Medical Departments in Public Libraries.

Abstract

In the world of industry we witness a tendency toward co-operation, unification and centralization. The one line store passes out of existence and its place is taken by the department store. The same tendency is prevailing in the educational world. The medical school proper is slowly disappearing and in its stead comes the medical department of the university. The libraries in large cities like New York, Chicago, Boston and elsewhere are becoming in one way or another merely departments of one great library system. The state libraries of several states have discarded the idea that its books are intended only for the delectation of the state solons—a law library pure and simple. These progressive libraries collect, preserve and make available for the citizens of the state books on agriculture in its various subdivisions, mining, engineering, natural philosophy, etc. Medical departments in public libraries were but few until 1898, 1 when