The Republican Scientific Medical Library (RSML) stands out among the centers for information and library support of scientists and specialists of scientific and practical health care organizations and educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus.
The history of its establishment is closely connected with the development of librarianship, medical education and science in our country.
In 1939 on 29th of May the People’s Commissariat of Public Health of the USSR published an order, in which the People’s Commissariats of Public Health of the Union Republics were asked to develop a plan of medical library network and to provide the establishment of it in each field of main library at the Regional Health Care Department by the end of 1940.
In 1940 an individual budget and staff were approved for Scientific Medical Library of the BSSR. I.B. Simanovskiy, an outstanding library scientist and institutor of librarianship in our country was appointed to the position of the Director of State Scientific Medical Library at Minsk Medical Institute by the order No. 98 dated 10.03.1940 of F.Y. Shults, the director of Minsk Medical Institute. This date is rightfully considered to be the day of the RSML establishment. During the first year alone, the library’s collection reached 15,000 copies.
In 1941 the work of the library was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. The book collection was almost entirely destroyed during the occupation. And only in 1944 by a special resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR No. 426 the activity of the Republican Scientific Medical Library of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the BSSR was resumed under the direction of S. F. Sergeeva.
An impo
rtant aspect in the restoration of the library’s activity was granting it the functions of a scientific-methodological and organizational center for all medical libraries of the republic. In April 1945, the order of the People’s Commissariat of Public Health of the BSSR, taking into account the complete destruction of medical libraries in the regions, ordered to organize a regional medical library at each regional health department.
Since 1954 the library became an independent institution and was located in the building of Minsk Regional Clinical Hospital on Podlesnaya Street (the library’s own area was 230 square meters). By the order of the Ministry of Health of the BSSR No. 488 dated August 20, 1954, M. L. Zhuk was appointed its director.
In 1975 the library became a branch depository of republican importance, and a year later it celebrated a housewarming party in a purpose-made building at 28 Fabritius Street, which was undoubtedly the merit of its director, L. N. Pogrebnaya, who headed the RSML from 1968 to 1982. Under her leadership, an active process of reforming many areas of work began. The RSML began to receive a compulsory paid copy of medical literature, to purchase all medical journals published in the USSR, as well as the most important foreign periodicals. Active work was carried out to improve the reference apparatus, as well as the forms and methods of library services for researchers, practicing physicians, postgraduate students, and nursing staff.
The time of the RSML’s establishment as a leading center for the creation of a national medical bibliography, active research work, organization of a network of medical libraries, and improvement of reader services was in the 60s–80s of the last century.
Since 1990s the process of active introduction of modern computer technologies in the library began. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus approved the “Project of Automation of the Republican Scientific Medical Library”, which provides for the automation of all library and information processes in network mode on the basis of modern means of telecommunication, providing users with online access to the library catalogs and free access to the global Internet. The great merit in solving the problems of automation belonged to E. F. Gorelova, who headed the library from 1982 to 2001.
Since January 1995, by the decision of the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO), the library became the WHO Documentation Center on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.
Today, RSML, being a modern information center, does not rest on its laurels, striving to meet the needs and requirements of its users. With the financial support of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, the library building was overhauled, modern library furniture and equipment were purchased.
The functional structure of the library has undergone organizational changes: a single point of issue of documents has been created regardless of the place of their storage. For the convenience of users there is an open access room, where the most valuable and relevant editions are presented. This and much more became possible thanks to V. N. Soroko, who headed the library in 2003–2017.
The library has a local area network. Remote access to documents from the library’s collection is realized through the electronic catalog, which provides multidimensional information search with the possibility of automatic ordering of documents. electronic medical library. The automated library and information system “SAB-IRBIS64” is used for creation and operation of the electronic medical library, automation of the processes of formation of information resources, their management and preservation. The electronic medical library is presented in the Internet on the library’s website at: www.rsml.med.by.
State Institution RSML actively assists in the development and improvement of the system of providing organizations and specialists with scientific medical information through the introduction, support and development of remote access technologies. RSML is preparing a full-text database “Modern methods of medical care (diagnostics, treatment and medical prevention of diseases, medical rehabilitation of patients, prosthetics)” (until 2011 a printed analogue was published – an annual collection of instructional and methodological documents “Modern methods of diagnostics, treatment and prevention of diseases” in 7 volumes), presented in public access on the website www.med.by and information and reference catalog “Healthcare of Belarus.”
One of the directions of the library’s work today is extra-budgetary activity. In accordance with the current legislation of the Republic of Belarus and the Statute of the Library, the non-budgetary sources of financing are: provision of paid library and information services to users, publishing and printing works, scientific and information works under contracts, sponsorship, as well as rental of premises. The amount of income from extra-budgetary activities is about 1/3 of the budget financing of the library.
The state registration certificates of the library as a publisher, manufacturer, distributor of printed materials, as well as its own printing facilities allow the library to provide such services as scientific, reference and advertising publications; literary, technical editing and artistic design of publications; operative preparation and reprod
uction of low-circulation documents, letterhead and presentation products, electronic databases.
Since 2005 the RSML has been a member of the Consortium uniting medical libraries of Russia and Belarus for the implementation of the projects “Union Catalog of Periodicals and Analytics on Medicine” and “The Medical Authority File ‘Medics of Russia’” (the constituent part – “Medics of Belarus”).
In 2006 on the basis of the order of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus № 640 from 31.10.2005 the Museum of the History of Medicine of Belarus was included into the structure of the library.