The symposium on the creation and achievements of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) [1] demonstrates the differences in how health sciences library associations have been formed in Canada and the United States. As described in the symposium, the more “specialized” AAHSL was formed by members of the more “general” Medical Library Association, founded over seventy-five years earlier. In Canada the reverse occurred and the foundation of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) followed fifteen years after the creation of an association by and for Canadian medical school library directors.
As described by Heaton [2], the Canadian equivalent of AAHSL—now called the Committee on Medical School Libraries of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges—was formed in 1961 as the Committee on Medical Science Libraries of the Canadian Library Association. In 1967, this group became a standing committee of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges (ACMC). It remains active and its membership now consists of the directors of all sixteen Canadian medical school libraries, the head of the Health Canada Library, and a representative from the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI). The committee meets during the annual meeting of the ACMC, coordinates its activities with the CHLA, works closely with other ACMC committees and the ACMC Executive, has produced annual statistics since its foundation, and maintains an active discussion list.
The CHLA was founded in 1976 [3] following recommendations from an ad-hoc committee established by the ACMC Committee and the Canadian Section of MLA. Prior to the creation of the CHLA, Canadian health sciences librarians had created a number of informal local groups, often affiliated with a medical school library and had formed a Canadian Section of MLA. The section, which dissolved soon after the formation of CHLA, met only at the MLA annual meeting, and was more social than professional.
References
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- Heaton G.. Highlights of the history of Canadian medical school librarians. Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana. 1983;4(4):82–84. [Google Scholar]
- Crawford DS.. CHLA/ABSC 25 years on. Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana. 2000;22(2):71–73. [Google Scholar]