HSLIC’s former executive director Erika Love, passed away earlier this month. Erika was HSLIC’s second executive director from March of 1977 through June of 1996, and during her nearly 20-year span at UNM, Erika was instrumental in –
Erika served as president of the Medical Library Association (MLA) in 1977–1978. Erika vigorously advocated that health sciences librarians engage in research to maintain the vitality of their profession’s knowledge base. While at UNM, Erika was the Executive Committee Chair of TALON, the predecessor regional consortium to the South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium, for which she also served as Chair from 1986–1988. She was named MLA’s Jane Doe Lecturer in 1987; and in 1994, she received the Marcia C. Noyes Award, MLA’s highest professional distinction for outstanding contributions to medical librarianship.
Prior to joining UNM, Erika worked at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) as Deputy Associate Director for Library Operations during the development of MEDLINE. During this pivotal time in medical librarianship, she shared it was her “distinct privilege...watching from the inside the development of issues that turn[ed] into national and worldwide trends.” She also served as the director of the medical library at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1967-1972.
Erika grew up in Germany and moved to the United States where she studied library science at the University of Indiana.
Throughout her career Erika enjoyed being present at the beginning of new areas of librarianship, and said, “I never [told] people I was an information scientist...I've always been happy to say, ‘I am a librarian.’”
Poland UH. Erika Love. President, Medical Library Association 1978/1979. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1978 Jul; 66(3): 356-9. PMID: 354710; PMCID: PMC199502.
Love E. Research: the third dimension of librarianship. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1980 Jan;68(1):1-5. PMID: 7356492; PMCID: PMC226407.
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