten.

A portrait of Fielding H Garrison (1870-1935): America's pioneering medical historian.

Fielding Hudson Garrison once remarked that because his birthday fell on 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day, he was "fated to suffer from in-ward hell-fire and brimstone all [his] life". Though said in jest, Garrison was a vulnerable, melancholic and self-confessed lonely man who found solace in the papers, periodicals and books of the Army Medical Library-today's National Library of Medicine. Over the course of approximately 25 years, and often while working in his spare time, Garrison went from a clerk in the world's largest medical library to America's pioneering and, arguably, most prolific medical historian, past or present.

[Paul Dorveau (July 21, 1851 - January 7 1938), a librarian of the Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris and cofounder of the Société d'histoire de la pharmacie]. / Paul Dorveaux (21 juillet 1851-7 janvier 1938) Bibliothécaire de l'Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris et cofondateur de la Société d'histoire de la pharmacie.

Paul Dorveaux was appointed librarian of the Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris in 1884. He was associated to the foundation of the Société d' histoire de la pharmacie in 1913 because of his numerous national and international relations. This physician scholar devoted his life to the study of the medical and pharmaceutical history. Born in Lorraine he published studies on Metz pharmacy history. We owe him publications on the statutes of apothecary communities, pharmacy shops and libraries inventories, apothecaries biographies, new editions of ancient pharmacy books and a host of medical sciences studies. Paul Dorveauz published about 300 books and articles.