Overview

The Perelman School of Medicine was founded in 1765. For nearly 150 years, the physicians and students relied on the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In 1931, the rotunda of the Medical Laboratories Building (now the Morgan Building) was set aside for a Medical School Library. (The name was later changed to Biomedical Library.) The collection was formed by the merger of several departmental libraries and the personal collections of several faculty members. Acquisitions for the Medical Library focused on the basic sciences and research needs of the Penn medical community. It was understood that the clinical information needs of the staff were handled by the HUP departmental libraries and, from 1952, by the consolidated HUP Library. In 1987, the HUP library was closed and its unique holdings were transferred to the Biomedical Library. As a consequence, the Biomedical Library was charged with providing a clinical as well as a research collection. Since the early '90's emphasis in the Health System has been placed on expanding its already extensive clinical programs.

Collection Development Policy

  • Benjamin Rush collections 
  • Biomedical Protocol Resources 
  • Clinical Point of Care resources 
  • Henry Stewart Talks 
  • William Pepper papers

Arthur Bernstein Cardiology Library Fund

Barton Hirst Lippincott Memorial Fund for Acquisitions in Biomedicine

Biomedical Library Fund

Class of 1948 Medical School

Dr. Adolph E. Schecter Memorial Fund

Dr. D. Sergeant Pepper Memorial Fund

Dr. William McDowell Mastin Fund

Esther K. and Maxwell Sillman Fund

Gail and Warren Lieberfarb Mental Health and Neuroscience Library Resources Fund

Harold Lefkoe Memorial Book Fund

John Morgan Society Fund

Louis B. Flexner Medical Book Fund

Murray Galt Motter Memorial Fund

Patrick B. Hughes and Anne Gaydosh Hughes Memorial Fund

President Emeritus Martin Meyerson Fund

Samuel Bellet Book Fund

The Frances Houston Medical Book Fund

Thomas B. Holloway Medical Book Fund

William Pepper Medical Library Fund

Doing Research

A more complete list of databases and other resources can be found on the Biomedical Library homepage.