Spotlight

November 2007

A.T. Still Memorial Library, A.T. Still University

Established in 1892 by A. T. Still, the founder of osteopathy, A.T. Still University (http://www.atsu.edu/) began as the nation's first college of osteopathic medicine and has evolved into a university of health sciences with campuses and libraries in Kirksville, MO and Mesa, AZ as well as an overseas program. Today ATSU offers more than 20 masters degrees across allied health disciplines, doctorates in health education, physical therapy, and audiology, the doctor of dental medicine (D.M.D.) and the doctor of osteopathy (D.O.).

The A T Still Memorial Library is the library for the Kirksville campus. To better serve the needs of 21st century healthcare education and the need to integrate and present information in various formats, the Kirksville Campus has just opened the Connell Information Technologies Center which is a $10 million state-of-the-art building featuring various information technologies such as an advanced library(2 floors of the building), human patient simulators, an osteopathic-clinical examination laboratory / theater, breakout rooms, student-study rooms, and lounges for faculty-student interactions.

Additionally, the A T Still Memorial Library is an active participant in an ongoing process of redesigning the curriculum according to a clinical presentation model. The new curriculum ties together the basic sciences within a clinical context with a focus on learning rather than memorizing. Of course, this also realizes that students need to develop skills to quickly and accurately seek information. The campus is in the middle of an R-25 grant from National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to increase the infusion of EBM into the curriculum.