BUSM Libraries

The Alumni Medical Library is located on the 11th, 12th, and 13th floors of the Instructional Building and serves the Boston University Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Public Health, the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences, and Boston Medical Center.

BUMC Library Spring 2010 holdings include extensive electronic collections comprised of 6,397 e-journals, 2,391 e-books, 251 databases, and 118 web-based Subject Guides. Print holdings include 142,755 print volumes, of which 29,971 are monographs. Additionally, library users have access to the University Libraries’ collections of more than 2.4 million physical volumes, 4.6 microform units, 45,264 current unique serials titles, and 77,000 media titles located at the Mugar (main University), Science/Engineering, and other BU libraries.

Electronic full-text journal collections include Elsevier ScienceDirect, Wiley InterScience, Springer and Nature Publishing packages. E-books include McGraw-Hill AccessMedicine, STAT!REF and Springer Medicine and Biomedical & Life Sciences collections. Databases include MEDLINE, Web of Science, BIOSIS, PsycINFO and ERIC.

As part of a recent Library renovation, the information infrastructure has been expanded to include 366 power connections, 124 ethernet connections, and wireless access for laptops throughout the Library and Learning Resources Center (LRC). The LRC, located within the Library, consists of 119 student computers in 5 computer classrooms and 66 fixed computers in 3 public computing areas. Classroom resources include SynchronEyes, Sympodium, Smartboards and other peripheral equipment. Public computers contain Microsoft Office 2007, bibliographic and knowledgebases, e-journal and e-book collections, the Library Catalog, Internet, evidence-based and other information resources.Laser printers and scanners are provided in public computing areas.

LRC staff support courses requiring technology integration and 3 LRC systems administrators also provide student laptop software and hardware support to meet the increasing demands for this service.

Materials not owned by the Alumni Medical Library may be obtained through the Interlibrary Loan Service network, which links Boston University to the National Library of Medicine and to academic and medical libraries around the country. The Library also participates in a cooperative agreement with 19 local university and medical center libraries as part of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC).

BUMC librarians provide a broad range of educational programming, including BUSM I and II Integrated Problems, and Family Medicine Clerkship curriculum-integrated information retrieval, management and evaluation skills classes. Librarians have provided a 2-credit GMS ‘Introduction to Biomedical Information’ course, and workshops to students, faculty, and staff. The Library’s Education program emphasizes life-long learning, information literacy, and skills specific to searching, critically evaluating and managing information.