Abstract
Monastic institutions, medical corporations and societies, teaching institutions, and research organizations have all played a part in the development of library facilities in Britain. Brief histories of the principal contributors to this development are given.
Until recent times private institutions took a greater share than the State in providing and conserving medical literature, and, although the country is now in a very fortunate position, being well stocked with a wide variety of such material, a significant proportion of it is the property of these private institutions and not all of it is freely available. There is still the need for a national library of medicine and for better coordination of existing material.
Libraries in hospitals and nurse-training schools are not always adequate. Medical librarians are well organized and in good standing.
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Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
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