PAUL VAIGINAS

April 2001

MAHSLIN, our association of professionals, has been dedicated to providing and facilitating access to health information resources and services for over twenty years. In establishing its "Hall of Fame," MAHSLIN has sought to recognize the performance and leadership of members and supporters of the health sciences library community.

This year, the Executive Board of MAHSLIN has chosen one outstanding candidate, PAUL VAIGINAS, Medical Librarian of the West Campus Library of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

In 1975, in response to the reduction of interlibrary loan service from the Regional Library, Paul founded the Boston Biomedical Library Consortium, one of the models for no-charge inter-library cooperation for the state of Massachusetts.

For the first four years of its existence, Paul served as Chair, then, later, for many years, as its interlibrary loan and salary statistics coordinator. Although some members lacked enthusiasm for keeping such statistics, many benefitted from showing them to their administrators from time to time. As a precursor to MAHSLIN, an ad hoc committee with representatives from each Massachusetts consortium came together to produce the first Massachusetts medical library Union List of Serials. Paul was assigned to negotiate with the computer firm that produced it and to supervise its production. At the last meeting of the union list committee, its members agreed to expand and professionalize their activities as a new organization, the Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network, better known as MAHSLIN. Paul was an enthusiastic booster of MAHSLIN. His initial assignment for MAHSLIN was to arrange with an artist to design MAHSLIN's first logo, the letters MAHSLIN in electronic typography, green on a beige background.

Paul was later the Chair of the Membership Committee, from 1981-85, and for over 12 years, up to 1999, the coordinator for MAHSLIN's annual interlibrary loan statistics reports. Paul has been a medical librarian for over 30 years: 8 years at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital and over 22 years at the Deaconess Hospital, now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In 1979, at the Deaconess, he established a Clinical Library Service, precursor and equivalent to the "informationist", that ran for 9 years. He introduced user-friendly MEDLINE searching to the staff of the Deaconess and engaged in moving the Library to new quarters, twice.

Paul has recently served as a consultant to the Lithuanian Government in the design of their National Library of Medicine in Vilnius, as well as advising the librarians and assisting with the shipping of donated materials to the library. Paul's major outside interest is music by contemporary composers. It is rumored that he makes a superb boeuf bourgignon every year for the BBLC potluck supper, and that he always takes his birthday off. To quote Barbara Pastan, "He is absolutely the paradigm for librarianship. He has always run a very efficient library, whether he had four in help or only one. [He] has kept up with new technology, [and] has never sought power or thanks or `Librarian of the Year' for himself. He just does what he does because it's the right way to do it." Paul, it is my great pleasure to present you with this certificate in honor of your career from the members of MAHSLIN.

April 26, 2001

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