History of the Health Sciences Library

Architect's drawing of the Library in 1995 The Health Sciences Library began in the 1830s as the Library of Geneva Medical College. This collection was quite comprehensive for its time, and was expanded greatly by important donations from many GMC professors, especially Prof. of Botany and Medical Jurisprudence Anson Colman.

The GMC collection was transferred to the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1872, but remained mostly unused and untended until 1897 when Prof. of Ophthalmology Frank W. Marlow -- disturbed that students were not using the Library because there was no serviceable reading room -- hired a first-year medical student, Elizabeth Latimer Shrimpton, to reorganize the Library in the new medical school quarters on McBride Street.

At GMC and at the SU College of Medicine, the position of "Librarian" was just a pro forma appointment which rotated in brief terms among members of the medical faculty. But Marlow, who assumed this post in 1890, kept it for 51 years, even after his retirement from teaching. He apparently was so disillusioned by the impasse at which Library affairs stood in the 1890s that he was determined to make a change.

Shrimpton was the first "real" medical librarian at the SU College of Medicine. Her four years in charge marked the turning point for the Library in terms of its usefulness and relevance to modern medical education. Her effort and dedication rescued the Library from neglect and brought it into the 20th century with efficient methods of cataloging, inventory control, collection development, and reader services. She can be credited with instituting the policies and practices which continue to make the resources of the Library accessible to its main group of users, the medical community of Syracuse.

The Library in Shrimpton's time.

During Shrimpton's brief tenure and in the time shortly thereafter, major gifts from Stephen Smith, first public health commissioner of New York City and former schoolmate of Elizabeth Blackwell at GMC, from SU Prof. of Surgery John Van Duyn, and from the estate of SU Prof. of Anatomy Scott Owen -- as well as a large but inexpensive purchase from Philadelphia physician George Milbry Gould, founder and first president of the Medical Library Association, augmented the SU College of Medicine Library collection.

At the same time that Marlow hired Shrimpton, he also hired the first Assistant Librarian, Abby Bond, who served until 1906. Marlow continued, eventually with help from Dean Wharton Miller of the SU School of Library Science, to oversee the Medical Library until his death in 1941. Nevertheless, it was not until 1948 that the College of Medicine had its first professional Library Director. In the meantime, several Assistant Librarians ran the Library.

The Directors of the Health Sciences Library have been:

Ruth Bielby, 1948-1958
Clark Rumsey, 1958-1960 (interim)
Stanley E. Truelson, 1960-1964
Irwin H. Pizer, 1964-1969
Evelyn Hoey, 1969-1985
Suzanne H. Murray, 1985-1995
Peter A. Uva, 1995 (interim)
Patricia W. Onsi, 1995-1998 (interim)
Laurie L. Thompson, 1998-2003
Peter A. Uva, 2003 (interim)
Cristina A. Pope, 2004-

Under Pizer, the Health Sciences Library became the site of the world's first interactive online bibliographic retrieval service when, in 1968, he instituted the SUNY Biomedical Communication Network (SUNY BCN) on campus. By 1976, through the efforts of another former Health Sciences Library employee, Janet S. Egeland, BCN had evolved into a commercial system, Bibliographic Retrieval Services, Inc., later called BRS Online. Ovid Technologies bought BRS in 1994 and Wolters Kluwer bought Ovid in 1998. For more information on Pizer's and Egeland's pioneering work, see:

Egeland J. The SUNY Biomedical Communication Network: Six years of progress in on-line bibliographic retrieval. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1975 Apr;63(2):189-94.
Pizer IH. Looking backward, 1984-1959: Twenty-five years of library automation -- a personal view. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1984 Oct;72(4):335-48.

The SUNY Upstate Health Sciences Library today continues as a pioneer in library automation, striving to provide the fastest and most accurate online information retrieval for medical students, clinical practitioners, and bioscientists. Technological innovation goes hand in hand with our long tradition of putting service first. In the early 1990s, three Upstate librarians developed an efficient system for remote access to CD-ROMs. The Internet has since made that system obsolete, but it was state-of-the-art at the time:

Onsi PW; Capodagli JA; and Hawkins DK. Dial-in access to CD-ROM databases: beyond the local area network. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1992 Oct;80(4):376-9.

Our emphasis remains on providing the friendliest and most intelligent service to anyone who wishes to use the Library. Severe reductions in staff and budget since the mid-1990s have made maintaining a broad-based and up-to-date collection difficult, but we have not compromised our commitment to our users at all. As Laurie Thompson left in March 2003 to become Director of the Library of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, she wrote: "I was fortunate to be able to guide the Library through the early transitions to Web-based electronic resources. I helped move the Library from being a purely physical space to being virtual, available any time, anywhere it is needed while continuing to provide excellent, well-respected service. I am proud to leave that as my legacy."

