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Developments in health sciences libraries since 1974: from physical entity to the virtual library
Library Trends, Summer, 1993 by Frieda O. Weise
Abstract
This article provides an overview of the shaping forces in health sciences libraries during the last two decades and a discussion of selected developments which had a profound effect on their evolution from the physical entity to the virtual library. These developments include the advent of online searching, the development of integrated library systems and networked resources, the expansion of interlibrary loan and document delivery systems, and the concept of the Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAIMS). The contributions of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to health sciences libraries and biomedical communications are described. Conclusions and observations suggest that libraries and librarians will play a greater role in information access and management than they have in the past as networked information continues to expand.
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Introduction
When the Ptolemies created the Alexandria Library around 300 B.C., they could not have imagined in their wildest dreams that civilization's store of knowledge would someday reside on microchips and be instantly retrievable by computers. They created something entirely new in their day; a general reference library where scholars could come and study books they themselves could not afford in their personal collections. To create a usable library, however, they also had to invent library science, a system for organizing and cataloging the collections. This work was accomplished by appointing a chief librarian, Zenodotus of Ephesus (Casson, 1985, p. 162). Unfortunately, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 42 B.C. when fighting ensued between Julius Caesar's forces and opponents of Cleopatra. The idea of the "library," however, had been born and has flourished throughout the world's civilizations until this day and will likely continue, albeit perhaps in a different guise than in the past.
The Alexandria Library was part of a complex where students could carry on varied pursuits. It had a dining hall, private studies, laboratories, and a promenade for thoughtful strolling. In short, it was a place people would want to go to learn, reflect, and study, as well as create. Until fairly recently, perhaps until the last ten years, the library was still largely considered a place. But all things change, and the library is now often referred to as the "virtual library," a term coined in 1990. A "virtual library" is described as "a system by which a user may connect transparently to remote libraries and databases using the local library's online catalog or a university or network computer as a gateway" (Saunders, 1992, p. 66). In the "virtual library," it is not necessary to come to a specific place to use the library's materials.
Shaping Forces
Libraries have undergone many changes during the last twenty years. Several societal forces which have worked to shape health sciences libraries during the last two decades are the information explosion, computer technology and telecommunications, and eeconomic pressures. The incredible rate of new scientific publications has been well documented. In Science Since Babylon, Price (1961) charted the growth of science in published form and found it to be exponential rather than linear. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education stated that: "Publication of scientific journals began in about 1665.... In 1800, there were about 100 journals; there were 1,000 by 1850, and some 10,000 by 1900. Currently there are close to 100,000 journals, and, since the seventeenth century, their number has doubled every 15 years" (Gifford, 1992, p. A24).
Since no library can hope to store or purchase this vast amount of material, there is an increasing shift from ownership of materials to access - the shift from the physical entity to the virtual library. Fortunately, computing and telecommunications technologies are providing rapid electronic retrieval and document delivery systems to the vast reservoirs of knowledge available.
Advances in technologies in the 1970s and 1980s created a new infrastructure for health sciences libraries and changed the way they function and provide services. The introduction of MEDLINE in 1971, the development of end-user searching systems, and the advent of national networks have altered the service roles of health sciences libraries radically, just as the introduction of integrated library systems changed the way internal library functions are performed. As the librarian's world has changed, so has that of the client, the researcher, the educator, and the clinician. Personal computers have become commonplace, campuses are "wired," and sophisticated computerized diagnostic tests are the norm in hospitals and academic medical centers.
Since World War II, the burgeoning health care industry and its rising costs have had a marked impact on health sciences libraries in both academic medical centers and hospitals. In 1978, the health care industry accounted for 9.1 percent of the gross national product (GNP), up from 6.8 percent ten years earlier (Crawford, 1981, p. 2237). By 1990, health spending comprised 12.4 percent of the GNP (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991, p. 4). How has this affected health sciences libraries? An analysis of several surveys (Crawford, 1983, p. 17) shows that, during the 1970s, medical school libraries increased by 25 percent from 101 to 126. Hospital libraries also increased by 13 percent from 1,727 to 1,949. Other types of health sciences libraries, such as those of state or county medical societies, decreased by 59 percent.
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