The study presents a comprehensive picture of the medical libraries in India with their strengths and weaknesses and thus has a bearing on applicability for all developing countries. It traces the historical development of the various systems of medicine from ancient times to the present day and their impact on, and relationship in, the growth of health science libraries. The work highlights the achievements and the status of medicine in the post-Vedic period and shows how the writings of Charaka, Susruta and Vagbhatta, who form the trinity of post-Vedic physicians, made Ayurveda a highly developed system of medicine. The book provides detailed information about the aims and objectives of health science libraries and documentation centers, their existing manpower and qualifications, information resources and management, financial position and infrastructural facilities and the services available to the users. It also discusses the development of various information technologies and their application in medical libraries. As regards health information clientele, the book attempts to examine in detail the services and resources available to them in medical libraries. The scrutiny reveals that the existing resources and services provided to the bio-medical community are inadequate to meet their increasing demands. As a way of remedial measure, it has been proposed that based on resource-sharing concept, an Indian National System in Health Science Libraries may be set up. Keeping in view the existing network of medical libraries, a schematic diagram suggesting work flow in health literature, library and information services has been drawn up.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR R.P. Dixit
Dr. R.P. Dixit (b. 1947), Assistant Librarian in the World Health Organization (WHO) REgional Office for South-East Asia, New Delhi, was educated at the Universities of Kanpur, Delhi and Rajasthan, with a Master's degree in Sociology (Kanpur), in Library and Information Science (Delhi) and Doctorate in Library and Information Science (Rajasthan). He is the first professional in Library Science t have earned a doctoral degree on development of health science libraries in India-an important but higherto unexplored subject. On the bases of this, he has been appointed Honorary Member of the International Biographical Member of the International Biographical Centre, Advisory Council, Cambridge, UK. Before joining WHO in 1984, he served the National Medical Library, New Delhi, in various capacities for more than fifteen years, assisted the Library in the compilation of important directories and publication of proceedings of conferences, seminars, etc. Regularly associated with the organisation of training courses in medical librarianship/Workships/conference/ symposia, he was actively involved in the organisation of the Sixth International Congress on Medica Librarianship (6th ICML) and the 58th Annual General Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), held in India in 1990 and 1992 respectively. He participated in 5th and 7th ICMLs held in Tokyo, Japan and Washington, DC, USA, in 1985 and 1995 respectively. He is the founder Member of the Medical Library Association of India, and life member of the Indian Library Association. Besides a good number of articles on various aspects of medical library cience, contributed to reputed national and international library science journals, he has also presented a numbe rof papers at conferences held in India and abroad.
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