University of Virginia Library

University Begins Construction
On New Health Sciences Library

Ground was broken
yesterday for a modern
structure spanning Jefferson
Park Avenue which will house
the more than 170,000 volumes
of the University's new health
sciences library.

The new library will cost
about $3.1 million and is
scheduled for completion
sometime in 1975. Its modern
construction will allow for a
passageway from the
University hospital to the
teaching classrooms housed in
Jordan Hall and will include
seminar rooms, office space,
audio-visual rooms, carrel space
and reading rooms, as well as
spacious stack areas and
storage space.

The progression of the
University's health sciences
library from a small collection
of books to a comprehensive
information center that serves
not only students and faculty
in the medical and nursing
schools but also hospitals and
physicians in practice across
the state has not been a stable
or steady one.

University records show
that in 1825, Virginia Randolph
inventoried a group of medical
books purchased at the request
of her grandfather Thomas
Jefferson for his fledgling
University. There were 91
different titles in. "Anatomy
and Surgery," 238 titles in
"Medicine," and about 700
medicine, Dr. Robley
Dunglison, resigned from the
University in 1833, partially
out of exasperation at the lack
of adequate and up-to-date
medical books.

As a further woe, the 1895
fire which ravaged the Rotunda
also destroyed the portion of
the University library that
contained the medical books,
and the entire collection had to
be rebuilt from scratch.

The situation had changed
little from Dr. Dunglison's day
by 1908, when then Dean
Richard Whitehead wrote to the
President that "The absence of
anything approaching a
working library has been most
acutely felt by all who have
tried to undertake any
research."

Although a new era began
in 1929, when the library was
moved to new quarters in the
medical school building, the
situation was not rosy. In his
report to the President that
year, Dean James C. Flippen
said "The list of journals...is
very inadequate and pitifully
few books comprise the
collection."

By 1940 space became a
problem and a practice was
begun that was to repeat itself
for years to come–putting large
numbers of medical books into
storage areas located all over
the Grounds.

In fact, it was not until as
late as 1948 that the library
received any state
appropriation for the purchase
of medical books, and the first
annual state appropriation was
$1,500. For most of its history,
the medical library facilities
have had to depend on private
gifts, and in the very early
days, on the personal finances
of faculty members.

But in 1962, Dr. Wilhelm
Moll was appointed as the first
director of the medical library,
and plans got underway two
years later for a new building.
Toward the end of the decade,
the University increased its
communication with state
hospitals and practitioners
through the so-called VAMIS
program that employed
computer hookups to search
for and gather medical
information for thousands of
users.

The completion of the new
building will provide expanded
space for the continuation of
this type of program, although
funds will be needed to
implement it, since federal
funding for the VAMIS project
has been suspended, according
to Dr. Moll.

When he announced
approval of federal matching
funds for the new medical
library last summer, Vice