Building new twenty-first century medical school libraries from the ground up: challenges, experiences, and lessons learned.

Nadine Dexter,Debra Rand,Joanne M Muellenbach,Bradley A Long,Elizabeth R Lorbeer,Matthew E Wilcox

doi:10.5195/jmla.2019.493

Abstract

The twenty-first century library at a newly opened medical school often differs from those at traditional medical schools. One obvious difference is that the new medical school library tends to be a born-digital library, meaning that the library collection is almost exclusively digital. However, the unique issues related to building a library at a new medical school are not limited to online collections. A unique start-up culture is prevalent, of which newly appointed directors and other library and medical school leaders need to be aware. This special paper provides an overview of best practices experienced in building new medical school libraries from the ground up. The focus is on the key areas faced in a start-up environment, such as budgeting for online collections, space planning, staffing, medical informatics instruction, and library-specific accreditation issues for both allopathic and osteopathic institutions.

Highlights

Since the turn of the century, there has been a significant increase in the number of allopathic and osteopathic medical schools that have received their initial accreditation as well as medical libraries to support them
While each medical library has been tailored to meet the needs of its respective new medical school, several themes have emerged that are common in new born-digital library implementations
Experiences shared amongst the new medical school library leaders can be relevant for library directors who are new to their roles, librarians who are at new regional campuses, and already established library directors who manage more traditional brick-and-mortar medical school libraries

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Since the turn of the century, there has been a significant increase in the number of allopathic and osteopathic medical schools that have received their initial accreditation as well as medical libraries to support them. An obvious trend in the libraries of these new medical schools is their focus on digital collections, rather than on collections in traditional print format. These new medical libraries tend to be born-digital, with collections that are almost exclusively online. The authors are library directors, library deans, and other library leaders who have leadership experience in one or more start-up medical libraries in medical schools of various types, including allopathic and osteopathic, independent and preexisting, and private and public university settings

BACKGROUND

CONCLUSION