Spotlight

February 2008

Rowland Medical Library at the University of Mississippi Medical Center

The Rowland Medical Library (www.library.umc.edu) began in 1903 with the establishment of the 2-year school of medicine on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, MS.   Initially, it was a shelf or two of books in one of the basic sciences laboratories.  Years later it grew too large for the shelf space and was placed in a separate room.

By 1937, with 4,000 books plus some journal subscriptions, it moved into its own area in the new School of Medicine building, later called Guyton Hall. There were two small study rooms in addition to the stack room for the collection.  It received its current name in 1938 because Dr. Peter Rowland, professor and chair of Pharmacology, requested that each member of the state medical society and alumni donate one book to the library because a larger collection was needed for the increased number of students.  Two hundred volumes were received from this campaign.  The School of Medicine moved to Jackson and became a 4-year program in 1955. 

The recently hired librarian, Irene Graham, packed the 17,500 volumes of books and bound journals for the 250 mile trip south to the new building which housed the teaching hospital, the clinical and basic science faculty and laboratories, and the library. In 1982, the library moved into its current facility which it shares with the learning resource divisions (AV, illustrations), academic affairs and the other chief administrative areas of the Medical Center.

To learn more about the Rowland Medical Library, go to http://www.library.umc.edu/Spotlight.htm