Requests and Recommendations
Circulation Services
The Circulation Department is the central distribution area of the library and handles the loan of books, audiovisual materials, and reserve materials as well as handling accounting for overdue fines. Here, a variety of material may be reserved, checked out, and returned by library patrons. Patrons also may drop off loaned materials at the Information Desk on the library’s main floor after business hours with a note that they are returning them. Please include patron name, M number, and school.
Education and Information Services
Core priorities for the staff members of the MMCL&A include:
- Information—Providing health and life sciences content which advances research, scholarship, education, and excellence in patient care
- Education—Developing and implementing programs to train and educate faculty, staff, students, and medical, dental, and physician assistant residents in the information-literate, self-directed learning skills needed to efficiently locate, evaluate, and use evidence-based health and life sciences content for study and patient care
- Communication—Partnering with members of the college community by staying familiar with their curricular and research needs and providing and promoting resources and services which best meet those academic requirements
Services include 1) circulation of the library’s print collection of clinical handbooks, board-review content, and flash cards; 2) collection development/acquisition activities; 3) reference help and research instruction; 4) instruction in information retrieval; 5) subscribed resource instruction; and 6) personalized access to archives and special collections.
The library also loans laptops and iPads with accompanying Magic Keyboards to students each semester, and materials unavailable in the library ‘s print and digital collections are obtained from other medical libraries at no cost to the user through cooperative arrangements (interlibrary loan).
In-House Technology
The library’s Toltech Sectra Anatomy & Dissection Table, housed in its main-floor computer lab, provides 3D virtual dissection capabilities for graduate, medical, and dental students who are studying anatomy and clinical imaging.
Computer Lab
Located on the library’s main floor, the Library Computer Lab is the primary center for electronic information access on Meharry’s campus, providing access to library resources and access to a black and white printer/copier/scanner. The lab is open to all Meharry students, faculty, residents, and staff. Hours are the same as library open hours.
Patrons needing assistance with the lab’s PCs, available software, printer paper, or printer before noon Monday through Friday should visit the main floor’s Administrative Suite (entrance is located in the center of that floor’s back wall). After noon, patrons can consult with Ms. Smith in her office, located directly behind the main floor’s Information Desk and also adjacent to the Computer Lab.
Archives and Special Collections
The Meharry Medical College Archives collects, preserves, organizes, and provides access to archival and historical materials documenting the history of Meharry Medical College and its presidents, alumni, and faculty.
Collections include catalogues, class bulletins, photographs, institutional records, artifacts, and the personal papers of notable individuals in the history of the college from its inception in 1876, such as past presidents, former deans and department chairs, departmental records, and personal collections, including the Matthew Walker M.D. Collection and the Hubbard Hospital and Metropolitan Nashville General Hospital merger.
Other holdings include a biographical collection of Meharrians and outstanding African-American health professionals along with photographs of early faculty and early buildings located on the South Nashville campus and the North Nashville campus.
For archives requests, contact Sandra Parham, Library Executive Director & Interim Archivist, at sparham@mmc.edu.