| The Houston Academy of Medicine -Texas Medical
Center Library was founded in the Texas Medical Center in 1949.
At that time, two existing medical libraries -- the Houston Academy
of Medicine Library and Baylor
College of Medicine -- combined their collections to better
serve the physicians in Harris County and the teaching and research
programs of Baylor.
The Houston Academy of Medicine brought nearly 18,000 volumes
to the 1949 merger. The Baylor College of Medicine brought almost
16,000 volumes. In 1954 the Library moved from the Roy and Lillie
Cullen Building of the Baylor College of Medicine into the new
Jesse H. Jones Library Building.
As the Texas Medical Center expanded through the 60's so did the
Library. In 1970 the University of Texas Medical School was established
in Houston. With the Operating Agreement of 1970, the Library
came under the joint governance of six Participating Institutions
through a board of directors and under the operational administration
of an executive director. In 1992, this joint governance expanded
to seven Participating Institutions with the addition of Texas
A&M University.
Participating Institutions are:
The Library also receives funding from fourteen Texas Medical
Center Supporting Institutions.
Currently, the Library contains 76,500 square feet of space,
and holds over 333,000 book and journal volumes Additionally,
the Library has subscriptions to over 100 electronic databases
and over 4,000 electronic journals. In 2002 the Library added
a new facility, the Historical Research Center which houses the
archives of the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research
center and many of the Library's older books and journals.
Since 1991 the Library has served as the Regional
Medical Library for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine,
South Central Region, with responsibility for the library needs
of health professionals in the 5 state region of Arkansas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. So designated by the National
Library of Medicine, there are only eight Regional Medical Libraries
in the nation.
The Library serves as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for
the National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region
(NN/LM SCR); one of eight RMLs in the US. This designation has
been retained by the Library via a competitive process through
the National Library of Medicine, since 1991. The mission of the
NN/LM SCR is to provide all health professionals with equal access
to biomedical information and to improve the public's access to
information to enable them to make informed decisions about their
health in the five state region of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and Texas.
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