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Abstract

Grant Number:	5R01LM005906-03
Project Title:	HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

PI Information:	Name	Email	Title
	FUNK, CARLA J.	cfunk@life.jsc.nasa.gov

Abstract: The Medical Library Association (MLA), a professional organization of approximately 5,000 individuals and institutions in the health information field, will celebrate its centennial in 1998. As part of the planned activities for the event, MLA has contracted with Jennifer J. Connor to prepare a book-length history of the Medical Library Association. The book will be published in Spring 1998 by the Medical Library Association and Scarecrow Press Publishers. A history of the MLA from its formation in 1898 clearly must highlight the Association's own internal achievements, including its organization, membership, and activities. More importantly, however, since the MLA has played an active role in both the development of medical libraries and the professionalization of medical librarians, its history must be grounded in a wider context. Accordingly, the proposed study will embrace larger issues of professionalization and the role of communication in the process. With MLA as the focus, the history should illuminate changing relationships between medicine and the book, medical practitioners and medical librarians, and publishers and medical librarians among others. Also, the history will explore relationships among MLA members and between the MLA and other library associations; the changing nature of MLA membership over the century; the role of the National Library of Medicine; the benefits of technology in the development of both the MLA and medical libraries; and the impact of economics, politics, and education on the MLA and its membership. To achieve these goals, the study will use a variety of archival documents housed at NLM and other locations, oral history interviews, and historical publications concerning librarianship and medicine.

Public Health Relevance:
This Public Health Relevance is not available.

Thesaurus Terms:
health /scientific organization, library, publication
history of life science
travel

Institution:	MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
	6 N MICHIGAN AVE, STE 300
	CHICAGO, IL 60602
Fiscal Year:	1997
Department:
Project Start:	01-AUG-1995
Project End:	31-MAY-1999
ICD:	NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
IRG:	BLR

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