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	History of the Health Sciences Library The Health Sciences Library began in the 1830s as the Library of Geneva Medical College. This collection was quite comprehensive for its time, and was expanded greatly by important donations from many GMC professors, especially Prof. of Botany and Medical Jurisprudence Anson Colman. The GMC collection was transferred to the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1872, but remained mostly unused and untended until 1897 when Prof. of Ophthalmology Frank W. Marlow -- disturbed that students were not using the Library because there was no serviceable reading room -- hired a first-year medical student, Elizabeth Latimer Shrimpton, to reorganize the Library in the new medical school quarters on McBride Street. At GMC and at the SU College of Medicine, the position of "Librarian" was just a pro forma appointment which rotated in brief terms among members of the medical faculty. But Marlow, who assumed this post in 1890, kept it for 51 years, even after his retirement from teaching. He apparently was so disillusioned by the impasse at which Library affairs stood in the 1890s that he was determined to make a change. Shrimpton was the first "real" medical librarian at the SU College of Medicine. Her four years in charge marked the turning point for the Library in terms of its usefulness and relevance to modern medical education. Her effort and dedication rescued the Library from neglect and brought it into the 20th century with efficient methods of cataloging, inventory control, collection development, and reader services. She can be credited with instituting the policies and practices which continue to make the resources of the Library accessible to its main group of users, the medical community of Syracuse. The Library in Shrimpton's time. During Shrimpton's brief tenure and in the time shortly thereafter, major gifts from Stephen Smith, first public health commissioner of New York City and former schoolmate of Elizabeth Blackwell at GMC, from SU Prof. of Surgery John Van Duyn, and from the estate of SU Prof. of Anatomy Scott Owen -- as well as a large but inexpensive purchase from Philadelphia physician George Milbry Gould, founder and first president of the Medical Library Association, augmented the SU College of Medicine Library collection. At the same time that Marlow hired Shrimpton, he also hired the first Assistant Librarian, Abby Bond, who served until 1906. Marlow continued, eventually with help from Dean Wharton Miller of the SU School of Library Science, to oversee the Medical Library until his death in 1941. Nevertheless, it was not until 1948 that the College of Medicine had its first professional Library Director. In the meantime, several Assistant Librarians ran the Library. The Directors of the Health Sciences Library have been: Ruth Bielby, 1948-1958 Clark Rumsey, 1958-1960 (interim) Stanley E. Truelson, 1960-1964 Irwin H. Pizer, 1964-1969 Evelyn Hoey, 1969-1985 Suzanne H. Murray, 1985-1995 Peter A. Uva, 1995 (interim) Patricia W. Onsi, 1995-1998 (interim) Laurie L. Thompson, 1998-2003 Peter A. Uva, 2003 (interim) Cristina A. Pope, 2004- Under Pizer, the Health Sciences Library became the site of the world's first interactive online bibliographic retrieval service when, in 1968, he instituted the SUNY Biomedical Communication Network (SUNY BCN) on campus. By 1976, through the efforts of another former Health Sciences Library employee, Janet S. Egeland, BCN had evolved into a commercial system, Bibliographic Retrieval Services, Inc., later called BRS Online. Ovid Technologies bought BRS in 1994 and Wolters Kluwer bought Ovid in 1998. For more information on Pizer's and Egeland's pioneering work, see: Egeland J. The SUNY Biomedical Communication Network: Six years of progress in on-line bibliographic retrieval. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1975 Apr;63(2):189-94. Pizer IH. Looking backward, 1984-1959: Twenty-five years of library automation -- a personal view. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1984 Oct;72(4):335-48. The SUNY Upstate Health Sciences Library today continues as a pioneer in library automation, striving to provide the fastest and most accurate online information retrieval for medical students, clinical practitioners, and bioscientists. Technological innovation goes hand in hand with our long tradition of putting service first. In the early 1990s, three Upstate librarians developed an efficient system for remote access to CD-ROMs. The Internet has since made that system obsolete, but it was state-of-the-art at the time: Onsi PW; Capodagli JA; and Hawkins DK. Dial-in access to CD-ROM databases: beyond the local area network. Bull.Med.Lib.Assoc. 1992 Oct;80(4):376-9. Our emphasis remains on providing the friendliest and most intelligent service to anyone who wishes to use the Library. Severe reductions in staff and budget since the mid-1990s have made maintaining a broad-based and up-to-date collection difficult, but we have not compromised our commitment to our users at all. As Laurie Thompson left in March 2003 to become Director of the Library of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, she wrote: "I was fortunate to be able to guide the Library through the early transitions to Web-based electronic resources. I helped move the Library from being a purely physical space to being virtual, available any time, anywhere it is needed while continuing to provide excellent, well-respected service. I am proud to leave that as my legacy."