Facilities at the Medical School
The close physical proximity of Medical School offices and associated units facilitates professional and scientific communication. The Medical School maintains affiliate relationships with many hospitals in the Twin Cities metropolitan area that provide extensive resources for clinical teaching.
A Basic Sciences/Biomedical Engineering Building houses laboratories, faculty offices and meeting rooms. Within Moos Tower is the School of Dentistry, health sciences classrooms and seminar rooms, laboratories, health sciences student areas, and a coffee cafe. In the Phillips-Wangensteen Building are outpatient clinics, a clinical amphitheater, the Health Sciences Learning Center, and a cafeteria (Outside Inn). The Molecular and Cellular Biology Building is scheduled to be completed in 2002. Other associated units are the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Variety Club Heart and Research Center, Masonic Cancer Center, Veterans of Foreign Wars Cancer Research Center, Children's Rehabilitation Center, Paul F. Dwan Cardiovascular Research Center. Medical School administrative offices are in the Mayo Memorial Building.
The Bio-Medical Library, located in Diehl Hall, supports the teaching, research, and service programs of the health sciences. The library is one of the major units within the University Libraries and serves as a resource library for the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.
The Bio-Medical Library contains materials covering medicine, nursing, dentistry, public health, pharmacy, mortuary science, allied health, and the basic life sciences. The collection contains more than 428,000 volumes, 4,394 current journal subscriptions, and 1,194 audiovisual and 223 computer programs.
More than 61,918 rare and historical books and journals dating from the 15th century to 1920 can be found in the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine.
The Drug Information Service (DIS), houses a collection of journals, books, and government monographs on the educational, psychosocial, and biomedical aspects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use/abuse. Access to the collection is available through Druginfo, a database on LUMINA (the University Libraries' on- line system).
The reference department provides a variety of print reference materials and core textbooks. It houses more than 50 computers, both IBM and Macintosh, for accessing databases, e-mail, and the Internet. Databases available include MEDLINE, Current Contents, BIOSIS, HealthSTAR, Cancerlit, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, among others. MNCAT, the automated catalog for the University Libraries, as well as the databases may be searched from personal computers at home or offices and in the library. An increasing number of full textbooks and journals can be accessed in the reference department. Curriculum- related and self-instructional media and computer software are available for student study and faculty teaching. A Novell network makes possible simultaneous use of many of these education technology programs.
Bio-Medical Library staff provide instruction in library use, database searching, information access and management, and the Internet. Reference assistance may be requested at the Reference Desk or by telephone or e-mail. The library maintains a Web site (www.biomed.lib.umn.edu) that features information about the library, electronic forms for requesting services, and links to other Internet resources. Word processing facilities, reserve collections, and interlibrary loan, photoduplicating, and database search services are available. Interaction rooms are available for group study and education technology use.
