At the end of 2023, we announced that Tim Butzen is now the owner of Doody Enterprises, Inc. and that I am retiring after a fulfilling 46-year career in medical publishing. Tim graciously extended to me the opportunity to offer some valedictory thoughts in this space. 

To have the sustained success Doody Enterprises, Inc. has enjoyed over the last 31 years is attributable to many factors. First, we have had exceptional employees throughout the years, talented, dedicated, and a pleasure to be around. The company’s operations have run on strong foundational software. Plenty of good fortune played a role as well. Often the company was in the right place at the right time when a growth opportunity presented itself.  

Despite the significance of these factors in our success, it is impossible to overstate the impact that the goodwill of others has had on the company. The bedrock of the company is the system we built 31 years ago to produce timely, expert reviews of newly published books in the health sciences. Our book review system is the result of the goodwill of hundreds of publishers sending us two copies of their newly published health sciences books and the goodwill of more than 10,000 academically affiliated health sciences professionals serving as reviewers of these books. These essential building blocks notwithstanding, no factor has been more important to DEI’s success than the contributions of health sciences librarians.  

From the earliest days, we have described our products and services as developed by librarians for librarians. We had a Library Board of Advisors even before we incorporated the company. Back in 1992, I met with about a dozen librarians active in health sciences libraries in Chicago to get their advice on the need for a systematic and comprehensive medical book review system. That group was responsible for developing the taxonomy for Doody’s Review Service®. They also introduced me to department heads at the six (at that time) academic medical centers in the Chicago area, many of whom accepted my invitation to serve as the first Editorial Review Group Chair in their specialty area(s) of interest.  

In 2004 when it was announced that the Brandon/Hill Selected Lists, a free acquisitions tool medical librarians had been using for the previous 30+ years, were no longer going to be published, our Library Board of Advisors served as the sounding board for our plan to fill the void with a new product that relied on the virtual collaboration of over 100 librarians. The result: the first edition of Doody’s Core Titles® (DCT), published in December of 2004. This year the company will publish the 21st version of DCT, due to the continued contributions of DCT’s Librarian Selectors. 

When the pandemic froze the world in March of 2020, librarians did not freeze, continuing to work every day (albeit most of them virtually) and providing the essential work of keeping front-line workers informed with the latest information about what we were learning about COVID-19. By May of 2020, DEI decided to publish a list of 90 essential books on subjects that were related to this infectious disease outbreak on our publicly available website, Doody’s Collection Development Monthly. Within a short time, this list generated several thousand hits. That gave birth to the quarterly Doody’s Special Topics Lists, a publication that is overseen by an Editorial Board of six health sciences librarians. Each quarterly list is researched and chosen by a panel of three librarians who are subject matter experts in the topic area of the list.   

These concrete examples of librarians’ contributions to the growth and development of Doody Enterprises support our claim that Doody’s products and services are developed by librarians for librarians. And just like the publishers and expert reviewers, the librarians make these vital contributions as an act of goodwill. So, a key to the sustainable success of our company is the willingness of publishers, academics, and librarians to collaborate on producing information that serves the mission of all three groups.  

It seems fitting, then, that the ownership of Doody Enterprises passes from a career-long medical publisher to an employee with an advanced degree in library and information science.    

In closing, I want to express my long-held heartfelt gratitude to all health sciences librarians who have contributed to the content we provide in our publications. It has been a rich and joyful experience to collaborate with you over the last three decades. I’m equally grateful to you, our readers and users, who by your open rates and click throughs demonstrate the value of the work and contributions of so many of your peers and others. I end with my best wishes, hoping all others involved in producing and consuming the vital content found in health sciences literature attach a lasting value to the librarians’ indispensable role in the health information chain. 

DCT Featured Article - February 13, 2024