Medical Libraries Head of Technical Services and Archivist Miriam Hudgins to Retire Following 37 Years of Service

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Miriam Hudgins

MACON – Miriam Hudgins, head of technical services and archivist for Mercer University School of Medicine’s Dr. W. Douglas and Jane G. Skelton Medical Libraries, recently announced her retirement, effective June 30, following 37 years of service to the University.

Hudgins began her library career at Mercer Law School’s Furman Smith Law Library. She later transitioned to the University’s Eugene W. Stetson Memorial Library, where she served as a charter member of the Council of Librarians, as well as a member of the planning committee for the Jack Tarver Library.

Hudgins joined the Skelton Medical Library in 1986 and aided with cataloging holdings for hospitals in the Georgia Interactive Network for Medical Education (GaIN), a Mercer-based electronic healthcare nonprofit. In 1993, she became the first archivist for the School of Medicine.

Her contributions to the School of Medicine and medical libraries also include serving on planning committees for events and initiatives such as the annual Women in Medicine celebration, recognition of Dr. Ed Roberts and the School’s charter Class of 1986, and dedication of memorial portraits of Nancy Van De Water and Jocelyn Rankin.

“Miriam has been a valuable member of the School of Medicine and the Skelton Medical Libraries,” said Kim Meeks, director of the Skelton Medical Libraries. “The medical libraries will truly miss her knowledge and expertise and wish her many happy years of retirement.”

A reception celebrating Hudgins’ retirement will be held June 21 at 2:30 p.m. at the Skelton Medical Library in Macon.

About Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)

Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 65 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School’s primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon; Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah; and Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master’s degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences.