The University of Queensland

1. Purpose of the collection

The Biological Sciences Library, St Lucia Campus, together with the three joint university/hospital libraries, Herston Health Sciences Library, the Princess Alexandra Hospital Library and the UQ/Mater McCauley Library maintain and develop the Library's collection in the area of medicine.

The Biological Sciences Library supports the teaching of the Graduate Medical Course in the first (preclinical) year. The three hospital libraries support the teaching and research activities of the Graduate School of Medicine as well as the clinical, research and teaching activities of Hospital staff.

Until recently, the medical degree course was six years, where the first three years were spent on the St Lucia campus and the final three clinical years in the three major teaching hospitals. Biological Sciences Library served medical students while on St Lucia campus, and the Herston Health Sciences Library was considered the main library for students in their clinical years. In 1997 the undergraduate medical course was replaced by a four year graduate entry course, where the emphasis was on the development of problem based learning and a reliance upon a range of information resources to support teaching and learning. Teaching of first year students remained on the St Lucia campus and the remaining years in the teaching hospitals.

2. Primary user groups served

• Staff of the University of Queensland School of Medicine, and Departments of Surgery, Paediatrics and Child Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology, Psychiatry, Social and Preventive Medicine, and the Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition, and the Clinical Schools.
• Undergraduate students undertaking the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery

• all categories of Hospital staff at each campus
• Staff of associated research institutes e.g. Mater Medical Research Institute, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Queensland Radium Institute

3. Description of existing collection

The collection is housed in different locations (St. Lucia and the three hospital sites) to service the teaching, clinical and research needs of the School of Medicine and the three teaching hospitals.

Biological Sciences Library has the largest collection in anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, while the hospital libraries have collections in clinical medicine and nursing. The clinical collection in Herston Health Sciences Library is by far the largest and most comprehensive and reflects the age of the collection and the significantly higher level of funding it receives.

In medicine, the primary literature is the periodical collection, which accounts for over 80% of the collection. The policy is to collect monographs published in the past ten years. Two small collections of books of historical interest are held – the Otto Hirshfeld Collection in the Herston Health Sciences Library and the Classics of Surgery in the Mater Library.

As the majority of the postgraduate courses are run from the Herston campus the Herston Health Sciences Library hold collections relating to: Addiction; Psychotherapy; Community Health; General Practice; Public Health; Tropical Nutrition.

The University of Queensland Library has many electronic databases that are accessible in all branch libraries. These include: Cochrane Library; Medline; Web of Science; CINAHL; Biological Abstracts.

The Library also has electronic access to collections of full text journals including: Cambridge University Press journals; Academic Press online library (IDEAL); InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP; LINK (Springer publications); Blackwell Science journals.

4. Interdisciplinary relationships

1. Related subject areas

The Hospital libraries share common areas of interest with other libraries of the University and these include:

2. Co-ordination and Cooperation in Collecting

A formal policy exists designed to minimise duplication of books and to rationalise the serials collection across the various branches of the Library. However, in the case of medicine, demands placed on the collection by both the Graduate School of Medicine and the three hospitals necessitate the duplication of medical reference texts and some serial titles.

At present there is no formal co-ordination in collection with other institutions.

5. Scope of current collecting

1. Languages collected

The collection is predominantly English, although no language is excluded.

2. Geographical areas collected

No geographical areas are specifically excluded although Australian material is emphasised in areas such as annual reports. Herston Health Sciences Library attempts to collect Queensland medical publications in depth, with complete periodical holdings for all except the most ephemeral materials.

3. Chronological periods collected

Emphasis is on current material published in the last 10 years. Historical collections are held in some libraries.

4. Types (formats) of material collected or excluded

Material in all formats is collected. A feature of the Graduate Medical Course is the use of information technology in its delivery. As a result, where appropriate, every opportunity is taken to acquire resources in electronic form, particularly if able to be networked.

5. Publication dates

The Library collects only current material.

6. Special considerations

The Library provides funds to support undergraduate medical teaching. The funds are distributed between the three Hospital libraries. The University and individual hospital, jointly fund the purchase of material to support the clinical and research activities in the hospitals. Separate funds are provided by the hospitals to support nursing.

7. Conspectus

In the last Conspectus the collection was rated as follows: