摘要：In my first two months as president of the Medical Library Association, I have had the occasion to correspond with Janet Doe [1] and Mary Louise Marshall [2], two former presidents of MLA. I have never had the pleasure of meeting either of these two ladies who did so much for this association. Both had retired before my career began. As an entry-level librarian I became familiar with their names. They were coeditors of my well-worn edition of the Handbook of Medical Library Practice published by the American Library Association in 1956. This was the basic text in our field until the third edition was published in 1970. Little did I imagine that nine years later I would be actively involved as associate editor in the preparation of the fourth edition of the Handbook.
