Marc Brodsky honored with emeritus status
Marc Brodsky, public services and reference archivist in University Libraries at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of associate professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2008, Brodsky made significant contributions to develop and expand the instructional programming for Special Collections and University Archives, spanning simple introductory sessions on using primary sources to more specialized instruction on historical topics.
Brodsky helped hundreds of students, ranging from grade school to graduate school, to complete assignments based on the use of primary sources; collaborated with dozens of faculty to develop instructional sessions for Virginia Tech students; and led an average of 25 instructional sessions per semester for 15 years, with at least five and as many as 40 students per class.
In addition, he introduced students to the challenges of reading and transcribing handwritten text from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries; and created and taught the popular “Demystifying Special Collections” instruction course, designed to reach library employees and new university graduate teaching assistants.
As part of his duties, Brodsky responded to thousands of virtual and in-person reference requests from researchers, administrators, faculty, students, journalists, television and film producers, genealogists, and community members and provided countless researchers with scanned material to support their research requests.
From 2021 to 2023, Brodsky served as acting university archivist, supporting activities for Virginia Tech’s 150th sesquicentennial celebration in 2022 and aided in the development of “Celebrating Virginia Tech: A Chronology of 150 Years,” a collaborative exhibit in Newman Library.
Brodsky received a National Distinction Award in 2019 and was nominated for the President’s Award for Excellence in 2019.
Brodsky published articles, book chapters, and short essays on the diverse topics of the archival challenges of teaching with primary sources, veterans studies, and science fiction collections. He presented papers at national, regional, state, and local professional conferences and other meetings on archival and historical topics and he served on committees for professional organizations including the Appalachian Studies Association, the Society of American Archivists, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. He served as an editorial board member of publications including the Smithfield Review, Appalachian Curator, and Archival Practice.
Brodsky received his bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College and a Master of Science in Library Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
