Overview

Did you know that Walter Reed was once a librarian at the National Library of Medicine? This book looks at the twenty-seven men and women who headed the National Library of Medicine. In its early years, the library was known as the Library of the Surgeon General s Office, and from 1836 to 1865 the Army Surgeon General acted in dual capacity as surgeon and librarian. The first person to hold this dual position (albeit informally) was Joseph Lovell, who began the library by purchasing copies of medical books for his own use. After Lovell died in 1836, his interim successor, Benjamin King, started the process of turning Lovell's collection into a formal library, which grew to become the National Library of Medicine we know today. As the decades passed, the name and functions of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office were transformed. In 1865, the roles of surgeon general and librarian were separated when Army Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes hired John Shaw Billings to run the library. Many decades later, in 1922, the Library of the Surgeon General s Office was renamed the Army Medical Library. Eventually, in 1956, the library was transformed into the institution known today as the National Library of Medicine.

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9781538180495

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The National Librarians of Medicine and Their Predecessors is at once a detailed historical contribution that provides extensive analysis of the library's development and a readable volume that considers political and military contexts. It is an essential book for all who are interested in the evolution of libraries and library history because of the National of Library of Medicine's central role in adopting the new technologies that influence modern librarianship. --Kathleen de la Pe�a McCook, Distinguished University Professor, School of Information, University of South Florida This valuable collection of biographical sketches illuminates how each director of the National Library of Medicine understood and shaped the crucial task of providing reliable medical information to practitioners and locates the Library in the sweep of the history of American medical practice. --Rena Selya, PhD, MLIS, Archivist, Historical Conservancy Department, Research Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Program in the History of Medicine

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Christian A. Nappo teaches for the Lee County, Florida School District and holds an MA in library and information science from the University of South Florida. He also holds an MS in criminal justice from the University of Alabama and an MA in history from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Previous books include Librarians of Congress (2016) and Presidential Libraries and Museums (2018), both published by Rowman & Littlefield.

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