BU Medical Campus Library
The Alumni Medical Library serves Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and School of Public Health. The library occupies 30,000 square feet on the 11th, 12th, and 13th floors of the Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) Instructional Building (L).
Reference Services, located on L-12, is staffed by Master of Library and Information Science (MLS) or equivalent degree prepared librarians, available Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm. Reference and research assistance are available on a drop-in basis, by appointment, or via email at refquest@bu.edu. Access Services staff provide circulation services, including access to course reserves, interlibrary loan articles and books, and 3D anatomical models.
Students, faculty, and staff may access licensed online resources 24/7 on or off campus via the library website, using their BU login name and password authentication. Alumni Medical Library collections may be accessed through the BU Library Search Tool, the BU Libraries’ 500+ databases, and the Alumni Medical Library’s 40+ online quality-filtered subject guides. Collections consist of 30,000+ books in the circulating and course reserves stacks; 29,000+ volumes of bound print journals in BUMC storage; 3,500+ current e-journals; and 10,000+ health sciences–related e-books. Evidence-based medicine resources include ACP Journal Club, BMJ Best Practice, Cochrane Library, and DynaMed. Streaming visual resources include Bates’ Visual Guide to Physical Examination and JoVE scientific experiments videos.
In addition to the resources of the Alumni Medical Library, BUMC students, faculty, and staff have access to the BU Libraries’ collections, comprising 2.4 million physical volumes, more than 2 million electronic books, more than 47,000 current unique serials, and 77,000 media titles. Students, faculty, and staff may request physical items from any BU library free of charge via the Interlibrary Loan form and access the BU Libraries’ electronic materials online any time or place.
BUMC librarians provide a broad range of educational programming, including orientations, presentations, and individual consultations for first- and second-year MD students participating in the Learn, Experience, Advocate, Discover and Serve (LEADS) course, along with grading information literacy assignments for the Family Medicine Clerkship. The Senior Research Librarian also codirects the 2-unit Graduate Medical Sciences (GMS) Introduction to Biomedical Information course. The library’s education program emphasizes lifelong learning, information literacy, and skills specific to seeking, critically evaluating, and managing information.
The Alumni Medical Library offers 790 seats; approximately 1,000 power connections, including 400+ in the dual-purpose L-1101 Testing Center and study space; 139 ethernet connections; 29 wireless access points throughout the library, classrooms, and computing labs; 80 student computers across three computer classrooms; 45 computers in two public computing areas; and laptop loaners for students experiencing technical issues. Laser printers, scanners, and photocopiers are available on every floor of the library, as well as printers in the McNary classroom R-107 and the L Building basement. MyPrint, a BU ID-based system, provides a print allotment per term to students, faculty, and staff.
L-12 is predominantly used as student study space, with large study tables, individual study carrels, public computers, printers, scanners, and soft seating. The library’s L-13 Quiet Study floor renovation was completed in February 2019. This floor provides 226 student study seats, including four group study rooms, two tutor rooms, and six individual study pods. The renovation provided new HVAC systems, lighting, flooring, furniture, and increased accessibility-focused restroom facilities, including one gender-neutral restroom.
The dual-purpose L-1101 Testing Center, redesigned in 2014, is a 220-seat testing center and study space. L-11 also houses the BUMC-IT Computing Services, including the BUMC IT Help Desk and Student Laptop Support Services. The BUMC Help Desk supports courses requiring technology integration and provides student laptop software installation, VPN client configuration, Windows and Mac updates, virus-scanning software updates, and removal of viruses and spyware.
