The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Harvard Medical Library- Medical Library By CHARLES C. COLBY, III, Librarian

RALPH T. ESTERQUEST, Librarian Harvard Medical Library

ON TUESDAY evening, January 5, 1960, the Fellows of the Boston Medical Library authorized the Trustees of the Library to sign an agreement with the President and Fellows of "to combine the collections, facilities and services of the Harvard Library and the Library of the Boston Medical Library in a new building to be erected at the Harvard Miedical School" (1). This approval, following that of the Harvard Corporation on November 16, 1959, makes possible the fulfillment of a dream cherished by many in the Boston area for a number of years, namely, the creation of a single great medical research library in Boston, which will contain most of the significant medical writings of both the past and present and will have sufficient financial resources to house these writings properly and make them available as needed. The purpose of this brief report is to present the facts and events behind this important joint decision and to summarize the main features of the planned collaboration. The Boston Medical Library is one of the three or four largest medical li- braries in the United States, possessing outstanding medico-historical collec- tions and good modern collections. Its policy in the last several decades has been to serve as the central medical reference library for the New England states, with special emphasis on as a whole and the Boston area in particular. However, it has suffered the financial privations common to most society-owned libraries and the gap between the demands made upon the Library and the services actually rendered by it has steadily widened. Its Trustees have succeeded in more than doubling its income since 1947 and have raised more than half a million dollars since 1953 for building improvements and additions to capital, but even these heroic efforts have failed to alleviate its financial and operational distress. The background of the situation may be 121 122 CHARLES C. COLBY, III AND RALPH T. ESTERQUEST obtained from Farlow's History (2), Fleming's Survey (3), the published annual reports of the Library, 1918-1954, and the editorials and notes which have appeared from time to time in the New England Journal of Medicinie from 1955 to date. Scarcely more than a mile away the operates its own medical library. This Library in recent years has also failed to meet com- pletely the needs of the group it serves, due in part to crowded and inefficient quarters, but also because there has been a traditional reluctance at Harvard to build a large, self-sufficient collection as long as the resources of the Boston Medical Library were available. In the fall of 1958 the Harvard Medical School announced that it had re- ceived a gift of $3,500,000 from Miss Sanda Countway for a new library building, and that it was embarking on a major library-development program to meet the greatly increased needs of its large community of faculty, students and research fellows. Details of the planned Harvard program were reported by Burwell (4) and Esterquest (5). The announcement suggested to the Trustees of the Boston Medical Library that an unusual opportunity might be available, and, in accordance with this idea, the Boston Medical Library officers called upon the chief officers of the Harvard Medical Library on December 9, 1958, and proposed that conversations be conducted to explore the desirability of joining forces. After a period of informal conferences, during which agreement was reached on the basic principle of a collaborative library service, each of the parties (the Boston Medical Library Trustees and the Harvard Corporation) ap- pointed a negotiating committee. These two committees first met on April 21, 1959. Following this formal meeting there were a great many conferences of subcommittees and smaller groups. By the end of June, the terms of an agree- ment were settled and a "Letter of Agreement" was drafted by the legal counsels of the two institutions. On November 16, the Harvard Corporation approved the terms of the Agreement, and two days later the Trustees of the Boston Medical Library took similar action. The Fellows of the Boston MIedi- cal Library ratified the action of their Trustees on January 5, 1960. According to the Agreement, each of the two libraries will retain its corporate identity. Each will continue to own its own property and investments. Each will retain title to its own books, periodicals and other library materials, and will continue to purchase additional items. Harvard will build a new library building at the site of the Harvard Medical School to be known as the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine and will furnish and equip it. The memorials of the Boston Medical Library will be reconstituted and preserved in the new building. Each of the two libraries will move its books and staff into the new Countwav Library and the library services will be combined and managed by a single THE FRANCIS A. COUNTWAY LIBRARY OF MEDICINE 123 chief librarian, in order that maxmum efficiency may be achieved. There will be an Associate Librarian for Boston Medical Library Services. A joint library committee will develop and recommend policy, subject to review by the two parent bodies, the Boston Medical Library Trustees and the Harvard Medical Library Committee. The special interests and needs of each of the two organiza- tions are provided for and duly protected. The Agreement also defines the users of the co-operating libraries to ensure that members of the medical community who are not associated with Harvard will continue to have the same privileges with respect to the combined collec- tions that they now enjoy at the Boston Medical Library. In essence, this means that the entire collections of the combined libraries will be available for consultation by any serious reader. Borrowing privileges will be limited to members of the Harvard medical community and to Fellows and Members of the Boston Medical Library. The benefits of this collaboration are obvious. Duplication of effort will be avoided, thereby increasing the amount of money and staff time available for the selection and purchase of library materials, and for their processing, storage and retrieval. The time of the reader will be conserved by eliminating the necessity of visiting two libraries for adequate coverage of the literature. Reader and staff member alike will benefit from the better study and work facilities in the new building. Drivers will find adequate parking at hand, a radical change from the present situation at either library. The historical treasures of the Boston Medical Library will be more adequately stored and displayed. The extensive current research collections will be buttressed by the great writings of the past. Many problems were encountered during the discussions and negotiations. Some of the more important ones were concerned with the administrative control of the collaborative library service, freedom of access to its collections by all members of the medical community, preservation of the identity and functions of the Boston Medical Library on a long-range basis, freedom on the part of Harvard to develop without outside interference its medical library services for the furtherance of its own teaching and research programs, assur- ance that the Boston Medical Library would never become a financial liability to Harvard, avoidance of domination of the small institution by the large one with which it would be associated, preservation of memorials, and continued adherence to the terms of existing trusts and to the wishes of the many benefac- tors and supporters of the two institutions. An understanding of the proportions which these problems assumed can be obtained by reading the unfavorable editorial which appeared early in the course of the discussions (6). That they apparently have been solved in a manner satisfactory to both parties and to those who were originally opposed to collaboration is a tribute to the vision, good faith and hard work of the many 124 CHARLES C. COLBY, III AND RALPH T. ESTERQUEST individuals who helped to make this co-operative enterprise a reality. We believe that in the years to come both institutions and the community at large will benefit greatly from this historic decision. REFERENCES 1. From the preamble of the Agreement between the two corporations. 2. FARLOW, J. W. The History of the Boston Medical Library. Norwood, Mass., Privately printed, 1918. 3. FLEMING, T. P. A Factual Survey of Medical Libraries in Boston. New York, 1941. 4. BURWELL, C. S. The Harvard Medical Library: the problem and the plan. Harvard M. Alumni Bull. 33: 13-15; 36, Feb. 1959. 5. ESTERQUEST, R. T. Program for a New Library Building to Serve the Harvard Medical Center. Prelim. ed., Boston, 1958. 6. The Boston Medical Library: Should Harvard take it over? Boston M. Quart. 10: 23-24, March, 1959.