A glance back in time: Two decades at the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library

Abstract

This summer, the Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta in Edmonton celebrates 20 years at its current location in the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre. Named for the Dean of Medicine from 1948 to 1959, the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library opened its doors to the public in early August 1984. Plans for the new library and health sciences centre went through numerous iterations from the mid 1960s until construction began in the late 1970s. Regardless of the library’s location, from the new facility back through its previous sites, staff members have always worked in partnership with the rest of the university library system and the broader healthcare community to provide innovative services to students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians in central and northern Alberta. Within the Canadian context, the University of Alberta ranks as an older institution since it opened in 1908. The first medical school class began studies in 1913, and the Department of Pharmacy, a “sub-faculty” of Dentistry, and the Alberta Research Council were all established within the next few years. The School of Nursing opened in 1924, and the School of Physiotherapy in 1954. The health sciences faculties now include Medicine and Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Rehabilitation Medicine, each with a full range of undergraduate and graduate programs. The reading materials to support these programs were originally housed in the university’s only library in Athabasca Hall, one of the earliest multipurpose buildings on campus and still an architectural treasure. The collection moved into the new Arts Building a few years later, then into Rutherford Library when it opened in 1951. In 1963, the collection found a home in Cameron Library, which has primarily served the sciences since its opening. Although the Medical Library within Cameron served students, faculty, and clinicians well, as new teaching and research buildings were erected at the south end of campus around the University Hospital, users felt inconvenienced by the Cameron Library’s location. The number of books and photocopied articles delivered to the hospital reading room rose steadily. At the same time, medical faculty and University Hospital staff began to dream of a new specialist hospital that would provide greater opportunities for research and much needed new facilities for patient care. Enthusiasm for this specialist hospital, which on paper was named the Centennial Hospital, marked the first planning stage for a state-of-the-art health sciences centre, which would include an equally progressive health sciences library. In 1971, the Social Credit government in Alberta was defeated by Peter Lougheed’s Conservatives, who rejected the Centennial Hospital plans. Within a few years though, the young government commissioned and then endorsed a new plan for a university health sciences centre in Edmonton. While the faculty and staff at the University Hospital lacked enthusiasm for the vision expressed in the government-backed Clarkson Report, they worked within its constraints and won some modifications. Government approval to fund the health sciences centre loosely coincided with the establishment of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, marking a new era in health care and research in the province of Alberta. Phase 1 of the centre was to open in 1984 and include the new health sciences library. Bruce Peel, then Chief University Librarian, and Phyllis Russell, the Medical Librarian, planned extensively for the new library, basing decisions on careful research into user needs, publishing trends, and expected growth in teaching and research. They were originally allotted 20 000 square feet of space and successfully lobbied to increase that to more than 44 000 square feet. Around the time the library opened, it served an identifiable user population of about 4500 students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians in the city and beyond. Research funding for the health sciences faculties then amounted to a little more than CAN$3 million annually. As the library’s 20th anniversary approaches, the health sciences student body alone surpasses 4500, and external research funding in these faculties exceeds CAN$100 million. Eberhard Zeidler, well known for such landmarks as Canada Place in Vancouver and the Eaton Centre in Toronto, was chosen lead architect for the project. Zeidler integrated striking features typical of his style into both the Scott Library and the Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre as a whole. Lengthy skylights, massive glass ceilings, and extensive use of internal windows allow natural light to flow throughout the complex. Separate wings are joined on each floor by bridges marked by bright white railings, large round lanterns, and rows of potted plants. Atriums and courtyards fill the spaces between separate sections of the centre. The bright, airy, and open design suits Edmonton’s cold northern climate and vastly improves upon the early 20th-century hospital design it replaced.