A remarkable career

Dear Colleagues,

We are saddened to learn that Mark Hodges, director of the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center from 1972-June, 1995, died suddenly and unexpectedly on April 2. Mark was a dedicated employee of Vanderbilt and worked to grow the medical library from a collection of around 100,000 items in 1972 to over 200,000 in 1994. He also led the introduction of early electronic technologies and improvements in services such as document delivery and outreach. He was actively involved in planning for the award winning Eskind Biomedical Library building, completed in 1994, and established a separate Special Collections department for the EBL.

Mark was also an active member of the Medical Library Association (MLA), serving as parliamentarian for 7 years and obituaries editor for the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) from 2001 to the present. Mark was awarded the MLA Fellow title in 1995. He served as the MLA's unofficial historian and had the honor of giving the association's annual Janet Doe lecture in 1997. He was also a charter member of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AASHL) and active member of the Southern Chapter of the MLA (SCMLA). Mark also founded the Mid-Tennessee Health Sciences Librarian Consortium and was a fellow of the United Kingdom's Library Association. He was an active contributor of reports to the Library Association's bulletin.

He is survived by his wife, Judith, and son and daughter, Thomas and Sarah. We will miss his vast knowledge of the profession, gentlemanly manner, and gracious spirit.

Regards--
Nunzia Bettinsoli Giuse, M.D., M.L.S., A.H.I.P.
Director, Eskind Biomedical Library
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Eskind Biomedical Library