How to Set up a Medical Library

A medical library is an essential reference tool for individual physicians, health care practice groups, resident physicians, and medical students. Establishing a medical library involves the organization and display of relevant materials that can assist clinical practice and research.

Things You'll Need

• Medical reference books
• Textbooks specific to your specialty
• Journal subscriptions
• Online reference access

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Instructions

• 1

  Purchase medical reference guides. No medical library is complete without a medical dictionary and atlas of anatomy. The Stedman's Medical Dictionary and Webster's Medical Dictionary are popular choices. Most physicians use either the Gray's Anatomy or Netter's Anatomy atlas.

• 2

  Select a few textbooks. Each medical specialty has its own iconic series of textbooks. These are often contradictory or guilty of gross omissions, and by the time a textbook is published much of the information may be obsolete. Nevertheless, textbooks form the core knowledge base for health care professions. A few notable textbooks include Harrison's Internal Medicine, Rosen's Emergency Medicine, Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine, Sabiston's Textbook of Surgery, and Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics. Every medical library should also include the Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking.

• 3

  Subscribe to a few key academic journals. Every medical library should have a few journal subscriptions so that users have access to cutting edge medical research and practice guidelines. Each specialty has it's own specific journals, while the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publish articles relevant to all specialties. The most recent issue of each of journal can be displayed prominently, then filed away on a shelf or in a labeled journal/magazine box when a new issue is available.

• 4

  Set up a computer with online access to additional resources. A computer with a few key online resources completes every medical library. MDConsult, UpToDate, and MEDLINE/Pubmed subscriptions provide a researcher with full text access to back issues of most important academic journals and hundreds of textbooks.