How do you move 100-year-old medical texts and journals?
Very carefully.
Greater Baltimore Medical Center Friday moved about 10,000 volumes from its old library ? located in a former parking garage ? to the new Middendorf Consumer Health Library and John E. Savage Medical Library adjacent to the main lobby.
“This new facility will both cater to the advanced research needs of health care professionals and offer a place for today?s health care consumer to find authoritative and up-to-date medical information,”library director Deborah Thomas said.
The texts include historical reports and records dating back to the 1800s from Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital and The Hospital for Women of Maryland in Baltimore City.
Both hospitals merged to form Greater Baltimore in 1965.
The new library will also exhibit medical artifacts such as a microscope from the 1930s and obstetric instruments from the 1940s.
A Pew/Internet & American Life Project study showed 80 percent of Internet users have looked online for health information.
Medical staff will have 12 computers, a reading room, group study room and a more central location on campus.
Three computers, collections of health and wellness books, brochures and videos, and a support group room will be available for the public when the hospital opens in 2007.
