Profile: Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Celebrates 75th Anniversary

YaleNews provides a nearly 2400 word profile of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.
From the Article:

Over the years, the library has adapted and grown to meet the changing needs of its patrons. It was renovated and enlarged in 1990 through an $8 million donation from Betsey Cushing Whitney, Harvey Cushing’s daughter. The project connected the branches of its Y-shaped layout, essentially doubling the library’s size with the addition of a reference room and added stack space.
Digital technology has greatly expanded the resources the library offers its patrons. In 2004, the library began transitioning from purchasing print journals — the basis of most medical and scientific research — to digital subscriptions.  The library currently licenses more than 23,000 biomedical online journals.
“The most we ever subscribed to in print was about 2,400 or 2,500. It’s increased 10-fold in the space of 12 years,” Gallagher said. “That was a massive transition for the library. It made it much easier for researchers to access the content they need through their fingertips on a laptop rather than having to come to the library.”
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s the curricula of the schools’ programs are being redesigned, librarians are becoming more integrated into education. For example, Dr. Charles Duncan, professor of neurosurgery and of pediatrics, is working with library staff to create a series of teaching videos to guide medical students through every phase of a dissection. The idea is that students will watch the videos and come to class better prepared to learn.
The videos are narrated, and each anatomical structure is carefully labeled. They have completed 17 videos with about another 40 in the works.

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