The Eskind Biomedical Library is internationally known for its cutting-edge information services and resources.
Irwin Eskind’s legacy includes library, Diabetes Clinic
Irwin Eskind and his wife, Annette, have been generous supporters of Vanderbilt University Medical Center for decades. Two facilities on the Medical Center campus bear the family's name — the Eskind Biomedical Library and the soon-to-be completed Vanderbilt-Eskind Diabetes Clinic.
The Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) is the hub of the Medical Center's information services and resources. Construction of the award-winning library building, which opened in 1994, was made possible through a generous grant from the Eskinds. The EBL is a 78,000-square-feet facility with a staff of 50, providing access to materials to support the patient care, health care education, and biomedical research missions of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In addition to more than 200,000 print volumes, EBL provides an extensive digital library of electronic journals, books, databases and other resources.
EBL focuses on enabling information use at the point of need, developing innovative ways to integrate information into workflow. The Clinical Informatics Consult Service, the Patient Informatics Consult Service and the Research Informatics Consult Service place information specialists at the patient bedside or the research bench where they identify and meet information needs.
EBL provides a unique collection of rare books, photographs and historical items in its Historical Collection, and the Medical Center Archives serves as a repository for manuscripts and institutional records that reflect the history of the medical center and the history of medicine.
The Vanderbilt-Eskind Diabetes Clinic, an integrated diabetes care service that will allow patients with diabetes to have all their care in one geographic location, is scheduled to open this summer. The facility will be located on the eighth floor of Medical Center East in space that's currently being renovated.
"Dr. Eskind's tremendous vision and energy have really helped push the project through to completion," said Stephen N. Davis, M.D., Rudolph H. Kampmeier Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Diabetes and Endocrinology. "The clinic is going to be unique and is poised to be the best in the country. Dr. Eskind's vision will benefit hundreds of thousands of patients with diabetes in years to come. His passing is a tremendous loss to the diabetes community."