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Survey of Regional Medical Libraries Raises Important Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

George J. Annas*
Affiliation:
Center for Law & Health Sciences, Boston University School of Law

Extract

The Boston University Center for Law and Health Sciences has recently completed a questionnaire survey of the country's eleven regional medical libraries (RML's). These libraries were so designated following passage of the Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965. The purpose of the program is to make the growing medical and scientific literature available to all “qualified persons” regardless of their geographical location. The statute provides, inter alia, that “qualilied persons and organizations shall be entitled to free loan services.“

The Center undertook this survey to determine what steps these libraries, which receive federal funding to help them perform as regional resources, were taking to make their collections available to those who needed to use them. All eleven libraries responded in some way to the questionnaire, although one, listed by H.E.W. as the “Midcontinental Regional Medical Library” in Omaha, Nebraska, responded that it was not a library at all, but only involved in “planning and coordinating” a library program.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1975

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