Present at the creation: the founding and formative years of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries.

The Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) was founded in 1978 with the goal of strengthening academic health sciences libraries and increasing their participation nationally in efforts to improve medical education. A primary objective of the organization was to achieve a formal relationship with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) through membership in the Council of Academic Societies (CAS). Initial steps in establishing AAHSL are examined, including its efforts to join CAS. The author pays tribute to AAHSL's founders, in particular Gerald Oppenheimer, without whose vision and leadership AAHSL would not have been formed.