Louisville Medicine Volume 66, Issue 7 | Page 12

FEATURE A BRIEF HISTORY OF KORNHAUSER HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY of the University of Louisville, Now 181 Years Old Morris Weiss, MD A spring day in 1838 found Joshua Barker Flint on the Ohio River wharf at the foot of Second and Third Streets about to board a steamer for Pittsburgh. This was the first leg of his journey to Europe to purchase additional books and apparatus for the Louisville Medical Institute (LMI), founded the year before. Flint might have sailed from New York City or the port of Philadelphia after traveling by coach from Pittsburgh to the coast. His European sojourn was successful, and his purchases were added to the 1,200 volumes he and Charles Caldwell had already accumulated when the Louisville Medical Institute Library was inaugurated in 1837. From its inception at LMI, for medical luminaries of the day such as Daniel Drake, Samuel D. Gross, Charles Wilkins Short, Lunsford Pitts Yandell and Drs. Flint and Caldwell, the library made research and teaching possible. With the opening of the Department of Law in 1846, the LMI was officially renamed the University of Louisville Department of Medicine. Early in the 20th century, the libraries of the Hospital College of Medicine, the Louisville Medical College, and the Jefferson County Medical Society were incorporated into the present collection. In 1960, the library was renamed the Kornhauser Memorial Library in honor of Dr. Sidney Isaac Kornhauser, who had been Chairman of the Library Committee since 1922. Dr. Kornhauser (1888-1959), was Professor and Chair of the Department of Anatomy at the UofL School of Medicine from 1922-1959 and had a distinguished career in medical education. In 1970, the libraries of the School of Dentistry and the School of Medicine were combined and housed in the present building. Since that time, the Kornhauser has undergone some major renovations, changed its emphasis from print to electronic data, and greatly enhanced its collections. One of the most important accomplishments is the creation of our dedicated reading rooms which celebrate some of our donors 10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE and alumni. Today the library is a comprehensive health sciences information resource center providing access to the most current information resources available. For practicing academic physicians, the library staff is invaluable in teaching time-saving and very accurate ways to manage references for publications and lectures. The model of American medicine and life has changed drastically over the last 50 years, leaving the practicing physician little time to devote to leisure or philosophical pursuits. The Friends of the Kornhauser Library, once a large and vibrant group of physicians interested in medical history and philosophy, has dwindled over the last 25 years to only two or three aged (but not doddering!) physicians and led by the current library director, Neal Nixon. The Kornhauser Library Historical Collection, housed on the third floor of the Health Sciences Library, is arguably one of the best, if not the best, 19 th century library of medical journals, books and memorabilia in the region. But it needs resources and support to survive. Moving into the 21 st century, the collections are used less by researchers traveling to the collection and more by the digitization of valuable documents and photographs so they can be made available online to researchers around the world. This work requires both equipment and personnel for which there is little or no funding available. If you are interested in supporting the library by joining the Friends of the Kornhauser Library, go to http://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/community/Friends or call (502) 852-5766. Dr. Weiss practices Cardiovascular Disease Medicine with Medical Center Cardiologists. Editor Note: Read more about Dr. Weiss in "Dr. Who" on page 34.